She started running toward the carriage house, anxious to reach it
before he could see her. She was at the side door when she heard the
front door to the house slam. She slipped into the eaniage house. She
inhaled and exhaled, but couldn't smell any smoke. All she could smell
was the fresh scent of the alfalfa hay that was being stored behind the
chaise.
She fumbled in the darkness to light the gas lamp by the door. When the
glow filled the carriage house, she went to check the wagon and the
printing press. She crawled into the wagon and gave a soft sigh of
relief as she saw that the printing press was fine. She sank down on one
of the bunks. 'Tess!
Where are you!'
Jamie was obviously angry. She clenched her teeth and tried to ignore
him.
She stepped from the wagon and went to the buckboard. No flames had
lapped against it. The chaise, too, seemed untouched. Walking around,
she discovered a half burned bale of hay. It had been dragged into the
center of the room and lit. Von Heusen had meant it to be a slow fire.
He had really meant to be long gone when the place burned.
She moved away from the hay and from the faint, acrid smell of fire that
remained.
'Tess!'
He was still calling her, like a drill sergeant. With a sigh she
determined that she would have to open the door, but she hesitated with
her hand upon it. Where had he been? He'd been gone for hours. Had he
really enjoyed the saloon so much? What part of the saloon?
And why was she torturing herself so thoroughly over him? She couldn't
change the man.
The before twist the With a back.
was hat less, his shirt open at the neck, his hands on his hips, his
sandy hair tousled casually over a brow, but his manner anything but
casual.
'Why didn't you answer me?' he demanded. 'Because I didn't want to speak
to you.'
'It didn't occur to you that I might have been worried?'
'I could have been in and out of the carriage house all evening, and you
wouldn't have known. What, I'm supposed to be on a ball and chain if
you're around? But if you're not, it doesn't matter?'
She saw his jaw twist and a pulse tick hard against his throat.
'That's about it, yes. Think you can live with the niles?'
'No!'
'Then I'm leaving.'
'what?'
'You heard me.'
'But--',' In astonishment she stared at him. She inhaled sharply. She
couldn't let him leave her. She couldn't!
But she thought he wouldn't go. He just wanted to see her beg.
'Leave,' she told him. She'd call his bluff, she determined.
He turned and reached for the door. She thought quickly and desperately,
then said,
