"You take care now. I'll be in tomorrow morning. You make sure my piece
goes on the front page."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Tess left the office and walked slowly down the street toward Mr.
Barrymon~'s office.
What had she gotten?
She'd wanted a hired gun. And she'd gotten one. She railed against Jamie
for leaving the ranch when he'd been finding out what he could--and
shooting it out with some of yon Heusen's toughs at the same time.
And gaining quite a reputation as he did so. She shivered suddenly.
She'd seen him shoot the snake. She'd known that he was fast and good.
She shouldn't have been surprised to hear that he had knocked down four
of yon Hensen's men in a matter of seconds. Then he'd humiliated yon
Heusen at the ranch. Von Heusen was going to be mad, and he was going to
be thirsting for blood. Her blood.
But she'd known she had to fight him. And she had Jamie. She'd wanted
the gun.
And she'd wanted the man.
And now she had both.
She tightened her fingers around the drawstring of her little purse and
stopped walking to lean against a wooden wall as a fierce trembling
swelled within her. hard and inhaled deeply as she remembered the
previous night.
She couldn't have been so brazen. Or so wanton. or so decadent. or so
searingly intimate.
But she had been. He had warned her away. He had given her every
opportunity. He had told her that she should be with a man who cared. He
implied that he didn't care. Surely that wasn't true. He liked her.
There were about her he loved.
But it didn't mean anything. That was the rub. It mean anything at all.
She was just a woman, a warming body. Just like Eliza. She had thrown
herself at him.
And one day he'd turn away from her, just as he had turned from Eliza.
She inhaled, exhaled, then forced herself to walk. She must not let it
happen again. Even if it had been more than she had ever dreamed. She'd
never imagined that making love could be so erotic, so wonderful. She'd
never imagined that it was possible to feel so excited,- so cherished,
so ~ explosive and so sated. She'd never imagined that a man's hands
could do what his had done, or that a man's kiss could awaken everything
in her body, or that a man could 'join with a woman so completely and
bring about such splendor.
It could quickly become addictive. But he didn't intend to stay. Even if
he bought her land and settled down, he had made it clear that he didn't
intend to stay with her.
She had taken care to sound independent, too. And now. Now she wanted to
lie down beside him again. She wanted ~to laugh and feel his touch and
explore his shoulders and his chest and his long, muscled legs and .
everything. Even the parts of the body that she couldn't quite bring
herself to name aloud. She had wanted him. never deny that. But now she
was afraid of the long that seemed to have escalated since she had known
his touch.
Having him hadn't quenched the desire at all.
It had set it all afire. She was in front of the lawyer's office. She
set her hand knob and twisted it and walked in. Mr. Barrymo~e finishing
copying out a second set of papers. Jamie directed him as to what he
should write.
timing," Jamie said, applauding her.
"We need ~ " Shouldn't I read the documents?"
"Be my guest."
Tess took the papers from Mr. Barrymore, but she couldn't quite manage
to read. She pretended to, skimming the words. They all swam before her.
"We need a witness," Mr. Barrymore said. "No problem," Jamie told him.
He stepped outside. A moment later, he was back with Doe. He signed one
set of papers, then Mr. Barrymore and Doe signed as witnesses. Then Tess
signed, not having the least idea of what was really on the papers, and
her signature was witnessed, too.
"That's that, then!" Jamie said, pleased. He counted out gold coins to
Mr. Barrymore, who seemed very pleased. So much was being done in paper
currency lately. "Let's go, Tess," Jamie said.
"Good day, Mr. Barrymore, Doe. Thank you," she told the lawyer. But
Barrymore and Doe were hardly able to respond before Jamie had his hand
When they reached the wooden sidewalk, she wrenched her hand free.
"Jamie, I just might not be ready to head home."
"We're not heading home," he told her.
"We're going to talk."
"What if I had something to do?" she demanded. "It would have to wait."
"It wouldn't!"
"Today, Tess," he insisted, "it would." The brim of his hat was pulled
low over his eyes, hands were firmly on his hips.
"Now, listen" -- "You listen," he told her, wagging a finger beneath
nose.
"I'm not going to live like this. We're straighten out the
relationship."
"There is no" -- "The hell there isn't. Now get in the wagon, or I'll
put you in it."
"You wouldn't" -- He took a step toward her. Before she knew it she was
off her feet, then she was sitting in the wagon. She swung around, but
he was beside her in an instant, and the reins were in his hands, and he
was clucking to-the thoroughbred that pulled the small conveyance.
Tess crossed her arms over her chest, staring straight ahead.
"You are intolerable!" she told him.
"I just don't like a bunch of bull, that's all."
"Bull" -- "The way you're acting."
