Free Reilly's Woman by Janet Dailey

waited and the plane had not returned. It was nearing sundown.
    Her clouded hazel eyes moved to Reilly, relentlessly watching the sky yet seeming to be miles away in thought. "How long do you think they'll continue looking for us?" She voiced the fear that had been recurring all day.
    The remoteness remained in his bland jade eyes as he glanced at her. "It's hard to say. An extensive air search is expensive and time-consuming," he replied. "They'll probably look for a couple more days at most. After that, they'll ask local pilots to keep a lookout for any sign of wreckage and send out one or two search planes of their own."
    The knowledge was sobering. The possibility of being stranded in this wilderness for more days seemed probable. Leah knew she couldn't think about that without sinking into a morass of guilt feelings. And Reilly was right, that wouldn't solve anything.
    "I think I'll get us something to eat," she murmured.
    Food didn't interest her. At lunch, she had chewed indifferently on a stack of beef jerky, knowing that she had to eat something. It was the latter motivation instead of hunger that prompted her to cook the evening meal. The side benefit would be taking her mind off their situation.
    After three days, the choice of dried food dishes had dwindled considerably. Leah glanced through the few that remained, searching for one that at least sounded appetizing.
    Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Reilly crouching in front of the suitcases. Curious, she shifted slightly to see what he was doing, and her lips parted in surprise. It was her suitcase he had opened and was searching through the contents.
    "What do you think you're doing, going through my suitcase?" she challenged, rising angrily to her feet and striding to his side. He didn't even look up. "Those happen to be my personal things and you have no right going through them!"
    He set a stack of her lingerie to one side and started going through her assortment of outer clothes. She tried taking them out of his hands to jam them back in her suitcase, but he picked them up and discarded them quicker than she could stop him.
    "Did you hear what I said?" she demanded finally.
    "I'm not stealing anything," Reilly answered her finally. "I'm trying to find if you have anything suitable for walking."
    "You could ask!" Leah retorted bitterly. She tried to fold the items he had discarded. "You don't have to rummage through my things!"
    "I've seen women's clothes before. There's no need to let your modesty embarrass you." He held up a pair of corded slacks of wheat tan and a long-sleeved blouse of white with tiny gold and brown diamond patterns crisscrossing it. "These should do."
    Leah sat back on her heels, stating at his impassive face bewilderedly. "Should do for what?" she frowned. A piece of his earlier remark came filtering back. "What did you mean 'suitable for walking?'"
    "We're leaving," Reilly announced calmly, and turned to her cosmetic case. "Do you have any face cream in here?" he asked as he snapped open the lid.
    "Yes." She reached in and picked up the jar. "Why do you want it?" The answer to that wasn't nearly so important when his announcement sank in. "How are we leaving?"
    "On foot, of course." He flicked a brief glance at her, then opened the jar and removed a dab of cream with his forefinger, rubbing it experimentally between his finger and thumb. "This cream is going to protect your pale face from the sun."
    "On foot? You must be crazy!" Leah stared out over the vast desert mountain wilderness.
    "It would be crazier to stay here." The cosmetic case was abandoned as Reilly opened his own suitcase.
    "I know you think I'm stupid—" Leah began hotly.
    "I think nothing of the sort," Reilly interrupted evenly.
    "But I do know," she continued with barely a break, "that when you're lost and people are looking for you, you're supposed to stay in one place and not go wandering off. We don't even know where we are!"
    He removed two of his dirty