Her Bodyguard by Geralyn Dawson

ladies a moment of privacy, shall we?”
    Privacy, ha. Mari wrinkled her nose. Rory Kelly was the one who wanted privacy. No telling what “devastation” he’d caused that he didn’t want publicly discussed. Not that Mari cared. “Luke, perhaps it would be best if you escorted him away from here before I lose my tenuous hold on my temper and shoot him right in the…”
    “Mari!” Kat protested while Luke grabbed the scoundrel by the back of the neck and yanked him to his feet. After the men disappeared out an exit door that led to the alley behind the theater, Mari drew a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves.
    “How dare you!” Kat said, her expression mutinous as she yanked her bodice up and her skirts down.
    “Excuse me?”
    “How dare you follow me and spy on me? Invade my privacy.”
    “Privacy?” Mari said, incredulous. “This is a public place, Katrina. Anyone could have walked in here. Anyone . Mrs. Peters. Reverend Erickson. Papa . Kat, think about it If Papa had found you here like this, you’d be standing in front of a preacher repeating wedding vows this very moment.”
    Katrina’s chin came up. “And what would be the problem with that?”
    “Kat!”
    “Well?” She scrambled to her feet, blinking her eyes rapidly as she fought back tears. “Why not? Maybe a shotgun wedding wouldn’t be my first choice, but I’m beginning to think it’ll be my only choice. There isn’t a man in Fort Worth who’ll risk romance with me. Not since you went and ruined my chances.”
    Mari blinked. “Since I what? ”
    “You know what I’m talking about.”
    “No, I don’t. I haven’t done anything to—”
    “Alex talked,” Kat boldly stated. “He told everyone that the reason he called off the wedding was because you are a cold fish, and that a man couldn’t light a spark inside you with a smithy’s furnace.”
    Mari sucked in a breath. Hurt was a cold spear to her heart. “Alex said that?”
    “He told his friends on the baseball team and word got around. He blamed it on the McBride blood and the curse, so now everyone thinks I’m as frigid as you are.”
    Frigid? Frigid!
    “Why did you have to go and tell him about the curse, Mari? You don’t even believe in it.”
    Frigid. Anger churned like milk into butter. Why, that sorry sack of wet sand! Just because she refused to anticipate their wedding vows, Alex had no right to spread such vicious gossip about her. Gossip that her younger sister obviously believed.
    Of course, her sister believed anything.
    Bitterness stung Mari’s tongue as she said, “I didn’t tell Alexander about the curse, Kat. You did. You told him the night of the Harvest Ball last fall when you got into the men’s punch.”
    “I don’t remember that.”
    “Of course not. You were drunk as a hoedown fiddler!”
    “Nevertheless,” Kat continued, “I wouldn’t be in this predicament if not for you, so don’t stand there acting all high-and-mighty on me. You may not want a husband, Miss High-and-Mighty Businesswoman, but I do. I want to be married and have a home and children. I don’t dream about running my own chocolate shop like you or teaching children how to read and write and do sums like Emma. I’m a woman, and I enjoy the way a man can make me feel. I won’t feel guilty because I’m not a dried-up old prune.”
    Like you . The unspoken words hung suspended in the air between them and wounded like an arrow. Mari reacted to the pain. “No, you should feel guilty because you’re acting like a harlot. I’m ashamed of you, Kat.”
    This time, Kat was the one who gasped.
    “How far have you allowed this to go?” Mari pressed on. “Have you given that scoundrel your virginity?”
    Katrina burst into tears, and Mari’s stomach sank to her knees. “Rory is not a scoundrel!”
    Oh, no.
    “He’s a talented actor who will be famous someday. I love him and he loves me and we’re going to be married. Soon. You just wait and see, Mari McBride. I’m