"I'm not acting" -- "I hope to hell you are."
"I don't know what you're talking about." They were already out of town.
He was silent for a moment.
The horse picked up its gait and it seemed they were flying down the
road.
Then, suddenly, Jamie reined in. The horse slowed and Jamie hooked the
reins around the brake. He jumped down and came around the wagon for
Tess.
"What?" she demanded, staring down at him. He reached up, placed his
hands around her waist and lifted her down. When she was on the ground,
his hands still her. His eyes were like smoke, and his jaw was She knew
that he did, indeed, intend to have things She opened her mouth, wanting
to protest again, want- to deny and denounce him and run away. But she
was because that wasn't what she wanted at all. She to trust him. She
wanted to lean against him.
And, of all, she wanted to feel his lips upon hers again, as as the sun,
as rich as the earth. But she didn't want to him so badly. she didn't
want to make a fool of her- like Eliza.
Because, like Eliza, she was falling in love with him.
"Come on," he told her.
"Where?" she protested.
"Down by the water."
The road ran along the river. He held her hand and led her through the
trees until they came to a little copse. They were alone with the sounds
of the rippling waters, with the occasional call of a bird, the soft
rustle of a tree. He drew her close, and when she stiffened, he drew her
even closer.
"What is this?" he demanded.
She moistened her lips, staring at his eyes, then at his mout
h.
"What is--what?" she asked.
"Miss. Stuart, I gave you a chance last night. Hell, I gave you several
chances last night. You wanted to stay."
"You wanted to make love."
"I ... yes," she whispered.
"And now you're running. Why?"
"I'm' not!" she protested.
"It's just that" -- "I can't do it, Tess. I can't live with it if you
think you can blow hot and cold in a matter of hours."
"Then what?"
"I'm just trying to give you ... space!"
She lowered her head. She desperately wanted to put her~ shoulder
against his shirt. She breathed in, smelling clean male scent of him,
and she felt a furious pulse flight at her throat, in her heart, in her
veins. He slid fingers into her hair at the sides of her head and lifted
face. He stared, and she tried to return his gaze tering. But then his
hand came to her breast. She muted something softly, then she did lean
against him.
sky seemed dazzling, but not so dazzling as the man. "Tess, Tess!" he
whispered to her, holding her close.
frightening, it's damned terrifying. You're coming so much to me."
His arms were around her. She parted her lips and moistened them with
her tongue again. His parted and moved upon hers, and they melded and
tasted until finally he drew his lips away. Then they sank down together
upon a bed of leaves, with the river just beyond them. Their arms locked
together and they kept kissing, tasting one another, and it ~ ~eemed
that the sound of the rushing water grew louder and louder.
Tess found that she was pressed into the leaves. His hands were upon
her.
She set her palms against his cheek, and desire took flight within her
as she felt the planes and textures , of his face. She thought
confusedly that she loved the way he looked with his smoke-dark eyes and
sandy, disheveled hair, with the rough touch and the rugged angles and
lines of his face, the twist of his jaw. She wrapped her arms around
him, sliding her fingers through the hair at his nape, drawing him to
her for another kiss. The earth beneath her began to heat. She ran her
fingers over the opening of his ~ahirt. She felt the ripple of muscle
with her fingertips. She teased at his buttons until his shirt opened,
until she could reach her hands inside and slide her nails over his
naked ~t~h and feel the trembling that she evoked.
him groan and she felt his touch upon the tiny of her dress, then she
felt herself being freed from Her slip and her chemise remained, but
they were the feel of his searing kiss upon her body and Soon her slip
was wound beneath her, and she felt earth with her bare flesh. His hard
and driving man teased her for a split second, then drove within her a
startling, shattering thrust that swept her breath The sun was above
him. She heard curious cries, then re- they came from her and that she
was clinging to arching, writhing. meeting him, welcoming him, him. She
felt the slap of his body against hers, and earthy and real. She felt
the sun upon his naked flesh, and that, too, was real. And she felt
more. the certain heat, the glow of the sun, which heightened every
swift pleasure, a touch of the blue, cloudy sky. She was damp, and so
aware of him within her, and aware of the rising ecstasy inside her
body. Coiling tighter and tighter until she was crying out again, then
gasping in a soft shriek as something came upon her so strong and sweet
and volatile that it rent the whole of her with shivers, while something
like hot nectar seemed to swamp her body. She couldn't move. She could
scarcely breathe, and it seemed that the world went dark before the sun
burst upon her again. And just as it did, he thrust hard within her and
stayed and stared at her, the whole of his face tense and haunting and
taut with passion. Then he exploded within her, and thrust and thrust
again. and lay down beside her, wrapping her in his arms.
The sun was still above them.
