Free A Heart So Wild by Johanna Lindsey

escort me.”
    â€œWhy me?”
    She had to think for a moment before the obvious answer came to her. “There is no one else here I can ask. Well, there is one man, but his price would be too high. And you proved today that you’re more than capable of protecting me. I have every confidence that you would get me to Waco safely.” She stopped, wondering whether to say the other thing. “Well, there is one other reason, strange as it may sound. You seem somehow…familiar to me.”
    â€œI never forget a face, lady.”
    â€œOh, I’m not saying we’ve met. I would certainly remember if we had. I think it’s your eyes.” If she told him how his eyes had soothed her, he really would think she was loco. Shestill didn’t understand it, so didn’t mention it. Instead she said, “Maybe as a child I trusted someone with eyes like yours, I don’t know. But I do know for some reason you make me feel safe. And honestly, I haven’t felt safe, really safe, since I…I’ve been apart from my father.”
    He made no comment. He got up, crossed to the door, and opened it. “I’m not taking you to Texas.”
    Her heart sank. She had worried only about asking him, not over his refusal. “But—but I’ll pay you.”
    â€œI’m not for hire.”
    â€œBut—you’re taking a dead man to Wichita for money.”
    He looked amused. “I would have passed through Wichita anyway on the way to Newton.”
    â€œOh,” she said. “I didn’t realize you planned to stay in Kansas.”
    â€œI don’t.”
    â€œThen—”
    â€œThe answer is no. I’m not a nursemaid.”
    â€œI’m not completely helpless,” Courtney began hotly, but his dubious gaze stopped her. “I’ll find someone else to take me,” she said stoutly.
    â€œI wouldn’t suggest it. You’ll get killed.”
    That was too close to what Sarah had said, and Courtney’s anger rose. “I regret disturbing you, Mister Chandos,” she said sharply and deliberately before marching stiffly out of his room.

Chapter 10
    T WENTY-FIVE miles north of Wichita, Newton was becoming Abilene’s successor as the cattle-shipping center of Kansas. Built on the bawdy pattern of its predecessor, the town would likely enjoy only one season, since Wichita was already gearing up to claim the next season.
    South of the railroad tracks, in the section called Hide Park, was where all the dance halls, saloons, and bordellos were. Cowboys from the cattle outfits were always in town, and the hell-raising went on around the clock. Gunfire was common. Fistfights, begun at the slightest provocation, were equally common.
    This was standard during the droving season, for cowboys were paid off at the end of the trail, and most of them spent their earnings in a matter of days.
    As Chandos rode through Hide Park, he noted that these cowboys were no different. Some would head back to Texas once their pockets were empty, some would drift on to other towns. One heading south might even stop off in Rockley and be enticed by Courtney Harte to take her to Texas.
    Chandos rarely let on what he was thinking,but just then he came damn close to scowling. The thought of young Courtney Harte alone on the prairie with one of these women-hungry cowboys was not a comforting one. He liked even less the fact that he cared. Stupid Eastern woman. She hadn’t learned a thing in the four years since he’d held her life in his hands. She still had no instinct for survival.
    Chandos stopped in front of Tuttle’s Saloon but didn’t dismount. He reached into his vest pocket and drew out the small ball of hair he had carried with him these four years, the long strands he had found stuck in his hand after he’d twisted Courtney’s hair.
    He hadn’t known her name then, but he’d found out soon after, when he went to Rockley to