brother.
He sold Father's land and put the money into trust for me, and he took
me to live with him, and he made me love the land and reading and Texas
and the newspaper business, and most of all, he made me love the truth.
And he never gave up on the truth or on fighting. And that's why I have
to keep it up.
He always gave me everything.'
Her voice trailed away. So much, always. She remembered learning how to
ride, and how to ink the printing press, and then how to think out a
story, and what good journalism was, and. And what it was like to live
through pain, and stand up tall despite it, and to learn to carry on.
Joe had been there when she had fallen in love with Captain David Tyler
back in '64, when his Confederate infantry corp had been assigned to
Wiltshire. She had been just seventeen, and she'd never known what it
was like to love a man in that mercurial way until she'd met David.
They'd danced, they'd taken long walks and long rides and they'd had
picnics out by the river, and he had kissed her, and she had learned
what it was like to feel her soul catch fire.
They'd known the war Dolly sniffed, apparently uninterested in a woman
running a paper or a ranch.
'There's things a young lady should be doin', and things she shouldn't!
Now you, you need to be married. You need yourself a man.'
Tess sank back into the water wearily.
'I need a hired gun, that's what I need.'
Dolly was quiet for a moment, then she said enthusiastically, 'Well,
then, you really do need Lieutenant Slater.'
'What?'
Dolly came around the side of the tub and perched on a stool.
'Why, he was claimed to be an outlaw, him and his brothers! There was a
big showdown, and the three of them shot themselves out of an awful
situation.
Then they surrendered, and all went to trial, and the jury claimed them
innocent as babes!
But those Slater boys--why, it was legendary!
He's as quick as a rattler with his Colt.' He was, Tess thought. She
couldn't forget the way he had killed the snake. She might have died,
except that he was so fast with that gun.
She shivered suddenly. Maybe he wasn't what she needed. He was what she
wanted. A man good with a gun. A man with hard eyes and a hard-muscled
chest and hands that were strong and eyes that invaded the body and the
soul.
'Someone's got to escort you to Wiltshire,' Dolly said flatly.
'And Jamie, he's got time coming. And he really ain't no fool. I know
there's this big thing going on about whether it was Indians or white
men attacked you, but Jamie, he'll find out the truth.' 'He didn't
believe a word I said.'
'Oh, but he could discover the truth! He knows the Shoshone, the
Comanche, the Cheyenne, the Kiowas and even the Apache better than most
white men--most white men alive, that is! Why, he speaks all their
languages! He can tell you in a split second which tribes are related to
