the stars and back, but such intimacy had been forbidden by her own bargain.
“What was the marshal pestering you about?”
“Seems like he noticed that Pendragon hasn’t been robbed since we were married.”
“We should kiss.” She closed her eyes and tried to close her heart, but the little traitor pounded hard against her ribs.
She waited. The only thing to brush her mouth was hay dust being stirred up by the other dancers. She opened her eyes to see Matt frowning at her. A streak of brown-sugar hair cut across his forehead.
“Darlin’, there’s something else the marshal had to say.”
“About us?” Their newlywed act had worked so far. Even she almost believed they were in love.
“You won’t like it, even though he has a point.” Matt cleared his throat. “He thinks you ought to sell to Pendragon when I’m dead.”
“But you won’t be—” He shushed her with two fingers to her lips.
“I won’t be dead,” he whispered. “But I will be gone. Emma, darlin’, you will need a husband.”
Emma stopped dancing. Her skirt spun about Matt’s legs like a ribbon on a maypole. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Billy thinks that Woodrow Vance would be a fine pick.” He closed his eyes. No wonder he couldn’t look at her after spouting such nonsense. “But please, Emma, don’t start courting him until I’m gone.”
It was time for Matt to sing. He leaped onto the stage without a backward glance.
Courting! He thought she was courting! Why, Woody had been all but forced upon her all night long.
Even now the eager farmer leaned against the barn door, grinning and looking more than pleased to see her, once more, on her own.
Chapter Nine
If Billy and Matt wanted courting, let them have a taste of it. No Suede men, no matter how dear they were to her, would decide her future.
She stepped toward the barn door, trying not to cringe at the sight of Woody coming toward her in a near gallop across the barn.
Emma steadied the grin on her lips when Woody swooped her up in a bone-jarring two-step that spun her close enough to Matt that her skirt brushed the crate he stood upon.
She laughed out loud as though Woody had said something clever; she tossed her hair, she lifted her chin. She looked Woody in the eye, holding his gaze when she wanted to duck her head to avoid watching the sweat bead up on his forehead.
With the next spin past Matt’s crate, Emma dared a glance up at him. A red flush crept up his neck, but his song didn’t waver.
Woody stepped on her toe. Emma closed her eyes and bit her lip to keep from crying out.
When the pain receded, her chest swelled in a relieved sigh. She opened her eyes to see a moist grin spread over Woody’s face. She hadn’t intended her heaving bosom to be a seduction, but her partner’s palms grew damp.
Woody bounced her this way and that. The soles of her shoes grew warm with hopping and twirling to one end of the barn, then skipping and bounding to the other.
Coming once more toward Matt, she glanced up. The red blush had darkened and spread over his face. The beginnings of a scowl tightened his lips, but he kept up his lively tune.
Lord help her, she didn’t know if showing Matt how wrong he had been was worth the pain. Another turn about the barn might do her in.
In a moment she would have to set Woody straight. His hand had begun to creep up her ribs in ill-considered boldness.
On the next pass by Matt, Woody slowed a bit.
“Why, Mr. Vance, you dance like a dream,” Emma had time to say. Did Matt hear the sigh that was truly a gasp for breath? “I could go on all night long.”
“In time, Mrs. Suede,” Woody said with a hiccup. “I’d be pleased to make all your dreams come true.”
Emma heard Matt skip a word, pick it up and then lose it again.
The instant they twirled into a shadowy corner, Woody’s fingers twitched upward, too close to where they had no right to be.
She swatted his hand. The slap and his grunt of surprise were muffled by a hoot on Willie’s jug.
His boot landed hard on her wounded toe.
Pain buckled her knees, but Woody caught her around her waist. At last he had the good sense to look mortified. Words of apology bumbled about in his mouth, but he could seem to get only one or two of them out.