Bound For Eden

www.harlequinbooks.com.au

About the Author

Tess LeSue writes sexy and adventurous romances, set against sweeping historical backdrops. Her current love affair is with the wild landscapes and even wilder men of the Wild West.
Bound for Eden
is her first Western.

For Jonny,
ily cowboy.

Contents

About the Author

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Nine

Thirty

Thirty-One

Thirty-Two

Thirty-Three

Thirty-Four

Thirty-Five

Thirty-Six

Thirty-Seven

Thirty-Eight

Thirty-Nine

Forty

Forty-One

Forty-Two

Acknowledgements

One

Grady's Point,

Mississippi, 1843

Alexandra Barratt wasn't a violent woman. Most times she couldn't even crush a house spider. But Silas Grady was no spider. Silas Grady was a black-hearted, lily-livered, weak-kneed swamp rat. If anything, death was too good for him.

She couldn't believe the nerve of him, knocking on her door like nothing had happened. He was swaying on his feet and there was still dried blood stuck to his neck.

‘It's your only hope,' he said thickly. ‘Marry me, Alex.'

If Sheriff Deveraux hadn't been standing right there she might have forgotten she wasn't a violent woman and reached for the axe. But Sheriff Deveraux
was
standing right there.

‘Marry me, Alex. I can keep you safe.'

‘Safe!' White fury licked at her. He was mighty lucky that axe was out of arm's reach. ‘And who will keep me safe from
you
?'

‘Alex—'

‘It's Miss Barratt to you, and how
dare
you come here after what you did today?'

‘What I did . . .?' He swayed, confused.

Alex said a silent prayer. With any luck she could carry this off and get out of here before Gideon showed up. Silas was a lecherous, scheming idiot, but his brother was something much, much worse. ‘You arrest him,' Alex demanded, turning to the Sheriff.

The fat old man looked startled. He made a gruff
harrumphing
noise and hiked his pants up. ‘Now, Miss Barratt, you know I can't do that.'

‘I know no such thing. Every week since Ma and Pa died I've come to you with a complaint about this man.' She pointed a fierce finger at Silas's face. ‘He and his brothers have terrorised us. They've tried to starve us out. And you've done nothing!'

The sheriff grew red-faced, but didn't manage more than a mutter. It was all Alex expected from him, bloated excuse for a lawman that he was. ‘If you won't do anything I'll send for a federal marshal.'

‘Now really, Miss Barratt, this isn't the frontier.'

‘It might as well be, for all the law there is around here.' She lifted her nose in the air and tried to look imperious, which wasn't easy considering her rising panic. She had to get out of here before Gideon came. He'd probably made it home by now and found the mess she'd left . . . oh glory, the thought was almost her undoing. Gideon was a maniac. Who knew what he'd do to her if he caught her?

‘If you aren't going to arrest him, I don't see what choice you leave me.' She kept brazening her way through it. Thank the Lord Silas was still concussed from that blow to the head. If he had half a brain he'd be demanding that the Sheriff arrest
her.
He had fair cause: over the course of the afternoon she'd knocked him out cold, stolen his brother's property, and assaulted his evil witch of a mother.

And it was entirely his own fault, she thought, fixing him with a black glare. He flinched and fingered the wound on the back of his head.

‘I've told you at least twenty times in no uncertain terms that I won't marry you,' she snapped at him. ‘But you won't take no for an answer, will you? Well, I didn't say yes when you starved us, and I won't say yes now. So get off my property! It
is
still my property, you know.' She turned her black glare on the Sheriff, who at least had the good grace to look shamefaced. ‘If you won't arrest him, you could at the very least escort him off my land! Trespassing
is
still illegal, isn't it?'

‘Come on, Grady,' Sheriff Deveraux mumbled. ‘You'd best try your luck another day.' He took Silas by the elbow.

‘I'm your last hope,' Silas said miserably. ‘He won't hurt you if you're my wife.'

‘Get out!' The edge of hysteria in her voice was quite real. She slammed the door behind them and yanked up the trapdoor to the root cellar, where her foster siblings were hiding. ‘Up!' she ordered. ‘Quick!'

‘Give the gold back,' her foster sister moaned as she struggled up the ladder. ‘Now, while the sheriff is still here.'

‘Are you mad?' Alex raced through the small house, throwing what precious little they still had onto a sheet and tying it into a bundle. She tossed it to her foster brother, who was sitting on the lip of the cellar, looking despondent. ‘Don't worry, Adam,' she soothed, running her fingers through his tousled hair.

‘
You're
the mad one!' Victoria snapped. ‘Gideon will kill you if you don't give that gold back.'

‘He'll kill me anyway,' Alex said grimly.

They heard a shot and Victoria screamed. Alex ran for the front window.

It was too late. Gideon was here. Poor, fat Sheriff Deveraux lay on the squashed dogwood blossoms, slain by Gideon's shotgun. As Alex watched, Gideon took a swing at Silas with the still smoking gun. Silas managed to duck, but slipped on the fleshy blossoms and fell on his behind. Gideon kicked him.

