road. She didn’t know whether to try to pull him up or to allow him his head while she just held on for dear life as she heard the riders closing in behind her.
The yell again. It sent cold shivers over her. She’d heard that cry once before when night riders had descended on the ranch. They’d been chased off by federal troops but not before they had nearly set the barn on ?re.
She’d witnessed the fear of their hands, who had taken refuge in the house. They’d heard the rebel cry. It was enough to terrify anyone. She and her father lost most of the hands the next day.
The buggy lurched ahead, the horse running in blind panic. All efforts to pull back on the reins yielded nothing.
The riders caught up with the buggy, riding alongside, shooting into the air. The buggy swayed from side to side along the road and she had to grasp the side to keep from being thrown out.
The intent of the riders was obviously to cause an accident. She didn’t know whether they were after her, or her father. Until now, the sides of the buggy would have shielded her from sight, but everyone knew the buggy. They used it to go to church and for trips into town.
It didn’t matter who they were after.
She hung on to the reins, even as her left hand clutched the side of the buggy. She continued to pull back on them, but her slight strength was nothing compared to the power of the horse’s fear.
She should have stayed at home. She knew that now. She had the protection of walls there.
But she hadn’t been ready to give up Marilee, not after working so hard to scare away the demons that haunted the child.
The buggy bounced and rocked as the horse ran headlong, spurred by continuing shouts and gun?re.
She glanced at the shotgun on the ?oor next to her. She couldn’t reach for it without letting go of the side of the buggy. Nor would she be able to use it as the buggy careened back and forth.
They could see her now. They had to know she was a woman. Two of them ?red again. The buggy swerved and almost toppled and she sti?ed a scream.
More shots, this time from a different direction. The riders around her broke off and raced away.
But her horse didn’t stop. He wouldn’t stop now until he dropped. The buggy would never last that long. Her body jolted as the wheels hit a rut in the road.
She closed her eyes, uttered a prayer, then opened them again.
A horseman passed the buggy and rode close to Ornery. He leaned over and his hand caught the harness.
He was going to fall. No one could stop a horse galloping as Ornery was doing. The ?gure moved from his saddle onto Ornery’s back, his hands pulling at the traces.
The buggy slowed and after what seemed like endless moments came to a stop.
She had seen the pinto before. The animal had been at her well just hours earlier.
Its rider looked different. He had washed, changed clothes, shaved. She wouldn’t have known him if it hadn’t been for the horse.
He turned, one leg resting on Ornery’s back as the horse snorted and foam ?ew from his mouth. Sinclair soothed the hindquarters, and he whispered something soft to the animal. Ornery quieted.
Then the man looked at her. “Are you all right?”
She had to think about that for a moment. Or perhaps she was just too stunned by the change in him.
He’d been a saddle tramp before. Bearded. Unkempt. Dirty. It had been easy to dismiss him. Almost. Her conscience, which had been compromised far too often recently, assaulted her.
Something else did, too. Something just as powerful. She felt as if she had just been hit by lightning.
He was one of the most attractive men she’d ever seen. He’d lost his hat, and his hair, which had looked dark this morning, had obviously been washed. Its bronze color glittered in the sun. Dark blue eyes were piercing in a lean, almost gaunt sundarkened face. Unlike Delaney’s indulgenceswollen face, this man looked honed by pain. The renegade she’d glimpsed earlier was still in the ?erce eyes, but a hero had just saved her.
He waited for her answer.
“I think so,” she said, dismayed to hear the tremor in her voice. “Yes, of course I am,” she added, trying to force steel into it. “Thank you,” she said belatedly. “But I really could have stopped Ornery…”
A raised eyebrow stopped her words in midsentence. “Ornery?”
“He comes by the name honestly.”
One side of his mouth twitched, though she had the impression he really didn’t want her to realize it. In one easy movement, he jumped from the horse onto the ground. Without paying any attention to her, he tied his pinto to the back of the buggy. He swung up into the driver’s seat, forcing her to move.
“My horse needs the rest,” he said shortly. “He’s not up to running like that.”
His presence overpowered her. Pure raw masculinity made him appear far larger than he was.
His knee brushed hers and she felt as if she were in the way of a prairie brush ?re. Her body reacted in new ways. Hot and greedy, and aching with longing.
His gaze hadn’t left her. “You were saying you could have stopped the horse,” he said.
Of course she wouldn’t have been able to do that, and he knew it. He wanted her to say it. He wanted her to admit she would probably be dead if he had not assisted her.
Why had he stopped to help someone he obviously regarded as an enemy?
“Thank you,” she said.
He shrugged. “I was coming back to your ranch to fetch my sister. You didn’t tell me she was there.” His voice had turned cold and accusing. Despite the heat, a chill ran through her.
There was no sense in denying the obvious. Everyone in town knew she was caring for Marilee Sinclair. “I wasn’t sure you were who you said you were. She’s had a very bad-”
“The people in town, or what is left of them, will vouch for me,” he said. A muscle moved in his throat.
“Your friends?” she asked.
“My friends wouldn’t attack ladies or children. Or old men. I can’t speak for yours.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged again. That was obviously his gesture of choice.
“Your brother has already attacked-” She stopped. “You don’t look anything like him.”
“You’ve seen him?”
“Only posters,” she said.
“He has my father’s dark coloring. I inherited my mother’s. Marilee? Is she still a little towhead?”
She nodded. “Gold hair and light blue eyes.”
“Like my brother then. You said he attacked someone? You?”
“I’m not sure who it was. It’s just said…”
“You believe everything that’s said?”
She didn’t answer.
“Lady, you and your father are being used,” he said wearily. “You don’t belong here. You had no business riding alone out here when so many resent what you and your father represent. It was a damn fool thing to do.”
Her back stiffened. “I thanked you. You can go now.”
His lips curled at the edges but it wasn’t a smile. “And if they come back?”
“I have a shotgun with me.”
“You really think you can use it when the buggy is rocking all over the road?”
“I am a very good shot.”
He shook his head in disgust.
“I don’t need you,” she said. Then added a bit sheepishly, “Now.”
“We are going back to the ranch,” he replied. “I want to see my sister. I can get Marilee, then you can do whatever in the hell you want to do. I would suggest, though, that you do not travel alone.”
“I’m not going to the ranch,” she said stubbornly. “I am going into town to see-”
“Some of your father’s friends? Delaney, for instance?”
He was right on the mark. Not Delaney, but the judge. A friend of Delaney’s. About how to keep this man’s sister away from him. Her face was hot and she knew it was ?ooding with color. She suspected he probably knew exactly what she was thinking.
