Everything worth doing involves risk.
Emma? His hands came to rest on her shoulders, and she pressed her cheek to the back of one. What is it? She’s dead, Emma whispered, as Steven pulled up a chair close to hers and sat down. Gently he t...
Emma shifted her gaze to Steven, sitting just ahead of her at a table, Garrick Wright beside him. As though sensing her perusal, Steven shifted in his chair to look back at her, and to her utter amaze...
Did you see the fight yesterday, when Lem Johnson didn’t want to cross the river? Joellen nodded. I was hiding in the supply wagon, and I watched the whole thing. You were masterful. If you saw what h...
Caleb’s eyes shifted to something in the corner and went narrow, and a dangerous calm replaced his outrage. My shotgun, he said disbelievingly. Isn’t that my shotgun? I only borrowed it, Lily said, sq...
Caleb, Lily whispered. He turned from the horses to glance at her curiously. What? Indians, she managed to say. Over there, on the rise! He turned in a leisurely fashion to look toward the hillside, m...
As luck would have it, Caleb appeared at supper that night. His uniform had been shaken out and pressed, and his butterscotch hair gleamed with cleanliness. He brought Cuban cigars for Rupert and a de...
After that everything was a blur for Emma. She remembered little beyond blinding pain, hazy, shifting faces, and finally, relief and the furious squall of an infant. My baby, she whispered, lying back...
Meeting anyway.
Bathroom, moving like a woman in a trance.
You’d like some soothin’, wouldn’t you, Mr. Fairfax? she asked in a sympathetic voice. A raw chuckle left his throat as he thought of Emma forcing this poor little minx into a calico dress and an old...
You look beautiful, Caleb said softly, laying his hands on the sides of her slender waist. Lily smiled at his reflection in the glass. Don’t you try to flatter me, Caleb Halliday, she warned. I think...
Who lived here? Steven asked, slowing his pace now that they’d reached level ground. Emma reached back to be sure her braid wasn’t coming undone. Just some homesteaders. I don’t know what their names...
Where are you staying tonight? Caleb asked reasonably. Lily had no idea; her mind had been so full of Caleb that she hadn’t thought about that. Nor had she collected her savings from the bank in Tyler...
What will you do if Steven’s convicted? was his question. At first, Emma couldn’t face the thought. Then she allowed the nightmare to take root in her mind and answered. I’d go away—maybe to Chicago o...
Were you following me? she asked, hugging her knees and watching her supper cook. Yes, Caleb answered in his direct way. He sat down across from Lily, and the firelight did a primitive dance over his...
To keep him from finding out that he’d pleased her, she turned on the hard, narrow seat to glance behind her. Sure enough, a picnic basket was wedged into the narrow space. Tentatively she lifted the...
To Jacob, bleeding into the ground, in the midst of an endless war, that goal seemed more distant than ever, hopeless, even impossible. And still, had he been able, he would have fought on, died not j...
This is Joss’s place, he sighed, running one hand through his hair in a distracted gesture. He built it into what it is now, not me. Lily began to massage the knotted muscles in his shoulders, careful...
The moment he stepped outside, Macon materialized out of the darkness, as quickly as if he’d been a part of it. Just making sure you don’t decide to take to your heels again, Steven’s half-brother rem...