Free The Outlaw and the Lady by Lorraine Heath Page A

bored, we have many miles to travel, and I like the gentleness of your voice.”
    She shook her head slightly and he thought she would say nothing, but then she spoke with afondness riddled with sadness. “He wasn’t a man. He was a boy.”
    A boy. Unwarranted relief coursed through him. “Did you lose him long ago?”
    “Yes, but it seems like yesterday. Since I was older, I’d watch him whenever we visited his family. I have sisters, but he was special.”
    “What happened?”
    She released a deep, shuddering sigh. “We were playing hide and seek. He went to hide and I counted to a hundred. I heard horses. Then his cry. Just one cry. Renegades took him. I saw them…and then I hid, afraid they’d see me and take me, too.”
    “It is good that you hid.”
    She sat up straighter. “You don’t you understand. I did nothing to stop them, nothing to save him. Three days later Uncle Kit found the remains of his bloodied clothes.”
    He furrowed his brow. “Kit Montgomery?”
    She nodded. “His son. I lost his son.”
    The deep anguish in her voice cut into his heart like the rusty blade of a knife. “You did not lose him.”
    “Yes, I did,” she insisted. “I was supposed to watch him.”
    “You were a child—”
    “I was nine. Old enough to take care of him. Three years later, when I became ill and lost my sight, I thought…” Her voice trailed off as though the thoughts were too unbearable to say aloud.
    “Thought what?” he prodded.
    “That God was punishing me for losing him.”
    He tightened his hold on her. “No one was punishing you.”
    “But if I’d been watching him more closely—”
    “It was a horrible thing, but you were not responsible.”
    She scoffed. “How could you possibly understand? You don’t know the meaning of responsibility. I don’t even know why I told you so much. Maybe because I’m extremely tired.”
    He cradled her face and pressed it into the nook of his shoulder. “Then sleep, señorita .”
    “Now, you know why Kit Montgomery will be relentless in his pursuit,” she mumbled. “He completely understands the pain my parents now face.”
    In all his readings on Montgomery, he’d never read of a lost son, although the man revealed nothing of his family. No doubt the Ranger was cautious and understood that he might endanger those he loved if he gave away too much information.
    Long minutes passed before Lee felt Angela grow limp against him and drift into an indulgence he no longer had the luxury of experiencing. He could not remember the last time he had slept soundly…if he ever had.
    His dreams had been riddled with demons long before the night Shelby had attacked his family. Although the nightmares had worsened since the assault, they had always shadowed his dreams. He’d never been able to determine whathad provoked them. He only knew that he dreaded their arrival because he was powerless against the images they evoked…and always after they’d passed and he had awoken, to his shame, he’d discovered his face damp with tears.
     
    “Damn it!” Raven spat.
    Angela sat up straighter in the saddle. He’d brought the horse to a halt at what she felt certain was the summit of a rise. In the past few days, he seemed to be stopping more frequently, glancing over his shoulder, growing increasingly tense with each mile they covered. “What is it?” she asked.
    “One has broken away from the pack, and he has a very fast horse.”
    “His horse only has the burden of one rider,” she pointed out unnecessarily. “Yours has two. You can’t possibly stay ahead. Leave me—”
    “No!”
    “How close is he?”
    “An hour, perhaps less,” he bit out.
    “Then leave me. For God’s sake, leave me. I’ll be all right for that short bit of time.”
    “I don’t know this man who follows us.”
    “Neither do I.” She fought back the tears of anger and frustration. She would not cry. God help her, she would not cry. “But I don’t want to be here! I don’t