Miss Phipps and the Cattle Baron
Page 22
"Do you want me to?" he asked, obliging her wishes, this time a tad longer.
"Well... I don't know," she said, her eyes clearly focused on his lips, he noted.
"Then I'll decide for you," he said, smiling at her eagerness to get on with what he was subtly doing, deciding to make her wait a little longer. "I plan to withdraw my candidacy so I can focus on the paper. I've made an offer on a large building that can be converted into an edifice for the newspaper. We could have the place renovated, and printing equipment brought in from the east, and the paper up and running in a month."
Priscilla looked up at him, curious. "You still haven't said who the we are."
"No, I suppose I haven't," Adam said, kissing her again, long enough for her to curve her hands around his neck and open her mouth to allow him to kiss her thoroughly. But he broke the kiss to add, "Do you have any objection to my selling the ranch?"
"All I have an objection to right now, Adam, is that you keep tempting me with your kisses, then stopping, and I'm getting very frustrated."
"Good," Adam said, and kissed her again, three little pecks that brought her eyes dilating and her lips pressing together in irritation when he pulled away.
"All right, then," she said, in annoyance. "It seems that I'm supposed to be doing something other than kissing you, but since kissing you is all I have on my mind right now, you'll have to tell me out right what it is."
Adam bent his head and kissed the side of her neck, and whispered into her ear, "Don't you want to know why I decided to sell the ranch?"
Priscilla batted her big hazel eyes several times, and replied in a breathy voice, "All I want right now is for you to do what you did in the backroom, but since it seems that I have to earn your favors... All right. What made you decide to sell the ranch?"
Adam kissed her once on the lips, and said, "A stubborn, charming, thoroughly exasperating redhead who convinced me that I don't want to be party to what's going on around here, and in fact, want to be a strong voice towards stopping it—" he kissed her again, this time longer "—and a newspaper opposing the WGSA is the best way I can think how—" he moved down to kiss her neck "—but I also have this idea of incorporating a quarto-size paper that would come out once a week, something of interest to our female subscribers—" he tugged the neck of her jersey down and planted a kiss in the hollow of her throat "—with an ongoing romantic story, and editorials about women's issues, and columns where women could send in questions—" he tugged her jersey further down so he could place a kiss on the swell of her breast "—and I'd want my wife to be in charge of it."
"Your wife?" Priscilla said, dreamily, allowing her head to drop back and her chest to rise to meet his accommodating lips...
Adam stopped what he was doing and took her face between his hands so she'd have to look at him, and said, "I have no choice because the woman I happen to want by my side for the rest of my life is determined to put out such a paper, and having her in the same building as my paper is the only way I could think to keep her out of trouble."
Priscilla's face sobered, and the passion he'd seen moments before had vanished. "Then why did you smash my printer?" she asked. "You could have moved it over to your place."
"I could have," he admitted, starting with her lips again, finding them responding once more to his kisses, "but I had to stop you from what you were about to do, for your own good, and mine." He stopped what he was doing and looked at her, and in her eyes he saw his future... changeable as her frame of mind, exciting as the dark pupils expanding and contracting as she held his gaze, the distinct glint of passion shining only for him, and said, "You see how selfish I am, my love? I want your beautiful, unharmed body in my bed every night of our lives, and I can't allow anything to happen to it... or you."
"That's fine, Adam," she said, "but what about my press?"
He kissed her soundly. "I'll be setting you up with more modern equipment."
"But I don't want more modern equipment," Priscilla said between kisses. "I want what I had. With another Stanhope press and Jim as my pressman, I can put out The Town Tattler with the help of four women without any fuss, and I can make Banner Headlines and insert engravings and wood cuts. And the building I have is just fine."
"I could argue that," Adam said. "Your building's sagging from rotting floor joists, termites have invaded the walls, and the only reason the roof doesn't leak is because there's so much moss on it the rain can't get through. Besides, your women have left you."
