back east, Miss. Stuart?"

She was up on her feet instantly.

"Head back east? I have never been east, Colonel. I was born here in

Texas.

My grandparents helped found Wiltshire. And the little bit of town that

yon Heusen doesn't own yeti still do. I have no intention of turning it

over to him! Colonel, there's nothing else that I can tell you. I have

had a rather trying few days. If there's some place where I might rest,

I'll be most grateful to accept your hospitality for a night or two.

Then, sir, I have to get home. I have a ranch and a paper that need my

expertise."

The colonel was on his feet, too, and she sensed that, behind her, Jon

and Slater had also risen. She spun around, feeling Slater's eyes,

certain that he was laughing at her again.

But he wasn't laughing. His eyes were upon her, smoky and gray and

enigmatic. She sensed that she had finally gained a certain admiration

from him. What good it could do her, she didn't know. The colonel had

been her last hope.

Now the battle was hers, and hers alone.

"Miss. Stuart, I'd like to help you if I could"

"Nonsense, Colonel. You don't believe a word I'm saying," Tess told him

sweetly.

"That's your prerogative, sir. I am very fatigued ..."

"Miss. Stuart can take the old Casey place while she's here," Jori said.

"Doily Simmons is there now, with linens and towels."

"I shall be most grateful to the Caseys," Tess said. "No need," Slater

drawled.

"Casey is dead. Caught a Comanche arrow last year. His wife went on hack

east." He was taunting her, and she smiled despite it.

"I have told you all, Lieutenant, I've never been east" -- "Oh, not that

east, Miss. Stuart. Mrs. Casey and the kids went to live in Houston,

that's all."

"Well, I rather like the area I live in," she said sweetly, then she

turned to the colonel.

"If I may, sir ... 7"

"Of course, of course! Jamie, you and Jon will please escort the young

lady to her quarters. And Mis~ Stuart, if it's Wiltshire you're

insisting on reaching, I'll arrange you an escort just as soon as

possible."

"Thank you."

Jon opened the door. Tess sailed through it. Slater followed her.

"It's this way, Tess," Jon told her. He'd never used her first name

before, and certainly not as he did now, intimately, as if they were old

friends.

There was a bright light to his striking green eyes, and she realized

that it was for the benefit of Jamie Slater. Jamie. Silently, she rolled

the name on her tongue.

"Lieutenant" seemed to fit him better.

Not always . Not that day he had looked down at her on the rocks after

shooting the snake. His hair had been ruffled, his shirt had fallen

open, and she had wanted to touch him, to reach out and feel the vital

movement of his flesh, so bronze beneath the setting sun. Then, then the

name Jamie might have fit him just fight. It was an intimate name, ,a

name for friends, or for lovers.

He was behind her still. Jon Red Feather was pointing things out to her.

"That's a general store, and there's our one and only alehouse, we don't

dare call it a saloon. And down there is the coffeehouse for the ladies.

We've a number of women at the fort here. The colonel approves of the

married men having their wives with them, and since the fort is strong

and secure ..." He shrugged.

"Then, of course, we have the stores and the alehouse and the

eoffcehouse, so we've a few young and unattached ladies, which makes it

nice for the soldiers at the dances."

"Dances!"

"Why, Miss. Stuart, we do try to be civilized out here in the

wilderness." "Desert," Jamie Slater said from behind them.

"I think it's really more a desert than a wilderness, don't you, Jon?"

He didn't wait for an answer, but continued, "There's the Casey house

right there." He strode up three steps to a small house that seemed to

share a supporting wall with the structure beside it.

The door burst open suddenly. There was a large buxom woman standing

there.

She had an ageless quality about her, for her features were plump and

clear, her eyes were dark and merry, and it was difficult to see if her

hair was blond or silver.

"You poor dear! You poor, poor dear! Caught up in that awful Indian

attack"

"Miss. Stuart doesn't believe that it was Indians, Dolly," Jamie Slater

said evenly.

Dolly waved a hand in the air.

"Don't matter who it was, does it? It was awful and heinous and cruel

and this poor girl lost her friends and her uncle. It was your uncle,

fight, dear?" "Yes," Tess said softly.

