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

that wil never happen!" she yel ed at them both as she backed away and glared with hands on hips.
    "Do you always yel like this? I'm not sure I want a wife who is so loud," Sam observed with a sudden frown.
    Helen tapped her fingers on her hips. "Then I shal make sure to yel at you every time we meet!"
    Sam scowled at that answer. North smiled at her with admiration.
    Both men were driving her crazy.
    Without so much as another word, she whirled around, tossing her dark curls behind her, and marched to the house.
    North watched Helen flounce away, and he couldn't help but admire her spunk and the way she had stood up to Sam. She would indeed make a fine wife, but not to the Indian. No, she would make a very fine wife for a man like himself.
    At least the man he imagined he was, he amended, as he thought about how his own past was stil a mystery.
    "So I have competition for Helen Nichols," Sam commented, as though he already knew the answer.
    North answered anyway. "No, because you have no chance in winning her heart." It was an overconfident statement for which he had nothing to back it up except his own hopes for Helen.
    Sam stared at him as if he were trying to decipher the truth. "You believe you do?"
    North smiled a confident smile fil ed with determination. "I know I do."
    North returned the Indian man's stare measure for measure. Final y Sam answered with equal conviction, "We shal see, preacher man." And with that he nodded his head and turned to gather his horses.
    As North began to walk back toward the path that Helen had taken, he realized he actual y liked Sam, despite his fondness for the woman of North's choice. He found he looked forward to learning more about Sam's culture and way of life.
    Did Indians of his tribe actual y scalp people?
    It wasn't hard to locate Helen after he'd reached the plantation house, because she was sitting on the front porch with Josie sipping tea. The first thing he noticed was that she'd tied back her beautiful black hair with a ribbon.
    Pity.
    "I was wondering if you two brutes had kil ed one another," she told him, as he walked up the many steps to where they were seated.

    "Let's just say we had a few things to talk over," he prevaricated.
    "Did he show you his big knife? I once saw him cut a snake clean in two with one swipe!" Josie threw in, apparently not wanting to be left out of the conversation.
    "Never mind about that!" Helen waved toward the younger girl as if dismissing her words. "What possible things would you have to discuss with Sam?" she demanded to know.
    North had to try hard not to smile at her curiosity. "I believe the subject revolved around"-he paused for effect-"your marriage."
    "My marriage!" she gaped, coming out of her chair and nearly spil ing the tea on the wooden floor.
    "You're getting married?" Josie queried in an excited voice. "Who are you getting married to?"
    "Nobody!"
    "Wait and see."
    They spoke at the same time, and Josie clapped her hands with delight. "I'l bet it's Sam! He's been in love with Helen since she got here!"
    "But she's not in love with him," North answered without thinking, only realizing until after he spoke how self-assured he sounded. One should never, ever presume to tel a woman what her feelings are, he remembered too late.
    She gasped with incredulity at his words. North couldn't help but admire how beautiful she looked even when she was angry. "Perhaps I want to marry Sam!"
    she stated, emphasizing each word.
    North knew good and wel she didn't, but it didn't stop him from feeling irritated that she'd said it.
    "You've turned him down three times!" he countered with a snap of his fingers, remembering his earlier conversation with her.
    Helen looked less angry, as if she thought she had the upper hand in the conversation. Almost deliberately she began to study her nails. "Maybe I was holding out for four horses."
    The whole conversation seemed so sil y that North began to laugh. A quick glance at Helen told him that she, too,