that it was for the benefit of Jamie Slater. Jamie. Silently, she rolled
the name on her tongue.
'Lieutenant' seemed to fit him better.
Not always . Not that day he had looked down at her on the rocks after
shooting the snake. His hair had been ruffled, his shirt had fallen
open, and she had wanted to touch him, to reach out and feel the vital
movement of his flesh, so bronze beneath the setting sun. Then, then the
name Jamie might have fit him just fight. It was an intimate name, ,a
name for friends, or for lovers.
He was behind her still. Jon Red Feather was pointing things out to her.
'That's a general store, and there's our one and only alehouse, we don't
dare call it a saloon. And down there is the coffeehouse for the ladies.
We've a number of women at the fort here. The colonel approves of the
married men having their wives with them, and since the fort is strong
and secure ...' He shrugged.
'Then, of course, we have the stores and the alehouse and the
eoffcehouse, so we've a few young and unattached ladies, which makes it
nice for the soldiers at the dances.'
'Dances!'
'Why, Miss. Stuart, we do try to be civilized out here in the
wilderness.' 'Desert,' Jamie Slater said from behind them.
'I think it's really more a desert than a wilderness, don't you, Jon?'
He didn't wait for an answer, but continued, 'There's the Casey house
right there.' He strode up three steps to a small house that seemed to
share a supporting wall with the structure beside it.
The door burst open suddenly. There was a large buxom woman standing
there.
She had an ageless quality about her, for her features were plump and
clear, her eyes were dark and merry, and it was difficult to see if her
hair was blond or silver.
'You poor dear! You poor, poor dear! Caught up in that awful Indian
attack'
'Miss. Stuart doesn't believe that it was Indians, Dolly,' Jamie Slater
said evenly.
Dolly waved a hand in the air.
'Don't matter who it was, does it? It was awful and heinous and cruel
and this poor girl lost her friends and her uncle. It was your uncle,
fight, dear?' 'Yes,' Tess said softly.
Dolly had a hand upon her shoulders, drawing her into the house. Jon and
Jamie Slater would have followed except that Dolly inserted her grand
frame between them and the doorway.
'Jon, Jamie, get on with you now. I'li see to Miss. Stuart. I'm snre you
were right decent to her on the trail, but she's had a bad time of it
and I'm going to see to it that she has some time to rest, and I'm going
to give her a nice long bath, some homo-cooked food, and then I'm going
to put her to bed for the night. She needs a little tenderness right
now, and I'm not so sure you're the pair to provide it!'
'Right, Dolly,' Jon said. Amused, he stepped back. Jamie Slater tipped
his hat to Tess over Dolly's broad shoulder. His lip, too, was curled
