surprised at all. You see, he thought he heard a noise, and he drew his gun lickety-split. He was fast all right, but the fact is he probably couldn't shoot his way out of a barn. Being quick isn't worth a sneeze out here if you can't hit anything, now is it?'
She paused to let out a long, exaggerated sigh. Harrison could feel his face heating up. He wanted to stomp into the clearing and set the little woman straight. By God, he wasn't that inept.
Mary Rose wasn't through tearing his pride to shreds, however. 'You should have seen him trying to learn how to break in some horses for Douglas. It was a pitiful sight, all right. I hid up in my room and watched from the window so he wouldn't be more humiliated than he already was. It's a blessing he didn't break his neck, Corrie, bless his heart.'
Harrison gritted his teeth together and started counting to ten. His temper had reached the simmering point.
'I don't want you fretting about Harrison,' Mary Rose continued. 'I only told you about him because he came with me up to the ridge. He's supposed to protect me. That's why I wore my gun, Corrie. I can keep him safe enough. Anyway, he won't bother you. He'd kind and sweet-natured, and you should know me well enough by now after our last visitation to understand I wouldn't put up with him if he were mean. Did I tell you about Catherine Morrison throwing herself at him?'
She guessed she hadn't told the woman and went into a long, blown-out-of-all-proportion explanation about all the wrongs the woman had done to her over the years. Mary Rose had stored up a lot of complaints about Catherine and she proceeded to tell Corrie about each one, going all the way back to their early childhood. Since Corrie couldn't or wouldn't tell her to stop, she became Mary Rose's dream come true. A trapped listener who couldn't run away.
Harrison had started out worried that Corrie would shoot Mary Rose because the woman was as crazy as everyone said she was, but by the time the one-sided conversation was finished, his concern had changed. Now he couldn't figure out why Corrie didn't shoot her just to shut her up.
Mary Rose kept interlacing comments about Harrison. His ego took one hell of a beating, and if she 'blessed his heart' just one more time, he swore he was going to have to throttle her.
Her voice finally gave out. She promised her friend that she would return as soon as she could for another long visit and turned to leave. She suddenly remembered she hadn't mentioned her newest houseguest yet and promptly stopped in her tracks.
Both Corrie and Harrison then listened to another long discussion, about Eleanor.
'She's going to settle down real soon,' Mary Rose predicted. 'She may even turn out to be a good friend once she gets over feeling sorry for herself. My, how the time has flown. Do get your supplies inside before the rain comes. Bye now, Corrie. God keep you safe.'
Harrison stayed where he was until Mary Rose left the clearing. The rifle barrel was moved from the window a minute later. He backtracked, making a wide circle around Mary Rose, and was back to the spot where she'd told him to wait before she got there.
'Did you have a nice visit?' he asked.
'Oh, yes,' she answered. Her voice sounded hoarse. 'She's a dear woman.'
He couldn't imagine how she knew that. 'Did she talk to you?' he asked.
'No, but she's getting ready to,' Mary Rose assured him. 'We should get going, Harrison. It's late.'
'How do you know she's getting ready to talk to you?' he asked, ignoring her suggestion to leave.
'She let me get much closer to the center of the clearing,' she explained. 'We're obviously friends now.'
'Because she didn't shoot you.'
'Yes,' she said, pleased he understood.
He thought she was making as much sense as a two-year-old having a tantrum.
'You're being completely illogical,' he told her. 'You do know that, don't you, Mary Rose?'
She shook her head at him. 'Is it illogical to look for the good in people? Everyone has feelings, Harrison. 'No man is an island.' Remember the passage both you and Adam are so partial to?'
'Yes, of course, but…'
'We cannot exist without each other. Do the words, 'any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind' mean the same thing to you that they mean to me? We're all part of the same family, Harrison. Corrie has needs just like the rest of us. Now do you see?'
'Point taken, Miss Clayborne.'
Her smile was radiant. 'I do believe this is the first argument with you I have ever won.'
'We weren't having an argument,' he replied.
'It seems like one. We need to leave now.' She started toward her horse and glanced up at the sky above. 'We're really in for a soaking. You do love to dawdle, don't you?'
He lifted her up into the saddle and gave her the reins. She folded her hands on top of the saddle horn. Harrison started to turn away, then changed his mind. He reached up and covered her hands with his.
She looked into his eyes to find out why he suddenly wanted to linger. His smile captured her full attention. Lord, how she loved it when he was happy. His eyes turned as warm and welcoming as sunshine. She felt the heat all the way down in her belly.
'You have a very good heart, Mary Rose.'
She felt as if he had just caressed her. She was just about to thank him when he went and ruined it.
'I try to remember that whenever you make me crazy.'
He let go of her and turned to go to MacHugh. In one fluid motion he swung up into the saddle. The gracefulness in the action impressed her. She guessed all the time he'd spent climbing back up onto the horses after he'd been pitched to his backside had taught him something useful after all.
'What is that comment supposed to mean?' she asked.
'It means I know what your game is. You're the one who spent entirely too long talking to Corrie, and so you've decided to blame me if we get soaked. I dawdle? I think not.'
'You're too clever for me, Harrison.' She lifted the reins and turned to lead the way home. 'I never said I was perfect, did I?'
'No, you never did,' he agreed with a laugh.
'You aren't perfect either. You're extremely argumentative, but of course you must realize that. You're also given to spells, but I doubt you can help that.'
'You constantly jump to conclusions based on insufficient information. You do know that, don't you? And I don't have spells, woman.'
'Most of the time you're a perfect gentleman, but in the blink of an eye, you can turn into a raging lunatic.' What else could she call his affliction? The man had spells, and that was that. She wasn't going to argue about it now. She wanted to discuss something else just as important.
'You refuse to understand that sometimes one must act before one has gathered hundreds of documents to support a possible thesis. If I had waited until I had every bit of information about you before I invited you to come home with me, you'd probably be dead. So would I,' she added. 'From old age.'
'In other words, you leap before you look. Isn't that right?'
'At least I dare to leap.'
'That attitude is exactly why so many people die young out here.'
'Action is often more effective than words.'
'In an uncivilized world, perhaps. Remember, Mary Rose, we are all accountable for our actions.'
'We don't live inside a courtroom.'
'We should behave as though we did.'
'It would kill you to agree with me, wouldn't it, Harrison?'
She laughed after she asked her question. He smiled in response. 'Perhaps,' he allowed. 'I like to win.'
'Life isn't about winning. It's about surviving.'
'In my line of work, surviving and winning are the same thing.'
She had to think about what he had just said for a long while before she gave him her rebuttal. She was obviously enjoying sparring with him. He was having just as much fun. He found her comments invigorating and refreshingly honest, even when she wasn't making a lick of sense.
