A Texan's Honor Read Online Free Page B

we leave the hotel. I’ve made arrangements for dinner and beds with a rancher for tomorrow night. We should be home in time for dinner the second night. Are you sure you can stay in the saddle all day?”
    â€œI’ll manage somehow.”
    She expected he’d be too sore to sit down and too stiff to walk. “You can probably ride in those clothes,” she said, thinking it would be a shame to ruin such a nice suit, “but you should see about getting some boots.”
    â€œI’ll see what I can come up with. How long will it take my trunks to arrive?”
    Good Lord! She hoped he wasn’t a dandy. She shuddered at the thought of him mincing about the ranch trying to keep from getting his clothes dusty or mud on his boots. It would be all she and Lonnie could do to keep the hands from playing tricks on him.
    â€œLonnie will strap them to a packhorse. You’ll need to have them ready a little while before we leave.”
    â€œJust let me know the time, and they’ll be ready.”
    He couldn’t be very high up in the company if Silas Abbott could spare him for as much as a year. He was probably used to getting up at dawn and working late into the night. She felt sorry for anyone who was treated like that, but she couldn’t imagine anyone worse to have as a traveling companion across the Texas plains. She was relieved to reach the hotel and see the three boys waiting outside with Mr. Nolan’s trunk and suitcase. A young man who blinked, then stared foolishly when he saw her, jumped to open the hotel door for her.
    â€œThank you.” She gave him a big smile as she passed.
    â€œBe careful,” Mr. Nolan said softly. “You don’t want to dazzle him so completely that he’ll stumble into the street and get run over.”
    Emily stiffened. There was no mistaking his words or his tone. He believed she was so proud of her looks she couldn’t resist flirting with every man she encountered. “I was just trying to show my appreciation.”
    Much to her chagrin, when she turned around he was telling the boys to bring his trunk and suitcase inside and he’d pay them a dollar each. He had to be crazy. They’d have carried his trunk all the way to Dallas for a dollar.
    â€œThe room is reserved in your name,” she told him when he followed the boys in. “If you need anything, ask Lonnie. He’s our foreman. The clerk will give you his room number. I’ll see you tonight.” She turned and headed toward the stairs and her room. She wondered how Mr. Abbott thought Mr. Nolan could convince her to go to Boston. So far, Mr. Nolan was a good argument against having anything to do with that city.
    She let her hand skim along the banister as she climbed the curving stairway to the second floor. The coolness of the interior of the hotel was a relief from the intensity of the Texas sun. If Mr. Nolan insisted upon wearing his wool suits, he was in for a miserable time. The man seemed angry, unbending, and thoroughly unhappy about being in Texas.
    Then why on earth did she still feel attracted to him? She was an intelligent woman. She’d never been foolish about men or fooled by them. She’d liked several in her nineteen years, but she’d never been infatuated with a man. So what on earth could have caused her to be attracted to this surly sourpuss of a dude?
    He was unquestionably the most attractive man she knew. She hadn’t failed to notice several women turn to stare at him as they passed, but surely she wasn’t such a shallow female, she’d fall for a man just because he was handsome.
    She reached her room, unlocked the door, and let herself in. She wouldn’t think about him until tonight. Once they got to the ranch, she had no intention of being shut up in the ranch house with him any more than necessary. Sending her to Boston was her father’s idea. Let him deal with Mr. Bret Nolan.
    Bret tipped the boy