The Marriage Barter. Christine Johnson
tired of this conversation. He wished Wright would either get to the point or leave him alone. He cinched the saddle. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone.”
“Now, that’s going to be tough, isn’t it? Take Widow Miller, for one.”
“Mrs. Miller?” Wyatt’s hands stilled as the pretty woman’s face floated into his head. Something about her drew him like iron to a magnet. “I said the orphans already taken could stay.”
“But she’s a widow now, and only married couples can take in an orphan. Sounds to me like you’ll be taking Sasha with you.”
Wyatt stiffened. Sasha was the whole reason he’d agreed to let the already-placed orphans stay. He couldn’t rip the little girl from Charlotte’s arms. Never in a million years. He couldn’t take Sasha, who had trusted him wholly, to Greenville to be given to another family, end up in Baxter’s orphanage or go back to New York. The whole idea made him sick.
The sheriff drove his point home. “How’s that going to feel, knowing you took a four-year-old girl from her loving mother?”
Wyatt steeled himself. Get in, do the job and get out. No emotional attachments. He couldn’t afford them if he was ever going to get to San Francisco. “That’s not my problem. I’m just upholding the law, the same as you.”
The sheriff grunted. “Guess that’s one way of looking at it.”
“Do you have another way?” Wyatt snapped.
“Like I said, only married couples can take in orphans.”
Wyatt didn’t miss the emphasis on married. The man must be out of his mind. “What do you expect me to do about that?”
Wright tapped his fingers on the stall door. “I wouldn’t know.”
“Neither would I.”
Still, Wright didn’t leave. “You could help the other families. If those kids have to go to Greenville, there’ll be more broken hearts.”
“That’s not my problem, Sheriff. I’m here to do a job. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Too bad.” The sheriff paused before backing away. “Just want you to know that I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Reed.”
Now, that sounded like a warning.
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