Chad wished Leroy had gotten nosey sooner. Hell, he wished he had, then he might have caught up with Marian before she reached the stable. He couldn't begin to guess why she had been taken. If it had been just one man, then it wouldn't have nefarious implications, but four? Buffaloing him meant they didn't want anyone to know about it.

"You have an extra gun?" Chad asked. "Mine are up at the house, and I don't want to waste any more time here than I have to."

"You kidding me?" Leroy chuckled, and opened his bearskin coat wide.

* * *

They rode hard, but so did the men they were chasing, so they weren't gaining any ground catching up to them. Chad developed a sick feeling in the pit of his belly as the day wore on. The more time it took to rescue Marian, the more time there was for bad things to happen to her. And then darkness fell, delaying them even more.

Leroy had wanted to make camp for the night and pick up the trail in the morning, but Chad wasn't about to stop until he found Marian and knew she was all right. He knew he was acting stupid. They couldn't very well follow tracks in the dark, could even end up losing the trail completely. But they'd reached open country before dark, and he hoped that a campfire would give them away.

It didn't. A light from a window did. The trail led straight to a farm located in the middle of nowhere, miles from any town. Other than the light from the house, the whole place had an abandoned look to it. Broken barn doors, sagging porch, fields barren of crops. Whether anyone lived there on a regular basis was doubtful, but his prey were definitely there now.

They found the four horses they had tracked, in the barn, unsaddled, merely tied to a post near an old stack of hay. They'd leave their horses there while they worked their way toward the house without being seen. They didn't talk. Both men knew what to do.

And then Leroy spotted another horse and said quietly, "Its not abandoned, this place. Someone lives here."

As soon as he said it, the stack of hay started to move. Both men watched it for only a moment, figured some animal had made a bed under it, but nothing wild, since the horses nearby didn't spook. They turned away and started out of the barn. A muffled mewling sound brought Chad's eyes back to the haystack, in time to see a shape rise out of the center of it. The light in the barn was too dim to make out what it was at first, until the lighter golden hair caught his eye.

He swore under his breath. Leroy said conversationally, "Looks like they left her out here while they went to get some grub. I wonder why?"

Chad rushed to Marian, who had pushed her way out from under the hay. "Are you all right?"

he hissed. "Answer me!"

She couldn't answer him yet. He was still untieing her gag. "I'm fine," she was finally able to say, "I think."

"What the hell do you mean, you think?" he demanded, starting to shake her.

"I can't feel my hands, they've been tied up so long."

Some of the tenseness went out of him. He untied her hands, then her feet. It was a wonder she'd been able to push up onto her knees to let them know she was there.

"Do you know who they are?" he asked when she was finally standing on her feet.

"The men who robbed that train I was on. They found out about the painting I did of one of them. They wanted to make sure I didn't make any more."

"But they didn't hurt you?"

"No, not yet. Bilks wanted to. I don't think the others really did. But there was talk of cutting off my hand instead." She shuddered, saying it.

He spared a moment to hug her. "You're fine now."

"I know," she said with a sigh.

"Why they leave you out here?" Leroy asked.

"The owner of the farm didn't want to disturb his wife with whatever they ended up doing to me. They decided to wait until his wife went to bed before any final decision was made, and hid me out here, warning me not to make any noise."

"I'll get you out of here—after I kill those sons of bitches," Chad said. "Wait here."

"No!" She grabbed him back, starting to tremble. "No, don't leave me alone here. Let me go with you."

"Mari, this won't take long—"

"No! Do you have any idea what it was like, listening to those men talk about killing me! If you don't stay with me, I'm leaving on my own. I am not staying here alone, not another minute!"

Leroy chuckled softly to himself. "She's got her gumption back. I can handle these outlaws myself. You go on and get her home."

"There's four of them, Leroy," Chad reminded him.

Leroy grinned. "Child's play. I'm looking forward to busting some heads. Think there might be a reward for this bunch?"

