The Sheriff and the Innocent Housekeeper
by
Lynda Chance
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When Becky Hamilton is orphaned at the tender age of fourteen, she comes to live with her aunt in Waco and begins work cooking and cleaning for the town’s brooding young sheriff. Mesmerized immediately with his raw masculinity and sinewy strength, her fascination turns to love as the years pass and his honest integrity is revealed.
Jake Cooper manages to ignore his pretty, little orphaned housekeeper for three long years. But when she begins a subtle metamorphosis from girl to woman, he can’t control his consuming need for her any longer. It has been his job to protect the town all these years, but who will protect her from him?
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KINDLE EDITION
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
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The Sheriff and the Innocent Housekeeper
Copyright © 2011 by Lynda Chance
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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Dedication
To Clayton,
Thanks for not caring about my housekeeping skills. Or the lack thereof.
Chapter One
Waco, Texas 1872
Becky Hamilton clutched the package of white linen to her chest as she hurried away from her aunt's boardinghouse and tried to get back to her job at the sheriff's house before the rainstorm came. She could smell the hint of it in the air, and the grumble coming up from the south sounded fierce. She was running late today, because her aunt was feeling poorly this morning and Becky had helped her prepare breakfast for the five paying guests they had this week.
As she hurried along the boardwalk, the things she needed to do today were paramount in her mind. The sheriff loved roast and potatoes, and Becky knew exactly how long it would take to get the meat as tender as he liked it. She also needed to find the time to apply the intricate stitching to the white linen she was protecting against her chest from the rain. Mrs. Sloan was impressed with Becky's needlework, and had begun paying her to help with the finishing touches to the fine blouses that would be put up for sale at the mercantile.
Becky desperately needed the extra money. The amount she earned housekeeping for the sheriff was only pin money really, and she needed a new avenue of income. It seemed that she worried about money constantly these days, ever since finding out that her Aunt Beth was having financial problems. Oh, it was true that her aunt would never tell her what was going on, but she knew that Aunt Beth needed Becky's bedroom to let to customers. The missed income from that room had put a strain on the older woman's already meager earnings. Becky had used the bedroom for three full years now, ever since she had moved to Texas from Boston. When her parents had died, her aunt had rescued her from God only knew what, and brought her to live with her in Texas. She was thankful to the sweet woman every day.
But now, at seventeen, Becky was old enough to start thinking about taking the burden from her aunt. And she had a way . It wasn't ideal, far from it, but she did have an option for moving out of her aunt's boardinghouse. Many girls her age were already married, and Becky knew it would be expected of her, too. The problem was that the wrong man kept asking her to marry him. Not that he wasn't a good catch, because truly, he was. Kyle Bolton was from a good family, he was nice and kind and even good-looking. But Becky felt a slight nauseous feeling every time he picked up
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