"I'm afraid of you," Tess admitted.
He had been flat on the earth. He rose up on an elbow. "What?"
"I'm afraid of caring too much."
He touched her cheek.
"We're all afraid of caring too much ."
"I don't believe you're afraid of anything." He smiled, a crooked,
rueful smile.
"Yes, I am. I'n afraid of losing you right now."
"Right now," she repeated.
"But what ... what about tomorrow, Jamie?
That's what frightens me."
"What do you mean?"
She shook her head. She rolled away from him, rising to her feet,
straightening her slip and dusting bits of leaf and dirt and grass from
it.
She smiled at him, then hurried toward the water.
He must have stripped off the remnants of his for when he came up behind
her, he was stark naked.
placed his hands around her waist and kissed her nape.
177 he whispered in her ear, so softly that she wasn't sure she heard
him.
"Tomorrow? I'm not sure. But I think that I'm falling in love with you,
Tess."
He left her, walking into the river, then ducking beneath the surface
and swimming into the center of it. He rose, let out a cry and shivered.
"It's damned cold for summer!" he called out to her.
Tess stooped and threw water over her face. She watched as Jamie dove
beneath the surface again.
A twig snapped suddenly behind her. She leaped up, spinning around.
There were four of them. The so-called Indians. They were clothed in
bronze paint and breech clouts
"Jamie!"
she whispered.
But of course there was nothing he could do. The men were armed with
bows and arrows, rifles, even a few tomahawks.
They were going to kill her, she thought, and Jamie would never have
time to reach the surface. And it would be her fault, because if she had
talked to him this morning, he would never have brought her here, and he
would never have become so involved with her that he forgot danger.
"Jamie!" she screamed as one of the men lunged toward her. She fought.
She kicked, she scratched, she screamed and struggled, but a second man
came up, grasping her legs, and between them, she was tossed over a
shoulder. She still fought, clawing, screaming, pounding.
Bronze coloring came off in her hands. "Tess!" Jamie was charging, naked
and unarmed, out of the water. She saw his eyes. They met across the
distance and locked with hers; the pain and the horror of the moment was
mirrored between them.
"Tess!" He screamed her name again in a loud, long cry and he was
speeding furiously toward the emthe man carrying Tess began to run with
her. She craned neck, straining to see Jamie. She saw him reaching the
shallows, and she saw him running, running to the shore. He rammed one
of the armed attackers with such violence and force that the man fell.
He spun and kicked his next opponent, then thrust his fists against him
in a fury.
But then Tess saw that another man was behind Jamie as he fought. She
saw the second man raise a battle club and bring it d
own upon Jamie's
head with all his strength. She heard the cracking sound. And she
screamed as she saw Jamie crumple to the ground, and then she saw no
more, for blackness descended over the sun.
Chapter Nine.
Tess didn't know how much time passed before she regained consciousness.
When she did, she was hanging facedown over the flanks of a sweating
horse in front of the pseudo-Indian who had grabbed her. She was acutely
uncomfortable.
Although the sun was setting, it was still ferociously hot. The sticky,
wet hair of the horse irritated her flesh, and the continual and
monotonous thump-thump- thump of its gait was bringing a ferocious pain
to her head.
Her arms hurt, her back hurt, and her neck burned like blue blazes.
She was a great mass of pain, and at first that was all 'she could think
of.
After a while she remembered. She'd been kidnapped. The bronze paint
worn by the "warrior" behind her was coming off on her flesh and chemise
where the man's thighs and knees rubbed against her.
And Jamie Slater was by the river with his head bashed in. couldn't be
alive. He had fought for her, and he had b~n killed in the attempt.
Scalding tears stung her eyes. She fought back the urge to aloud.
Jamie could perhaps have survived. Maybe just been knocked unconscious.
They had left her for once, and she had survived. Jamie was tough. He
had the war, he had. She had seen the club come against his skull.
Still, she couldn't accept it. She had to believe that he was alive
because if she didn't she wouldn't care if she lived or died.
Maybe there wasn't much chance of her surviving, anyway. Von Heusen
didn't know yet that there was now no way he was going to get his hands
on the Stuart holdings. She wondered briefly about the other Slater
brothers and their wives. Would they come to Wiltshire to accept an
inheritance? When they saw what had been happening, would they pick up
her fight? Why should they? Because they were probably close. Because
Jamie wouldn't have taken the time and the care to see that things were
done the way they were if his brothers weren't willing to fight. To
fight for him. To avenge his death.
No, no, he couldn't be dead. Please! God in heaven! she prayed silently.
Don't let him be dead, don't let him be dead, don't let him' be. "Let's
hold up here!" someone called out.
The horse she was thrown over ceased plodding. A second animal trotted