Tears burned behind her eyelids. She must know that everyone was dead.
She wasn't going to shed those tears. Not in front of him. 'My uncle and
I. We were heading home to Wiltshire.'
He eased himself up a little. He saw her swallow as his thighs tightened
against her hip, then she lifted her chin, determined to ignore him,
determined to be as cool as if they were discussing the matter over tea
in a handsome parlor.
She had inestimable courage. No matter how she was beaten, she would
never surrender but would fight it out until the very end. It was there
in her eyes. All the silver-blue fire a man could imagine. She was
either a complete fool or one of the most extraordinary women he had
ever met.
Despite her warm honey spill of hair, her large, luminous eyes and her
perfect fragile features, she had a spine of steel.
Courage could kill out here in the West. That, he told himself, was why
he held to her so tightly. She needed to learn that she could be beaten.
'You're lucky as hell that the Indians didn't see you, you know,' he
told her hoarsely.
She lifted her chin.
'I told you--they weren't Indians.'
'Who were they?'
'Von Heusen's men.'
'And who the hell is yon Heusen?' He was startled when he heard a
curious rumble in someone's throat behind him.
Still holding her, he whirled around. He looked at the faces of the
young men in his company.
'Well? Does someone want to answer me?'
It was Jon Red Feather who drawled out a reply. 'Richard von Heusen.
Calls himself a rancher sometimes, an entrepreneur at others. You never
heard of him, Lieutenant?'
'No, I never heard of him.'
'You spend all your time on Indian affairs, Lieutenant,' Jon said.
'You've been missing out on the shape of things down here.'
It was true, Jamie thought. He hadn't wanted to know a lot about the
ranchers. He didn't want to se~ the carpetbaggers, or talk to them.
'You're telling me a guy named von Heusen did this?' he said to Jon.
Jon shrugged.
'I can't tell you that.'
'I can tell you that he owns a hell of a lot of Texas,' Monaban said
softly.
'It's a good thing it's a big state, else he might own a good half of
it.'
Jamie looked curiously at the girl. Tess. Her eyes were upon him as she
watched him in silence, scathingly. Then she hissed with all the venom
of a snake.
'He's a carpet- bag get Yank. You ever heard tell about the
carpetbaggers down here? They're vultures. They came down upon a
defeated and struggling South, and they just kicked the hell out of us.
Bought up land the Southern boys couldn't pay their taxes on 'cause the
