Read Beyond Betrayal for Free Online

guess," he conceded. "But there ain't a whole lot of widders."
    "I only need one.” One that wouldn't need permanence. Marriage was not in the cards for a man like him. The trouble was he hadn't quite stopped dreaming about having kids of his own someday. He'd always liked kids. And, unfortunately, you couldn't have the one without the other. At least not to his way of thinking. Nope. A nice cozy relationship with a beautiful widow would be about as perfect as he could get.
    Potter frowned. "I still want to know where you got the idea that whores is deadly. Here all the time I've knowed you, I thought you didn't like wimmen. I swear, you an' Mayor Jack are the only fellas in town that ain't visited Cora's girls."
    "I have an uncle who almost bled to death after catching the clap from a whore in Wyoming once."
    Potter snorted. "Now that's a stretcher if I ever hear'd one. Ain't nobody can bleed to death from catchin' the clap."
    Samson looked down at him. "They can if they give it to their wives."
    Potter stared at him as though he'd lost his mind. "You wanna run that horse by me agin."
    "When my aunt found out that Uncle Harry had been visiting whores when he went to town for supplies and then comin' home to her like nothin' had happened, she was so blamed mad she blasted him with the bear rifle when he came in off the range. He blame near bled to death before she could patch him up."
    Potter looked up at him incredulously. "Why in blazes she shoot 'im in the first place if she was gonna try to patch 'im up?"
    Sam shrugged and lifted his eyes to seek out the widow. She was making her way down the street past Doc Hale's office. "Damned if I know. Aunt Mazie always did love Uncle Harry something fierce. I guess she figured she didn't want to lose him after all. I was only about thirteen or fourteen at the time, but I've been real leery of catching the clap and giving it to another woman ever since.” Not to mention the fact that he was just naturally fastidious. He didn't like the idea of being with a whore any more than he'd like the idea of putting on a pair of underwear or socks that had been worn by half a dozen men before him.
    Potter frowned. "I can see how that could color a boy's view of whores a tetch. But it jest ain't healthy for a fella to go without a woman."
    Samson was not about to tell old Jeb about his occasional visits with Lil—it was none of his business. So, he said nothing.
    "I think in your place I mightn't be so set agin marryin'."
    Samson snorted. "No thanks.” He had more than one reason for avoiding that exalted state.
    There was a moment of silence. When Samson looked down at Potter it was to see the old miner looking up at him with a strange, knowing glint in his eye. "What?" Samson demanded.
    "I know the sound of a man who's had his tail feathers singed when I hear one."
    "Singed, hell!” Samson bit off a piece of the red and white striped hard candy that was in his shirt pocket and replaced the remainder to be savored later.
    "Well now, sonny, I know you ain't gonna believe this, but all wimmin ain't like the one that done you in. My Anna would'a walked to hell and back for me. Never saw a woman work so hard to keep her man happy. I never thought 'bout visitin' a whore when Anna was alive.” He wiped his faded old blue eyes with a handkerchief that may have once been white or beige, but was now of indeterminate color and stuffed it back in his pocket. "Damnation, I miss that woman. Don't know why the good Lord hasn't took me to join her yet. Hain't got nothin' left to do on this earth that I can think of."
    But Samson wasn't listening anymore. His thoughts were on the one woman he'd ever loved. Melissa Corrigan had been sweet, young and innocent. Hell, they'd both been young, but they'd loved each other passionately nonetheless. He'd been a different person then, had even worn his own name. Somehow, unfailing optimist that he'd been, he had found the courage to ask Pete Corrigan for his