Pink Angel

Hard as she tried, Nitika Brodie couldn’t ignore the stranger seated across from her in the stage coach anymore. The man refused to look anywhere but at the back of her book. Through the veil on her hat, she was able to see his deep blue eyes boring through the cover of the alchemy journal in her hand. If he stared any harder, he might see the penny dreadful she had hidden in the folds.

Quietly, she closed the book and laid it on her lap. “Is there something I can do for you, Sir?”

Hunter Tilton nearly shivered at the icy tone of her voice. It wasn’t what he expected from the raven-haired beauty. Risking a case of frostbite, he gave the woman his best smile. He pointed to the book in her lap.

“That’s an interesting choice of reading.”

“Why, because I’m a woman?”

Hunter shook his head. This girl’s going to be tough, he thought. “No. It doesn’t have much of a plot line. Although, that piece you have tucked in the folds must be quite an attention getter. You haven’t put it down since we left Kansas City.”

She blushed a becoming color and slipped the paperback out of the book. “It’s the one habit Mother has been trying to break me of. She says a man doesn’t want a wife who reads such drivel.”

“And I suppose your mother feels that she is an authority on men,” Hunter jibed, then winced inwardly that it came out wrong.

“She is the headmistress of an all girls school. That makes her an expert on every subject.”

He noted the sarcastic tone of her voice and knew she was at odds with her mother. Then again, what twenty-something unmarried woman did get along with her mother. Since it was unlikely that anyone would accidentally buy such a book, Hunter knew the woman understood the alchemy book she carried with her.

“I suppose you went to the school as well?”

The woman laughed. “The only schooling a girl learns there is how to snag a husband. And the last thing I want is a man to complicate my life.”

“Where are you headed,” he asked wisely changing the subject.

“To Tulsa to meet my uncle then to his ranch in New Mexico. And you?”

“I’m headed to Tulsa to talk to a man about a job as foreman on his ranch.”

“You wouldn’t happen to be Hunter Tilton, would you,” she asked cocking an eyebrow.

“Yes, Ma’am I would. How did you know?”

“You’re the reason Uncle Alex sent me a stage ticket instead of a train ticket. He told me that he sent for you to be his new foreman. Uncle Alex doesn’t trust the man he has now.”

Hunter stared at the woman. She didn’t look a thing like Alexander Brodie. Alex had fair skin and blonde hair. From her dark hair and dusky skin, he knew that this woman had some Indian blood in her.

“I don’t understand,” he finally stammered.

“Uncle Alex asked me to come out to his ranch. He sent me the ticket saying that by the time I arrived in Tulsa he would be ready to ride back from selling his herd. I’m guessing he sent you a ticket with the same excuse.”

“Kind of,” he confessed, “he said we could use the time heading home to work out the details of my job.”

“He set us up, you know,” Nitika said leaning closer to him.

“Set us up for what,” Hunter wondered.

“Uncle Alex is trying to find me a man.”

“I never knew Alex to be the romantic type.”

She picked up her book again. “You’re not the first man he’s tried to marry me off to.”

Nitika feigned reading her paperback as she thought about the young man across from her. He wasn’t bad looking, even if he was cocky as a young bull. She began to think of ways to get rid of this latest suitor. As much as she loved her uncle, his romantic skills left little to be desired.