Read Give My Love to Rose for Free Online

answer, pleading for
guidance.
    “ You’re going to come on
over and eat some damn taters is what you’re going to do,” the
stranger grumbled as he plopped a plate full of them on the
table.
    Rose forced herself to swallow down her own
fears and uncertainties. She had to be strong for her son. Slowly
she stood and made her way on stiff legs to the table.
    “ Thank you for cooking for
us,” she said politely as she met the stranger’s golden eyes. She
couldn’t’ get over how handsome he was even with that thick beard
blocking most of his face from view. But there was something in his
eyes—a coldness that unsettled her. She sensed a sadness within him
and wondered what caused it.
    Then Rose scolded herself. She had just lost
her husband and should not be looking at another man let alone
wondering how she could help him. Langston had been her saviour,
her hope and now she would never see him again. That knowledge had
new tears filling her eyes.
    Marston saw that tear hovering on her lashes
and he waited for it to roll down her full pink cheek. Then he
shook his head. “Don’t worry about thanking me, ma’am. Just sit
down and eat and we’ll call it even.”
    “ Won’t you sit and eat
with us?” Rose asked, gesturing toward an empty chair.
    “ No, I don’t think so,”
Marston quickly denied. “I gotta get going. I left the sack of
money over there.”
    Rose glanced toward the small table beside
the door and saw the leather sack sitting there. “Money?”
    “ Yeah the money from…”
Marston’s eyes went to Langley who was watching them closely. He
turned back to Rose. “The money from Langston. His horse is out in
the barn and settled in.”
    Rose nodded as her stomach rolled and she
picked at her potatoes without eating them. She was afraid if she
took a single bite she would be sick.
    “ Why does Marston have
pa’s money and horse?” Langley asked. “Where’s pa?”
    “ I’ll be going now,”
Marston stated, reaching for the door.
    “ Marston?” Rose called out
and Marston found himself unable to do anything but turn back
around and look into those big blue eyes.
    “ Yes, ma’am?”
    “ Thank you for everything.
Thank you for bringing my husband’s belonging back to us. You could
have very easily kept them for yourself.” Marston was about to
respond when she wiped a tear from her eyes and rendered him
speechless with her next comment. “Thank God for you,
Marston.”
    Marston didn’t know what to say. Why did
these damn people keep thanking God for him like he was some kind
of good man? It unnerved him and made his stomach burn and
ache.
    He couldn’t come up with any kind of
response so he simply tipped his hat and quickly slipped out the
door as Langley demanded once again to know where his pa was.
Marston had no urge to be there when the boy learned that the man
was dead. He didn’t envy the news that Rose would have to break to
him.
    Rose…A beautiful woman who confused him
greatly.
    Was she that talented at hiding her lack of
morals behind wide blue eyes and polite words? Or was it possible
that she really had loved that old man he’d found on the road? No,
surely not. A woman that beautiful didn’t waste her time on an old
man. There had to have been some other reason she had married the
man and judging by the running water in that cabin and the sack of
money Langston had had—money had been it. Clearly Langston being
sent to prison had disrupted the woman’s plans.
    Marston hoisted himself up onto the gray and
pointed its nose toward town. It was late and the temptation of a
hotel bed was too strong to ignore. He’d been spending too much
time lately sleeping on bedrolls and the hard ground.
    ***
    Rose fell into bed that night exhausted
beyond belief. Langley had taken the news about Langston fairly
well but, then again, the boy had never met the man who had given
him his name. The law had come and carted Langston off to prison
for past crimes mere days after Langley