Maverick Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

we find them at all. The buffalo have likely wiped out all sign of their direction,” Miles replied.
    Verity reeled. Miles reached out to catch her, and she jerked herself free. “Don’t touch me! Don’t you dare come near me again!”
    His shoulders squared, and his lips flattened.
    “We’ll take you to the fort, Lady Talbot,” the captain said. “And arrange for an escort to ride with you back to Cheyenne.”
    “Why would I want an escort to Cheyenne?”
    “This is no place for a lady.”
    “I have land here, a ranch. When my son is found—and he will be—we’re going to settle there and raise cattle and Thoroughbred horses.”
    “Verity—”
    “It’s Lady Talbot,” she snapped. “And I’ll thank you not to forget it.”
    “I’ve lived with it for the past twenty-two years,” Miles said in a low, fierce voice. “I’m not likely to forget it now.”
    He sounded hurt and angry. But she was the one who had suffered. She was the one who had been forced to marry against her will.
    “It’s dangerous for you to live out here alone,” the captain said.
    “That’s my concern, Captain Bennett, not yours.” She was every inch the countess she had learned to be, her voice imperious, her body ramrod straight in the saddle. The captain backed down, as others had before him.
    “I want a half-dozen soldiers to find that wagon and make sure it arrives safely at the fort,” the captain said.
    Verity was surprised at the finagling that went on as the young men volunteered for what she thought could only be hazardous duty. Moments later the soldiers were on their way.
    “Form them up, O’Malley,” the captain instructed the top sergeant.
    Sergeant O’Malley roared “Column of twos!” and the men lined up quickly behind him. Miles spoke for a moment to the four men besides himself dressed in civilian clothes, and they dropped to the back of the line.
    Verity rode beside the captain. She bit back an objection when Miles rode up on her other side, boxing her in. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing his presence made her uncomfortable. He was doing his best to be irritating, and she was determined not to succumb to his provocation.
    But the ride was long and dusty and boring. She hadn’t seen Miles for more than twenty years. Curiosity forced her to speak.
    “Why are you riding with the soldiers?” she asked.
    “A bunch of Sioux raided my ranch, killed one of my cowhands, stole a bunch of my cattle. My men and I were out looking for the culprits when we ran into this cavalry patrol and decided to join forces.”
    “You have a ranch around here?” It was a disconcerting thought.
    “A couple thousand acres along the Chugwater. Of course, I only have title to about five hundred acres of it, along with a house by the river. The rest of what I claim is government land. But my cattle are grazing there, so I guess that makes it mine.” He raised a brow. “Where’s that ranch of yours?”
    She raised her eyes to his. “Along the Chugwater.”
    “Looks like we’ll be neighbors.”
    She hesitated a moment, then said, “I look forward to meeting your wife.”
    “I never married.”
    Her glance shot to his. But he wasn’t giving away anything. Oh, he had aged well. He was more handsome now at—forty-three?—than he had been at twenty-one, even considering the ragged, years-old scar that raked one side of his face. She supposed it was the lines that gave his face character—the furrows in his brow, the creases around his mouth, the tracks of crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes. And, of course, the scar, a slashing white rift in skin burnished by the sun and weathered by the seasons.
    She could see the years had hardened him, putting muscle on his lean frame. His hands had burned brown and were she knew from his touch, callused. He looked as unforgiving as he obviously was.
    The years of not knowing whether he was happy, whether he had found another woman to love, had been bad enough.