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    Enchanted
    Enchanted
    Enchanted
    Ebook106 pages1 hour

    Enchanted

    By Alexis Harrington

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    A man has finally proposed to spinster Leah Whitman, and she’s prepared to leave behind the Oregon town and the dry goods store she loves to follow him to a wilderness in need of a school teacher.

    Austin Ryder, the earthy gunsmith who rents the other half of her building, is not a man she would consider proper company for any respectable woman. Too handsome, too rugged, too much of everything, he is intriguing to Leah’s sister Bethany, who yearns for excitement and adventure beyond the dry goods store and the town limits of Lost Horse.

    Surprises await all of them in this short novel about magic, moonlight, and true love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlexis Harrington
    Release dateMar 24, 2012
    ISBN9780984811106
    Enchanted
    Author

    Alexis Harrington

    I've been a self-employed working novelist for the past thirty years. Thanks to e-publishing, my titles are for sale all over the world, and so far, in English, Spanish and German. I also make jewelry and I'm a fine needlework artist, specializing in embroidery, thread crochet, and sewing. I love to cook, read, entertain friends, decorate, and pursue various crafts. I live in the Pacific Northwest near the Columbia River, still within 10 miles of my old high school. I have one Great Pyrenees dog and an old girl I rescued from the shelter who's kind of blind and a little hard of hearing, and one cat. My chickens all went to that great coop in the sky so replacements will be in the offing after we reinforce their worldly coop here in February. My hours are kind of goofy--I'm just not a morning person and tend to be up late when the rest of the world is sleeping--and QUIET. No phones, faxes, distractions. Just the kids and me, candles burning, and the elevator music coming out of my iPod. Before I made the leap to full-time writer, I spent about 12 years working for consulting civil engineers. Riprap, anyone? How about a nice detention pond?

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    • 4/5
      Charming… What a muddle among starcrossed couples which ended well for everybody.
    • 5/5
      Such a sweet short about love and one’s direction in life

    Book preview

    Enchanted - Alexis Harrington

    ENCHANTED

    By

    ALEXIS HARRINGTON

    Copyright © 1995 by Alexis Harrington

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

    Smashwords Edition March 2012

    Smashwords License Statement

    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 reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    Table of Contents

    CHAPTER ONE | CHAPTER TWO | CHAPTER THREE | CHAPTER FOUR | CHAPTER FIVE | CHAPTER SIX | CHAPTER SEVEN

    CHAPTER ONE

    Lame Horse, Oregon

    June 1875

    HOW IN THE WORLD did we end up with all of this lace?" Leah Whitman muttered to herself. She stood in the dark storeroom of Whitman’s Dry Goods, sifting through a packing crate and pulling out reel after reel of the delicate tissue-wrapped trim. Going to the open back door where the light was better, she studied the various lists in her hands to check the items. The sun was blinding and she glanced up briefly at the silver-white sky. In the distance, withering brush peppered the yellow hills. It was high summer, and the day promised to be another scorcher. When Leah brought her gaze down to the dusty path that ran behind the buildings, she gasped. Stretched out on a long bench behind his shop next door was her tenant and neighbor, Austin Ryder.

    Good morning, Miss Whitman.

    The full sun was falling on him, and she could see that he was barefoot and wore no shirt. She quickly averted her eyes from his half-naked torso. It was all she could do to make herself respond.

    Good morning, Mr. Ryder, she answered stiffly. He always seemed to exude a smart-alecky sensuality. At least that’s what Leah thought, although she couldn’t think of anything he’d ever said or done that could be considered rude or indecent. It was just… She didn’t have much experience with men, but she was certain she knew Austin Ryder’s type: dangerous. Too earthy, too unrefined. She chanced another peek at him. His wavy, sun-streaked hair was too long; it hung to his collarbones. Except now it fanned out around his head on the planks of the bench. He was too tall, too wide at the shoulders and broad across the chest. His eyes were too blue.

    Everything about him was too much, in Leah’s opinion, even if some of the women in Lost Horse thought otherwise. Indeed, she’d heard them lament the fact that he was an unfriendly loner, and could never be drawn into conversation. She might consider that to be his only attribute.

    Nice day, he remarked, lifting his head and shading those blue eyes to stare at her.

