fought him furiously he pulled the horses in.
"What the hell's got into you, woman?" He scrambled for a hold as she shoved him aside and tried to jump out.
"Take your hands off me. I won't be handled this way."
"Handling you is a sight more work than I care for." He snatched his hand out of range before she could bite him. "Haven't you had enough scratching for one day? Sit down before you hurt yourself." "You want the blasted wagon, take it. I won't ride with you."
"You'll ride with me, all right." Out of patience, he twisted her into his lap and silenced her. She squirmed and pushed and held herself as rigid as iron.
Then she melted. He felt the give, slow, easy, inevitable. In her. In himself. As her lips parted for his, he forgot about keeping her quiet and just took what he kept trying to tell himself he couldn't have.
"You pack a punch, Duchess." He drew her away to rub a hand over his chin. "In a lot of ways. You want to tell me what that was for?"
She pulled away, furious that she'd gone soft with just one kiss. "For assuming that I was jealous and would fight over any worthless man."
"So now I'm worthless. Well, that may be, but you seem to like having me around."
She did her best to straighten what was left of her dress. "Perhaps I do."
He needed to know it more than he'd imagined.
Jake took her chin in his hand and turned her to face him. "You change your mind?"
Again she softened, this time because she saw the doubt in his eyes. "No, I haven't changed my mind." She drew a long breath. "Even though you didn't come back and you've been to the Silver Star to see Carlotta."
"You sure do hear things. Can't imagine what you'd know if you lived closer to town. Stay in the wagon." He recognized the look in her eye by now.
"Stay in the wagon, Sarah, until I get my horse tied on. I'll just catch you again if you run."
"I won't run." She brought her chin up again and stared straight ahead. When he'd joined her again, she continued her silence. Jake clucked to the horses and started off.
"I like to know why a woman's mad at me. Why don't you tell me how you know I've been to Carotta's?"
"Alice told me."
"Alice Johnson?"
"That's right. Your friend Carlotta nearly beat her to death."
He brought the horses up short. "What?"
Her fury bounded back and poured over him. "You heard what I said. She beat that poor girl as cruelly as anyone can be beaten. Eh' helped Alice get out of town. Then she walked the rest of the way to my place."
"Is she going to be all right?"
"With time and care."
"And you're going to give it to her?"
"Yes." Her eyes dared him. "Do you have any objections?"
"No." He touched her face, gently, in a way that was new to him. Abruptly he snatched his hand back and snapped the reins again.' 'You went into the Silver Star to have it out with Carlotta over Alice."
"I've never been so furious." Sarah lifted a hand to where Jake had touched her. " Alice is hardly more than a child. No matter what she did, she didn't deserve that kind of treatment."
"Did she tell you why Carlotta did it?"
"She didn't seem to know, only that she must have made some kind of mistake. Alice did say that Carlotta was in a temper after you had been there."
He said nothing for a moment as he put the pieces together. "And she took it out on Alice."
"Why did you go? Why did you go to Carlotta? If there's something you..." She hadn't any idea how to phrase it properly. "If I don't know enough about your needs... I realize I don't have any experience in these matters, but I-" She found her mouth crushed again in a kiss that was half hungry, half angry. "There's never been anyone else who's known so much about what I need."
He watched her face clear into a smile. "I went to see Carlotta to tell her I don't care much for having my name used as a reference."
"So she took it out on Alice, because Alice was the one who'd come to talk to me." Sarah shook her head and tried not to let her temper take over again. "Alice only told me what Carlotta wanted her to tell me. It didn't work the way she'd