Free Remember Me - Regency Brides 03 by Kimberley Comeaux Page A

groaned, holding out a hand to stop the tal man. "Wil you cease cal ing me your woman?" she lamented. "I've told you time and time again that I - "
    "I demand to know what he means by the words 'my woman'," North interjected, his question directed to Helen but his eyes steady on Sam.
    Helen put her hands on either side of her face and shook her head. "Oh, dear!
    This is getting dreadful y out of hand. If you both would stop and listen-"
    "I have tried three times to barter a trade between myself and Baumgartner for Helen," Sam started to explain in his blunt way.
    "You've done what?" North interrupted, but Sam, unfazed, continued.
    "He has rejected al my offers, but this time I don't think he wil ." He waved a hand back toward the black horses. "This time I have brought not two, but three of the finest horses around this area. I do not think he wil refuse."
    "Trade..." North choked as he listened to Sam. "That is the most preposterous thing I have ever heard. You can't be serious," he barked and turned to Helen.
    "Tel me he isn't serious."
    "Sam, I told you our people do not trade women or even men for horses or anything else! It's just simply not civilized."
    Sam scoffed at her words, which he'd heard many times before. "1 have seen white men barter for the black men and women," he countered. "1 see no difference!"

    How can I argue with that? Helen stared at Sam, disconcerted. "Sam, I am not for sale, and there is no more I can say about it. Mr. Baumgartner, even if he wanted to, could not trade me to you. He doesn't own me."
    "I can't even believe I am hearing this conversation. Why are you trying to reason with him?" North said, exasperation threaded in his tone. "This is none of your business, white man!" Sam barked, his eyes glaring at North.
    Helen quickly jumped, in, in an attempt to defuse whatever was happening between the two mistrustful men. "I haven't introduced you two, have I?" she asked brightly as she stepped between them, causing them both to back up.
    "This is Sam Youngblood, Reverend Campbel . He lives just across the bayou.
    Sam, this is my friend, North. He is the new preacher in town."
    Suddenly the hostility left Sam's face, and he smiled broadly. "You are a preacher?"
    North seemed unsure of how to react to the Indian's sudden change of attitude.
    "Yes," he answered after a brief pause.
    Sam nodded as he zeroed in his focus on Helen, his interest in her shining in his dark, mysterious eyes. "That's good. Because if I can't barter for Helen, then I suppose I'l have to get her another way," he stated.
    North tried to move around Helen, but she kept sidestepping him. Final y he just pointed to Sam over her shoulder. "What other way would that be?" Helen moaned, "Oh, dear!" She looked over her shoulder and saw Sam was actual y enjoying the fact he was upsetting North. Sam shrugged, and with a sigh that sounded as though he was quite put out, he answered, "I'l have to woo her into marrying me, I guess." "Mar--" North choked on his words again. "Did you hear what he just said?" he practical y shouted at her. Oh yes, she'd heard, and she was just a little perturbed at his seeming reluctance to try to court her. It didn't matter that she didn't want him to!
    "You don't have to seem as though it would be a great hardship to woo me!" she scolded Sam. ' You were certainly wil ing to give up your best three horses for me, so what is the difference?"
    North, standing behind her now, tapped her on the shoulder and whispered forcibly in her ear, "Helen, do you hear what you are saying?"
    "It's a lot less work!" Sam answered over North's whisper.
    "Wel , I never!" Helen huffed, insulted by his words.
    "So can you marry us?" Sam asked over her shoulder to North, ignoring Helen's outrage.
    "Absolutely not!" North stated with a steely resolve.
    "I never said I would marry you!"
    "Why not?" Sam pressed, his question not directed at her but at North again.

    "I am not marrying anyone, so please stop discussing a wedding