The Outlaw's Lady. Laurie Kingery

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СКАЧАТЬ lifted into the bed of the wagon and laid out in the center, surrounded by her bottles of chemicals. She felt the wagon lurch forward and realized they were moving off the road and into the brush.

      Where were they taking her? Would she ever see home again? If only she had listened to her mother and gone home when they had, or had Uncle Samuel ride along with her! Or were they so determined to capture the “lady photographer” that the presence of others would have been no deterrent, and might have resulted in her parents’ murders? Now, bowling along over the rocky scrubland as night fell, covered by the heavy canvas, no one would see her being taken away from everyone and everything she knew. Her stomach churned with nausea and fear.

      Tess began to sob, soundlessly because of the gag, but soon her inability to clear her nostrils made breathing too difficult to continue crying. Then she could only lie there, feel the lurching and jerking as the wheels rolled over the uneven ground, and watch the last hints of light disappear from the tiny chinks in the sideboards of the wagon bed. At last, exhausted by terror, she slept.

      

      Tess woke because of a sudden absence of the rocking, swaying movement that had haunted her dreams. Were they stopping temporarily, or had they reached Delgado’s hideout?

      Before she could listen for clues to the answer, the canvas under which she lay was shoved back off the wagon bed, blinding her with a sudden blast of sunlight. With her wrists and ankles still tied, Tess could only clench her eyes tightly shut.

      “Idiotas! Necios!”

      The man went on yelling in Spanish so rapidly that Tess could only comprehend that someone was being berated. She assumed it must be Delgado. After all, he would not want his henchmen to manhandle the lady who was about to make him immortal. Now she kept her eyes closed because she was afraid to have her worst fears confirmed. The voice barked out another spate of words, clearly a command, and she felt the bonds at her wrists and ankles being severed.

      Tess knew she could not shut out the reality of her situation forever. As soon as she could shade her eyes with one hand against the brilliant sunlight, she raised herself on one elbow and peered at the speaker.

      And saw with astonishment that it was not Delgado or any other stranger, but Sandoval Parrish who stood looking at her over the side of the wagon.

      “You!” Before she could put together a rational, prudent thought, she had struggled up onto her feet and launched herself at him, fingers curved into claws.

      He caught her easily before she could do any damage, and holding her wrists gently, but with an underlying steely strength, kept them pinioned against the side of the wagon. His body was next to hers, rather than directly in front of her, so that even if she were foolish enough to bring up one of her knees, she couldn’t hurt him.

      “Calm yourself, Tess Hennessy,” he said, in the same soothing, low voice one would use to soothe a fractious horse. “No harm is going to come to you.”

      “No harm?” Tess cried. “I’ve been kidnapped and transported to who knows where, and my family has no idea what has happened to me, and you call that no harm? Sandoval Parrish, you are every bit the scoundrel my mother said you were!” There were no words for the depth of her hurt and disillusionment with him. To discover he was the one who had orchestrated her kidnapping, when she had already been imagining him coming to her rescue. “How dare you do this to me? I demand that you escort me and my possessions safely home immediately!”

      He gazed down at her, his dark eyes serious, but there was an amused little curve at the corners of his mouth that betrayed the fact that he was struggling mightily not to laugh at her.

      “Tess, Tess, you are in no position to demand anything,” he told her, and now there was no merriment playing about his lips at all. “As you have guessed, you are many, many miles away from your home, and only I stand between you and a camp full of very rough hombres indeed.”

      She looked beyond him and saw that what he was saying was too awfully true. There must have been a score, at least, of swarthy men in ragged clothing watching this interplay between Parrish and her, and each man looked more dangerous than the one next to him.

      “How very comforting,” she fairly spat at him. “And my name, as I told you before, is Miss Hennessy.”

      “Miss Hennessy, then,” he said in that musical, accented voice that seemed to caress her senses. “I would set your mind at ease about your parents. They have been left word that you are safe and will be returned unharmed.”

      “Unharmed if they raise a ransom, you mean? What sum are you demanding for me? Your men have already taken possession of the fifty dollars I earned from my godfather.”

      He raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised. “If money was taken from you, it will be returned,” he promised, then called sharply over his shoulder, “Esteban?”

      The man Tess had mentally named Mustachio stepped forward. “Sí, Sandoval?”

      “Give the lady back her money. I told you nothing was to be taken from her, and you have disobeyed. Just as you did by transporting her in such a position of discomfort.”

      Esteban smiled sheepishly at her and held out a small, cloth drawstring bag which clinked as Parrish took it from him.

      “And there is no question of ransom, Te—Miss Hennessy,” Parrish went on. “You will be staying among us for a time to take pictures of Diego Delgado and his men, and possibly some pictures of our adventures—though I understand the limitations of the camera make it impossible to portray us in the midst of action.”

      “No, I would have to pose you amid your stolen booty, afterwards,” she hissed at him.

      He shrugged, as if her intended insult did not touch him. “Once Delgado is satisfied that he has pictures enough to record his adventures for posterity, you will be escorted safely home.”

      All she could do was stare at him, her brain reeling at the implications of what he had said.

      “I’ll find a way to escape,” she whispered at least, hating the shakiness of her voice. “If not with my camera, then without it. I won’t stay here in a camp of outlaws, with only your promise to protect me.”

      He lowered his head so that his lips were mere inches from hers. “I would not advise that, Miss Hennessy. You are across the Rio Grande, in territory foreign to you, and you’re clearly a gringa. Not only Delgado’s men roam this land, but other bandoleros much less civilized than these, not to mention Apaches and Comancheros. As I have said, I will protect you from all harm. I make this promise before God, and I consider it a sacred promise. And one other thing you have said is wrong, Miss Hennessy.”

      “Oh, and what is that?” she asked.

      “That God does not know where you are. He does know, Miss Hennessy—Tess. And if the promise of my protection does not comfort you, the promise that He always knows where you are, and will keep you safe, should give you all the assurance you need.”

      Chapter Four

      He could tell by her sudden stillness that his words had made Tess think. She looked down, blinking. When she lifted her face again, her expression was calmer, though her blue eyes still flashed with defiance.

      She’s afraid, he realized. What woman wouldn’t be, in these circumstances? СКАЧАТЬ