Now she sat alone on the gallery, writing a letter to her mother. She gave a vivid description of Lil and how kind she’d been and touched lightly on what a pleasant surprise Clay Hamilton was. Embellishing the gentlemanly aspects of his character, she assured Susannah that there were proper escorts available, even in this distant, lonely land. As she signed the short letter, she suddenly became aware that she was being observed and looked up to find Jared lounging against the porch railing. She flushed at the unwelcome attention.
“I suppose you told your mother what an insolent rogue I am,” he said caustically. When Lil was present, he maintained a polite but distant manner, but every time he saw Mariah alone he went out of his way to mock and taunt her.
“As usual, you’ve overrated your importance. I was always taught not to speak of someone unless I could find something admirable to say.” She smiled sweetly in triumph as his eyes narrowed at the slur. It was a major triumph, for he usually maintained such a cool exterior that nothing she could say would ruffle him.
“My…our claws are showing this afternoon, aren’t they? You’re not near so brave in front of your sister.” Jared smiled briefly and seemed to have regained his composure. “I’m a little surprised you haven’t taken the opportunity to complain to her about my lack of character. Or have you?”
“I doubt a complaint would do any good. Lil seems to have been taken in by your dubious charm. She’d probably think I was imagining your rudeness.” Mariah folded the letter and placed it in the envelope. Rising, she said with finality, “I don’t know about you, but I for one have better things to do than sit here and match insults. Shouldn’t you be about your chores, Mr. Bryant?”
Mariah’s way was suddenly blocked by Jared. He stared down at her with a dangerously narrowed gaze and despite the heat of the afternoon, Mariah shivered. “Seems to me, you have forgotten most of what I taught you.” He ventured a rakish smile. “Could be, you’re due for another lesson.” He planted one hand on the doorway, barring her way and grinning as he awaited her reaction.
Despite his menacing stance, Mariah’s first, instinctive thought was to slap the grin from his face; but caution overcame her, and she decided the weapon to use against his taunts should be her wit instead. Even if she hit him with all her might, he was too big and strongly built to be affected. Batting her eyelashes, she smiled up at him and moved a step closer. “Mr. Bryant…Jared.” Mariah paused expectantly and Jared seemed puzzled but pleased by the softness of her attitude. His superior look vanished and he seemed totally unprepared for her next words. “Jared, if you don’t let me pass…unmolested, I shall scream very loudly and very long and you’ll have to explain to Lil why I screamed.”
Jared frowned and drew back, dropping his hand from the door. Annoyed and temporarily foiled, he wanted to strike back at her in some way. Mariah, sure that she had the upper hand, tossed her head victoriously and walked past him. She was just about through the door when his large hand clamped down on her shoulder and whirled her around. She found herself caught in Jared’s arms, helplessly overpowered and unable to move. Just before his mouth came down hard on hers, they heard Lil’s voice calling Jared’s name. She was approaching the front of the house and Mariah smiled triumphantly as Jared released her and stepped back.
A moment later Lil came through the front door to find Jared sitting on the steps and Mariah about to enter the house. Mariah smiled brightly at her sister and excused herself, walking off with a sprightly step as though she had escaped her fate. Jared glowered at the ground, well aware that he was the fate she had escaped. Lil was puzzled by his silence and sat beside him, trying to draw him out. “I looked all over for you, darling. I’m surprised you didn’t answer when I called.”
“What the hell am I, a dog?” Jared snapped. “I don’t usually come running when somebody calls. What was it you wanted anyway,” he added in a surly tone.
Lil was startled by Jared’s open antagonism. “You know I didn’t mean it that way, Jared! I was just lonely. I haven’t seen that much of you since you got home.” Her mouth formed a sensual pout as she fluttered her lashes and leaned closer, surrounding him with the heavy, cloying scent of her perfume.
