'In more ways than one.'
'I said I was sorry.'
'But you don't believe I'm innocent. And now you're accusing me of having an immoral attachment with someone that you say is an outlaw.'
He pulled his hat low on his brow. 'Don't talk to me about Cannon unless you can tell the truth. And hear it.'
'I didn't know him that well. He came into the store where I worked and seemed pleasant. Mr. Cannon escorted me to a church social and to eat in a public hotel. I've nothing to be ashamed of.'
'You've got my sympathy, lady. People keep makin' up lies about you.'
'I've heard what kind of women you're accustomed to associating with. Doubtless you're used to their fabrications, but I can assure you that I'm not-'
'Peace, MacGreggor. Your yammering is hard on my aching head. We'd best talk about something else, if you insist on talkin'.'
'How can I convince you-'
'I'll put the coffee on if you'll tend to the cooking,' he said, ignoring her argument. 'But stay close to the fire. That cat's probably a long way from here this morning, but we can't be certain.'
She rested both hands on her hips and stared at him through narrowed eyes. 'The cougar? The cougar that you told me I couldn't possibly have seen yesterday afternoon? Maybe it wasn't a mountain lion at all. Maybe those prints you and the Indian found were deer tracks.'
'Maybe so,' he agreed. 'But if it was a doe instead of a puma, it was one that could climb trees.'
'It wouldn't surprise me in the least,' she replied sarcastically.
Unwilling to continue a conversation that he was obviously losing, Ash went to check Shiloh's injured leg. As he'd suspected, the shank was swollen. He untied the gelding and led him down to the stream to drink. To his disappointment, Ash saw that the horse was definitely limping.
'We won't be breaking camp today,' he said to Tamsin as he fished his coffeepot out of his saddlebag. 'Shiloh's leg needs rest. The torn flesh is a little puffy. There may be infection, thanks to you and your riding.'
'We can lead him into the stream,' she said. 'Running water's good for swelling. And I've a little salve in my pack. He should be right as rain in a day or two.' She used a green branch to pull hot coals over the spot where she'd buried the roots to bake. Dusting ashes off her hands, she said, 'I've never cooked roots. I hope they're fit to eat.'
'If you're hungry enough, you'll eat dog and fight to get it.'
'I doubt that.'
He shrugged, not bothering to answer her. He wished he hadn't spoken of the bad times to Tamsin. He didn't know why he had. It wasn't something he liked to think of, let alone tell a woman.
The old memories chafed at his mind as he went to the creek to fill the coffeepot with water.
He'd used his daddy's birthday knife to try to kill the half-Mexican Comanchero that gray Texas morning. But he'd not been a man yet, and he had a lot to learn about fighting a bigger opponent. First, the trader had beaten him half to death, and then he'd tied him across his daddy's horse and led him a hundred miles back to camp.
These renegade Comanche made a living stealing from the Texans and selling horses, loot, and captives south to Mexico. But Juan Fat Knee, the man who'd shot Ash's father, didn't trade him away. He'd kept him, as a cross between a slave and a pet, taking perverse pleasure in seeing how much he could mistreat a boy without killing him.
Ash had eaten dog all right. He'd gnawed the blackened bones and chewed the skin. It had made him so sick, he'd prayed to die, but he hadn't. He'd survived to relish a lot worse, including raw horse meat and lizard so rank that the camp curs wouldn't touch it.
He'd survived two years with the Comanche marauders, and come away wondering if the Lord wouldn't have done him a favor by letting him take that bullet instead of his father.
When Ash returned to the fire, he silently added coffee, noting that there was only enough left for one more pot.
'Were you in the war?' Tamsin asked.
He nodded, glad for the excuse to stop thinking about the past.
'I thought you must have, giving your horse that name.' She looked at him through thick dark lashes. This morning she'd pulled her hair into a single knot on the back of her head, but curling strands had come loose around her freckled face. She looked fine, he thought, fine enough to kiss.
He'd been drunk the night before, but not so drunk he couldn't remember the taste of her mouth or the feel of her womanly body cuddled up against his. He was glad she'd stopped him. Getting involved with Cannon's lady friend and a woman who would likely hang for murder wasn't a smart move.
'What side were you on?' Tamsin asked.' In the war.'
'You feel a need to talk all the time?'
'I asked you a simple question. Are you ashamed of the answer? Did you fight for the North or South?'
'North. I don't hold with slavery.' Couldn't, he thought, not after knowing what it was like to be a slave… to be owned body and soul by Fat Knee.
'I never could stomach slavery either,' Tamsin said. 'But my home was in Tennessee, and all my friends and relatives were for the Confederacy.'
She sat on a rock and offered him a faint smile. Her teeth were even and white, pretty teeth in a pretty mouth.
'My dead husband, Atwood, should have joined the army, but he kept finding excuses,' she continued. 'Once, he even broke his own foot with a hammer to keep from going. He was a coward, of course.'
'Don't sound like a man I could have much respect for,' Ash said.
'Me either. Not then, not now.'
When the food was ready, they ate. The deer meat was good, the roots gritty and tough. His coffee, as usual, was strong enough to melt nails.
Afterward, Tamsin and he walked to the stream to wash. Then he pulled the handcuffs from his belt. 'Arms behind you,' he said. 'It's lockup time.'
'What?' Her face paled. 'Where am I going to go?'
'Don't even bother. All the sweet talk in the world won't help me if you decide to murder me when my back's turned.'
'No!' She stepped away, then turned to run toward the horses.
He caught her in a dozen strides and wrestled her to the ground. 'Lay still!' he shouted. Holding her without hurting her was like trying to pin a bee-stung badger with one hand tied behind his back. Tamsin kicked and twisted, pulling out of his grasp and crawling away.
He grabbed her ankle, and she kicked him in the chin with her other foot. Ash swore as he seized the hem of her skirt.
'Damn you,' she cried, rising up on her knees and planting a solid fist square in the center of his forehead. 'You… you Yankee bully! Stop that!'
'You made the rules between us,' he answered grimly as he straddled her. 'Now you pay the price.'
Chapter 9
'No! Not again!' Tamsin cried.
'Don't make this harder than it has to be.' The blow to Ash's chin and her last well-aimed punch had set his head to throbbing. Shame at having to manhandle a woman, any woman, this way fueled his anger toward her and sickened him.
'Please,' she begged. 'Don't put those things on me. What if the cougar comes?' Tears filled her eyes, but she was still fighting him with every ounce of her being.
'Be still, damn it!' He didn't want to hurt her. But neither was he fool enough to let her murder him. 'You'll try something the minute my back is turned.'