‘This is your fault, Spineless,' he snarled. ‘If you hadn't kept sniffing after that bitch, none of this would have happened.' The look on his narrow, ferrety face made the hair rise on the back of Alex's neck. It wasn't the anger that was frightening, it was the glint of barely suppressed glee. Gideon wasn't just going to hurt her, he was going to
enjoy
hurting her.

He looked up and saw her standing in the window. ‘Evenin', Miss Barratt,' he called. Like they were meeting down at the store, or at one of Dyson's dances. She'd be damned before she'd show him fear. Alex yanked the blind down. It was a relief not to look at him, but a little scrap of cloth wasn't going to protect her from him. She bolted the door.

‘Well, that ain't a neighbourly way to behave,' he called. God help them, the bastard was enjoying himself already. ‘Ain't ya going to ask us in for tea?' He laughed and Victoria started to cry.

‘What are we going to do?' Vicky whined. ‘We don't even have a gun.'

No. And the axe was still buried in the block out on the porch. Alex grabbed a couple of kitchen knives. They looked puny in her hands. ‘Here.' She gave one to each of her siblings. ‘We'll go out the bedroom window. Go!' She grabbed a fire iron for herself.

Victoria looked down at the knife in horror. ‘What do you expect me to do with this?'

‘Be careful,' Adam said. ‘Ma said to be careful with knives. They cut.'

Alex closed her eyes. What was she thinking? What good would a knife do Adam? He couldn't hurt anyone.
You were touched by God,
Ma used to tell him when the town children had laughed at him and called him names. The Sparrows had taken him in when no-one else would have him.
You're one of His special children.
He was eighteen now, the same age as Vicky, but he was still a child. He would always be a child, and she had no right asking him to wield a knife.

‘Don't touch knives,' he said firmly as he looked down at the blade in his hand. ‘Don't touch the stove, it burns; don't touch the fire, it burns.'

There was a knock at the door. ‘Last chance to be neighbourly, Miss Barratt!'

‘Go to hell!'

‘Alex!' Alex heard the raw terror in her sister's voice at the exact moment she smelled the smoke. Victoria had opened the bedroom door to reveal a slow rolling cloud of smoke and the lick of orange flames. The bastard had set fire to the house!

‘Oh, little pigs!' Gideon called, his voice bright with laughter. ‘Open up or I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in!'

‘We're going to die!' The knife fell from Victoria's fingers and clattered to the floor.

‘No, we're not.' Alex shoved Victoria and Adam towards the ladder to the loft where Adam slept. ‘Climb,' she snapped. The smoke was rising and they coughed as they scurried upwards. As soon as they reached the narrow loft, Alex threw open the window. There was a big, old, black cherry tree growing close to the house.

‘You can't expect us to climb down that!' Victoria gasped.

‘Why not? We did it all the time when we were children. Out you go, Adam. Be careful. When you get to the bottom, run for cover in the woods. If we get separated, we'll meet at the old fishing spot.' She turned back to Victoria, as Adam disappeared down the tree. ‘Did you hear me?'

‘The old fishing spot, I heard.' Victoria coughed. ‘If I die climbing down that tree, I'll never forgive you.'

‘Fair enough.'

‘Alex?'

‘What?'

‘What if Bert and Travis are out there too? They might have circled the house.'

It
had
occurred to Alex that there were still two Grady brothers unaccounted for. But what choice did they have? They could hardly stay here and burn, could they? And walking straight into Gideon's arms wasn't an option. ‘I saw them heading into town earlier. They'll be out drinking all night,' she reassured Victoria, although she wasn't sure it was true. Gideon might have fetched them home after all the kerfuffle.

She heard the crackle of wood and winced. ‘Hurry, before the whole house goes up.' The two of them scrambled into the tree. Alex heard Victoria's shallow breathing. ‘Don't look down,' she counselled. By the time they reached the bottom the house was an orange blaze.

‘Oh, little pigs!' Gideon was coming around the house, his mad voice high and clear, even over the crackling of the fire.

Alex grabbed Victoria and they went belting towards the woods. And ran smack bang into Silas. Victoria screamed.

‘Shut up,' he growled, covering her mouth with his hand.

‘You let her go!' Alex shrieked, clawing at him.

‘Shut up the both of you, or he'll find us.' Silas's eyes widened suddenly and he went very still.

‘Adam!'

Her brother still had his knife, the tip of which was pricking Silas in the kidney. ‘Knives are sharp,' he said. ‘Knives cut.'

‘Spineless?' Gideon's voice was coming closer. ‘Have you caught a little pig?'

‘Let her go,' Alex hissed at Silas.

‘Let me help you,' he begged.

‘You?' she scoffed. ‘I'd sooner trust an alligator than a Grady.' Alex took the knife from Adam.

Silas regarded it with disdain. ‘That won't be any match for Gideon's shotgun.'

‘Run, Victoria. Take Adam and run.'

‘Where?' Victoria was wild-eyed with panic. ‘And what about you?'

‘If we leave him, he'll only come after us. Get away. I'll meet you at that place I mentioned.' She shooed them with her hand. ‘Go!'