Then and Now

Special Smashwords Edition

Then and Now

Book 1: In a Stew

&

Book 2: Secrets in the Snow

Lois Carroll

Published by

Satin Romance

An Imprint of Melange Books, LLC

White Bear Lake, MN 55110

www.satinromance.com

THEN AND NOW

IN A STEW, Copyright 2017 LOIS CARROLL

SECRETS IN THE SNOW, Copyright 2017 LOIS CARROLL

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should go to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-68046-479-5

Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States of America.

Cover Design by CAROLINE ANDRUS

To DFS for the decades of your support and encouragement.

BOOK 1: IN A STEW

by Lois Carroll

Falling in love would be as easy as eating a bowl of her yummy stew.

Catrine Powell and her younger sister were forced to leave their Utah home after their overbearing sheriff father was killed. Needing to find a job, they take a stagecoach to a town near where the new railroad is being built across Arizona Territory. Though startled by her natural beauty, Sheriff Brett Barton offers her a job running a restaurant he owns that closed when the cook was shot. This would be a dream come true for Catrine, but will he leave her alone or try to run her life like her father? Could they work together with sparks flying between them? Falling in love would be as easy as eating a bowl of her yummy stew.

BOOK 2: SECRETS IN THE SNOW

By Lois Carroll

The sole owner of a wedding attire shop and budding designer of beautiful wedding dresses, Cynthia is a virgin at age 35 with romantic dreams about finding the right man to make her dreams come true. Her friend Anne is about to get married. Anne's fiance's older brother, Michael, 37, is strongly opposed to the match and will do anything to stop the marriage, including proposing to Anne himself. Mistaking Cynthia for Anne on their first meeting, Michael offers to marry her in order to save his brother from what he considers a very bad decision. Snowbound with the handsome big-city businessman for the long weekend, lonely Cynthia takes a big chance that changes everything. After that weekend, they each have secrets in the snow.

Table of Contents

BOOK 1: IN A STEW & BOOK 2: SECRETS IN THE SNOW

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

SECRETS IN THE SNOW

About the Author

Previews

IN A STEW

Lois Carroll

Chapter One

A harsh End of the line. Everybody out when the coach stops! woke Catrine Powell, Sissy, her ten-year-old sister, and the four men riding with them in the dusty stagecoach. A long day with few stops had meant a nonstop ache from the hard bench seats for them all.

‘Bout time, one of the men groused as he tried to stretch in the confined space.

I’m glad we’re here. I was getting awful tired of riding on this seat, Sissy confessed with a yawn.

Catrine smiled down at her sitting close at her side. Me too, Sissy, she replied. We’ll find a place to stay so we can sleep in a real bed tonight.

Why’d we have to leave home anyway? Sissy whined.

We’ve already talked about this, Catrine replied to close the subject. She had already answered her question several times and didn’t want to discuss it again so close to strangers. Instead, she looked out the window at the sandy desert scenery. Sissy sighed as she began fiddling with the ribbon on the front of her dress.

They both knew that they’d had to leave Utah after their father was shot. He’d been the sheriff and died trying to stop a robbery. A widower, he had lived with his daughters in a small house behind the jail. But the house went to the next man the town hired as sheriff. The late sheriff’s daughters had little time to move out beyond seeing that their father got a proper burial.

For two years before his death, Catrine had a job as a waitress at a town’s restaurant, but she didn’t command a high enough wage for the two of them to live on there if she had to pay rent. After the burial and buying the coach tickets, she had little of any savings left.

Yes, she had been offered a chance to stay in town. Widower Martin asked her to marry him at the funeral, but she couldn’t. He had five children by his first wife who died in childbirth along with the sixth. Stepping into that big family was not what she wanted. She wanted to create her own future. Her father had always told her what to do and where to go. He’d even had to approve her working at the restaurant in town before he would let her apply. He ran her life and Sissy’s down to the smallest detail like he ran the town. It took strangers trying to rob the bank to end his reign.

Wanting to leave all those unpleasant memories behind and find a better life for them both, Catrine had packed their belongings worth keeping. The very next day they climbed on the coach heading south. The railroad was laying new track across the Arizona Territory. She’d heard about the rough rail camps and the women who worked there for the pleasure of the men. But there had to be restaurants and jobs available there—even for a lady. She was counting on it.

