Dorothy Garlock

Burr stared at her,

then moved his eyes

slowly over her body.

“You know,” he said, “you’d make a right pert woman if you’d get some flesh over your bones. We like our women strong and healthy out here.”

“Like your horses,” she retorted sharply.

“Exactly.” He sauntered into the room and sat down.

She turned her back to him and continued to work. “I’m not interested in your opinion of me. All I want from you is your cooperation in arranging our departure.”

“It’s not likely you and your sister will be leaving . . . Johanna. I’m sure you’ll realize that shortly.”

“If you don’t wish to help us, I’ll speak to Luis.”

Suddenly he was out of the chair and there behind her. If he touched her she knew she’d fly into a thousand pieces.

“Johanna,” he said, “I’ve decided to wed you. I’m no prize, being a bastard, but you’re no prize either, being the headstrong shrew that you are. We should fit well together.”

Johanna barely managed to check the urge to hit him with the pan she was washing.

Damn, damn, damn him! she thought. I wish we had never come to this godforsaken place!

*  *  *

“The undisputed grand mistress of the frontier novel.”

—Romantic Times

“The Louis L’Amour of the romance novelists.”

—Beverly Hills Courier

A
LSO BY
D
OROTHY
G
ARLOCK

Annie Lash

Dream River

Lonesome River

Restless Wind

River of Tomorrow

Wayward Wind

Wild Sweet Wilderness

Wind of Promise

Midnight Blue

Nightrose

Homeplace

Ribbon in the Sky

P
UBLISHED BY

W
ARNER
B
OOKS

To Adam—

for being wonderful

and always loving

E
yes wild with shock, Johanna fought the hands that held her. She saw the trees swaying, dancing; the shadowy figures moving slowly in the glow of the raging fire. Twisting around, she saw tears glistening on the cheeks of the black man who held her in his great muscled arms.

“We can’t help ’em, missy,” he whispered. “We can’t do nothin’ but hide ’n’ pray.”

Johanna was no match for the old man’s strength as he held her fiercely against him, his callused hand clamped over her mouth. Her father lay dead in the yard and her stepmother lay nearby, the flames from the burning cabin already licking at her body.

“I’d’a gone to hep yore daddy if’n not fer keepin’ you still, missy,” Eli whispered. “Yore daddy would’a wanted me to keep you still. Them is bad men, missy. They do terrible bad things to white gals.”

Hysteria spread through Johanna’s brain like a writhing serpent, wholly engulfing her, when her sister was dragged out of the darkness, stripped naked, and thrown on the ground.

“Yo’ can’t do nothin’, missy. You can’t hep her. Oh, Lordy! Be still—”

“Spead yore legs,
puta
! Don’t ya die on me!”

Johanna heard the heavily accented voice, and watched in frozen terror the humping body of the man on the top of her sister, and saw the three blood-crazed men waiting their turn on the slight, thrashing body.

Jacy screamed as the man entered her, plunging, pushing, with knifelike jabs and jerks that shook her whole body. Johanna prayed her sister would sink into merciful unconsciousness, but each time she seemed to be drifting away, one of the black-clad renegades gave her a resounding slap in the face, bringing her back, making her aware of what they were doing to her.