you to be my wife.'
She clicked the chestnut into a trot. 'It's an odd way to ask a lady, I must say.' Her chin firmed. 'You've said nothing about love.'
He snatched off his hat and threw it onto the ground in disgust. 'Damn it, woman, it's not a thing I should have to say. You ought to know how I feel about you.'
'Should I? A gentleman would make himself perfectly clear.'
Feeling foolish, he circled Shiloh and scooped up his hat. 'You think I'm just going to let you ride out of my life? After you shot Jack Cannon to save me?'
'Not out of your life.' She pulled up her mount. 'This is too sudden, Ash, too fast for either of us. I'll be in San Francisco. I want you to think about this for a few months, then if you still want me, you can write to me in care of general delivery, and-'
'That does it.' Jabbing his heels into his gelding's sides, he guided the horse close to Tamsin and lifted her out of the saddle.
'Stop! Put me down,' she protested as he dragged her up in front of him.
He stilled her thrashing with a sound kiss.
'Marry me, Tamsin,' he whispered when they came up for air. 'Marry me and take me to California with you.'
'Do… do you mean it?' she stammered. 'Do you really love me?'
He kissed her again, and her arms went around his neck so tightly that he could hardly breathe.
'What will you do in California?'
'Build you that damn horse ranch you're always clamoring about. Surely you can find work for a halfway decent wrangler on it.'
'How do I know you'd make a good wrangler?'
'I rode that Satan-born imp of yours, didn't I?'
'That was downhill in a rock slide and later when people were shooting at him. Dancer was too frightened to put his best effort into getting rid of you.'
'He seemed to try.'
'Maybe,' she admitted. 'But I won't have any ranch, not for years. I'm broke. I don't have anything but these three horses and…'
'Tamsin MacGreggor, will you never shut up. I've got enough for both of us.'
'What?'
Shiloh came to an abrupt halt, and he swung down out of the saddle and lifted her down. 'Look in my saddlebag.'
'In your saddlebag?' she repeated. 'Are you deaf as well as addled?' He yanked open the leather pouch and filled her hands with certificates of deposit. 'I never expected to live long enough to settle down, but I saved what I made, just in case. The reward for the Cannon brothers will pay our way to California, and this should buy your precious land.'
'You're serious?' She swayed against him, and he held her so that her red-gold hair tickled his face and he could smell her fresh, sweet scent.
'You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Mrs. MacGreggor, and I'm not dumb enough to let you get a mile away, let alone to California.'
'You really love me?' He chuckled. 'What have I been saying?'
'I'm not sure. What have you been saying?'
'You're not letting me out of this, are you?' He smiled at her. 'I love you, Tamsin MacGreggor. Love you with all my heart and soul. I should have known it sooner, but I never claimed to be the smartest man west of the Mississippi.'
'Will you still love me tomorrow and the day after that?'
'I'll love you as long as the sun rises in the east, woman. And if it doesn't, I'll love you just the same.'
'All right,' she answered softly. 'I'll make you a deal. If you can ride Dancer back to Denver without him throwing you into the dirt, I'll marry you.'
'I'd ride the devil's wind for you.'
'Then I'd best be your wife, for I'm not likely to get an offer like that from a finer man.'
'You'd better make your vows with me,' he answered. 'I intend for you to be carrying our first child by the time we get to San Francisco.'
'I think I can promise that.' And then she rose on her toes and kissed him, and he stopped thinking of anything but the woman in his arms, the woman he meant to love and cherish for the rest of this life and into the next.
Epilogue
California
Autumn 1876
The two outlaws tied their ponies and crawled on their bellies toward the corral beside the main stock barn on Tamsin's Hope. 'Keep your head down,' the first desperado said. 'He's fast on the draw.'
'Not fast enough,' his comrade hissed. Ash's back was to the fence, his attention focused on the bay colt. On the far side of the pound, the chestnut mare laid back her ears and gave an anxious whinny. The foal responded with a high-pitched squeal.
'Easy, Cheyenne,' Ash soothed. He stroked the colt's velvety nose, ran his hand up to scratch behind the twitching ears, and buckled the halter. 'You be quiet, too, Fancy. Nobody's going to hurt your new baby.'
The little bay laid back his ears, quivered all over, and sneezed. Then he raised one dainty front hoof and pawed the ground.
'Shh,' Ash murmured as he offered the colt a piece of apple. 'By next week you won't even notice you're wearing a halter.' He released the lead line, and the little horse ran to his mother and began to nurse.
'Go for your gun, bounty hunter!' the younger pistolero shouted.
'Give us all your horses and all your gold!' his amigo demanded.
Ash turned. His eyes narrowed as he stared into the green eyes of the outlaw leader. 'I've been looking for you two for a long time.'
'Yeah?' the smaller, dark-haired bandit said cockily. 'Well, we been trailin' you, too, bounty hunter.'
'You gonna draw, big man?' his redheaded partner said. 'Or are you-'
Ash laughed as a hand closed on the redhead's collar.
'Mama!' David's eyes widened in surprise, and he dropped the fishing pole he'd been using for a rifle.
The littler criminal threw his pole, turned to make his getaway, and gasped as Tamsin grabbed him by the seat of his baggy trousers. His broad-brimmed sombrero slid back revealing big brown eyes, a freckled nose, and a dimple on his chin.
'Were you going someplace, Jared?' she asked.
'Hi, Mama.'
'We were just foolin'-' the nine-year-old protested.
'Playing bounty hunter with Daddy,' his younger brother chimed in.
'What have I told you about violence?' Tamsin asked.
'We didn't have a real gun. Just fishing poles. Daddy was-'
Ash shook his head as he climbed over the corral fence and joined Tamsin. 'Don't you boys drag me into this. Where were you two when we were ready for church this morning?'
Jared flushed and kicked the dirt with the toe of his boot. 'David said the fish were biting.'
'So you two went fishing instead of going to church with your mama and me?' Ash asked.
'Yes, Daddy,' David admitted sheepishly.
'Umm-humm,' Jared agreed. 'But we caught fish for dinner.'
'Enormous fish,' his brother said. 'I thought that's where you might have gone when I found holes in my flower