At the stop the previous evening, the driver told them that the railroad camp was less than a mile south of B-town, their next stop. The four men riding the coach with the sisters hooted happily at the news and grinned broadly.

They still hiring? one man asked the driver.

Far as I know. They got a ways to go to finish with them tracks.

Now that the coach had stopped at that small town closest to the railroad camp, the men climbed out with no thought that the ladies might go first. Nor did they offer to help them down from the high step. They caught their saddlebags when the driver threw them down from the top of the stagecoach and strode on down the street toward the noisy bar.

Catrine and Sissy climbed down holding on to the doorframe and waited until the driver jumped down with their smaller cases. He stood on the step then and reached for the larger ones still on top. They were glad he hadn’t thrown them down. That might have smashed them open and they had no money to use to buy replacements.

Looking at the position of the sun, Catrine remembered it was late afternoon already. She’d have to find them a place where they could afford to stay without delay.

Here you are, ladies, the driver said politely as he set the last case on the ground.

How can we get to the rail town from here in the morning? Catrine asked.

The driver scratched at his scrawny beard. You sure you want to go there? I mean, ah…you seem like real ladies and not the type who should go down there.

She smiled. Thank you for your concern, but I’m looking for a job as a waitress like I had in Utah. I figure they must have places where the men eat. I’m hoping I can find a decent job there to my liking.

And she’s a good cook too, Sissy offered brightly. The restaurant where she worked sure liked her beef stew.

But the driver shook his head. Well, if you was my daughter, I’d want you to find a job here in B-town. If you go down to the rail camp, it’s all men and…well, just be careful, will ya? He frowned at Sissy. And you stay close to your sister. Young girls ain’t safe down there at all so don’t go wandering off alone, ya hear?

Before Sissy could reply, a man came up behind Catrine and slowly circled her. His dark eyes rudely examined nearly every inch of her person. A tall man dressed like most cowboys in dirty work clothes, he pushed the sweat-soaked hat back on his head so he could lean even closer for a better look. She nearly gagged from his whiskey breath when he stood facing her with his head inches from her face. Strands of his dirty dark hair fell over his forehead. Long strands in the back rested on his shoulders. Seeing enough to repulse her, Catrine stepped back.

Well, well, what do we have here? He turned from his inspection of Catrine and noticed Sissy. He straightened and frowned. Ain’t you too young to be here?

Sissy moved closer to Catrine and grabbed a handful of her skirt. Catrine put her arm around her shoulder to reassure her.

I beg your pardon, sir, Catrine dared before the driver interrupted her.

You’d better back off, Sheriff, he said. These ladies ain’t what you’re thinking they is. He cackled a laugh and continued his duties with the stagecoach.

The rude man confronting Catrine frowned but stepped back a bit, much to the sisters’ relief. And then just what might you be?

Catrine noticed the star then, hanging crooked from his vest. A sheriff? A disgusting performance for a sheriff, she thought. She remembered that her father was domineering, but he was always dressed neatly in clean clothes that she had kept laundered for him. His star always hung straight on his vest. And what’s more, she had never heard that he had been rude to a lady, though she had to admit that was probably because no lady ever challenged him.

Facing this sheriff, Catrine was in no position to be meek.

Not that it’s any of your business, Sheriff, but I’m here looking for a job and a place where my sister and I can live, she got in using a quickly drawn breath. She dragged in another and straightened her spine. She could do this. She had to do this. If you really are the sheriff here, perhaps you can tell me where to inquire.

His eyes widened with a shocked expression. Are you crazy, lady? the man asked. Hell, you come here to a town near a railroad camp with a young girl tagging along and you expect to find work that doesn’t involve being on your back?

Catrine gasped as heat rose up her neck to fill her cheeks. With her hand still on Sissy’s shoulder, she pulled her sister closer and hoped she wouldn’t ask later what the sheriff had meant. How dare you be so rude to ladies? Have you no respect? Her anger made her voice firm. If you can’t help me, then please get out of our way. I’ll find someone in town who can.

She turned her back on him and reached to pick up their valises, but his words stopped her.

Just hold on, sister. Don’t get your petticoat all in a damn tangle.