"More'n likely. The railroad usually offers a reward for anyone who's disturbed the progress of one of their trains, to discourage any future activities of that sort."

"Then leave these fellas to me. They might make up for that five hundred you cost me."

Chad rolled his eyes. "They're all yours."

Chapter 41

SUCH A HARROWING EXPERIENCE, Marian had wanted to ride straight home, no matter how long it took, not stop to sleep. Chad didn't oblige her. He got her away from the farm and the ensuing violence expected there, but then he found a lone tree to camp under for the rest of the night.

When she complained that she didn't need any rest, his rejoinder had been, "My horse does."

She hadn't considered the horse that had ridden tirelessly for half the day to find her. She was duly repentant and complained no more.

She just couldn't seem to relax. She'd rather know for certain that those men had been rendered harmless, that they wouldn't be riding after her again. Leroy might not manage to capture all of them. Four against one was— well, with Leroy, about an even fight, maybe even slighdy in his favor. She probably could relax—at least about that.

But that she happened to be spending the night out on the Texas plains, alone with Chad Kinkaid, was reason enough not to relax.

"You don't think Leroy was going to kill them all, do you?" she asked him across from the small fire he'd made.

"He probably isn't going to kill any of them," Chad replied. "That'd be too easy, break in on them sleeping, blast them all with a shotgun. Takes more skill to capture outlaws and bring them in alive, and Leroy prides himself on being skilled. 'Sides, he won't take a chance that the reward is dependent on their being alive."

She still couldn't believe that he had come to rescue her. With all the men there at the party, Chad didn't need to volunteer for the chore.

"Is anyone else looking for me?"

"No one else knows except my pa, and probably Red by now," he said.

"Ahh, so your father sent you to find me."

"No, I let him know what was happening."

"But how did you know?"

"I noticed you heading to the stable. I got curious is all, since nothing was going on down there at the time. One of them got the jump on me and knocked me out. Leroy found me a bit later, and we figured it out together.

There was no time to gather a posse."

She nodded. She should have known his reason for coming wasn't entirely to do with her. He would have come no matter who had been abducted, because that's the kind of man he was.

She sat huddled in a tight ball, arms wrapped around her legs, chin resting on her knees. He'd fed her a few strips of dried beef, hardly a satisfying meal, but it had to suffice. He'd already apologized for not coming prepared, since he hadn't planned on going anywhere before he had a chance to restock his supplies. The two blankets he had wouldn't do to cover them both, unless they were going to sleep directly on the ground. An unappealing thought. And the fire was only a few twigs and wouldn't last through the night, so they would need some cover.

She'd been talking to get her mind off of shivering. It wasn't really cold, only a little chilly. But she was still wearing her sleeveless party dress, and a delayed reaction to having been abducted was probably setting in, too. She couldn't stop her teeth from chattering.

Chad finally heard the noise, and said, "Come here."

"Why?"

He gave her an impatient look. "We need a few hours' sleep so we can get an early start. We've got one blanket to lie on, one for cover, and it's going to get colder before the sun rises."

Huddle together to exchange body heat. That's what he was suggesting. But she was afraid to get that close to him. It had been difficult enough, riding double with him on the horse. And even if her senses could handle it, it was still highly improper. He belonged to her sister—well, he would soon.

"It's nothing personal," he added. "Just good sense."

Put that way she'd be silly to object. Was he cold, too? Probably not. He was just being generous in offering her his warmth.

She moved over to his side of the little fire and lay down next to him, stiff as a board. She heard his sigh before he dragged her closer, full against his side. His arm became her pillow. One of his hands covered one of hers, which she'd hesitantly placed on his chest. Warmth seeped into it and soon into her. She actually fell asleep.

And the dreams started, nightmares, reliving her capture, the fear, watching John Bilks sharpening an axe, meeting the farmer's wife. The woman turned out to be a witch in the dream, and the leader of the gang. She wanted both of Marian's hands chopped off.

Marian sat up with a start, a gasp, and severe trembling. The gasp must have awakened Chad.