Dorothy Garlock
Authors: A Gentle Giving
A Time Warner Company
A GENTLE GIVING
. Copyright © 1993 by Dorothy Garlock. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
For information address Warner Books, Hachette Book Group, USA, 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017
A Time Warner Company
ISBN 978-0-7595-2279-4
A mass market edition of this book was published in 1993 by Warner Books.
First eBook Edition: June 2001
Visit our Web site at
www.HachetteBookGroupUSA.com
H
e helped her down from the horse
.
Buddy was waiting. Smith patted the dog’s head and scooped up his hat. He wondered what Willa would do if he grabbed her and kissed her. She’d probably scream her head off. The dog would bite him and Charlie would come charging up the hill.
What the hell? He liked taking a risk when the odds were stacked against him.
With two quick steps he was beside her. His hands closed around her upper arms and dragged her up against him. He lowered his head, kissing her hard. The kiss left her stunned. She couldn’t get her breath and for a minute she couldn’t think. He held her, gave her a second softer kiss, his lips brushing back and forth across hers before he let her go.
“Why . . . why did you do that?” she whispered.
“To teach you a lesson. Don’t trust a man to always play the gentleman. Especially . . . a drinking man. And . . . never, never go off alone with him.”
“You want me to be afraid of you?”
“Why not? I’m sure as hell afraid of you.”
“The undisputed grand master of the frontier novel.”
—
R
omantic
T
imes
“The Louis L’Amour of the romance novelists.”
—
B
everly
H
ills
C
ourier
Books by Dorothy Garlock
A
lmost
E
den
A
nnie
L
ash
D
ream
R
iver
F
orever
V
ictoria
A G
entle
G
iving
G
lorious
D
awn
H
omeplace
L
onesome
R
iver
L
ove and
C
heri
sh
L
arkspur
M
idnight
B
lue
N
ightrose
R
estless
W
ind
R
ibbon in the
S
ky
R
iver of
T
omorrow
T
he
S
earching
H
earts
S
ins
of
S
ummer
S
weetwater
T
enderness
T
he
L
istening
S
ky
T
his
L
oving
L
and
W
ayward
W
ind
W
ild
S
weet
W
ilderness
W
ind of
P
romise
W
ith
H
ope
Y
esteryear
Published by
WARNER BOOKS
This book is for my friend, Mary T. Knibbe, with fond memories of good conversation, hot butter beans and cornbread.
A faithful friend is a strong defense.
A faithful friend is the medicine of life.
—Apocrypha
1
A
wakened by the heat beating against her face, Willa leaped from her bed. Flames enveloped the table and the bureau where she kept the pictures of her mother and the few mementos she had managed to save over the years. Suddenly the straw mattress on her bed erupted in a ball of fire.
Over the sound of crackling flames, a murmur of angry voices reached her.
She ran out the door as the fire blaze behind her roared angrily into the workroom where her stepfather made his beautiful clocks.
Was this a dream: the roof ablaze and flames dancing a queer rigadoon against the dark sky?
Willa Hammer faced the angry crowd. Why had they come to the edge of town to fire the little shack she had so lovingly made into a home? A clod of dirt struck her cheek. She cried out in surprise and terror and lifted her hand to shield her face.
“Slut! Spawn of the devil!” The woman who threw the clod had spoken to her just that morning when she had gone
to post a letter. She had not been friendly but she had been civil. “It’s because of you—”
“We don’t want ya here!” yelled another.
“It’s evil ya ‘n’ that deformed monster brought to this town,” a man shouted. “Nothin’s been right since ya come here.”
“Get the hell out of Hublett or . . . we’ll tar ‘n’ feather ya!”
A six-gun, fired into the air, made an unspoken threat clear to even Willa’s befuddled mind.
Pelted with dirt clods, she raised her arm to protect her head and turned toward the road. A man with a hickory switch in his hand blocked her way.
