Maverick Wild (Harlequin Historical Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

jumped at the sound of Garret’s voice. She glanced back to see him approaching on his horse with Chance’s horse and a packhorse trailing behind him, realizing only then that she hadn’t seen him since they’d left Slippery Gulch some time ago.
    “Have you been right behind us all along?” she asked as he reined in beside them.
    “No, ma’am.” He dismounted and began changing the lineup of the three horses. “I stayed a short ways back, making sure Wyatt didn’t send any of his men after us.”
    “After us?”
    “You don’t need to fret none.” Garret met her gaze with a grin. “I didn’t spot any riders.” He mounted the other saddled horse now standing at the front of the line. “Which pass are we taking?” he said to Chance.
    “Northeast is the shortest.”
    Garret gave a sharp nod.
    “Mr. Spud mentioned a distinct trail to your ranch,” she said, certain this was not the direction he’d described. “I haven’t noted one.”
    “We’re using a stock trail,” said Chance. “Not the smoothest ride, but it shaves nearly an hour off travel. We’ll make it home in time for Skylar’s supper.”
    “Tucker’s wife?”
    “Yeah.”
    At thirty-three, she had truly expected them both to be wed by now. “You’ve not married?”
    Chance gave a short, humorless laugh. “Marriage is not for me. Not in this lifetime.”
    She found an odd sense of comfort in that response and rather agreed with his outlook.
    “Miss Cora,” Garret said, reining in beside her. He leaned over and dropped a large coat over her shoulders, enveloping her in a warm lamb’s wool lining. “No sense in you shivering all the way to the ranch.”
    “Thank you.” She pulled the thick coat tight and breathed in a musky, masculine scent.
    “Chance can’t use it. You might as well stay warm.”
    Chance noticed the sudden stiffness of her spine. She paused in the midst of securing the top button at her throat. After blindsiding him with all that sentimental talk about being her best friend , he didn’t see why she should be repulsed by wearing his coat.
    “Do you mind?” she asked, meeting his gaze with clear reluctance.
    “Why should I?” he said, unsure of how he felt about anything at the moment. He only wished he’d thought of it sooner. The heavy brown leather enveloped her from her chin to her knees. Keeping her covered up was a definite improvement.
    “I have a layer of mud to keep me warm. Your lips are practically blue.”
    “See you at the ranch,” Garret said as he set off ahead of them.
    The wagon lurched forward. Cora resumed her hold on the seat as her exhausted muscles prepared for another jarring ride.
    “Sure hope you got more sensible clothing in that trunk.”
    “I have.” Indeed, there was nothing but sensible clothing in her trunk. Not that it mattered. Chance’s reception had made it painfully obviously she would not have been well received, no matter what she’d worn. Thankfully she’d ignored her mother’s order to throw out her maid attire .
    She owed her mother nothing. Her life was her own.
    Descending the hillside at hair-raising speed, she sucked in a deep breath of crisp Wyoming air, and tasted freedom.
     
    Hours later the warm hues of sunset streaked the sky as they rode into a green valley with a horse ranch at its center. Snow-capped mountains rose up on either side. Cora gazed out in amazement at all Chance and Tucker had accomplished. A maze of fencing and outbuildings surrounded a massive two-story house. Horses milled about in the various pens and dotted the distant pastures.
    As they neared the house, they captured the attention of men on horseback and others inside fences. Garret stood in the yard near a large barn. He held a little boy with the same pale shade of white-blond hair.
    The moment they stopped, Cora shrugged Chance’s coat from her shoulders and jumped from the cart, ready to have her feet on the blessed unmoving ground.
    “Unco ’ance!” The little boy, no