Change of Heart Read Online Free Page B

Kathy’s
barbarous murders. The next meeting was in two days at Red Rock
Junction.
    He needed to get Marietta and Zack to
Jackson’s as soon as possible. He couldn’t afford to miss another
meeting. His chance at immortality was just too important. If he’d
learned anything from Clint’s death, it was that a man had to reach
for opportunities when they came and not put them off. Death waited
covertly like a thief in the night ready to steal every chance a
man never took.
    The snow was getting heavier; they had to get
moving. Jase took a few steps toward Marietta and Zack to hurry
them along, but when he saw them cuddling and comforting each
other, he knew he couldn’t rob them of the time they needed, no
matter how important it was for him to get to his meeting.
    Another hour passed before Marietta and Zack
were ready to leave Kathy and Clint. Their bodies were covered with
snow, but they were so consumed with their grief that it seemed
neither of them realized it had been snowing.
    When they reached the buckboard, Jase asked,
“You’re sure you’re ready to leave?”
    Marietta looked longingly back at her
sister’s grave. “I’ll never be ready to leave, and I can’t stand to
stay another minute.” She raised her gaze to meet Jase’s. “Does
that make any sense?”
    He lifted one corner of his mouth and touched
her snow-speckled auburn hair as he stared into the most beautiful
emerald eyes he’d ever seen. “It makes perfect sense.”
    He helped Marietta and Zack into the rig then
he mounted the carriage and put the horse in motion. Three miles
into their return trip, the wind began to whip the snow into a
storm as thick as pudding.
    “We’re going to have to find a place to wait
out the storm,” he told Marietta.
    Her face turned as white as the snowflakes on
her cheeks. “Where?”
    “If I haven’t gotten us steered off course, I
believe there’s a shack about a hundred feet that way,” he said,
pointing.
    “A shack? For the three of us? Alone?”
    Her shocked reaction at the impropriety of
their being alone would have made Jase smile if the circumstances
hadn’t been so grave. “I’m afraid it’s either that or risk our
lives heading to Jackson’s or the fort.”
    Marietta looked down at her nephew who’d
huddled between them when the wind began to blow. “We can’t risk
Zack’s life. We have no choice.”
    “No, we don’t.” Jase stared at the fear in
Marietta’s eyes a long time. As he looked away, he decided the last
thing she needed was more suffering, and the last thing he needed
was another delay in reaching his meeting at Red Rock Junction.
    He glanced again at Marietta’s frightened
face. He could have slugged himself for selfishly thinking about
what he might be missing when she’d been through so much, and now
she was scared to death at being caught in a storm. She was so
lovely and delicate. She’d been suddenly thrust into a new life,
unbidden and frightening, and she was in charge of raising a very
lively little boy all alone.
    Jase found himself wanting to hold and
comfort Marietta to ease the pain in her heart and fear in her
eyes, and, at the same time, being angry with her for stealing his
time. She’d asked him to take her west to Clint and Kathy’s graves
when he should have been riding east to Red Rock Junction to meet
with the group of land speculators.
    He closed his eyes and cursed his unfortunate
circumstances. When he opened them again, he headed into the
thickness of the storm hoping he could find his way. The lives of
two other people depended on him completely.

Chapter Three

    Snow stung Marietta’s eyes. Wind-driven,
individually innocent flakes felt like pin pricks in her cheeks.
Zack snuggled close and covered his face with his hands. Marietta
saw no sign of a cabin.
    Jase guided the horse through the storm as
though he knew exactly where he was going. Marietta couldn’t
imagine how a man could be so ingrained in his surroundings that he
knew