Linda Ford by The Cowboy's Convenient Proposal Page A

able to make sure she and Belle were safe.
    He’d not done well on that front so far.
    He had to find Belle. Chasing after her would serve no purpose. She’d just hide. But he recalled she’d complained of hunger. “I have an idea.”
    “I hope it’s better than your last one.”
    He wondered which idea that was, because so far he thought his ideas had been good. “What idea do you mean?”
    “Holding the lamp to your face and scaring a little girl half to death.”
    “That wasn’t— I didn’t— Oh, what’s the use? You’re determined to twist every word and action of mine into some sort of attack.”
    She stepped back into the circle of light to glower at him. “I most certainly do not.”
    “Uh-huh, you do. Now can you keep quiet long enough to hear my plan?” He paused for good measure. “Unless you’ve thought of one?”
    Her glower deepened as she was forced to acknowledge she had not. “Go ahead. Talk.”
    He chuckled. “Knew you wouldn’t admit you had no plan.”
    “You gonna tell me this wonderful plan or flap your jaws?”
    He grinned at her. “Like I asked before, you ever lose an argument? No, wait. What I mean—” He leaned closer until they were almost nose to nose. “Do you ever admit it?” The lamplight reflected in her eyes, filling them with something he hadn’t seen before—wasn’t sure what to call it. Perhaps fear. Or loneliness? Even though it was barely a shadow, hardly a hint, he knew it was there, and knowing, all resentment left him.
    He straightened. “Belle is hungry.”
    “So what? We’ve been hungry before. Expect we will be again.”
    He decided it wise to refrain from saying they would not go hungry while they lived in this cabin. “I’m going to build a nice fire over there.” He pointed to where Eddie had dug a fire pit, lined it with rocks and placed logs around it at a safe distance to use as benches. “And start cooking up a meal. I’m guessing she’ll soon come out of hiding when she smells the great food I cook.” He grinned, meaning it as teasing. After all, he was a cowboy and only cooked out of necessity, and even then it was the simplest of fare. But at the way her eyes widened and the loudness of her swallow, he guessed she was as hungry as Belle. Right then and there he vowed to make the best meal he’d ever made.
    He led the way to the fire pit and soon had a roaring fire going. Red reached out her hands to the flames. For the first time he considered she wore only a brown dress. Belle had on a shapeless gray thing that had seen better days. That observation coming from a cowboy who spent weeks in the same clothes indicated a large degree of wear and tear. Good thing he could count on Linette to help him on that score.
    “You stay here. Maybe she’ll come back when I leave.”
    Red’s gaze jerked from staring at the flames to look at him. “You’re going?”
    “Just to get supplies.”
    He dashed across the road to the cookhouse. “Cookie, quick, lend me a bottle of that meat you put up.”
    Cookie crossed her arms and looked at him like he’d suddenly sprung a second head. “What for? My cooking not good enough for you?”
    He jerked to a halt and swallowed hard. He had no desire to offend Cookie. “I’ve got two hungry females over there.” He gave a wave in the general direction of the cabin.
    “Didn’t the boss send you out to bring back his horse and saddle? Instead, you come back with two women?” She sniffed her disdain.
    “The horse and saddle are in the barn. Red and her sister are going to stay in the cabin.”
    “A horse thief! Whose idea was that?”
    “Linette’s.”
    Cookie’s scowl disappeared in a wreath of confusion.
    “They understand why she had to do it.” As quickly as he could, Ward explained how Red had to rescue her little sister. “And now she’s out in the trees, hiding in fear.” Before he finished, Cookie started filling a basket with jars of meat, bottles of preserved vegetables, fresh