Free Heart of Thunder by Johanna Lindsey Page A

this charade, and then he would speak seriously to her. After that, there would be no more nonsense. He would not allow it. Once he asked her to marry him —Dios! Yes, he realized that he was thinking of doing just that.

Chapter 9
    T HE settlement called Elizabethtown had been established in 1868, two years after gold was found in creeks and gulches around Baldy Mountain. Thousands of miners had come to the area in the last few years, and more were still coming. Buildings rose continuously. They were mostly ramshackle wooden huts, but more than a hundred were already standing—stores, saloons, dance halls, hotels, even a drugstore.
    The coach had made good time and rolled into town in the late afternoon of February 18th. Adrien was infected by the raw, bustling activity of the place and could not wait until the next day to rent a horse and head out for the Moreno Valley. He left Jeannette alone with all their luggage and the supplies.
    Poor Jeannette was dazed. She couldn’t understand Adrien’s wild enthusiasm, nor was she used to depending on herself, for Adrien usually took care of everything.
    Samantha quickly took charge, and Jeannette gratefully let her. Samantha found a cheap hotel and arranged for the Allstons’ things to be carted over there. She intended to stay there, as well. She didn’t like it, but she wouldn’t consider leaving Jeannette alone while Adrien was away.
    Before they left the stage office, Hank Chavez approached them. Samantha grew tense, but he surprised her.
    “ Señoritas .” He tipped his hat to them both, then said gallantly, “Your company has turned what wouldhave been a most tedious journey into a pleasurable one.”
    Samantha nodded. “You are kind to say so.”
    “Perhaps we will see each other again before I leave,” Hank continued, his eyes on Samantha.
    “Perhaps,” she replied evasively.
    He smiled. “If not, I bid you adiós now, Samantha. Señorita Allston.”
    He tipped his hat again and was suddenly gone. Samantha stared after him. She was relieved, yet she felt something else as well, something she couldn’t define. He did understand, she told herself. By calling her Samantha, he was saying he understood. And he was completely gracious about it, as she had hoped he would be. In fact, she thought, he had given up a bit too easily.
    “He certainly was a nice gentleman—considering,” Jeannette remarked.
    “Yes, he was.”
    “And he was certainly taken with you, chérie .”
    “Not…not really,” Samantha replied uneasily.
    “Ah, you did not like him then?” Jeannette continued. “I do not blame you. He was not a very appealing man.”
    “What do you mean?” Samantha asked sharply. “He was very handsome.”
    Jeannette was shocked. “ Mon Dieu! You are being too kind, chérie . The man was much too dark. Too…how can I explain? Rugged looking, too dangerous. He would make a terrible lover.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “He would be too aggressive, too demanding. The rugged ones are always demanding.”
    Samantha’s eyes snapped green fire. “Do you speak from experience?” she asked cuttingly, angered.
    “ Oui, chérie ,” Jeannette replied evenly, then walked away, leaving Samantha staring after her in surprise.
     
    It was late that evening when Adrien returned andfound Jeannette and Samantha at the hotel. He was excited, full of prospects for the next day. He had received a great deal of advice from miners who already had claims staked, advice about where he was likely to find gold. He found no gold the next day, but his enthusiasm was not dampened. On the third day he found a few nuggets of gold near a dry creek bed and immediately staked a claim. He returned to town only to file the claim and to fetch supplies, then headed back toward the valley.
    Jeannette and Samantha went with him that day so that they would be able to find him in the future, for he would live out there in the valley. Jeannette was worried. It was the middle of