thought you said your mother died when Evelyn was married. Are you telling me you're younger than Daniel?"
Mischief glinted in her eyes as she replied, "Evelyn's mother was the only mother we ever knew. Evelyn was only fifteen when she married."
Without waiting to see how this outrageous lie went down, Evie turned her feet toward the stairs and Daniel. She had no obligation to tell Tyler Monteigne anything. Heaven only knew, he was as much a liar as she was, more so for all she knew. Her stories didn't harm anyone. His story had landed her in the same bedroom with him.
Tyler caught her elbow before she could make the first step. "What does Evie stand for?"
"Evergreen." Snatching her elbow away, she descended in front of him, leaving Tyler to hang over the railing and watch her go rather than be put in the position of running after her.
What difference did it make to him if she lied through her pretty teeth? He'd said he'd escort her to Mineral Springs. That task didn't require that he know anything at all about Maryellen Evergreen Peyton.
But instinct told Tyler she was big trouble.
* * *
His instincts were rewarded when they reached New Orleans and one of the passengers decided Evie would make an excellent addition to his bordello and attempted to carry her off. Tyler arrived in time to watch her feign a dramatic faint, trip the cad, and push him off the gangplank into the filthy waters of the river, to the cheers of everyone on the dock. He almost considered cheering himself, if he didn't feel quite so sorry for the idiot who had fallen for Miss Peyton's all too obvious allures.
Before Evie could sing a song and pass the hat to her audience, Tyler grabbed her arm and dragged her back aboard. Even Daniel managed to look relieved when he saw his sister firmly taken in hand.
"Your concern for my well-being overwhelms me, Mr. Monteigne," Evie murmured as he hauled her upstairs. "Where were you when that son of a female dog was trying to press chloroform over my face?"
"Son of a female dog?" Tyler couldn't help his lips from twitching as he figured out the reference. Maryellen Peyton might be a liar par none, but she was a lady right down to the point of her little tongue. And speaking of tongues, he very much wanted to taste hers, and he saw no reason why he shouldn't. He'd stayed out every night since they had left Mississippi so she could have her beauty rest undisturbed. It was her own damned fault that he'd been asleep when the boat docked.
Jerking her into a doorway, out of sight of the crowd hurrying to disembark, Tyler claimed payment for his fortitude. He pulled Maryellen into his arms and bent his head to taste her sweet lying lips again. She fit perfectly into his embrace, her breasts pressing just where they ought to against his chest, her waist neatly cinched by his hands. Her lips were soft and inviting, and he drank deeply of their heady nectar until he pressed too far, and she bit his lip and pulled away.
"I don't need to be molested by the man who is supposed to protect me. If you can't do any better than this, sir, you may stay here in New Orleans and we'll go on without you."
Evie brushed past him and stalked toward the stateroom with Tyler following close behind, cursing every sway of her cute little rump.
"Damnation, Daniel, if you don't keep her under lock and key, I will," Tyler shouted when the lad limped into his path, cutting off his access to Evie.
Daniel watched his sister's irate back as she kept on going. "If I could keep her under lock and key, we wouldn't be here now. That's your job."
"Fine, if that's my job, don't complain when I do it." Inexplicably as irritated with himself as he was with the impossible Peytons, Tyler skirted around Daniel and went after Evie.
When he caught up with her, he dragged her kicking and protesting into the stateroom, slammed the door, and trapped her against the wall with a hand on either side of her head.
Evie bit her tongue and forced her fury and fear back into their cages. She hoped her eyes weren't as wild as Tyler's right now. She had never been so frightened in her life as she'd been when she'd realized she'd been about to be chloroformed. She was doing everything