Jared glanced up at her, suddenly tired of her constant displays of sensuality and the blatant posing that he suddenly realized annoyed him. He wanted nothing more than to escape, to ride off free and easy into the wind. Recalling his meeting with Buffalo Horn, he decided then and there to join his blood-brother for a relaxing few weeks of hunting. He stood up and looked down at Lil at his feet. “I decided I’m going up in the mountains for a few weeks, Lil.” He surveyed the area surrounding the ranch as he tried to explain his need to get away. “I’m getting that closed in, choked feeling, Lil.” He reached down and tousled the blonde curls; he was already in a better mood just thinking about the trip.
Lil stood up, livid with anger. “You can’t go,” she insisted. “You haven’t been home that long—it’s just not fair!”
“Don’t see why I can’t go,” Jared said in a calm, unruffled tone. “Ain’t got a wife to stop me. You don’t want me to go…fire me,” he challenged. “Been a while since I moved on anyway.”
Lily ground her teeth together in silent fury. “You know damn well I won’t fire you, you bastard!” Her voice rose slightly. “Go ahead, run off and leave me, but don’t be surprised to come back and find your side of the bed occupied,” she threatened sullenly.
Jared’s smile grew into a wide grin. “Long as it’s kept warm, baby. Don’t put on so…I won’t be gone that long.” He looked toward the house and Mariah, then returned his gaze to her face. “I just feel the urge to roam a bit, baby.”
Lil sighed heavily, knowing there was nothing more she could do to persuade him to change his mind. Any further scenes would only alienate him. Giving in, she hooked her arm in his. “Come on then, I’ll help you pack. God knows why I’m so crazy over you!” Together they entered the house and Lil managed to entice him into a farewell tumble before she watched him ride west, toward the mountains.
Chapter 10
The summer home of Gray Hawk’s tribe lay high in the mountains; their winter home was at the base of the Continental Divide. At this time of year, they still resided amidst the high peaks of the Bitterroot mountains and it was there that Jared was headed. He followed a narrow, twisting path that few white men had ever crossed. It led under a waterfall and through a pass that brought him to a high, sheltered valley. Protected by natural boundaries and possessing a clear, crystal spring, the ancient campsite was ideal, a paradise set high in the cool, clear mountain air.
As he approached the camp, Jared knew he was being observed. No one could enter the area without the notice of the scouts posted at strategic positions around the camp. They seemed invisible; and yet as he listened closely, the warning cry of a wild bird could be heard. As Gray Hawk had taught him, he answered with a fair imitation of his own. Continuing his leisurely pace, he waved to the women gathering firewood and roots. When he entered the village itself, children danced gaily about Kito’s hooves. The huge stallion that had been a gift from Gray Hawk carefully picked his way around them until Jared reined him in before the lodge of the chieftain, Hidawah.
Alerted by the excited cries of the children, Hidawah came out of his lodge to find them eagerly surrounding Jared Bryant. His darkly tanned, lined face creased with pleasure at the sight of his nephew Gray Hawk’s blood-brother. Jared had been adopted by the tribe the previous winter when he had happened on the wounded Gray Hawk and saved his life. The chief held up his hand in greeting and Jared’s features relaxed and widened into a warm smile as he respectfully returned it.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jared caught sight of the lithe, golden-skinned Saloma, Hidawah’s daughter. Though her eyes had remained properly cast down, Jared knew the raven-haired maiden had seen him. A rosy flush betrayed her happiness at his return. When he had visited last, Saloma had cared for and attended him and he had shared
a tepee with her. Now he realized that it had been the sweet solace of the young girl’s docile nature that he had been seeking when he left the Bitterroot so abruptly. Normally, he considered a woman who lacked spirit to be too tame for his liking, but the girl had once before been a balm to his spirit and he was anxious to be with her again.
Jared was invited into the chief’s lodge and seated in the place of honor. Saloma followed him in, and her father commanded that she bring refreshments for their guest. The girl gracefully backed from the tepee under Jared’s watchful gaze.
