Read Frontier Highlander Vow of Love (American Wilderness Series Romance Book 4) for Free Online Page B

to get itdone quick enough.”
    “Let’s go back to my office and wait for her. Or would you rather get an ale first?”
    “No, let’s just go to yer office. I do na want to risk missin’ her. This is one lass I plan to meet. Now tell me all about Kelly and yer wee one. How is Nicole?”
    William’s face brightened at just the mention of his wife and daughter’s names and while they walked, he happily updated Bear on everything going on at his cabin.
    Bear half listened, his mind elsewhere. Leading Camel, he walked through town beside his brother. His feet seemed to be drifting along on their own, as he thought about a tall lass named MacKay.

Chapter 5
    A rtis opened the door and stepped inside the land commissioner’s office. She let out the breath she’d been holding as she looked around.
    Specks of dust danced in the rays of light streaming in through the window. A thick-necked, pot-bellied man glanced up from his map covered desk. Even more maps hung from nails on the log walls. On a narrow table, a long row of ledger books lined one wall.
    “Hello Miss, how may I help you today?” He extended his hand. “I’m Commissioner Simmons.”
    “Artis MacKay,” she said as she shook his outstretched hand.
    “Are you here to file a land claim?”
    “Nay, I have a deed I want to register.”
    “I see. How did you come by this deed?” he asked.
    “My former employer gave it to me at the end of my indenture—my freedom dues. He urged me to see ye just as soon as I arrived.”
    “I see,” Simmons said again. “Please have a seat. May I see your deed?”
    Artis sat and then reached down and pulled the deed from inside herstocking. She handed the wrinkled document to Simmons who examined it for some time. As she anxiously watched him, she pressed her lips shut so no sound would burst out.
    “I remember this parcel. No one has ever lived on this land, but Mister Roberts of Virginia is the owner of record. This deed appears to bear his signature. Just let me be sure it matches the signature I have on record.”
    Artis held her breath, praying this would go smoothly. Roberts did not seem to be the kind of man who would cheat her and she hoped that her instincts were right.
    Simmons stood and pulled one of the ledgers off the table and moved it to his desk. After an agonizingly long minute, he located the correct page and compared the two documents. “Everything seems to be in order, Miss MacKay. Welcome to Kentucky. You are now a landowner.”
    A small cry of relief broke from her lips.
    Commissioner Simmons peeked up and smiled kindly.
    As she realized she was in fact a landowner, a warm feeling flowed through her. She finally had a home of her own again. After Steller’s flames consumed her mother and her home, and the Countess shipped her away, the painful awareness of her losses never left her, even for a day. It felt as though her life had been first trounced upon and then stolen away completely. Her work at the plantation had only camouflaged the deep despair and extreme loneliness she felt. But now, a layer of that despair lifted for the first time.
    “And the size of my parcel? Is it fifty acres as promised?”
    “Indeed, it is. Would you like me to show you where it is?”
    “Aye, I would.”
    Simmons stood and motioned her over to one of the maps nailed to the wall. “Your property is located north and west of Boonesborough but a short ways—my estimation is that it is about a twenty minute ride by horse at a canter.”
    Artis studied the map, noting the location of the trail that led northwest. “We are here, and the road is there,” she said, pointing with her finger.
    “That’s correct. Your place is just past a half-circle bend in the road. See it there?”
    “Aye.”
    “It starts here and goes all the way to where this creek runs.”
    “Mister Roberts said it had good water. Is that stream the source of water?”
    “Yes it is. Although you will probably want to have a cistern built to