< previous page page_211 next page >

Page 211
flopped in a big scowl. "You should not work so hard, mademoiselle. You must recover from your ordeal, grow strong."
"Oh, I'm very strong," she said. She stepped out the door, wishing she had shoes other than the moccasins them Indians had insisted that she wear. The Indians, and what they'd done . . . she would not think of them now. Besides, at least she was shod, which was better than she'd been back in the home country. She walked up to René, made a fist and flexed her arm right in front of that funny face of his. "Feel my muscle?"
He blushed. She couldn't remember if she'd ever seen a man do such a thing, and it made her feel as warm and mushy as fresh buttered porridge inside. She'd an urge to hug him, to squeeze him like she would an orphan childthough not them nasty guttersnipes that roved the streets of London.
"Never mind," she said. "Now, don't you worry about me. I'll rest when I need to, but right now we've an inn to run. You have dinner cooking yet?"
He shook his head. She wanted more than anything to laugh aloud at the confusion in his eyes. Cute man. "I'll do it," she said. "You haven't lived till you've tasted my potato soup. It's a special English receipt; you Frenchies don't have anything like it, and that's why you aren't as long-lasting under the covers as a good Englishman."
"An Englishman as puissant as a Frenchman? Never!" He'd drawn himself up to his full height, but he wasn't much taller than she. A broad, hefty man he was, thoughthick at the chest, muscled in the legs as could be seen by the straining of his leather pants. It strained in the front, too. . . .
Holly would have fun teasing this one, she would. But not a lot. He was a nice man who'd worried about her health. She liked this René, but she didn't dare like him over much. Once she'd thought things through, decided on a direction for her life now that Mack . . . well, she'd be on her way again soon to settle in the west.
There was no room in her life for a sweet, sassy Frenchman.

 
< previous page page_211 next page >