Courting Miss Emma, page 1
Contents
Cover
Also by Linda Broday
Title Page
Copyright
Praise for Linda Broday’s series
About the Author
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Author’s Note
Also by Linda Broday
Outlaw Mail Order Brides
THE OUTLAW’S MAIL ORDER BRIDE
SAVING THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE
THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE’S SECRET
ONCE UPON A MAIL ORDER BRIDE
Lone Star Legends
A COWBOY OF LEGEND
A COWBOY CHRISTMAS LEGEND
A MAN OF LEGEND
The Hangman’s Daughters series
WINNING MAURA’S HEART *
* available from Severn House
COURTING MISS EMMA
Linda Broday
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
First world edition published in Great Britain and the USA in 2023
by Severn House, an imprint of Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE.
This eBook edition first published in 2023 by Severn House,
an imprint of Canongate Books Ltd.
severnhouse.com
Copyright © Linda Broday, 2023
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. The right of Linda Broday to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4483-1130-9 (cased)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4483-1131-6 (e-book)
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is purely coincidental.
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Praise for Linda Broday’s series
“The exciting plot, rich setting, and superb writing will delight fans of historical romances”
Publishers Weekly Starred Review of The Heart of a Texas Cowboy
“A touching story with a background of the real west. A perfect book to warm your heart”
Jodi Thomas New York Times bestselling author on Winning Maura’s Heart
“Readers will appreciate the story’s layered mysteries, emotional depth, and believable scenes of attraction”
Publishers Weekly on To Catch a Texas Star
“With solid minor characters, exciting plots, and sharp dialogue, this lovely romance is another home run by Broday”
Publishers Weekly on The Cowboy Who Came Calling
About the author
Linda Broday is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty historical western romance novels and short stories. A third generation Texan, she finds lots of inspiration for her fictional cowboys on the West Texas short grass plains.
Writing is her passion and drives her to keep penning stories that focus heavily on children and family. In her family, she’s the storyteller, the one who records ancestral history. Linda comes from a long line of poor but prideful people and she’s happy with that. It’s her legacy.
https://lindabroday.com/
ONE
San Antonio, Texas
Spring 1868
The early afternoon sun made it seem more like summer instead of spring in the southern part of Texas. It bore down with a vengeance, sending sweat trickling down her spine, but she didn’t pay any mind to that or the thick humidity from the recent rains.
Emma Taggart had worse problems — the kind that sent her heart hammering and dried the spit in her mouth.
Where had five-year-old Amos disappeared to? She pushed up her spectacles and tried to still her racing heart. To lose a child under your care was unforgiveable, even if you had sixteen others to keep track of.
Amos was one of the least likely to run off. He seemed happy here and got along with everyone. Emma thought back to the morning. Had Amos been upset or arguing with one of the other kids? It was hard to imagine the child, who wore a constant smile and a quick laugh, being mad at anyone.
She crossed running away off her list, but had someone kidnapped the boy? Had he wandered off? Or . . . Fear raced through her. The snakes were coming out of hibernation and beginning to move around. Spring in Texas brought lots of problems their way. Emma reined in her overactive imagination.
They would find him. Everything in her believed that.
Uncle Max trotted up on his horse. ‘I’ve scoured both sides of the road and found no sign of the boy. What about Gunner? Is the dog missing?’ Max Taggart pushed back his hat and wiped his forehead. He’d pulled his long hair to the nape of his neck and tied it with a leather strip. Gray streaked the brown strands and his closely-cropped beard. Without a breeze, the April afternoon was oppressive. ‘Maybe Amos was chasing after the dog and lost his way.’
‘It’s possible, Uncle Max. No one has seen Gunner either, but you know how that dog loves to chase rabbits.’
‘Yep, he does for a fact. Still Amos could’ve run after him.’
Sister Angela emerged from the Heaven’s Door Orphanage. She was the oldest of the three French nuns who’d shown up, expecting to serve the needy. Finding the mission vacated save for Emma’s uncle, they’d settled in, believing they’d been sent for a reason.
The round woman’s lips were moving as she worked her rosary. Words of love and prayer were never far from Sister Angela’s mouth. Emma had already offered up a prayer or two, but God didn’t seem to listen to the hangman’s daughters. Even though they had nothing to do with their father’s dirty business.
Still, folks in San Antonio had asked, none too politely, that they leave town. Glad to vacate where they weren’t wanted, they had promptly hitched up a wagon and filled it with the orphans they’d been caring for following a yellow fever epidemic.
