Devil's Kin
Page 24
“You guess you were gonna come by?” She kept her face serious until she could no longer manage a stern expression. “Come on. You can at least walk me back to my quarters.”
It was a long walk from the stables to the officers’ quarters and the residence of Kathleen and her father. When Jordan commented as much, Kathleen replied, “I wanted to see that you were all right.” She gave him a stern look again as she walked along beside him. “You would probably have just ridden off across the prairie somewhere without a word to anyone.”
He could not argue the point because he knew that was probably what he would have done. Now, as they walked past the bachelor officers’ quarters, he realized that he was extremely uncomfortable in the young girl’s presence. And he was afraid the pretty sky blue eyes that gazed so earnestly up at him were going to embed themselves in his mind. He did not want that to happen. With Sarah and Jonah so recently gone, he could not allow himself to think of anyone else. They walked on in silence for a few moments.
“This is where I live,” she said, breaking the silence. She turned to face him. “Papa says winter is a harsh time to head up into the mountains.”
“Everybody keeps tellin’ me that.”
“Maybe you should just wait until spring.”
“I’m thinkin’ about it.”
She smiled sweetly, then turned and walked up the steps, leaving a confused Jordan Gray to grapple with his thoughts. When the door closed behind her, he turned to step up in the saddle. The girl troubled him, and he wasn’t quite sure why. Maybe it was because she reminded him so much of Sarah. That thought caused him to close his eyes in order to form the vision of his late wife’s face in his mind. She seemed to be smiling.