For Love's Sake Read Online Free Page B

showed. “If you’d like…”
    The two of them set off down the dusty road together. For a long time, they walked in silence. Neither of them spoke, and Laurel was thankful for that. Finally, it was she that broke the spell.
    “Why were you all the way out here? This is a long way from town.”
    Christopher had his hands in his pockets, turning some change over and over between his fingertips. “I suppose I could ask you the same question.”
    “I visit an old neighbor. She needs the company.”
    He nodded, thinking that she looked incredibly young. He also realized that the pale blue dress she wore every single Sunday was probably the nicest one she owned, and even then it had been mended at least half a dozen times.
    Laurel could not figure out why he kept looking at her. She had been admired by men before, but that did not seem to be exactly what he was doing. Staring down at the handlebars of her bicycle, she fumbled for something to say. “So…do you like North Carolina?”
    “It isn’t England,” Christopher replied.
    “Thank God,” Laurel blurted before she realized what she had said. “I didn’t mean to insult your home…I’m sure it’s a real nice place…I’m sorry.”
      “It’s all right.”
    “No. That was rude. I think I’m nervous.”
    Christopher cocked an eyebrow at her. “Nervous? Why?”
    “It’s just that you’re my boss, and…”
    “Your boss? You mean you work at the mill?”
    Laurel pulled her bicycle to a halt and stared up at him. “I’m a spinner.”
    “Since when?”
    “For the past five years,” she said.
    Christopher crossed his arms over his chest. “I had no idea.”
    Without a word, Laurel jumped on her bicycle and started pedaling, not looking behind her to see if he was following.
    Christopher jogged to catch up with her. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
    “I’m not embarrassed!” She prayed he would think the color on her cheeks was from the sun, and not because she was, in fact, mortified.
    “Then why are you running away from me?”
    Laurel slammed to a stop, letting him catch up with her.
    Christopher put his hands on his hips, panting. He had not ran like that since he was a boy. “You’re much faster than I am,” he said. “That, and you have about ten years on me…”
    “I wasn’t running away.”
    The man did not look convinced.
    “I wasn’t!”
    “Of course not,” Christopher replied, appeasing her. “My mistake.”
    Laurel frowned. She did not like this man. She didn’t trust him any farther than she could throw him. “I think you can find your way back to town, now,” she said. “Just follow this road, and it will take you right past your hotel.
    As she pedaled away, Christopher called out to her. “Thank you for the pleasure of your company, Miss…”
    “Graham,” Laurel answered.
    “Miss Graham,” he said to himself. The enigma of the girl had been ruined. She was nothing more than a mill worker.
    One of his employees.
    Yet that did add an entirely new facet to the young lady. Certainly a girl that pretty could do better for herself. Christopher wondered why she was not already married.

CHAPTER FIVE

    Deirdre peeled off her stockings and dipped her bare feet into the cool water. Laurel was already up to her knees, wading across the creek that ran through the woods near the mill. Further down, some of the older boys jumped and splashed each other, clad in only their underwear.
    Minnows nipped at Laurel’s toes as she tiptoed across the muddy creek bed. Wading was one of the most enjoyable activities on a balmy late summer afternoon that she could think of. She wriggled her toes, watching the little fish dart away in the clear water.
    “Aren’t you getting in?”
    “Maybe in a little while,” Deirdre replied. “It’s just so relaxing to sit here.”
    Gathering up her skirts, which were already soaked at the hem, Laurel plodded back to the bank. She lay back against the cool grass under the shade of the