West

"I got bored," I replied.

"That room is forbidden to you." Nell shook her head. "Come. Let me fix your hair before the wake."

I hesitated, intrigued by the idea she didn't want me in the room beckoning to me. It meant she knew something about it. With another look at the door, I returned to my bedroom, where Nell waited behind my chair.

"Why is that room forbidden?" I asked.

"It was your father's direction." She raked the brush through my hair.

I winced. I couldn't imagine her brushing the hair of baby-Josie like this. "You don't know why?"

"It was not my place to ask."

Her thoughts were … blank. The strange, brief gap fueled my curiosity. She wasn't lying, but …

I hadn't yet run into something like this. A block, one I didn't think was purposeful, similar to how my uncle's old school record player sometimes skipped.

Half an hour later, I left the house in a heavier than usual gown and black veil that reached my knees. A sleek back coffin was in the back of an elegant carriage, John's best, if I had to guess. I frowned at the final resting place for the kindly man. It wasn't anywhere near what such a beautiful soul deserved.

"Ms. Nell, Miss Josie."

I turned at Taylor's low voice, heart taking off for two reasons this time. He was dressed in a dark suit that appeared new and nothing like what he normally wore. He gazed at me, unreadable. He was sexy as sin in his worn, patched clothing and even more so in a new suit.

More people arrived as I waited, and I found myself moving towards Taylor as much because he cancelled out the memories accosting me as because of how much I admired his striking eyes and the way the suit fit him. I was attracted to him and had been since we met.

Half the town was here, to include Running Bear and several other natives who kept their distance from the others. Without Taylor's presence, I'd be in a puddle on the ground from the onslaught of memories of the people standing so close. As it was, there was something I could almost read from him for once. A fuzzy vision of grays and black, of a sky and beneath it …

Almost … I released my breath. One tiny memory was trying to reach me from his mind and failed to make it the last step.

"How was your day?" I asked. I searched his handsome face for some sign of what he hid from me and how dangerous Carter claimed him to be.