Dolly had a hand upon her shoulders, drawing her into the house. Jon and

Jamie Slater would have followed except that Dolly inserted her grand

frame between them and the doorway.

"Jon, Jamie, get on with you now. I'li see to Miss. Stuart. I'm snre you

were right decent to her on the trail, but she's had a bad time of it

and I'm going to see to it that she has some time to rest, and I'm going

to give her a nice long bath, some homo-cooked food, and then I'm going

to put her to bed for the night. She needs a little tenderness right

now, and I'm not so sure you're the pair to provide it!"

"Right, Dolly," Jon said. Amused, he stepped back. Jamie Slater tipped

his hat to Tess over Dolly's broad shoulder. His lip, too, was curled

with a certain amusement, and Tess felt that, for once, she could too

easily read the message behind his smok~-gray eyes. He thought that she

needed tenderness just about as much as a porcupine did.

"Good evening, Miss. Stuart. I do hope that you'll be feeling better

soon."

"If you're lucky, Jamie Slater, she'll be up and about for the dance

tomorrow night."

"If I'm lucky" -- Jamie started to murmur. "Well, hell, there's no lack

of young men around here, Lieutenant!" Dolly said.

Tess could feel a brilliant crimson flush rising to her cheeks. She

wasn't sure who she wanted to bat the hardest--Dolly for so boldly

putting her into an awkward situation, or Jamie Slater for behaving as

if escorting her to a dance would be a hardship.

"There's absolutely no need for anyone to concern himself," she said

quietly, a note of steel to her voice. There-she'd given Slater his out.

"I consider myself in mourning. A dance would he completely out of the

question."

"Would it?" There was a core of steel to Jamie's voice, too. He managed

to step past Dolly and catch her shoulders, and she thought he was

furious as he gazed into her eyes. She couldn't understand him in the

least.

"I don't think so, Tess. Your uncle was a frontiersman, a fighter. I

don't think he'd want you sitting around crying about what 53 can't be

changed.

He'd know damned well that life out here was hard, and sometimes awfully

darned short and sweet, and he'd want you to live. And that's what

you're good at, isn't it? Fighting--living?"

"Lieutenant Slater, really, I" -- "Maybe it's just the fighting that

you're so good at. Maybe you don't really know how to live at all."

She cast back her head, ignoring the grip of his fingers upon her

shoulders.

She gritted her teeth hard, then challenged him hotly.

"And you think you're the one who could teach me how to live,

Lieutenant?

Why, I'm not sure that you're more than a perfo~t Yankee mannequin

yourself, Lieutenant."

His lip curled. His grip on her shoulders suddenly relaxed.

"Why don't you test me then, Miss. Stuart?"

"Jamie Slater, that young girl is vulnerable right now" -- Dolly started

to warn him, but Jamie and Tess both spun on her.

"As vulnerable as a sharp-toothed cougar," Jamie supplied.

"Never to the likes of him!" Tess promised. Dolly was silent. Soft

laughter sounded, and Tess saw that it was Jon Red Feather laughing, and

that he seemed quite pleased with the situation.

"No wonder white men don't like Indians!" Jamie muttered darkly.

"Sure. Keep the white folks at war with themselves, and half the battle

is solved," Jon said pleasantly.

"Jamie, come on. It's settled. You can pick up Miss. Stuart right after

sunset."

"Nothing is settled" -- Tess began.

"Sunset!" Jamie said. He seemed to growl the word. And he didn't give

her another second to protest, but slammed his way out the door. It

closed with such a bang that even Dolly jumped, but then she smiled

benignly.

"I do just love that man!" Dolly said.

Tess stared at her blankly.

"Why?" she demanded. "Oh, you'll see," young lady. You'll see. And that

Jori! He does like to stir up trouble.

But then, maybe it's not trouble this time. Jon can be plain old silent

as the grave when he wants, too. I think that he's just delighted to put

Miss. Eliza's nose out of joint. She thinks she just about has her claws

into Jamie, and who knows, it is lonely out here. But she isn't right

for him, she just isn't fight at all. You'll see."

"Miss. Simmons" -- "Dolly. We're not very formal out here.

"Ceptin' the men, when they're busy playing soldier, that is."

"Dolly, I have no intention of going to a dance with Lieutenant Slater.