Whispers on the Wind (20 page)

She longed to stop and rest
for a while. She was tired. It was as if all the problems resting
on her shoulders were crushing into her. She couldn’t hold her head
up. With that thought, she purposely straightened her back and
lifted her head, determined that she wouldn’t be beaten.

Suddenly, the peace in the
valley was broken by a horse’s whinny.

She heard
hoofbeats.

Twisting in the saddle, she
looked behind her and saw a lone rider headed toward her. He wore a
light-colored Stetson. Even at a distance, his identity was
unmistakable.

Carter!

Mary nudged her mount into
a full gallop. The wind whipped at her hair, and she had to shove
it out of her face to see. Then she glanced behind her again.
Carter was gaining ground. His mount was faster than
hers.

The ground began to
tremble, and Mary knew it had nothing to do with Carter, but she
wasn’t sure what the cause was. As she reached the top of the next
rise, she found the reason. She jerked her horse to an abrupt
stop.

A herd of buffalo was
stampeding toward them, and in a few minutes she would be directly
in their path. Her spooked horse reared, his hooves pawing the sky.
Mary tried to hold on but she lost her seating and fell to the
ground. There was no time to think as she scrambled to her feet.
She turned and started running toward Carter. Her horse was racing
that way, too. Of course, he didn’t stop when she called to him
since she didn’t know his name.

Panic threatened to cut off
her air supply, but Mary couldn’t stop because if she did, she’d be
trampled. She looked up and would have laughed if she could. She
was getting closer to Carter. Who would have thought she’d be
running toward the law instead of away?

But her choices, at the
moment, seemed slim. Carter would only shoot her—the buffalo would
kill her inch by inch.

Carter couldn’t believe
what he was seeing.

Not only was Mary running
toward him, there must be a thousand buffalo bearing down on her.
The woman seemed to court danger in everything she did.

This time, she’d bitten off
more than she could possibly chew.

He saw the black storm
clouds in the distance and realized what had spooked the
herd.

Mary didn’t stand a
chance.

Buffalo were faster than
horses, they could run longer than horses, and they never backed
down unless they were frightened. That was Carter’s only hope. He
had to scare them.

He didn’t stop his horse.
Instead, he looped the reins around the saddle horn and braced his
knees so he could get a good shot. Then he drew his Winchester
rifle and fired up into the air. Slowly, the herd began to shift
and run to the right of Mary.

For a moment, Carter
couldn’t see Mary for all the dust. He kept riding toward the point
where he’d last seen her. Finally, he saw her. He leaned down and
reached for her, yelling, “Give me your hand.”

She grabbed his forearm,
and Carter swung her up behind him, kicked his horse in the flanks,
and then took off after her mount now that the danger had
passed.

Carter felt Mary’s heavy
breathing on his back as she tried to catch her breath. He hated to
admit it, but it took a few minutes for his breathing to calm down,
too. That had been a close call. Mary easily could have been
killed, a thought that made him sick. But she was safe now, with
her arms wrapped tightly around him.

By the time they reached
her horse—or should she say Carter’s horse—Mary had quit shaking.
She had never run so fast in her life. Knowing she was going to be
trampled to death had given her wings. Somehow, she’d managed to
escape without a scratch. It reminded her of the time she had
almost drowned in the Missouri River. She looked heavenward. Maybe
somebody up there was watching out for her.

Carter stopped his horse,
then reached behind him and grabbed Mary’s arm to help her
dismount. She slid effortlessly to the ground. Mary started to
thank him for saving her life, but the look on Carter’s face
stopped her.

And he had yet to let go of
her arm.

She gazed up at
him.

He warned her with a voice
that gave her chills, “Don’t make me chase you again!” With that
remark he released her.

Mary actually didn’t know
what to say to him. After last night, when everything had been
wonderful, it had been hard enough. But today, nothing was the
same. She felt as if she were dreaming. Nothing had been normal for
her since Big Jim’s death. But she was determined to say something
to Carter or bust. Mary could see the disgust in his eyes, and she
didn’t like it She had to hang on to the slim hope that he might
listen to her.

“Is that all you have to
say?” Mary asked.

“There
is one more thing,” Carter said, shaking his head, “You’re under
arrest, Mary
Costner,
for the murder of Jim McCoy.”

Mary flinched at the
hardness in Carter’s eyes. So much for him listening to anything
she had to say. She could tell by looking at Carter that he’d
already made up his mind. She hadn’t been able to miss the way he’d
stressed her last name to reveal that he now knew who she was. Her
anger simmered as she glared at him.

How could he judge her when
he knew nothing at all about her?

Carter was so mule-headed
that he’d never listen to her side of the story. Mary drew a deep
breath and shook her head. Why should she waste her breath? She
jerked around and mounted her horse, determined not to say another
word to him.

But once she was seated,
she lost the battle with her mouth. “You’re not going to add horse
thief to the charges?”

Carter almost smiled, but
caught himself. He’d expected a river of tears. He’d expected her
to tell h
im
that
she hadn’t murdered her partner. That she was innocent He’d love to
know how many times he’d heard a crook utter those
words.

But Mary hadn’t said any of
that. Instead, that spirit of hers had kicked in, and Carter
realized that she would never plead or beg for mercy. And she would
always challenge him as she was doing now, so he said, “And horse
thief.”

They rode silently, side by
side, for a long time before Mary asked, “Does your mother know?”
“My mother is still very sick,” Carter drawled.

“And yes, she knows that
you are gone and is very upset that you ran out on her,
too.”

