know Mr. Danhill was dreadfully worried about you.”
Jonah rolled his eyes in annoyance while Charley poured on the fatherly charm and Maddie left him basking in a radiant smile. Hard-hearted though he was, even Jonah felt himself responding to Maddie’s dazzling expression.
Definitely trouble, he reminded himself. If a man wasn’t careful and vigilant he could become intoxicated by those whiskey-colored eyes and bewitched by that smile.
Jonah planned to be damn careful and vigilant.
When Charley exited, Maddie levered herself upright to dive into her meal like a woman who had been on prison rations for days on end. She was halfway through her steak before she remembered Jonah had been about to tell her why he found West Texas distasteful.
“Why don’t you like my part of the country?” she asked curiously.
He shrugged impossibly broad shoulders, swallowed a bite of fried potatoes and said, “Long story.”
Exasperated, Maddie tossed him a withering glance. “I realize you are a man of few words, but you’ll have to do better than that.”
“Why do you care?” he asked between bites.
“Because I’ll be traveling with you,” she said matter-of-factly.
He glared at her. “I have not agreed to go.”
Maddie smiled confidently. “But you will. You didn’t want to rescue me from those thieves, either, but you did because that’s simply the kind of man you are.”
Jonah set aside his fork and glared flaming arrows at her. “Look, lady—”
“Maddie,” she corrected, flashing another charming smile.
He ignored that. “I’m no do-gooder. I do what I’m paid to do, which is fight outlaws and renegades. I have personal reasons for avoiding your part of the country. I don’t want to discuss them, I’m not going and that’s that.”
Maddie finished her meal, set aside her plate and surged to her feet. The room careened around her momentarily, but she inhaled a steadying breath, then reached beneath the mattress to locate the money. She felt Jonah’s intense gaze drilling into her, but he said not one word as she sorted the banknotes from his clothing. She noticed the moccasins among his belongings. A reminder of the past he’d been forced to leave behind, no doubt.
She stuffed the money inside the bodice of her soiled dress—save a few dollars to compensate Jonah for the meal and his assistance. Resolved to the inevitable, she pivoted toward the door. “Goodbye, Jonah. I hope your shoulder heals without complication.”
“Where are you going?” he demanded gruffly as she clamped her hand around the doorknob.
“Out of your life.” She tilted her head at a dignified angle. “I have obviously misjudged you. My mistake. The past six months have taught me to cut my losses and get on with life. I have learned that I have no one to depend on but myself. Dealing with you has reinforced what I already knew and simply allowed myself to forget while facing all this emotional turmoil.” She drew herself up, inhaled a determined breath and said, “I will handle this myself, as usual. Rest assured that I won’t inconvenience you again.”
And then she walked from the room and left him sitting on his bed with his plate on his lap.
Maddie had finally accepted the fact that she was wasting precious time trying to elicit Jonah’s cooperation. She had pleaded, demanded and even tried to charm him. Nothing had worked on that stubborn, ill-mannered, suspicious Ranger.
Time was of the essence and she had no choice but to gather her carpetbag, buy a horse from the livery and race home. If she departed during the night she might even gain a head start on those two ruffians.
For certain, she wasn’t waiting for the afternoon stage, knowing those two riders would follow closely behind it, awaiting the chance to attack and divest her of the money. Furthermore, Maddie was not going to risk involving other innocent victims in her problems. There was no telling how many stage passengers might be accidentally injured because of her. She couldn’t bear the thought of carrying more guilt on her conscience. She had plenty of emotional burdens trying to drag her down as it was.
Maddie made a quick transaction with the owner of the livery, who kept sleeping quarters near the front door of the barn. Within a few minutes she had a horse, saddle and tack at her disposal. Leading the mount around the barn, she wiggled between the dangling boards to fetch her satchel. She nearly leaped out of her skin when she emerged to see a looming shadow off to her left. She shrank back so quickly that she conked her tender head on the board.
“Ouch!” She hissed in pain.
“Nice accommodations.” Jonah smirked as he reached down to assist her to her feet. “You do travel in style, princess.”
She could have sworn she heard a hint of amusement in that deep baritone voice. Mr. Hard-hearted Texas Ranger had a sense of humor? She wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t heard it with her own ears.
“Kinda makes a man wonder if you’re the wealthy heiress you’ve implied that you are.”
Ah, the sarcasm was back. Now that she recognized.
Gathering her dignity around her like a fur cloak, Maddie tied her satchel behind the saddle and pulled herself astride the horse. She deeply regretted that Jonah wouldn’t be accompanying her, but that adage stating that you couldn’t lead a jackass where it didn’t want to go certainly applied. Mule-headed Danhill had only followed her this far so he could harass her one last time for good measure.
Nudging the mare, Maddie veered around the barn and circled through the small residential area behind Main Street to reach the trodden path west. Behind her she heard the clip-clop of hooves and she twisted in the saddle to see Jonah sitting atop a horse that looked as black as the devil’s heart. Of course, it was dark, so she couldn’t be positively certain the horse was solid black, but that’s just the way she would have pictured Jonah’s mount—coal-black in color, irascible in disposition and as independent as a polecat.
“I thought you weren’t coming,” she commented when she reached the open road.
“I’m not. Just checking to see if this is another of your spectacular exits to milk my sympathy,” he said as he eased his mount up beside her. “Did you pack trail rations?”
“No, I’ll chew on my fingernails if I get hungry,” she said smartly.
“No canteen of water?”
“I’ll suck on a pebble if I get thirsty,” she assured him aloofly.
“Are you armed?” Jonah asked as she urged her mount into an easy canter.
“Yes, I can shoot off my mouth with lightning speed,” she insisted. “Now go away. I’m sure that soft mattress at the hotel is calling to you. You’ve made it abundantly clear that you don’t like me and don’t believe me.”
Maddie was inordinately pleased and enormously relieved that he continued to ride beside her rather than reversing direction. She felt as if the heavy yoke of responsibility and desperation that had been bearing down on her shoulders had eased slightly.
Two
