The Blushing Bride

And Amanda Pierce was definitely a distraction.

Jason leaned his shoulder against the support column and gazed down the road toward town. He could still smell the scent of her lingering in the air. Sweet, delicate. Womanly.

He let his gaze wander to the McGee house. Shady Harper had gone inside a few minutes ago carrying her baggage. The whole house probably smelled like her by now.

The front door opened just then and Shady walked outside. A woman stepped into the doorway, outlined by the lantern light inside. Jason straightened and craned his neck. Was it her? Was it Amanda?

“Damn.”

Jason turned away mumbling a curse into the darkness. Women were a distraction, all right, and he’d just proved it, lurking in the dark, hoping to catch a peek of one. Even if it had been a long time since he’d peeked at a woman—or done anything more pleasurable with one.

He swung around again watching Shady on the porch talking to the woman in the doorway. It was Amanda. He was sure of it now.

Maybe Ethan was right. Maybe he had been up on this mountain too long.

Amanda was a good-looking woman. All the right curves in all the right places. Done up proper, begging to be undone. A tight little package waiting to be opened.

He’d like to unravel that package, and take his time doing it. Slow, easy, until he’d—

Jason snorted another curse and pushed himself off the porch, angry at his thoughts and his body’s reaction to them.

What the hell was he thinking? He didn’t need or want a woman in his life. Especially this one, full of vinegar and sass, calling him names and insulting him to his face, right in his own office. Miss Amanda Pierce would be gone in the morning, and good riddance to her.

Jason stalked down the road away from his office. He was going home. He’d get a good night’s sleep and set his mind back on work. He was expecting a package, and if Shady brought it up from Beaumont tomorrow he had to be ready to deal with it. He needed to keep his mind on business.

But a fragrance tickled Jason’s nose, stopping him in his track. He turned, his gaze drawn once again to the McGee house just as Amanda stepped back inside. Jason stood there a moment longer staring at the closed door, sniffing the air for the scent of her.

“Hellfire….”

Jason stalked away.

The gray of dawn seeped into the house as Amanda opened her eyes to the little room she’d slept in. She’d fallen asleep as soon as her head had hit the feather pillow last night, then awakened this morning to the smell of something delicious cooking in the kitchen—and the certain knowledge that she wasn’t in her own bed at home in San Francisco.

Amanda lay on the smooth cotton sheets for a few minutes, thinking. Here she was in a strange bed, a strange house, a strange place. The well-ordered life she’d left behind in San Francisco over a week ago seemed very dear to her right now.

Her father had been a successful merchant, and had left Amanda and her mother financially comfortable upon his death. But her mother wasn’t very wise in business and it hadn’t taken long before most of the money was gone.

Her mother was gone now, too. Amanda had used what money was left to start her Becoming Brides Matrimonial Service. The business filled several of the empty spots in her life.

Amanda pushed back the coverlet and sat up. The air in the little house was cool. She rose and dressed quickly.

Meg stood at the cookstove and Todd, her son, sat at the table. Amanda had seen the boy last night when Meg had roused him out of his bed and given it to Amanda. Todd was eight years old with blond hair, like his mother. His looks came from his father, Amanda guessed. His father who was…gone.

“Good morning,” Meg said, and smiled. “You’re just in time.”

“Can I help?” Amanda asked.

“No, thanks, all done.” Meg turned a pan of scrambled eggs into a bowl and set it on the table alongside a stack of biscuits. “Sit down.”

Todd dug in before Amanda and Meg got seated and finished before they got started.

“Can I go outside, Mama?” Todd asked.

“Yes, but don’t go far,” Meg said. “And don’t go near the mill.”

Todd rolled his eyes as if he’d heard those instructions before and darted out the front door. Amanda watched him go, watched the love in Meg’s gaze follow the boy outside.

“He’s a sweet child,” Amanda said.

Meg’s smile faded. “It’s been hard for him since his father…left.”

“Is he away on business?” Amanda asked.

“No.” Meg sipped her coffee.

“Sorry,” Amanda said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

Meg sighed. “The whole mountain knows, so I suppose there’s no reason you shouldn’t. I woke one morning to find a note from Gerald saying he couldn’t live here any longer. He was moving on. He was sorry that he couldn’t take Todd and me with him, but he had to go find his own way.”

“And he left? Just like that?”

“Gerald was never the stable type,” Meg said. “We always moved from place to place, job to job.”

“That’s how you ended up here?”

“Gerald started a business in town. It failed. He tried again, then again, never with much luck. Then finally, he simply left.”

“How awful.”

“Yes, it was awful at first.” Meg managed a smile. “But Todd and I have a roof over our heads and I find enough work to keep us fed. We’re doing all right.”

“Why don’t you leave?”

“I have no family now, except for Todd,” Meg said. “Where would I go?”

“Do you like living here?” Amanda asked. She managed to keep from sounding judgmental. Though the mountain was foreign to her, that didn’t mean others wouldn’t like it.

“Yes,” Meg said, “but it is a little lonely without other women around.”

“Thanks to Mr. Kruger,” Amanda grumbled.

“Jason let Duncan’s wife come here because he was injured in an accident a few months back and she nursed him back to health. There’s no doctor in camp, you know. The few other women who live here work in town.”

“Does Mr. Kruger own the town as well?”

“The land under the town, but not the businesses,” Meg said. “He has a lot of influence over what goes on there. Why shouldn’t he? He owns the mountain.”

Amanda’s eyes widened. “He owns it?”