She spun around to give him another talking to for his behavior, but she didn’t get the chance. The driver, who had checked that nothing had been left in the coach by a passenger, stepped down and slammed the door. What about the Chinaman’s place? he asked the sheriff. She’d be safe now working there.

She can’t get a job there. The restaurant closed when he was shot last month, the sheriff reminded him with no patience in his slurred tone.

The driver shrugged. Her little sister said she could cook. Let her open it again. You sure need a restaurant in this town. I’m tired of not getting a good meal at this stop.

Catrine was reaching the end of her patience. Will you two please stop discussing me as if I’m not here and tell me what you’re talking about? Catrine requested firmly, looking from the driver back to the sheriff.

The sheriff stared at her a few moments. Suddenly he grinned and took his hat in hand as he bowed like an actor at the end of his performance. I beg your pardon, Ma’am. Won’t you please follow me? he said in a mocking tone before he straightened and put one hand on a hip. I’ll show you what the hell we’re talking about.

He turned and walked around the back of the stagecoach and headed across the dusty road. Cat and Sissy looked at the driver for assurances that they would be safe.

He waved them on and said, Go on. Follow him. He’s rough around the edges and a little drunk tonight, but he’s been good for this town. No one dares make trouble now. B-town never could have gotten as big as it did without his help to keep them railroad men in line. He shrugged. He’s determined to keep the town safe for the rest of the folks coming to live here now.

Needing no more encouragement than his words and the possibility of finding a job, Catrine and Sissy picked up their bags with some difficulty and hurried after the sheriff as quickly as they could manage.

It was all Sheriff Brett Barton could do to turn his back to her. But if he hadn’t, he would have wrapped his arms around her and kissed the living daylights out of her. Damn. He’d had too much to drink tonight. He snorted a laugh. But then he did most nights. There wasn’t much else that he wanted to do in B-town.

Hell, a good long kiss from him might be just what the proper lady needed to loosen her up a bit. Her spine was so straight that he thought she might break it if she leaned over.

But he had to admit that after seeing nothing but painted faces and dyed hair on most of the women since he’d both created and filled the position as sheriff in this town, seeing her golden blonde hair and pale face with no more adornment than a few freckles from the sun was nearly shocking. The woman was beautiful—beautiful like an angel. Her sister was going to be a beauty too.

Not hearing them following behind him, he stopped and turned around to see them several yards behind, struggling with their cases. He swore under his breath and strode back to them. Trying not to look at the woman’s face, he took the larger two cases from her and resumed his walk. He left them to manage the smaller ones.

It’s just at the end of this block, he said over his shoulder.

Catrine and her sister picked up the remaining cases and hurried to keep up with his long-legged stride. He certainly didn’t walk at any pace that would accommodate their slower speed.

A wood-frame building with a sign saying Restaurant sat at the corner that they were approaching. It had many small windows like a checkerboard across the front like some of the other stores as well as the bar down the street. Because it was on the corner, there were more windows like them on the side too. Cat thought all the glass would make a nice bright dining room in the Territory sunlight.

The front door was padlocked with three locks. Catrine frowned and wondered what was so valuable inside that it required three. Or was this town so rough that any business needed that many? Judging by the appearance of the sheriff, it might be.

The sheriff dropped the cases he was carrying at the door and unlocked the locks with keys from a ring of several from his pocket. After opening the door, he left the locks hanging from the rings on the doorframe. He grabbed the large cases before he stepped inside and dropped them again just inside the door.

Catrine winced and hoped the cases would hold together with his treatment of them. She had packed them full to the point that they were ready to burst. She and her sister followed him inside a few steps and stopped in order to much more gently set down the cases they had carried before they looked around.

All these tables are probably all right, but some of the chairs got smashed in the fight, he told them. Don’t worry. The guy who runs the funeral parlor just down the street also sells furniture that he makes. He can sell you more chairs to match ’cause he made these.

There was a fight in here? Catrine asked. That might explain the two frying pans she saw lying on the floor against one wall, but it did not bode well for working here. She wanted to feel safe without feeling the kind of danger that killed her father or the former cook here. Hadn’t the stage driver said the sheriff kept the town safe?

Yeah, there was a big fight on the night the Chinaman was killed, he said with a grin. "A hell of a fight, but I don’t know exactly what started it. Maybe somebody didn’t like his food or thought he charged too much. Hell, the railroad men