Legend (Legend, Colorado 1)

As they rode away, Kady twisted about so she could see the boys, and raising one hand, she kissed her fingertips and sent the kiss to them. “I love you,” she shouted back but wasn’t sure they heard her, but she continued waving until the road bent and she could no longer see them

Tightening her arms about Tarik’s waist, she pressed her head against his back and held on as he led the horse past the cemetery down the road that led to the Hanging Tree. She wanted to ask him about Wendell, sprawled across the front of the horse, still apparently unconscious, but they were traveling too fast to talk.

By the time they reached the foot of the mountain, the horse was straining from the weight of three people on its back, and halfway up, Tarik dismounted and began leading the animal, traveling as fast as he could.

“Is she all right?” Kady asked, a bit concerned because Wendell still hadn’t stirred. The big woman was now belly down in the saddle, which had to be an improvement over having the pommel in her stomach, and Kady was straddling the horse’s rump.

“Fine,” Tarik said tersely as he pulled the reins to make the horse go over some loose rock.

“Did she have an accident?”

“Yeah, she met the end of my fist,” Tarik said, his jaw rigid.

“Oh,” Kady said, then looked at him with a grimace. “Are you going to make me tear every word out of you? What happened?!”

“Wendell wanted to stay, that’s what. She likes a time period when men wear six-shooters on their hips. She said that they were real men as opposed to stockbrokers and bankers, who weren’t real at all.”

“So you hit her,” Kady said softly.

“Don’t you give me a look like that!” Tarik snapped. “Knocking her out was the only way I knew to get her to return. As I know from past experience, she never listens to reason, so it was no use trying to talk to her, so I did what I had to.”

Kady wouldn’t have thought that anything could make her have sympathy for Wendell, but now she did. She knew too well what it was like to want to be somewhere you couldn’t be.

When they reached the rocks with the petroglyphs, there was the opening back into the Legend of the twentieth century. Without pausing, Tarik led them, horse and all, through the opening, and they came out in exactly the place where they entered, except that it was a hundred years later.

Tarik helped Kady dismount, then pulled Wendell down from the saddle. She was waking up, and when she saw Tarik, she started struggling.

“Damn you!” she shouted. “I liked it there. I fit in with those people. I—”

“You don’t belong there,” Tarik said calmly, holding her firmly about the waist and moving his head to one side when she tried to claw his face. “You don’t know what kind of damage you could do to history if you stayed. And there are diseases but no hospitals and—”

“Shut up,” she screamed. “Just shut up.” With that the energy seemed to leave Wendell’s body, and she bent forward and began to cry.

Tarik released her, then went to the horse. Kady had been watching Wendell so intently that she hadn’t noticed that the doorway into the past was still open, but Tarik had as he smacked the horse’s rump and sent the animal back to its owner. “Are you two ready to go?”

Later, Kady didn’t know why she did what she did, but she’d learned that that doorway had a mind of its own. When she was the one supposed to go through, it opened for her. But later, when Tarik was to go through, it only opened for him. Now they had returned, the horse had gone back to its own time period, and by all rights, the door should have closed. But instead it stood wide open, gaping, as though it wanted something else—or someone else, Kady thought.

Tarik had planted himself between the desolate Wendell and the doorway, and he was obviously waiting for both women to start down the mountain so he could follow. Kady could see that he wasn’t going to so much as blink until Wendell was away from that open doorway.

Turning, Kady started down the path, but as she did so she passed Wendell and surreptitiously gave her hair a hearty tug. Kady had to give it to Wendell, because she didn’t yelp and let Tarik know what Kady had done. Instead, Wendell looked up at Kady in question, and in the next second Kady took a tumble that sent her rolling down the path. As expected, Tarik came running after her, and when he caught her, they both looked up to see Wendell diving through the doorway. And the instant she was through, the doorway closed with a solid thunk.

Instantly, Tarik knew that Kady had helped Wendell escape, and he turned to her with a face ready to bawl her out. But when he saw Kady’s look of defiance, he lost his anger and, instead, shook his head in exasperation. “Are you going to defy me at every opportunity?”

“Of course.”

“Good,” he said, then put his arms around her and kissed her. “Was it true?” he whispered. “Or did I imagine all of it?”

“I don’t know. I think we should go see what Legend is like now to see if anything has changed.”

“No, I don’t mean that,” he said softly. “I meant about us. Still want to marry me?”

“Yes, with all my heart.”

“No second thoughts? Not even about . . . about . . .”

He didn’t seem able to say the words, but she knew whom he meant. “About Cole?”