“A what?” she demanded.
“A billionaire.”
“You’re a—?” She didn’t know whether to laugh or kick him in the ribs. She couldn’t conceive of the amount of money he was talking about. “You’re rich, so you think I came up here to . . . to get your money?”
He was beginning to recover as he pulled himself up to sit heavily on a chair. “Why else would you be here?”
“Because you asked for a nurse,” she shot at him. “You hired me.”
“I’ve heard that story before.”
She stood looking down at him, glaring, more angry than she’d ever before been. “Mr. Taggert, you may have a great deal of money, but when it comes to being a human being, you are penniless.”
She didn’t think about what she was doing, that she was in the Rocky Mountains and had no idea how to get back to civilization. She just grabbed her sweater from the back of the couch and walked out of the cabin.
Still raging in anger, she followed a bit of a trail, but she didn’t look where she was going.
Not even Leslie had ever made her as angry as this man just had. Leslie lied to her and manipulated her at every chance, but he’d never accused her of being indecent.
She went uphill and down, unaware of the growing dark. One minute it seemed to be sunny and warm, and the next moment it was pitch-dark and freezing. Putting on her sweater didn’t help at all.
“Are you ready to return?”
When the man spoke, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Whirling about, she could barely see him standing hidden amid the trees.
“I don’t think I will return to the cabin,” she said. “I’m going back to Denver.”
“Yes, of course. But Denver is that way.” He pointed in the direction opposite to the way she was walking.
She wanted to keep some of her pride. “I wanted to . . . to get my suitcase.” She looked from one side to the other for a moment, then charged straight ahead.
“Ahem,” he said, then pointed over his right shoulder.
“All right, Mr. Taggert,” she said, “you’ve won. I haven’t a clue where I am or where I’m going.”
He took two steps around her and parted some bushes
with his hand, and there, about a hundred yards in front of her, was the cabin. Light glowed softly and warmly from the windows. She could almost feel the warmth of the fire.
But she turned away, toward the path leading to Denver, and started walking.
“And where do you think you’re going?”
“Home,” she said, just as she stumbled over a tree root in the trail. But she caught herself and didn’t fall. With her back straight, she kept walking.
He was beside her in moments. “You’ll freeze to death out here. If a bear doesn’t get you first, that is.”
She kept walking.
“I am ordering you to—”
Halting, she glared up at him. “You have no right to order me to do anything. No right at all. Now, would you please leave me alone? I want to go home.” To her horror, her voice sounded full of tears. She’d never been able to sustain anger for very long. No matter what Leslie did to her, she couldn’t stay angry for more than a short time.
Straightening her shoulders, she again started walking.
“Could I hire you as my cook-housekeeper?” he said from behind her.
“You couldn’t pay me enough to work for you,” she answered.