Jared's Runaway Woman. Judith Stacy

gasped and pressed her lips together, forbidding herself to say another word. Jared glared down at her. She drew in a breath, forcing herself to stay calm, to think.

      She lowered her lashes, then looked up at him again.

      “You’re right, of course,” she said quietly. “I just need some time to think things over.”

      Jared backed off a little and nodded. “Fine, then.”

      Kinsey opened the back door and stepped outside, watching as Jared cast a last look at Sam in the swing, then headed toward town.

      Her heart thundered in her chest and she wondered how she’d gotten so lucky.

      Jared Mason didn’t know who she really was.

      Chapter Four

      No trains today.

      Kinsey made her way down the boardwalk, her mind whirling. No trains expected through Crystal Springs until the end of the week. No stagecoach due for two more days. She’d committed the schedules to memory a long time ago. That’s how she knew there’d be no escape from the town—from Jared Mason—today.

      When Nell and Lily had come home from church yesterday and inquired about her abrupt departure, Kinsey had calmed herself enough tomake a reasonable excuse that they hadn’t questioned. If her two friends noticed that she’d been on edge the whole evening or watched Sam in the backyard like a hawk, they hadn’t mentioned it.

      No one had noticed the family resemblance between Sam and Jared Mason either, thank goodness. But why would they?

      She hadn’t noticed it herself the first time she’d seen Jared, not even when he’d kissed her.

      Kinsey had tossed and turned most of the night debating on what she should do, what she could do. Her first thought had been to run again but that wouldn’t be possible right now. A few other plans had bloomed in her mind as she’d lain awake staring at the ceiling, listening to Sam’s breathing from his little bed across the room. They were dangerous, foolish, probably even under ordinary circumstances.

      But dealing with Jared would prove anything but ordinary, she knew.

      Her saving grace was that, at the moment, he didn’t know who she really was. But if he ever checked deeper, if he ever found out…

      Kinsey stepped off the boardwalk and hurried down the alley beside the White Dove Café. She averted her eyes, not wanting to look at the spot where she’d allowed the man who was trying to ruin her life to hold her and kiss her, but warmth flushed inside her just the same.

      This morning she’d gotten Sam off to school and taken care of her share of the kitchen chores at the boardinghouse before heading into town. Because around dawn, it had occurred to her that before she worried herself silly and ran away from a town she truly liked, she ought to do a little checking of her own.

      At the back entrance to the White Dove, she went inside and found Mrs. Townsend, the woman who owned the place and let Kinsey work there two nights a week washing dishes, at the cookstove. The kitchen smelled wonderful, delicious aromas of ham, eggs, biscuits filling the room.

      “How’s business this morning?” Kinsey asked, pushing open the swinging door to the dining room just wide enough to sneak a quick peek inside.

      The restaurant was half full. No sign of Jared yet. But she knew he’d be back. The White Dove was by far the best restaurant in town. No Mason, Kinsey knew, would settle for less. Certainly not Jared, after he’d bragged yesterday about the powerful Mason family, with their political connections, social position and their important friends in high places.

      “Slow, thankfully.” Mrs. Townsend shook her head. “I’m shorthanded—again.”

      A quick glance around the kitchen told Kinsey that once more, Dixie hadn’t reported for work on time. The young woman had gained an unsavory reputation in Crystal Springs and was frequently the topic of gossip. She was family, though, and Mrs. Townsend didn’t have much choice about keeping her on.

      “Do you need me to help out?” Kinsey asked, cracking the door again to glance inside the dining room.

      “Roy’s helping,” the woman said, nodding toward the window where her husband was loading up more logs from the woodpile. “We’ll be fine. Dixie will be along shortly. I saw you leave church yesterday. Missed you at the service.”

      “Neither Sam nor I were feeling well. I should have kept us both at home,” Kinsey said, surprised at how easily the lie rolled off her tongue. She glanced into the dining room again. “Anything new from Miss Patterson?”

      “I heard Reverend Battenfield was planning to pay a call on her yesterday afternoon,” Mrs. Townsend said, flipping eggs onto a platter and shaking her head. “He was taking the mayor with him along with Herb Foster.”

      “From the feed and grain store?” Kinsey asked, frowning.

      “Herb is just sure he’s come up with a plan for the new church that Miss Patterson will love.”

      Herb wore checkered trousers and striped shirts thinking himself an Eastern dandy, so Kinsey had her doubts about whether he could impress the persnickety Bess Patterson with his ideas for the new church.

      “If we don’t get that new church built before the hard winter sets in, we’ll have to wait clear until spring,” Mrs. Townsend said.

      Kinsey wasn’t hopeful. Already Miss Patterson had turned up her nose at three other plans for the church and had so infuriated several men in town that they wouldn’t even talk about the situation anymore.

      “Looks like some folks need a refill,” Kinsey said, taking the coffee pot from the back of the cookstove. Mrs. Townsend smiled her thanks as Kinsey pushed into the dining room.

      She made the rounds, topping off coffee cups, chatting with most all the diners and casually casting glances out the front window. Just as she’d answered the familiar how’s-that-boy-of-yours question yet another time, she caught sight of Jared coming out of the hotel down the street. Her hand quivered, sending hot coffee into the saucer. She apologized quickly wondering why her first thought of the man had been that he looked handsome this morning, rather than that he was trying to ruin her life.

      Back in the kitchen, she said goodbye to Mrs. Townsend and rushed outside. From the back corner of the building she saw Jared walk by, waited another few seconds, then headed for the hotel.

      Cecil Nelson was behind the desk, helping out his folks, who ran the place. The young man seemed to grow taller each time Kinsey saw him.

      “Morning, Miss Kinsey,” he said, swiping his bangs out of his eyes.

      She had no time for small talk. Glancing around quickly she leaned toward him. “Give me the key to Mr. Mason’s room.”

      Cecil drew back a little. “Well, Miss Kinsey, you know I can’t do that.”

      She pulled herself up a little. “Would you like me to tell Becky Cochran’s pa what I sawthe two of you doing out behind the White Dove last Wednesday night?”

      His face flamed and his jaw dropped. “Well—well, shoot, we weren’t doing nothing but—”

      “I saw what you were doing. And unless you’d like Becky’s papa to know also—”

      “No, no you can’t do that.” He shook his head frantically. “He’d fly into me something awful—not to mention what Ma would do when she found out.”

      “The key.” Kinsey held out her hand.

      Cecil fidgeted for a moment then gave her the pass key for room number four. She headed up the stairs.

      “I love Becky. I swear I do,” Cecil called. “You aren’t going to tell, are you, Miss Kinsey?”

      She stopped and looked back. “If you really love her you ought to have more respect than to put her in that sort of position. And