Status Updates From Boots Under Her Bed

She wondered what he saw when he looked at her, because she saw her entire life whe she looked at him.

Oh, Zeb. I think you’re going to break my heart.

Then I’ll be here to put it back together.

The sky to the west turning the color of the barrel of his Colt, the clouds hanging low as if aching to give birth to something foul.

no smart woman puts her safety at the mercy of a man. Even a man she knows. Or loves.

I’m not trying to change the world. I only want to make a difference where I can.

Maeve is 22.

“The Scent of Roses” done.

I’ll have to check out more of Kaki Warner’s work!

He knew that finally the lonely years were over and the best part of his life had just begun.

Richard, stop before you hurt yourself.

Only you can hurt me, Rachel.

Expensive bordello with a touch of Mississippi riverboat for flash.

Spoiler!!!

Since when do they allow women to be Pinkertons?

Since Kate Warne started sleeping with Allan Pinkerton back in the fifties. … Female Detective Bureau. Since we’re so good at undercover work and luring foolish men into traps.

Laramie was the first city in the country to seat females on a jury or allow women to vote

Rachel James is a thirty-year-old widow.

I’d rather be the pursued than the pursuer. A fly has more freedom and can see the world from every angle, while the spider is confined to her dark, lonely corner.

(dinner @ a hotel, off the train)

How are your accommodations?

Quite nice. They don’t move, which I find particularly appealing.

Curiosity. It’s a woman’s prerogative, you know.

I thought changing your mind was your prerogative.

It was, until I changed my mind.

Shy? A man this well-favored? Hardly.

Rachel James muses: A man who made such a point of protecting his solitude probably had something to hide.

Richard Whitmeyer is 35.

Nat Church and the Runaway Bride done!

He might just think you are in my best interests, Nat Church.

What do you think?

I know you are.

Good. I will dedicate my life to proving you right.

What you might not know is that as much as I love you, I like you more.

The situation that you cannot extricate yourself from doesn’t immediately spring to mind. Have you ever found yourself in something like that?

Not until I met you.

You mean that first morning, when I shackled you to the bed.

No.

My manipulation of our route.

Hardly.

Say it clearly …

I love you.

The journey was a succession of peaks, not a long single climb.

Her fingers walked lightly down his chest until they came to rest at his belt. This time she drew the leather tip through the keeper, tugged once to release it from the tongue, and opened the buckle.

She wore a cotton shift and the red dressing gown. An angel in scarlet. The devil’s handmaiden in white.

If Nat had learned anything in his line of work, it was that time spent worrying about what couldn’t be helped was time he could have spent helping.

Nat Church had had the company of women, but he had never known a woman as a companion.

Felicity Ravenwood had changed that. She was his companion.

She was not merely comfortable, she was comforted. The distinction, and it was an important one, was borne home to her in a way it had never been.

She liked that he accepted her assistance without comment even though he was quite capable of managing alone. She would rather be an ally than an albatross.