    She nodded curtly and returned her attention to her shipping lists, although she didn’t see a single word. Mr. Ryder, it hardly seems proper for you to be out in public like...like that. She gestured in his general direction.

    He glanced around the backs of the buildings and the open prairie beyond. This isn’t exactly what I’d call public. I was back here minding my own business until you came to take a look. The tone of his voice made it sound as though she were the one in the wrong. Besides, I’d think you’d know how to break in a new pair of blue jeans.

    I beg your pardon— she began, flipping her long braid behind her back.

    Well, you sell jeans. I’d expect that some cowboy would have told you the best way to make them fit right. You have to put them on and go for a dunk in a horse trough, then lie in the sun till they’re dry.

    She took another quick peek at him, just in time to see him turn over on the bench, presumably to dry the backs of the pants. The muscles in his arms and shoulders flexed with the effort.

    I should think that would be most uncomfortable, she replied with prim disapproval. Why was she continuing this indecent conversation? she wondered.

    Oh, it’s not so bad without underwear.

    A scorching heat crept up Leah’s throat and continued on to her scalp. Without another word, she made a hasty retreat to the dim storeroom. Where was the aloofness he’d been accused of? Obviously, the man did not take life very seriously if he could loll around, wasting time on such a trivial task. To have a gunsmith, of all people, working next door another four years…Why her father had leased the space to Ryder was beyond her. She could only attribute such flawed judgment to her father’s failing health.

    No more than two years earlier, she and Daddy had discussed expanding the dry goods store into the space next door. Only a few months were left on the apothecary’s lease and then, he’d told Daddy, he was going back to Jefferson City to retire. Whitman’s certainly needed the room and Leah had made detailed mental plans for the new space. She’d even decided to give the ladies of Lost Horse a corner of their own, away from the roughness of horse harness and lamp oil. Her sister had wanted to expand their stock of vanity sets and perfumed soap. But Leah knew her customers; they worked hard and were too busy for gewgaws. They needed things to make their lives easier.

    Then Austin Ryder had arrived in town. The next thing she knew, the display cases she’d pictured filled with sewing boxes and shiny scissors instead held blued pistols and long-barreled rifles. After her father died, Leah gave up her teaching job at the school to run the store. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to deal with Ryder herself much longer. It would become her sister Bethany’s job. And Bethany, heaven help her, shared the sighing, moony opinion of those other women who thought he was attractive.

    Leah forced her thoughts back to the papers in her hand. What had she been looking for? Oh, yes, there it was on the shipping list: one hundred yards of three-inch French lace. She knew she hadn’t ordered it. Lost Horse was surrounded by farms and ranches. The customers of Whitman’s Dry Goods had no practical use for an item like that. They needed plain fabrics, serviceable housewares, seeds, nails, sturdy shoes and clothes. Even the wedding gown she was making for herself didn’t have this kind of decoration. If she hadn’t ordered the lace…

    Bethany, she called. Would you come here, please?

    A moment later, Bethany appeared in the doorway. Although twenty-two, Bethany’s little sister had never lost the bouncing, enthusiastic energy that she’d had as a girl. Her eyes fell upon the wooden reels Leah held up, excelsior trailing from them like cobwebs.

    Oh, Leah, the lace came…isn’t it beautiful? She signed, delight suffusing her features. With her dark blond hair and soft brown eyes, she had a delicate, feminine beauty, like spring wildflowers. Leah’s own coloring was more vivid, but she lacked her younger sister’s luminous sparkle. As their father had pointed out, nature had saved the best for his last child.

    Did you order this? I was hoping it was a mistake, Leah said, putting the spools back into the crate. You know we won’t be able to sell this to anyone.

    Bethany walked into the storeroom, plucked one of the reels from the crate, and unwound a length of the elegant trim. Yes we will, she replied. "Mr. Gillespie vowed this would catch the eye of every lady who comes in. He said they’d all want it to make pretty dresses and ornaments for their hair—"

    Homer Gillespie? When was he here? Homer was a smooth-talking traveling peddler who could probably, if he put his mind to it, sell a salt lick to a man dying of thirst. He’d been working this route for less than a year. It was amazing the number of salesmen and agents who

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