As she was sitting there, lost in thought, she was oblivious to the sounds that were coming from behind her. When she did hear them, she was almost paralyzed, realizing that it was probably Françoise’s gang that had at last found them. Very slowly, she turned to look up the hill.

What she saw more than paralyzed her. Coming down the hill were two big black bears—and they were heading toward her.

No one had ever moved faster. Blair shot up and started running before her feet were firmly on the ground. She was at the cabin before she glanced over her shoulder and saw that the bears weren’t behind her. Cautiously, she stopped and looked around. There were only the sounds of the forest and no sign of the bears. Curious, she walked to a tree at the edge of the clearing and looked back up the hill. Ordinarily, she would have run to safety, but part of her remembered that she was in the midst of a game with Leander and she couldn’t give it away by running into his arms now.

Very slowly, she crept back up the hill, always checking that the way behind her was clear. If the bears were lurking somewhere, she wanted to know about it so she could tell Lee.

About ten feet from where she had been sitting, and only a few yards from the cabin, was a small cave, and from the tracks around it, Blair thought that it must have been used by generations of bears.

“So that’s why the cabin is abandoned,” she murmured and started down the hill. It was nearly sunset and she had to pretend to give Lee the drug that was to make him sleep.

Later, she thought that she’d done it all very well, and she doubted if even Lee had seen her put the headache powder in his coffee—but she’d made sure that Françoise had. For a moment, she’d been tempted to put a little ipecac into his drink after she’d seen Lee looking at Françoise when he thought no one was watching him.

Within minutes after Lee had drunk the coffee that had been heated on the tiny fire he’d made behind the cabin, Lee was yawning and saying that he had to sleep. After several minutes of telling Blair how to guard the prisoner, he went into the other room, and they could hear him fall onto the dirty little cot.

Françoise looked at Blair in such a way that Blair wanted to cut the woman loose and challenge her to a fistfight. But, instead, she checked the woman’s bindings.

“At least, he won’t be spending the night with you,” Blair said. “I’m going to sleep.” She looked the Frenchwoman up and down as she was tied to the pole. “I hope you’re comfortable.”

“And what if I escape? How will you explain that to him?”

“With relish,” Blair answered. “What do I care what you do as long as you’re away from my husband? Besides, I learned a few things about knots in medical school. You won’t get out of those so quickly.”

Blair went into the other room, and she thought how Lee had been right, that Françoise was extraordinarily careful of her life. How many prisoners asked permission before trying to escape?

A quick check of the cot and she saw that Lee had already sneaked out of the cabin through the open window. Blair made a pile of blankets that she hoped would look like a body and went out the window after him.

She walked for several minutes, but she heard nothing. He seemed to have disappeared. She was heading east, the cabin at her back, and, she hoped, toward where Lee was going. Of course, he hadn’t seen fit to tell her any of his plans, but she guessed this might be the direction he’d be taking, for whatever he planned to do. She hid when she heard a sound behind her.

“All right, come out of there.”

She heard the voice, and it sounded like Lee’s, but it wasn’t the voice he used with her. It had a hard, metallic sound to it—and it was accompanied by

the clicking of the hammer of a gun being pulled back. With a sheepish look, Blair stepped out of her hiding place.

Muttering a curse, Lee reholstered his gun. “Why aren’t you at the cabin where I left you? Why aren’t you guarding that woman?”

“I wanted to know where you were going.”

“Not to meet another woman. Now, go back to the cabin. I have some unfinished business to attend to, and I don’t have much time, and I can’t do anything with you around.”

“If you’re not meeting someone else, then where are you going? I thought we were supposed to wait for—.”

“What do I have to do? Tie you up, too?”

“Then I was right. You are somehow involved with those robbers and that woman. Or else you could tell me where you’re going. Oh, Leander, how could you?” She started to turn away, but he caught her arm and spun her around.

“All right, I’ll tell you! The Inexpressible Mine is less than a mile from here, and I plan to sneak down the back side, break into the explosives shed, steal some dynamite and blow the end of that canyon up. I can’t get all of them, but I can trap most of that gang inside the canyon—especially if I use their lady-leader as bait.”

Blair blinked several times, then took a step toward him, her eyes glistening. “It’ll take less time if you just take me with you.” Before he could speak, she continued. “I can help. I can climb. I almost climbed out of the canyon where the robbers held me. Please, please, Leander.” She grabbed him and began kissing his neck and face. “I’ll obey you and never get in your way, and if anybody gets hurt, I’ll thread the needles for you.”

Leander knew he was a beaten man. “I didn’t know when I was well off with a dull, obedient lady like Houston,” he said under his breath, as he started walking at a quick pace.

Blair bit her tongue to keep from telling him that her sister secretly drove a huckster wagon into the mine camps. Instead, she just smiled back at him and began to follow him through the dark forest toward the mine.

Chapter 23

Leander set such a hard pace down the mountainside that Blair almost wished she hadn’t gone with him. She could be safe now, asleep, instead of half falling down the dark, steep cliff. Twice, she skidded down on her back, but managed to catch herself before she fell too far. Lee seemed to be saying that since she’d been fool enough to want to come with him, she had to look out for herself.

Tags: Jude Deveraux Montgomery/Taggert Historical
Source: readsnovelonline.net