AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As Rory reached for a piece of chicken, a woman, the one whose son had been talking to Ty, smacked Rory’s hand sharply with a wooden spoon. Everyone at that end of the table looked up at her as the woman’s face turned red.
“I can’t teach the children not to reach if the adults do,” she said at last, then looked up at Chris who was smiling broadly at her. The woman also smiled. “More beans, Mr. Tynan?” she asked sweetly.
“Why, yes, please,” Tynan said, looking at the woman in surprise.
“Tell us what it’s like to take a man’s life,” Rory said as the woman was heaping beans on Tynan’s plate.
At that moment, one of the other women overturned a cup of coffee into Rory’s lap. As Rory jumped up, one of the men began to laugh.
“Boy, you get married and you’ll learn that women have ways of fightin’ that cause you to lose the war before you even know it’s been declared.”
Another man began to laugh and before long, they’d all joined in. Tynan sat there grinning.
“Sit down, boy,” someone called to Rory. “You’ll dry. Martha, give Sayers some of that cherry cake of yours. That’ll make him forget everything else, even pretty little blondes.”
Chris became very interested in the inside of a pitcher of milk but she could feel her ears growing warm.
An hour later the food was packed away, the younger children were being put to sleep under shade trees, the adults were gathering in groups and the young ones with the energy were laughing and planning ways to be on their own.
“Will you come with us?” a pretty, dark-eyed girl asked Chris. “We’re going canoeing on the river. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
“We’d love to,” she said, holding onto Tynan’s arm.
“They’re kids. I don’t want to—” Tynan began but Chris didn’t look at him.
“They want to talk to us. Don’t you realize we’re almost celebrities to them? You, the notorious gunslinger and me…”
“The lady who gets herself into trouble on purpose.” He held her back as the others got into the three canoes. They were out of sight of the picnic area. Just as Chris was about to step into a canoe, Tynan gave her a little push, causing her to stumble back against him.
“Chris,” he said and there was great concern in his voice. “You’ve hurt your ankle. Is it sprained? Here, don’t walk on it, let me help you.”
Before Chris could say a word, he had her in his arms and was carrying her toward the trees.
“She’ll be all right,” he called over his shoulder to the others. “I’ll take care of her.”
Chris could hear giggling behind her and knew he hadn’t fooled anyone.
“Now that you have me, what do you plan to do with me?” He smiled at her in such a way that Chris said, “You most certainly willnot.And if you put me down and so much as one button is unfastened, I’ll never speak to you again.”
“No one has to say a word.”
“Tynan!” she gasped.
“Chris, enough is enough. I don’t mind adults but spending the afternoon with adolescents looking at me as if I might do something deadly at any moment is more than I can take. I thought maybe we’d go in the woods and…”
“And what?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
“I don’t know,” he said quite honestly. “What does a couple do if they don’t—” Again, a look from Chris stopped him.
“Talk, get to know each other. You may put me down now.”
Tynan kept walking with her. “Who are the Montgomerys? Your father mentioned them.”
“And what did he say? No, you can tell me the truth.”
He stood her on an overturned log so that her face was about even with his. “Let me see if I get this correct. He said you were related to them and a more headstrong, stubborn, stupidly fearless lot of people had never been born. Does that sound right?”
“Perfect. They’re my mother’s relatives, a very old family that came to America during Henry the Eighth’s reign.”
