She crawled into the bed, more exhausted than she had imagined. As Dolly
started to leave the darkened room, Tess called her back.
'Thank you, Dolly. Thank you, so very much.'
'It's nothing, child.'
Tess sat up.
'Dolly?'
'yes?'
'I didn't take you from your family, did I?' She smiled.
'Me? No, child. I sit around most of the day and remember Will. My
husband. He was with the cavalry, killed just a few years ago. He made
it home, though. Jamie Slater brought him home to me. He rode through an
ambush to bring Will home. So now I mind the store a few hours a day,
and I try to look after the soldiers that need a little mothering. And
now you.
It's been my pleasure, dear, so you go on and get some sleep.'
Dolly was gone then. Tess yawned in the luxurious warm comfort of the
clean bed. She stretched out, thinking that she would sleep. If she
wasn't plagued with memories of Joe.
But it wasn't memories of Joe that kept her from sleeping. Even in the
darkness and the warmth, she felt strange 61 chills snake along her
body. It was Jamie Slateifs face she saw before her in the darkness, the
dry amusement in his gray eyes: Then she remembered the feeling of
wicked, surging heat as his gaze fell over the length of her. He had
stayed away. And he had been drawn back. Almost as if he was feeling the
same thing.
She didn't need a lover, she told herself. She needed a hired gun.
Maybe she would have to barter to gain what she wanted. Barter! she
charged herself.
And in the darkness she admitted that he cola id be as cold and hard and
ruthless as stone, he could care for her not at all, or perhaps even
want her with a curious interest. It didn't matter. She hadn't thought
about any man in over five years.
But she wanted this one. That he could deal well with a gun was all the
better.
When she finally did sleep that night, it was with the stern reminder
that she ought to be saying her prayers. That she ought to hope that
Jamie Slater wanted nothing more to do with her, that the stoic colonel
would take her to Wiltshire.
She could fight von Heusen, and she would. She just wasn't sure if she
could fight von Heusen and all the decadent and shameful things she felt
for Jamie Slater at the same time.
It was wicked.
It was true. If Joe had taught her anything, it was wisdom. She couldn't
change what she was feeling, even if what she was feeling could only
cause her pain. Exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she slept. Slept, and
dreamed.
Of smoke-gray eyes, of a man with broad shoulders, taking her into his
arms.
Naked, as she had been by the brook.
He was moving into a trap, Jamie thought the next night as he walked
