Never Marry a Cowboy by Lorraine Heath Page A

before her imagination had created fantasies in which her feelings for him blossomed and he returned her interest in kind.
    â€œLook at your face, Ashton. The sun burned it,” David scolded.
    She touched her fingers gently to her face. “Only my nose.”
    David sighed heavily.
    â€œOh, David, don’t ruin my memory of the day. It was wonderful.”
    â€œKit was a perfect gentleman?” he inquired.
    â€œA perfect gentleman,” she assured him. Unfortunately. She’d experienced moments when she’d hoped he wouldn’t be.
    David knelt before her and took her hands in his. “I just want you to take care. Consumption—”
    â€œConsumption?” Mrs. Gurney said as she rounded the corner into the parlor carrying a tray of cookies and hot tea. “Who has consumption?”
    â€œNo one,” Ashton said quickly, hating for anyone to know of her disease or weakness.
    Mrs. Gurney set the tray on a nearby table and pointed her finger at Ashton, wagging it unmercifully. “You need to get married, young lady. That’s a surefire way to prevent getting consumption.”
    Ashton bit back her laughter. “Marriage?”
    â€œThat’s right. I read it myself in a book called The People’s Medical Lighthouse . That’s one of the reasons I married my daughters off when they was fourteen. You need to get rid of all the worry in your life. And corsets. Those gotta go, too.” The woman spread out her arms and inhaled deeply. “A woman’s gotta be able to take air deep into her lungs.”
    David cleared his throat.
    Ashton brought a hand to her mouth to hide her smile at David’s obvious discomfort.
    â€œAin’t been sick a day in my life,” Mrs. Gurney said with a quick nod of her head. “Corsets. That’s the secret. Gettin’ rid of the durn corsets. That contraption had to be invented by a man who didn’t like women. That’s all I got to say on that matter. Now you folks eat up my cookies and drink my tea. It helps to go to bed with something on your stomach.” She bustled out of the room.
    Ashton reached for a cookie. “In all my reading, I somehow overlooked that book.”
    â€œIt was interesting,” David said quietly.
    Ashton snapped her gaze to his. “You read it?”
    He blushed and she thought she’d never loved her brother more. “You did read it.”
    He shrugged. “I was looking for a miracle.”
    â€œThat’s not the reason you asked Kit to marry me, is it?”
    â€œNo, unfortunately, marriage supposedly only prevents consumption, it doesn’t cure it.”
    Ashton nibbled on the cookie. “Thank you, David.”
    â€œDon’t thank me, Ashton. I’ve yet to find a cure for your disease nor a way to grant your wish to be a bride.”
    â€œAt least you tried, and that means the world to me.”
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    Bloody damned hell!
    Kit paced the small confines of his office unable to erase Ashton’s jubilant smile from his memory. In sleep, in joy, she was a fragile beauty, an earthbound angel soon to touch the heavens.
    She took delight in the simplest things, putting his cynical side to shame. Dear God, in truth, it had been years since he’d known happiness. Long before the night he learned that Christopher was to marry Clarisse.
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    â€œMind if I join you?” Christopher asked.
    Staring into the fire, Kit simply waved his hand magnanimously over the decanters on the table beside his chair. “By all means, if you can find one that still has anything left in it.” With an unsteady hand, he brought the glass to his lips, wondering how much more he’d have to drink before he drowned the pain.
    Christopher came to stand before the fire.
    â€œYou’re blocking my view of hell,” Kit muttered.
    â€œI just had the most unbelievable conversation with Father.”
    Kit lifted his glass in a salute. “As