Montgomery in her mind. He wasn’t being entirely truthful with her, that was for certain. She was smart enough to recognize a hustler. A handsome one, but a hustler nonetheless. She didn’t know if any part of his story was honest but he was injured and naked. Someone must have wanted him to suffer, or possibly die. Perhaps someone he swindled. She assumed he was quite good at swindling since he told lies with a straight face. With so many younger siblings, Elizabeth thought herself immune to prevarication. Mr. Montgomery stretched that belief until it nearly snapped. If she were honest with herself, she had been taken by the man’s beauty. There weren’t many men around their little part of Texas who were easy on the eyes. Mr. Montgomery was more than that and he sure as hell wasn’t a city boy, not with those muscles. The man was used to hard work. No one had a build like that without it. She didn’t know what he was hiding yet she wanted to.