‘Did you ride over to Maura’s to see if Amos has wandered over there?’ Emma asked her uncle.
‘I did and she hadn’t seen him. She’s joined the search.’ Max’s worried gaze scoured the tree line. ‘I’ll get some water and rest a minute, then go back out.’
Seven months ago, her sister Maura had married Deputy Marshal Cutter Calhoun and expanded the orphanage’s holdings to include an adjacent section of land on the west side. Shortly after, Calhoun, as everyone called him, and Maura had moved on to it, eager to start their own family. However, Maura was still very involved with Heaven’s Door that she and Emma had started over in this abandoned Spanish mission. San Francisco de la Espada had largely sat empty once the priest left after there was no more need to protect the area tribes and other groups that had been preyed upon.
She crossed the compound towards Sister Angela. ‘Are you positive you looked everywhere inside? Even the root cellar under the floor?’
The sister swung worried eyes to her, her French accent thick. ‘Oui. Look everywhere.’
The other two, much younger nuns came out. Sister Bernadette patted Emma’s arm. ‘We will find.’
Shy Sister Anne-Marie juggled the baby in her arms, not saying a word. They’d discovered Juliette on their doorstep seven months ago and the infant had become the delight of Heaven’s Door.
Emma folded her arms across her middle. ‘Amos has to be here somewhere. He can’t simply vanish. Has anyone checked the stream?’ The children all loved to play in the water, and she harbored a secret fear that one of them would drown. Plus, heavy rain had filled it to overflowing and it was out of its banks which only multiplied her worry.
Please God, don’t let that be the case here.
>
‘Oui.’ Sister Bernadette nodded. ‘No sign. Amos sweet boy.’
Though the nun’s halting English had improved, her French accent remained thick and sometimes made words difficult to understand. The twenty-eight-year-old was tall and thin with such a love of children. In turn, they adored her with her happy smile and willingness to join in when they played their games. Emma had often found her riding a stick horse with the boys or playing dolls with the girls. Love shone from Sister Bernadette’s face but worry now replaced that.
Emma let out a heavy sigh and rubbed her eyes. They’d searched every square foot of the place—Uncle Max’s work shed, the stream, the road, the land next door, the orphanage. She was at her wit’s end. Instead of twenty-six, she felt ninety-six.
At the clip-clops of a horse, she turned to see a strawberry roan slowly coming toward them. One fact struck her — the man in the saddle sure knew how to sit a horse. She admired that in a rider. She shaded her eyes against the sun and squinted. The man wasn’t Maura’s husband. This stranger’s hair was light where Calhoun’s was dark as midnight. As he moved closer, she spied a child riding in front of the man.
Emma lifted her skirts and began running, leaping over mud puddles. She met the rider halfway.
‘Is this one yours?’ the stranger asked in a brusque tone. The saddle-brown military hat he wore sported crossed rifles on the crown with U.S. Army all in brass. The man’s hard eyes took in Emma. Everything about him seemed unyielding at first glance.
A row of freckles marching across his nose, Amos grinned down at her, the gaping space in his teeth showing. His clothes were muddy. ‘Miss Em, I been visiting.’
Emma put her hands on her hips, unsure whether to be mad or glad. ‘I see that, Amos Aaron. We’ve been searching for you everywhere. You know to stay here.’
The scowling rider lifted the tow-headed boy down into her arms. ‘I found him wandering on my property.’ A heartbeat later, he swung his gaze to her. ‘Lady, you ought to keep your eye on these kids. It’s dangerous to let them run willy-nilly about the countryside, especially with these floods.’
Lady. Emma ground her teeth. It was the tone in which he said it that burrowed under her skin. Almost as if it was something distasteful. She wished she could tell him, in no uncertain terms, where he could go but that wouldn’t be wise. He made it sound like they’d thrown open the doors and told the children to run wherever they desired.
Blowing a piece of hair out of her mouth, she counted to ten before she spoke. ‘Mister, we have sixteen little ones. Have you ever tried to keep track of that many, every second of every day? We do our best.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘By the way, who are you?’
Well, at least the frown eased, and he didn’t look like he was going to bite her head off, but he did release a long-suffering sigh that got under her skin.
‘Stone Landry’s the name. I bought the land adjacent to yours on the east. Seems we’re neighbors.’ His mouth remained in a tight line.
‘Emma Taggart.’ She thrust a hand up to him, daring him to spurn her offer of friendship. Though not ready to roll out the welcome mat yet, she was bent on forcing him to acknowledge the gesture. Her voice was stiff. ‘Thank you for bringing Amos home.’