Mary glared at Carter.
“Only because I knew
you
wouldn’t listen.”

Carter grabbed her horse’s
bridle and stopped both their mounts. He had murder in his eyes as
he snapped, “What was there to listen to, Mary? More lies? You came
into our home and pretended you didn’t know who you were, and I
must say you were a damned good actress.” He saw the hurt in her
eyes, but then again, it could all be an act.

Carter had thought he knew
her, but he didn’t “What. You have nothing to say?” he
taunted.

“I was brought into your
home with little choice,” Mary shot back. “I wish the hell you’d
left me where you found me.”

“That makes two of us, my
dear.” Carter slid from his horse, then jerked Mary from hers. He
was so angry, he shook her, demanding, “Why did you lie to
me?”

Mary shoved against his
chest and shrugged her arms to get Carter to loosen his grip. Her
temper rose. She was tired of taking the blame for everything.
“Think hard, Carter,” Mary exploded. “Did I lie to you? I don’t
think so.” She paused for a moment, breathing hard. “I just never
told you the complete truth, and the reason I didn’t was because I
knew you would act exactly like you’re acting now,” she said in a
rush, having to get the words out as quickly as possible to keep
him from interrupting.

Then she went on, “You
don’t want the truth! You couldn’t handle it if it hit you right
between the eyes. You just need a prisoner to bring in so you can
say you’ve done your job. Because that is what a good lawman does,
isn’t it? He captures the bad guys. Or at least the ones he
thinks
are the bad
guys.”

Every word Mary threw at
Carter stung as if she’d slapped him. He was a damned good lawman
who went after the slimy lawbreakers who threatened good people.
How dare she challenge his motives!

Carter dragged Mary up
against his body and glared down at her. A cynical inner voice cut
through his thoughts.
Why do you let this
damned woman get under your skin?

But it was too
late.

The admission was dredged
from a place beyond logic and reason as his eyes raked boldly over
her, stopping at her eyes. They glistened with anger. He saw the
fire that made her who she was along with the passion smoldering
just beneath the surface.

And the next thing Carter
knew, he was kissing her. He wanted to punish Mary for making him
feel all the things he felt for her.

He’d made three mistakes in
his life.

The first one was letting
his sister remain in that wagon. He’d paid for that mistake.
Second, he’d picked this woman out of the snow. He was still paying
for that one. But his third mistake was making love to a woman who
could possibly hang for murder.

What would he do if they
hung Mary?

He wanted—hell, he didn’t
know what he wanted, and therein lay the problem.

Finally, Carter gentled his
kisses and kissed her with a fear that he’d never kiss her again.
He felt as if he were losing something very precious and there
wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it

Mary had made her mistake
when she’d taken someone else’s life. And, knowing this, he still
held her.

Thunder rumbled all around
them, but neither noticed until the first fat raindrops began to
fall.

Carter’s mouth seized hers,
stealing her breath and making Mary forget that he’d just arrested
her. It was raining harder now.

Neither of them
noticed.

All she could think about
was what had happened last night and how wonderful she’d felt in
Carter’s arms. Why couldn’t she have the one thing she
wanted?

And then she remembered Big
Jim’s words ...

“
Ah, gal, do you not realize how lovely you are
?
One day a man will
simply take your breath away, and then you You’ll be wanting to get
yourself hitched. ”

“I wouldn’t count on that,
Jim. But if there is someone, he’s going to have to be one hell of
a man to turn my head. ” Mary laughed. “ I’m pretty headstrong in
case you haven’t noticed. ”

Jim laughed.
“
He’s out there
somewhere, and I’ll bet when you first meet him, you won’t like him
one dang
bit
.
”

As Mary savored the wild
kisses, she now knew Jim’s words to be true. She didn’t like
Carter. Unfortunately for her, she loved him, and there wasn’t
anything she could do about it

Carter finally tore his
mouth away. For one unguarded moment, Mary thought she saw
something heartwarming in Carter’s eyes, before that hard mask
settled over his features again.

Carter didn’t know what the
devil he was doing. He was supposed to be arresting the woman, not
kissing the hell out of her. What was it about Mary that flamed his
desire until he couldn’t think logically? He was a trained lawman,
for Christ’s sake, but the minute he touched her, it was an
explosive combination that drove him beyond anything
logical.

He pushed her rain-soaked
hair from her face. “Tell me, was last night a lie, too?” Carter
asked.

She didn’t
answer.

He dropped his arms and
stepped away from her. Mary could feel his warmth leaving her body
as the rain plastered their clothes to them.

She stared back, trying to
show her defiance, but she couldn’t maintain it. Finally, Mary
broke down and cried. And then she hated herself for showing Carter
her weakness.

The damned man!

Mary wanted to hurt Carter
just as badly as he had hurt her. She had opened her heart and told
him how she felt but he’d offered her nothing in return. He only
wanted to think the worst, and now he wanted to use her to make him
feel more like a man.

Looking at him through
tears that blurred her vision, Mary said, “That is something you’ll
never know.”

The thunderstorm passed as
had their passion, and now they were both standing on the open
plain shivering with the cold the rain had brought. There seemed to
be an emptiness in both of them that neither of them knew how to
handle.

Then they remounted and
started back toward town. Cold, miserable, and lost in their own
thoughts, they passed the rest of the journey in
silence.

Mary felt the gulf between
them widening, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted that but there
wasn’t much she could do to change things. Carter was a marshal and
she was his prisoner. Nothing would change the fact that they were
enemies.