The Texan's Dream Read Online Free Page A

pay for her hotel room. He might not, she reasoned, since her employment didn’t officially start until dawn.
    Her fortune was dwindling fast. She wanted to add a five-dollar watch to her stash, provided there was enough left over. After all, a bookkeeper should know the time.
    As she waited, half-hidden behind her bundle, the clerk talked with a tiny woman wrapped in a huge black shawl that was large enough to hide two small children in its folds. The woman slowly counted out her pennies from a small change purse.
    “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t let you have any more on account,” the clerk whispered as the customer ahead of Kara kept counting.
    The woman held out her handful of pennies. “But I have almost enough for the milk and bread.”
    The clerk looked like she might cry. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but Mr. Bayley said I’m to let you have nothing until you’ve paid at least a portion of your bill. He’s already let you go months more than he normally would, what with your husband dying and all.”
    “But if I pay any on the account, I won’t have money for the milk or bread.” The woman sounded logical, but her voice shook slightly. Her white, thin fingers held to her shawl as though the whole world had grown suddenly cold.
    The clerk pulled two quarters from her pocket. “I could let you have this. With your pennies, you could buy something from the market tomorrow.”
    The tiny woman coughed, shrinking into the huge shawl as she did. “My children haven’t eaten for two days as it is. I can’t put them to bed another night with empty bellies. If you could give me just a little for them. I’m not all that hungry myself.”
    Kara’s gaze met the clerk’s over the pile of new store-bought clothes. I’ll have no use for a watch, Kara thought. Probably no one in Texas cares what time it is anyway.
    “Excuse me.” Kara moved around the clothes. “I hate to interrupt, but I just came into a little money, and I have to spend it before dawn. I wonder if you’d allow me to pay for …”
    “Oh, no, no.” The little woman backed away.
    “Please.” Kara offered her hand. “I’m leaving for Texas where I’m sure I’ll have no use for money. You’d be doing me a favor.”
    Kara laid ten dollars on the counter.
    “All of it?” the clerk asked. She stared at the money as though it were a fortune.
    “Every dime,” Kara answered. “And make sure there’s ten pounds of potatoes.”
    The little woman started to protest as the clerk quickly filled boxes with supplies. Flour, sugar, coffee, bacon, tins of peaches and green beans and a wool blanket on top of each box.
    “No argument, please,” Kara said. “You’d be doing the same thing for me if I were in your place. This way we’re both doing each other a favor. I won’t have to worry about the outlaws robbing me on the road.”
    Tears rolled down the clerk’s face as she slid two boxes of supplies across the counter. Salt, soda, tea, milk and two loaves of bread. “I put in a bottle of medicine that will soothe that cough, Mrs. Adams, and the candy for the children comes free with this large an order.”
    Kara pulled out another ten. She could do without the raincoat and the third blouse, and her luggage could be carpet, not leather. “Put ten dollars against her bill so Mr. Bayley will let her buy here again.”
    The clerk nodded while the woman stared in disbelief.
    “I really appreciate this,” Kara said. “You don’t know what a worry I was having thinking I’d be carrying all this money.”
    A boy who had just finished lighting the lamps offered to help Kara and Mrs. Adams cart the boxes. Kara promised to be right back for her clothes and entrusted the clerk with her bag of boots until she returned. With the tiny woman leading the way, they marched down the street while people stared.
    The night grew darker with fewer and fewer street lamps. The path turned from board walkways to worn ruts between the buildings. Kara’s new shoes made a squeaking sound after she stepped in a puddle, and she had