Sarah Sunshine: A Montana Romance Novella Read Online Free

relaxed as she let out a relieved breath.  She smiled and walked closer to the porch stairs.
    “That’s just Roy,” she said.  “He was carrying my things for me.”
    “That wasn’t all he was doing.”  Miss Jones’s mouth tightened.
    “Oh.”  Sarah faltered.  She touched her fingers to her lips.  “Well, that-”
    “You’re that man who works for Delilah Reynolds, aren’t you.”  Miss Jones snapped at Roy.
    “Yes, ma’am, I am.”  He stood a little straighter, brushed the lapels of his coat.
    Roy thought he caught Miss Jones muttering, “Everything that woman touches is spoilt.”  She looked him up and down like she’d swallowed a lemon.  “Figures.  Don’t think I didn’t see you just then.  He told you to do that, didn’t he?  Right on my doorstep.”  She sniffed.  “Thinks he can humiliate me all over again, doesn’t he?  Or maybe she put you up to it.”
    Roy cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders.  Before he could think of a reply, Sarah said, “Miss Jones, I’ve come to move into the boarding house.”
    Miss Jones planted her bony fists on her hips, eyes never leaving Roy.  “Who said I want you to?”
    “Um, Mr. Sutcliffe?”
    Miss Jones huffed, turning her eyes to Sarah.  “If Paul Sutcliffe thinks I’ll dance to his little tune while you go on consorting with one of her employees, then he’s got another thing coming!”
    Sarah shuffled in her spot.  “Oh.  I thought-”
    “Why would a good Christian woman like me accept a hussy like you under my roof?”
    Sarah’s jaw went slack.  Roy took half a step forward.
    “Looky here, Miss Jones.  I mean no disrespect, but Sarah is no hussy.  She’s a good, fine woman looking to start a new life now that the world’s being a bit kinder to her.”
    Miss Jones stared down her long nose at Roy, which was a long way indeed as far up on the porch as she was.
    “Don’t you lie to me, boy!  I saw you kissing her just before you strolled up the lane, all cool as a snake.  Some things never change.”
    A rush of awkwardness spilled down Roy’s spine.  “It weren’t nothing but a kiss, ma’am.”
    “There’s no such thing as ‘nothing but a kiss’,” Miss Jones huffed.  “As far as I can see there’s just wickedness and sin.”
    “Well maybe you ain’t seein’ the whole picture,” Roy argued.  He shouldn’t have been arguing with anyone older than him, but just because Miss Jones was older, didn’t mean she was right.
    “I see everything I need to see!” Miss Jones blustered on.  “You, girl,” she pointed at Sarah, “are no better than that woman .  And you’ll meet the same fate too.”
    Sarah opened her mouth—eyes wide and stricken—but before she could make a sound Miss Jones raged on.
    “What’s that stuck to your shirt, boy?  And where did it come from, might I ask?”
    Roy glanced down to the orange flower Sarah had given him.  He darted a look around to the pristine garden beds in front of the house.
    “A hussy and a thief!”  Miss Jones huffed.  “That’s what I see.”
    Roy’s back went up.  “Then there’s something wrong with your eyes, ma’am!”
    “Mr. Sutcliffe and I came to talk to you about me coming to live here,” Sarah interrupted before he could say anything harsher.  “You said you reckoned it would work out.”  Her voice dropped to something so small that Roy wasn’t sure if he wanted to shake a fist at Miss Jones or take Sarah in his arms an comfort her.
    “That was before I saw the likes of him with you,” Miss Jones answered.  “I was given to understand that you’d changed your ways, that you were ready to repent for your sins.”
    “Well, I-”
    “There you go, talking back to your betters and kissing a man in full daylight, just like-”  Miss Jones shook her head and threw up her arms, appealing to something in the roof of the porch.  “These things are sent to try us, Lord!”
    She glanced down again and stared straight