Bride On The Run (Historical Romance) by Elizabeth Lane Page A

that followed Malachi’s outburst was broken only by the low, wet breathing of the mule. Anna stood frozen to the spot, knowing she should leave at once, but strangely unable to move.
    “Well, why don’t you sleep with her for a while before you decide?” Josh’s voice cut through the stillness like the sound of a tin whistle.
    Malachi first response was a half-strangled groan. Then, finding his voice, he demanded, “Who the devil put that idea into your head?”
    “Eddie Johnson’s pa. When he was here this spring I heard him tell you that the only way to really get to know a woman was to sleep with her.”
    “You’ve got big ears,” Malachi growled, “almost as big as Sam Johnson’s mouth.”
    “But what about it?” Josh persisted with maddening innocence. “You slept with Ma. And Anna’s your wife now. What’s your bedroll doing laid out here in the tack room?”
    Was Malachi grinding his teeth or had Anna only imagined hearing the sound? She bit her cheeks to hold back her amusement as she imagined Josh’s earnest eyes and Malachi’s reddening face.
    “Pa?”
    She heard the exasperated hiss of Malachi’s breath and waited tensely for the explosion that was boundto follow. Instead, Malachi’s shadow moved lower against the light, as if he had dropped to his son’s eye level. When he spoke his voice was so low that she had to press close against the wall to hear him.
    “Son, it isn’t that simple,” he said, stumbling over the words. “When a man and woman share the same bed it’s supposed to mean something.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like—” Malachi cleared his throat. “It’s like a promise, that they’ll always love each other and stay together. It means they want to be a family—”
    “I slept with Cousin Katie when I was six and we went to her house,” Josh interjected. “I didn’t know it meant any of them things, or I’d have climbed out and slept on the floor.”
    “Those things.” Malachi pounced on the grammar mistake like a drowning man clutching a life preserver. “It’s those things, not them things.”
    “Those things,” Josh corrected himself. “But anyway, I don’t see what all the fuss is about sleeping with somebody.”
    “You will when you’re older.” Malachi’s voice rasped with unease. “Anna and I aren’t much more than strangers. Even if she did plan to stay, I wouldn’t be sleeping with her anytime soon. I’d give her some time to get used to me.”
    “Oh.” Josh sounded crestfallen. “But what you say can’t be true all the time. Eddie Johnson says there are ladies in Kanab who’ll sleep with anybody who pays them enough money. You don’t even have to—”
    “That’s enough!” Malachi cut in irritably. “Hand me that big tin of salve, and stop asking so many questions.”
    “But, Pa, how will I ever—”
    “I said that’s enough. Go and see if Carrie needs any help with supper. Go on.”
    Anna heard the boy moving away. Then he seemed to hesitate. “I didn’t mean any harm by it, Pa, saying you ought to sleep with her.”
    “I know you didn’t son. Run along, now.” Tenderness muted Malachi’s voice. Anna pushed herself reluctantly away from the wall. She’d done enough eavesdropping for one night. It was time she found her way back inside before she stumbled into quicksand, got bitten by a snake or carried off by marauding bandits. Some women took wild, dangerous places in stride. Unfortunately, she was not one of them.
    Malachi’s tender, stumbling words echoed in her memory as she picked her way through the mud. Would she ever meet a man to whom lovemaking was a promise, a vow to stay together forever and build a family? Not likely, Anna reminded herself. Such blessings came to women who deserved them, not women who’d made the kinds of mistakes she’d made—and certainly not women who were wanted for murder.
    Had she taken a wrong turn? Anna gasped in sudden surprise as she stumbled into a muddy hole and felt water