“Has Saloma chosen a husband yet, Uncle?” Jared asked, using the honorary title. The old man smiled briefly and commented that his daughter had been difficult.
“She would have no one for a husband after you left us, Nephew. I wonder if I did not make a mistake in allowing her to become close to you. These past months she has done nothing but await your return. Have you come to stay for good?”
“No, Uncle,” Jared explained. “I felt the need to breathe the cool, fresh air of the mountains and see the People.”
“While you are here, Saloma will attend you again. Even now, she is gathering wood for your fire tonight.”
Jared spent the next half-hour discussing the events that had happened in his absence. It was predicted that an early, harsh winter would set in and Hidawah explained that his son and Gray Hawk had ridden higher into the mountains, seeking a supply of game for winter. Before sending him to the lodge that Saloma had set up, the chief inquired about the story Buffalo Horn had brought back. “My son says you have taken a white woman as your own. He praised her highly when he returned.”
Jared grinned at the thought of the lovely Mariah Randall as his woman. “No, Uncle, I was merely taking her to her sister, the yellow-haired woman.”
Hidawah nodded sagely and rose to escort Jared to his tepee. “I am glad, my nephew. Such news would distress Saloma and she is hard enough to live with now.”
Later that night, Jared lost himself in the sleek softness of the Blackfoot maiden. Saloma was a sharp contrast to all the women he had ever known. She had been trained to obedience and possessed all the virtues of an Indian wife, yet she had a small spark of will that was unusual in a Indian girl. Her father adored and spoiled her, as did Gray Hawk and Buffalo Horn. She was a pleasing combination of alluring young womanhood and calm serenity.
Sated and relaxed, Jared held the girl close in his arms. She had satisfied his need to escape the boundaries of civilization, yet something still nagged at the back of his mind; suddenly, he realized what it was. He had escaped the ranch but not the memory of Mariah’s jade-green eyes. Every time he looked into Saloma’s adoring dark eyes, he would see an image of green transposed there, and the scent of lavender would seem to surround him. He shook his head to clear the memory, arousing Saloma’s curiosity.
Saloma stared at the handsome white man’s profile, sharply etched by the firelight. She wondered what made him so withdrawn tonight. She had remembered and longed for his virile mastery and had waited these many months to again feel the emotions only he could arouse in her. It grieved her deeply that she had no power to make him stay. Buffalo Horn had returned to camp with a story of the white woman he had seen with Jared, and she wondered briefly if it was this strange woman who occupied his thoughts. She would have to see the medicine man tomorrow and offer a gift for a charm to ward off the woman’s spell. If she could only persuade him to stay, perhaps he would never leave her.
Jared watched Saloma stare into the embers of the fire and tried to imagine what troubles caused her to wrinkle that brow. His fingers played across her smooth, golden skin, caressing until she turned toward him and her eyes smiled a response before they languorously closed in surrender to his touch.
Chapter 11
Jared had been away three weeks now. Mariah had begun to think he had left permanently. Lil grew irritable in his absence, and Maddy seemed almost to sneer at Mariah.
Mariah sat on the bed now, watching the late afternoon sun make an elusive pattern in the air. Through the open window, she heard a guitar strumming in the distance. Probably one of the hands who’d been invited to play at Clay’s party tonight was practicing. The tune was oddly familiar, reminiscent of a slow waltz, and she dreamily closed her eyes, imagining herself back in St. Louis at a cotillion ball. She could see herself whirling about the room, skirts flaring widely as her delicate slippers barely touched the ground.
Stop it, she told herself sternly. It was silly even to think of those days, of the times when fashionably dressed young men had stumbled over themselves in their haste to bring her a tidbit from the buffet table or claim another dance. Those days were gone, and here in Montana most of the men were old or married or plainly frightened of her air of cosmopolitan breeding.