He gripped her palm for a brief second. ‘I hope living next to you isn’t going to turn out to be a mistake. I’ll be putting a fence up but until I get that done, keep the children off my land.’
Behind her, Amos was regaling his buddies with his exciting adventure. ‘They’s these big, tall animals over there that reach way up to the sky and a little baby one.’
‘What were they, Amos?’ one asked.
‘I don’t know but they’s awfully funny looking with big humps on their backs. I ain’t never seen such before.’
This was just well and dandy. Now all the kids would want to traipse over there to look at whatever animal he was talking about. She swept that aside for now and focused on this new neighbor who’d just made her job harder.
‘Mr Landry, if you hurt any of these children, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.’ There. That made Emma feel pretty good. Her chest heaved. ‘Furthermore—’
‘What’s going on here?’ her uncle interrupted, coming towards them. ‘Are you threatening my niece?’
‘Of course not. We’re having a civil conversation.’ Stone Landry had taken a defensive tone. Good. The stiff-necked man needed to be taken down a peg.
Emma’s gaze bored into Landry’s. She smiled sweetly. ‘Uncle Max, this is our new neighbor. Amos wandered on to his property and Mr Landry brought him home.’
Uncle Max had been very protective of her since a group of the good folks in San Antonio held her down and whacked off her hair last year.
Her uncle narrowed his eyes from beneath the brim of his hat. ‘We’re obliged to you for bringing Amos home. We searched high and low for the boy.’ He paused to glance at the children, before swinging back around. ‘That’s a nice piece of land you got, Landry. We tried to buy it.’
‘Never thought I’d share a boundary with an orphanage. Should’ve been more careful.’
‘Do you have something against children?’ Emma asked quietly.
‘No, ma’am. Not exactly, Miss Taggart.’ Landry glanced at the excited kids gathered around Amos. ‘Accidents tend to happen when they’re . . . unsupervised.’
The veiled accusation sent anger washing over her anew. Emma scowled. The nerve of him. ‘Spit it out. Don’t hold back on my account.’
Uncle Max clutched her arm. ‘Let’s not make the situation worse, Emma. Military men have trouble getting along out in the real world. I take it you ain’t been out of the army long, Landry.’
‘I mustered out two months ago. I was drawn to this area when I started looking for place to put down roots.’ Landry smiled and showed Max none of the stiff disapproval he’d shown her. In fact, his tone was very amiable.
It was clear that he had a problem only with her. The rat! What did he have against women and kids?
The animated children around Amos grew louder, all clamoring to see the animal Amos was describing.
‘What are you keeping over there on your land?’ Emma asked, her eyes narrowed. ‘We have a right to know of any danger.’ When he didn’t speak, she added, ‘Surely you understand that.’
Max prodded. ‘What you do on your land is your business, Landry, but we do have a right to be aware of potential problems with our kids.’
‘I have a couple of camels that the army turned loose after having no more use for them.’ Landry leaned an arm on the pommel. ‘I rescued and fed them. Now, I guess they’re mine. I understand that kids are curious, but if I find them on my property again you won’t like the results.’
Camels? Dear Lord. Emma groaned and put her head in her hands. It would be impossible to keep the curious children off Landry’s land.
Dealing with a man who lived up to his name of Stone would take every ounce of strength she possessed.
She’d not back down. Ever. Stone Landry would see a lady with grit.
Having faced years of bigotry for being the hangman’s daughter had given her tenacity and a fearlessness that served her well in all situations.
If a fight was what Landry wanted, a fight he’d get.
TWO
The yellow bandana around Stone Landry’s throat became a tad too tight and he itched to loosen it, but the daring look in Emma Taggart’s green gaze stopped him. To let her know she’d given as good as she got wasn’t a good idea. He took her measure, unsure what to make of her passionate defense.
Stone admitted that he might’ve been a mite critical of her ability to ride herd on her bunch. Still, it was too late now to change horses in the middle of the stream.
The fire shooting from her pretty green eyes said she’d just as soon stomp him into the dirt as look at him. Auburn curls stuck to her forehead, a streak of dirt smudged her cheek, and sweat stained her underarms but beneath all that he saw a rare beauty, ready to fight the devil himself.
No doubt she’d be a stunning woman cleaned up. Having lived on forts for the last ten years, he hadn’t acquired the skill of conversing with females and had definitely failed miserably today.
