serve a girl like me?”
His eyes softened. “Cotton’s serves everyone. C’mon, it’s across the street.”
Fantastic. More mud. Except when I took the last step to plop my poor abused shoe into the filth, Luke bent over and lifted me easily into his arms. I was just as shocked as the choking gossipers in front of the land office. It did warm me up inside and the view of Luke’s smooth jawline was quite lovely, so I wrapped my hands delicately around his neck and enjoyed the ride. Once across, he offered his arm gallantly and smiled when I fit my fingers into the crook of it.
Chapter Seven
Kristina
Cotton’s was a boisterous eatery with long tables filled with town folks enjoying their meals. The smell of the place was a mixture of beef, gravy, and heaven. My stomach growled loudly, but I doubted anyone heard it over the noise. Luke pulled me over to a couple of empty seats on the far end of the room and we sat amongst a raucous group of arguing men, and a husband and wife with their six young children spread between them. I smiled at the woman but she was too preoccupied with her family of picky eaters to smile back. Or so I told myself.
A feminine voice with a thick southern accent sounded from behind me. “What can I do you for?”
The woman was young, around my own age, and thanks to the Emancipation, was a newly minted freedwoman. Her caramel colored skin was smooth and rich and her dark hair was pulled back out of her face. She might’ve very well been the prettiest lady I’d ever seen.
“What’s the special,” Luke asked.
“Trout’s been selling like hot cakes today, Mr. Luke.”
“Sold,” he said with an easy smile.
“And for you?” she asked me.
I wasn’t much of a fish eater. “I need something that’ll stick to my ribs. What’s your favorite?”
“My beef stew’s so thick you can eat it with a fork.”
“That sounds exactly right. I’ll have that.”
She hurried away and swished through the kitchen doors and that was when I noticed her dress. It was a fine looking garment with puff sleeves, and white eyelet lace accents. The fabric was floral and the fit looked lovely on her slim body. Moody Marta wouldn’t likely be making the woman’s dresses if she was opposed to working with a saloon girl, so where’d she get it?
“Are there a lot of freedmen around here?” I asked Luke.
“Trudy’s the only one that I know of around these parts.”
The gray-haired man sitting directly across from me spat on the floor. “And it’s a good thing too. One of them’s one too many around here, if you ask me.”
“Well, nobody asked you,” I gritted out.
Trudy returned and set metal plates overflowing with food in front of Luke and I, and the man sneered at her. “In fact, if I had my way, we’d be running this one out of town.”
“Shut your gaping pie hole or you’ll catch flies,” I spat. “I said nobody asked for your rotten opinion, and I meant it, sir.”
The man stood so fast his chair fell with a glorious crash behind him, and the room went deathly still. In his eyes burned the hellfire of hatred and it was aimed directly at me. A bone chilling sound I’d never heard in my entire nineteen years ripped from Luke as he stood in a motion so fast he blurred. And with a great shuddering thunk, he stabbed his hunting knife so deeply into the table, it could likely be seen from underneath. The gleaming blade landed just a hair away from the tender skin between the man’s pointer and middle finger. The air around Luke grew thicker by the moment until it was hard to breathe.
My breath caught somewhere in my throat and the fine hairs on my arms rose as something just below the senses filled the room.
“Advance another centimeter on my woman, and I’ll slit you from adam’s apple to cock,” Luke growled into the man’s face.
The man’s skin went pallid and the whites of his eyes shown all around the tired gray color of his irises. His pupils had all but
His eyes softened. “Cotton’s serves everyone. C’mon, it’s across the street.”
Fantastic. More mud. Except when I took the last step to plop my poor abused shoe into the filth, Luke bent over and lifted me easily into his arms. I was just as shocked as the choking gossipers in front of the land office. It did warm me up inside and the view of Luke’s smooth jawline was quite lovely, so I wrapped my hands delicately around his neck and enjoyed the ride. Once across, he offered his arm gallantly and smiled when I fit my fingers into the crook of it.
Chapter Seven
Kristina
Cotton’s was a boisterous eatery with long tables filled with town folks enjoying their meals. The smell of the place was a mixture of beef, gravy, and heaven. My stomach growled loudly, but I doubted anyone heard it over the noise. Luke pulled me over to a couple of empty seats on the far end of the room and we sat amongst a raucous group of arguing men, and a husband and wife with their six young children spread between them. I smiled at the woman but she was too preoccupied with her family of picky eaters to smile back. Or so I told myself.
A feminine voice with a thick southern accent sounded from behind me. “What can I do you for?”
The woman was young, around my own age, and thanks to the Emancipation, was a newly minted freedwoman. Her caramel colored skin was smooth and rich and her dark hair was pulled back out of her face. She might’ve very well been the prettiest lady I’d ever seen.
“What’s the special,” Luke asked.
“Trout’s been selling like hot cakes today, Mr. Luke.”
“Sold,” he said with an easy smile.
“And for you?” she asked me.
I wasn’t much of a fish eater. “I need something that’ll stick to my ribs. What’s your favorite?”
“My beef stew’s so thick you can eat it with a fork.”
“That sounds exactly right. I’ll have that.”
She hurried away and swished through the kitchen doors and that was when I noticed her dress. It was a fine looking garment with puff sleeves, and white eyelet lace accents. The fabric was floral and the fit looked lovely on her slim body. Moody Marta wouldn’t likely be making the woman’s dresses if she was opposed to working with a saloon girl, so where’d she get it?
“Are there a lot of freedmen around here?” I asked Luke.
“Trudy’s the only one that I know of around these parts.”
The gray-haired man sitting directly across from me spat on the floor. “And it’s a good thing too. One of them’s one too many around here, if you ask me.”
“Well, nobody asked you,” I gritted out.
Trudy returned and set metal plates overflowing with food in front of Luke and I, and the man sneered at her. “In fact, if I had my way, we’d be running this one out of town.”
“Shut your gaping pie hole or you’ll catch flies,” I spat. “I said nobody asked for your rotten opinion, and I meant it, sir.”
The man stood so fast his chair fell with a glorious crash behind him, and the room went deathly still. In his eyes burned the hellfire of hatred and it was aimed directly at me. A bone chilling sound I’d never heard in my entire nineteen years ripped from Luke as he stood in a motion so fast he blurred. And with a great shuddering thunk, he stabbed his hunting knife so deeply into the table, it could likely be seen from underneath. The gleaming blade landed just a hair away from the tender skin between the man’s pointer and middle finger. The air around Luke grew thicker by the moment until it was hard to breathe.
My breath caught somewhere in my throat and the fine hairs on my arms rose as something just below the senses filled the room.
“Advance another centimeter on my woman, and I’ll slit you from adam’s apple to cock,” Luke growled into the man’s face.
The man’s skin went pallid and the whites of his eyes shown all around the tired gray color of his irises. His pupils had all but
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