Still, she thought, Clay Hamilton was a comfort. His polished manners and gentle courtesy seemed like an oasis, a haven of civilized company in a cultural desert. The thought that he would be her escort tonight was the only reason she still planned to attend. He always treated her as though she were spun from glass and fragile enough to break. At times his fawning attention was almost annoying. Mariah realized that back home she wouldn’t have given him a glance. There had been too many men who were far more debonair and handsome. Perhaps that was her problem—she’d been spoiled by too much attention.
Almost without knowing it, her thoughts turned to Jared Bryant, and she compared him with Clay. Jared would never fawn over her, never in a thousand years would he grovel at any woman’s feet, regardless of how beautiful or charming she might be. There was an appeal in his rough independence—a challenge that excited her even while it frightened her. He was very like a wild animal, with only a thin veneer of civilization to control his moods and actions. Physically, too, he reminded her of a graceful, yet powerful beast of the forest. The mane of tawny, red-gold hair and proud profile called to mind an image of a lion, proud and free, yet dominant and masterful. Each day she expected to see him ride in, dusty and bearded. Strange how she had come to miss the mocking lights in his blue-gray eyes and the cynical droop of his mouth beneath the rakish mustache. She couldn’t recall ever having missed a man before. She caught sight of herself in the mirror across the way and made a face, mocking her thoughts. It just went to show how desperate she was for companionship here!
Mariah had become fast friends with Belle, Clay’s younger sister. The girl was lovely and full of life, miserable at being stuck in the barren land of Montana. She knew from her brother’s descriptions that somewhere to the east, civilization awaited her and had confided to Mariah that she would waste away here if forced to spend another year. Belle’s hair was a richer, more lustrous version of Clay’s and framed a heart-shaped face complete with dimples and a softly pouting mouth. She was in great demand with the local youngbloods but shared Mariah’s unenthusiastic view of the local male population. She came over often, avidly seeking Mariah’s company and pouncing upon every bit of information she could gamer about the outside world.
On her last visit Belle had confided that the only man who had ever taken her fancy was Jared. Mariah had smiled politely at the confidence but inwardly she had seethed. Jared apparently liked young, innocent girls. She knew he had never tried anything with Belle as he had with her, and the knowledge that he had taken advantage of her own helplessness infuriated her. Belle had a father and brother to protect her, but Mariah was alone except for Lil, and she doubted if she could count on help from that quarter, if it should be needed. Jared Bryant had desired her and had taken advantage of her vulnerability.
Suddenly aware that the light had dimmed, Mariah realized that she had dawdled too long. Clay would be here in an hour to pick her up for the party. She still had to ask Maddy to press her gown while she arranged her hair. Pulling the dress from the wardrobe, Mariah ran her fingers lightly over the material, fondly remembering the night she had first worn it. The short, puffed sleeves showed her slender arms to advantage and the white velvet
was trimmed in red ribbon that accentuated her black hair. Shaking herself out of the short daydream, she quickly closed the wardrobe drawer and went down the hall in search of Maddy.
She found the old woman in the kitchen, kneading dough for a fresh batch of bread. Maddy barely looked up when Mariah requested that she press the gown. There was only a quick, sly sideways glance that showed a flash of black eyes, and Mariah had to repeat her question.
“You see I am busy, senorita. Lil would not want me to be distracted from my work. If you want the dress pressed, you should have brought it before now.” She glanced up again, staring briefly at Mariah’s slender white throat, and her hands returned to their kneading and squeezing, Mariah had the distinct impression that the Mexican woman was pretending it was her throat she grasped. That’s silly, Mariah thought. I’m imagining things. The woman has no reason to dislike me. A shudder passed over her, but Maddy’s eyes remained lowered as she concentrated on her work. The servant had been openly rude and had to be put in her place.
“I don’t wish to disturb your work, Maddy, and I am sorry I waited so long. However, I’m sure my sister would be displeased that you wouldn’t do me the smallest of courtesies. If you’re still too busy…She merely hinted that she would have to go to Lil for help and there was a change in Maddy’s manner.
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