My Desperado Read Online Free Page A

Daisy pleaded, dragging along behind. "Please, Miss Katherine. I got me some friends. We can 'ide out in New Prospect. Work at the Red Garter till I make 'nuf money t' send you back east. Please, Miss Katherine."
    "But we're innocent!" cried Katherine, and suddenly she broke free of Daisy 's grip and was sprinting down the street, her bare feet pattering like raindrops beneath the hem of her uplifted nightshift.
     

Chapter 3
    "Wait!"
    Ryland had already mounted his horse when she reached him.
    "Wait," she gasped, coming to a halt a safe distance from him. "Mr. Ryland. Please. I didn't mean to kill him. And I didn't take the money."
    "It's not my problem, lady." At his nudge the horse turned away.
    Katherine watched him. What was she to do with a satchel of paper bills and a smiling corpse? "Mr. Ryland!" She scurried after him, running to keep up with his mount. "I tell you I didn't do it."
    He refused to look down. "And I tell you it's not my concern."
    "But..." She was panting slightly. The horse had begun to trot in long, smooth strides, and Katherine reached out, grasping Travis's pant leg with desperate strength. "If he asks who killed the mayor, what will you tell him?"
    "I might try the truth."
    "Then he'll think I killed him. And he'll think I took the money."
    "Better you than me, lady." Ryland clicked to his mount, and Katherine's grip tightened as panic overcame her.
    "But I didn't do it," she yelled, desperate to convince him of her innocence.
    "Life's hard." The horse shifted into a slow lope.
    Katherine was running full tilt now, her night rail billowing behind her. "You can't do this."
    His leg was pulled from her grasp, but desperation made Katherine clutch frantically for a new hold. Her fingers found his stirrup leather and wrapped tenaciously about the thing. Her legs pumped wildly, and she gasped for air. "I'm..." she rasped, but suddenly she stumbled, half falling beside the loping stallion, but refusing to loosen her grip as she was dragged along beside."Oh! Oh!" she shrieked.
    "Damn it, woman!" Travis gritted, hauling his mount to a sliding stop. "Who the devil are you?"
    Katherine scrambled for footing then grappled her way up his leg, struggling to an upright position and drawing in shaky breaths. "Katherine." She brushed away the wisps of midnight hair that had come loose from her braid and tried not to tremble. "Katherine Amelia Simmons."
    Despite her fear there was a hint of pride in her tone, and Travis bent slightly nearer to stare down into her upturned face. "Katherine Amelia Simmons," he growled, "you're the biggest nuisance of a woman I've ever met."
    She blinked twice. The tears came nevertheless, squeezing from beneath heavily forested eyelids. "But I didn't kill him," she choked, her voice rising into hysteria.
    "Quiet!" he ordered. Hysterical women made him nervous, and this one was blubbering herself toward a real fit. "Hush."
    "I didn't e-even know I was inheriting... I mean, how was I supposed to know? And then all the girls... and then poor G-George expired, and I was just trying to... to..."
    "Hush. Hush." Travis's voice had softened as he glanced nervously about. "Shhh."
    "I didn't know what to do," she babbled. "I couldn't abandon the girls, and Mother would die if she knew and—"
    "Lady," he whispered, seeing a flame flicker to life in a nearby window and thinking it would look bad for him if poor George was found toes up on the street while he was being screamed at by a hysterical woman dressed in a flimsy nightshift. "I ain't saying you killed him. But I sure as hell didn't kill him either."
    "But Mr. Grey will deduce that I did. After all, it might seem somewhat suspicious, what with Daisy and I dragging him out into the street and the money being gone."
    "You think so?" Travis asked wryly.
    "So I have to go with you to prove my innocence."
    "I ride alone, lady," he said, straightening slightly and nudging his horse.
    "But Mr. Ryland," she pleaded, walking again as she found