Free Compromised Hearts by Hannah Howell Page B

you?”
    “Of course I do and I must say, it surprises me that he would take up with such a prim miss from the east. You can’t possibly give him what he needs.” She smiled with sweet remembrance. “He’s all man.”
    “Every inch of him.” A double entendre, Emily thought with surprise. I have just uttered my first double entendre. She wondered if she was learning a little too much from Cloud. “I believe you’re trying to tell me that you’ve known Mr. Ryder very well indeed.”
    “Very well indeed. I have been his lover for years. No woman could know him as well as I do.”
    “Oh, I think I may have collected an idea or two. I think you’d best turn your interests elsewhere. Cloud seems very slow to come to the sticking point and you aren’t getting any younger.”
    Pamela glared at her. “No woman in her right mind would give up a man like Cloud Ryder. So strong, so well-formed.”
    “Oh, quite. I particularly like his right leg.”
    “What?”
    Cloud stopped just short of the two women, feeling as surprised as Pamelasounded. Then he started to smile. Emily was feeling the effects of the punch. Recalling how she was after a few drinks of beer he wondered, with an inner laugh, if it might be a kindness to warn Pamela.
    “His right leg.” A small part of Emily reeled in shock and cried out in dismay over the way she was talking, but she was enjoying herself too much to heed it. “It is quite perfect, you know. I do not believe I have ever seen a man with a more perfect right leg.”
    Gritting her teeth, Pamela hissed, “You’re trying to make a fool of me, but I won’t stand for it. I suggest you find another way to travel and another man to take you.”
    “You mean, leave that beautiful right leg behind? Oh, I don’t know if I could do that.”
    Since Pamela looked very close to striking Emily, Cloud decided he had best put a stop to the meeting. “Emily.”
    To her consternation, when Emily looked at Cloud she felt color heat her cheeks. It was one thing to be outrageous before a woman who annoyed her, quite another to have her slightly scandalous talk heard by a man, particularly the man she was talking scandously about. She heartily wished he would stop grinning so.
    “Kind of you to keep Em company, Pamela, but we’re headed back to the cabin now.” Cloud took Emily by the hand and urged her to her feet. “Tell James when you get back inside.” He watched Pamela flounceback inside and shook his head. “Sorry about that, Em.”
    “I believe I grow accustomed. My evening is over, is it?” The fresh air having done little to dispel the effects of the heady punch, Emily decided she would not complain.
    “Quite,” he murmured in teasing imitation of her way of speech. Then he picked her up in his arms.
    “I can walk,” she gasped as he strode off across the compound and she put her arms around his neck in a natural reaction to being off the ground.
    “I know.”
    “Then why are you carrying me?”
    “Let’s call it a whim.”
    She blushed and hid her face in his neck when they entered the cabin to face the young girl Cloud had found to watch over Thornton. Emily was sure her name would be on everyone’s lips by morning. Cloud seemed determined to make her a scandal. She sighed. By traveling with him as she was, she was no doubt already a scandal so there was no point in worrying over his occasional outrageousness.
    Setting her down on her feet in the bedroom, Cloud moved to shut the door. “Now why are you frowning?”
    “I’m frowning?”
    “You were.”
    He sat down on the bed and tugged off his boots, watching her closely as she started to ready herself for bed. She looked every inchthe fine lady in her rich blue gown, her hair done in what he assumed was the latest fashion back east. The major had had no difficulty in recognizing Emily for what she was—a young, well-bred lady caught up in circumstances beyond her control. Cloud supposed he ought to feel guilty about what