Free Renegade Bride by Barbara Ankrum Page A

you pull a stunt like this!"
    Mariah stared at him, knowing in her heart he was half-right about what she'd done. "I said I was sorry. But while we're laying our cards on the table, let's be honest here. You left me little choice, running off in the dark the way you did. Why, you didn't even have the nerve to tell me you were going."
    "What good would it have done?" he asked evenly.
    Her fingernails bit into the palms of her fists. "You think I should have stayed behind with Hattie and her husband, cowering there like some mouse afraid of her own shadow? Well, you're wrong—"
    "Even mice know how to keep away from cats," he replied pointedly.
    She narrowed her eyes. "Fine. I don't need you. I'll find someone else to take me. If you're not there to intimidate them with that miniature cannon of yours—"
    "Apparently I underestimated your ingenuity, Miss Parsons. I have no doubt you could charm some poor fool into taking you there. Or at least, God knows, he'd try." He exhaled aggravatedly. "Where did you get the mare?"
    Retrieving the valise from the ground, she walked toward the mare who was yanking at the tufts of sweetgrass nearby. "Hattie Lochrie sold her to me."
    "Why doesn't that surprise me?" He muttered something in his patois French she suspected was derogatory about the female gender in general. Without waiting for permission, Creed stalked over and lifted her up onto Petunia's back with such force she nearly vaulted over the other side.
    Mariah grabbed for the saddle horn and righted herself, then whirled to face him. At a loss for words she gasped, "Well, I never!"
    "No, I'll just bet you never did," he returned, dumping the tapestry bag unceremoniously in her lap.
    Her eyes narrowed. "Why don't you just leave me alone? I didn't say I needed your help to get on Petunia."
    "Ha!" he scoffed humorlessly with his back already to her. "I'd like to see you mount with that contraption you've got yourself cinched into. I'm surprised you can even breathe."
    "My bodily functions are none of your—" She bit back the rest, realizing she'd nearly stooped to his level. "Ooh! You make me so mad!"
    "You're welcome." Without further comment, he headed for his own mount.
    "Just tell me one thing, Mr. Devereaux. Why are you so dead set against my going?"
    He turned on her. "Look around you, Miss Parsons. Who do you see?"
    She glanced around at the vacant hills. "Only you."
    "Exactly. How do you think Seth will feel when he learns you've traveled halfway across Montana Territory alone with me?"
    She rubbed at the soreness on her bruised ribs. "Under normal circumstances, believe me when I say I would agree wholeheartedly. I have no more desire to travel with you than you do with me. But what good will my reputation do Seth if he's dead by the time I get there? My being there with him could make a difference. I've seen it before with patients of my father's and in the army hospitals in Chicago—so crammed with the dying there was no room left for hope."
    Creed scowled, casting about for an argument to refute the logic of her statement. She was right and he knew it. He'd never laid much credence in social mores, but a lady like Mariah Parsons damn well should.
    The problem fell, Creed thought grimly, not so much with her but with himself. What had nearly happened between them only moments before when he'd held her could never be allowed to happen again. Traveling two hundred miles in the wilderness with a beautiful young woman would be temptation enough for any healthy man. But Mariah Parsons was as out of his reach as treetop berries to a hungry bear. And she would have to stay that way.
    On second thought, perhaps it wouldn't be so hard. That temper of hers was enough to keep any man at bay.
    He glared up at her. "If Seth's alive and well when we get there, what then?"
    Mariah prayed that was true. "Then he'll understand. He trusts me, Mr. Devereaux. He has no reason not to. Perhaps it's a lack of faith in your own scruples that has