"I know that," Priscilla clipped, "but I'm sure I can find others willing to work for me. It only takes five of us and Jim to do the job."
"Sweetheart," Adam said, "I'll get you whatever you want... fix up the old building if that's what makes you happy, and get you another old Stanhope press like the one you had. But I'll be setting The Plainsmen Review using a Mergenthaler Linotype Composing Machine, like the New York Tribune's is using. With it, one operator alone is machinist, type-setter, justifier, type-founder, and type-distributor. Setting and casting type in leaden lines are done by pressing keys on a board much like on a typewriting machine."
"You don't understand," Priscilla said, in a weary voice. "My dream was for The Town Tattler to be a newspaper written and printed by women, for women. With your machine there would be no need for any women at all."
"Of course there would be," Adam insisted. "You'd need women journalists to go out and find your stories, and to write and edit them. And you could hire a female engraver to prepare the plates for illustrations. But with the linotype machine I've ordered, you can put all your time and effort into finding stories and writing editorials. The Town Tattler will still be set up like you want, but there will be no limit to the number of subscribers you can handle. Your paper will have the capability of being distributed in every town in Wyoming and beyond. But you're the newspaper woman and I'm just the fellow who's in love with you and wants to make you happy. All I ask is that you leave the politics to me."
"I'll happily do that," Priscilla said, her fingers moving to the top button of her jersey, if that's what it takes to get you to finally pay attention to me and my needs."
"I thought I just did that," Adam said, giving her his most innocent look. But when he saw her bodice parting to reveal an expanse of soft, white skin, he said, "Don't go any further with that right now, my love, but I'll be right back..."
Before Adam went about the business of thoroughly and completely satisfying his wife-to-be, he went about the business of giving the servants the afternoon off, except for Aubrey, who was already in the process of filling the bathtub with water before preparing his bed with fresh linens. After that was done, he returned for Priscilla, who was waiting breathlessly for the deflowering to begin and scooped her up in his arms.
As he carried her up the stairs, she kissed the side of his neck and said in an eager voice filled with passion, "I thought his day would never come, Lord Whittington."
"Neither did I, Miss Phipps," Adam replied, cuddling her closely. "Neither did I."
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: The hangings of Ella Watson and Jim Averell actually took place. Four of the six men who carried out the lynchings were members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. A Grand Jury convened on August 25, 1889, but before witnesses could testify, they either died or disappeared. Gene Crowder, Ella's adopted son, disappeared, never to be seen again. Frank Buchanan also disappeared before the hearing. Ralph Cole was found dead on the day of the hearing, possibly poisoned. Dan Fitger never came forward, but later told his story to his family. With no witnesses to testify, charges were dropped against the six cattlemen, and Albert Bothwell acquired both Ella Watson and Jim Averell's homesteads. However, the deaths of Jim and Ella inspired homesteaders and small ranchers to stand up to the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, and in 1892, a full-scale range war erupted in Johnson County, which effectively ended the era of the cattle barons, allowing the homesteaders to live in peace.
BOOKS BY PATRICIA WATT
ERS
HISTORICAL ROMANCES
Colby's Child
Her Master's Touch
Tame A Wild Heart
Miss Phipps and the Cattle Baron
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES
Adversaries and Lovers
The Lady Takes A Lover
Justified Deception
Unwelcome Legacy
A Dolphin's Gift
BOOKS SOON TO BE RELEASED
The Rogue and the Renegade
The Rake and the Rebel
WHISPERING SPRINGS CHRONICLES
PATHS OF DESTINY TRILOGY
Book One: Playing With Destiny
Book Two: Playing With Fire
Book Three: Playing With Fate
SINS OF THE FATHERS TRILOGY
Book One: Bittersweet Promises
Book Two: Bittersweet Love
Book Three: Bittersweet Memories
Go to: www.patriciawattersromances.com for release dates
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE