Hannah Howell Read Online Free PDF

twice-cursed muddle.”
    “Crying won’t get you out of it either.” He felt uncomfortably moved by the moonlit sight of her tearstained face.
    “I know that,” she snapped, “but I have a right to a moment’s weakness.” When he produced a handkerchief she took it, studied it a moment to assure herself it was clean, then put it to use in wiping her tears away.
    “You put yourself in this mess.”
    “I did not ask that lump of dog spit—”
    “Dog spit?”
    “Clovis—to maul me. It’s hardly my fault that the woman I thought was my mother is not. I certainly did not ask my father to drop me in her lap and pay her for her poor mothering. It never occurred to me that Charity would believe Clovis instead of me, or that she would throw me out with only my nightgown. And it is hardly surprising that when I came upon the sheriff who was duly elected to protect the town, I asked him for help. I never expected him to be part of a bank robbery. And then you just left me there to face that mob.” She blew her nose.
    “Since you were not one of this pack of thieves, I hardly thought you would wish to come along.”
    “Of course I didn’t. I never in my wildest dreams thought everyone would accuse me. Then I get tossed into jail like some common criminal and that pile of horse droppings attacks me. And now look at me. I am out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of bankrobbers, the town thinking I am a thief, and I don’t even have a pair of shoes. I have earned a good cry.”
    “Earned or not, it still won’t get you anywhere.”
    “That is quite clear.” She turned her back to him again. “Why did you come back for me?”
    “Because you knew about the sheriff.”
    “As if that mob would have listened to me.”
    “Someone might have—eventually.”
    She frowned as she thought about what he had said. Perhaps she should try to get back to town, to make someone listen to her.
    “Don’t even think about it.”
    “How do you know what I’m thinking?”
    “Because I know what I’d think in the same situation. It won’t work. One—I have no intention of letting you slip free to start blubbering your side of the story to anyone. Two—even if you got to town the sheriff would hardly let you say how-do. Three—You are now on the run with this pack of thieves and that goes against you. I broke you out of jail, remember?”
    “I broke myself out of jail. You just happened to be there when I started to run.”
    “That won’t be the way the sheriff tells it.”
    The truth of that quiet statement hit her so hard she gasped. Sheriff Martin had his own neck to worry about. He would paint her as black as possible. She doubted he had wasted any time in telling anyone who would listen that her desperado friends had returned to break her out of jail. If she went back to town, she would be lucky if she was not immediately hanged. It was enough to make her want to weep some more.
    “Don’t start bawling again.”
    “Oh, shut your big mouth.”
    “You know, some folk in your position would have the wisdom to keep the edge off their tongue.”
    The chill in his voice hardly troubled her at the moment. “Some folk in my position would put a bullet in their head.”
    Her voice was so flat he could not help but wonder if she was contemplating just such an act. It alarmed him, but what alarmed him more was the thrill of panic that shot through him.
    “Don’t be an idiot.”
    “It would certainly relieve you of a burden.” The dark thought had only been a fleeting one, but she did not feel inclined to tell him that.
    “And hand me another one. I’d find myself trying to explain how it was you ended up dead. Even if you’re thought a thief, that wouldn’t go well for me.”
    He spoke so callously that she was annoyed. “Your concern for my well-being humbles me.”
    “Go to sleep.”
    “What? No ravishment? Well, the world is full of wonders.”
    “I don’t rape women,” he ground out.
    “No, just steal