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Midnight Star (Star Quartet 2)

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He didn’t give her a chance to retort. Once she was wearing the skirt and blouse Chatca had bartered for her, he took her outside onto the planked and sagging porch.

He spread out the bedroll and helped her sit down, her back propped against the shack wall. “You will not move from this spot, all right?”

“I promise, master.”

“If you need to relieve yourself, I will be back soon to help you.”

“Must you mention things like that?”

He straightened, standing tall and large over her, his rifle snug under his right arm. “Since I know your body as well as I know my own, I can’t understand your missish quibbling.”

“Well, then, it must work both ways!”

“Does it now?” he drawled. “Next time I’m too ill to see to myself, I’ll consider asking your aid.”

“One of these fine days, Del, I’m going to have the last word on you!”

He merely laughed, waved his hand at her, and strode away from the shack into the forest.

Chauncey leaned her head back against the rough wooden wall and closed her eyes. The sun felt wonderful. Petals, she thought, and smiled reluctantly. He was everything she could imagine wanting in a man. And she had almost lost him.

Paul Montgomery. Where was he? Had Delaney’s men found him yet? She fought down the spurt of fear. Think about what has happened between the two of you, she thought, and a contented smile came to her lips. It seemed quite natural to be in the middle of nowhere, garbed in tattered and worn clothes, waiting to hear the retort of Delaney’s rifle, signaling he’d shot their dinner. Like Adam and Eve, she thought fancifully, and closed her eyes. Yet, she thought as she drifted into sleep, there had been a serpent in the Garden of Eden.

Her dreams were harsh and frightening. She was standing in the middle of Delaney’s warehouse, surrounded by crackling loud fireworks, and as they exploded around her, she saw Paul Montgomery emerge through a thick veil of smoke. He was smiling at her. Behind him stood Chatca, his face covered with blood.

She screamed, jerking upright.

“Hush, love.”

“Del!” She turned wild eyes to her husband, who was hunkered down beside her. “It was awful!”

“Just a nightmare.” He was lightly stroking her face. “Here I give you a bath and make you presentable again, and it brings you a bad dream.”

“I saw Chatca,” she said, drawing a deep breath. “His face was covered with blood. And Paul Montgomery was there, looking kind and gentle.” She shuddered. “Why was Chatca with Paul Montgomery?”

His expression never altered. “They both threaten you, each in a different way. Your weak woman’s mind simply put them together for simplicity’s sake.”

“I should have known you’d mock me!”

“That’s better,” he said, and kissed the tip of her nose. “Now, I’m going to bring the horses around and give them a good rubdown. Consider it the high point of your exciting day.”

“No,” she said impishly, “the high point happened earlier, much earlier.”

He gave her a slow, intimate smile. “You mean your bath?”

“Yes, of course,” she agreed readily, her eyes as guileless as a child’s. “There is nothing else I can think of.”

“At the time, I don’t believe you were thinking at all.” He lightly kissed her pursed lips. “No, love, don’t say it. It is obviously your fate to have the second-to-last word.”

The afternoon passed much too quickly for Chauncey’s liking. She knew that their days and nights together were out of time, that despite her wounded shoulder, for the first time in their married life they were enjoying a honeymoon of sorts. She didn’t want it to end, though she did swallow a bit convulsively when she saw Delaney plucking the pheasant he’d shot for their dinner.

“You are so bloody likeable,” she said suddenly as he rose, his task finished, and brushed stray feathers off his buckskins.

“You would prefer that I beat you?”

“No,” she said seriously, squinting up at him. “I mean that I was so caught up in my vengeance, I was blind to what you were really like. At least,” she added, “for a while.”

His brows arched upward.



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