Brave the Wild Wind Read Free Page A

time before she sensed Blue staring at her in the same way. His expression was a mix of confusion and anger, and she quickly looked away. Reaching down for her gun belt, she strapped it on, refusing to look at him.
    “Just a minute, gal.” Blue caught her arm when she picked up her hat and started for her horse. “What the hell was that all about?”
    She tried to shrug it off. “I don’t like strangers.”
    “What’s that got to do with lying?” he demanded.
    Jessie jerked her arm out of his grasp and faced him, her eyes flashing with all the fury pent up inside her. Blue nearly forgot his anger then, for she was something to behold, her eyes lit up with blue-green fire, breasts heaving, her long braid flung over her shoulder, the braid end touching her narrow hip. Her right hand rested on her gun, and although he doubted she would really shoot him, the threat was there, and he didn’t try to grab her again.
    “Jessie, I don’t understand. If you’ll just tell me what’s made you so angry?”
    “Everything!” she snapped. “You! Him!”
    “I know what I did, but—”
    “What you did you’d better never try again, Blue Parker!”
    He frowned. She didn’t mean that. He wasn’t about to give her up, anyway. But it would be a good idea to get her mind on something else for a while.
    “Well, what’d he do? Why’d you lie to him?”
    “You heard who he was looking for.”
    “So?”
    “You think I can’t guess why he’s looking for her?”
    Blue followed her drift. “You don’t know anything for sure.”
    Jessie drew herself up. “Don’t I? He was too good-looking. He’s got to be one of her lovers, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let him come to my ranch and carry on with her under my roof!”
    “And just what’re you gonna do when he finds out you lied to him and comes back?”
    Jessie was too mad to give it any thought. “Who’s to say he’ll be back? He’s probably from the city, like she is. He probably couldn’t find his way out of a hole in the ground,” she added contemptuously. “Didn’t you see how packed his saddlebags were? He’s the type who can’t survive without store-bought goods. If he reaches Fort Laramie or gets back to Cheyenne, he won’t be eager to venture out on the range again, where the nearest store is days away. He’ll go back where he came from and wait forher to come to him—which can’t happen soon enough for me.”
    Blue shook his head. “You sure do hate her.”
    “Yes, I hate her!”
    “It ain’t natural, Jessie,” he said softly. “She’s your mother.”
    “She’s not!” Jessie stepped back as if he had struck her. “She’s not! My mother wouldn’t have deserted me. She wouldn’t have let Thomas Blair turn me into the son he wanted. My mother died here. That woman is nothing but a whore. She never gave a damn about me.”
    “Maybe you’re just hurting, Jessie,” he said kindly.
    Jessie wanted to cry. Hurting? How many times had she cried herself to sleep because there was no one there to soften the pain of her life, a life she hated. Hadn’t it all been because of her mother? Every single thing her father did was to spite the whore, as he’d called her mother. He had denied Jessie boarding school because her mother had wanted her to be educated. He had denied her anything feminine because her mother had wanted her to be a lady. He had made her what she was because he knew her mother would hate her. Irrationally, he had gone into debt to build a house fit for a queen, done it solely because it was what her mother would have loved and could never have.
    “I passed the point of being hurt long ago, Blue,” Jessie said in a quiet voice. “I haven’t needed her for a long time, and I certainly don’t need her now.”
    Before her tears spilled, Jessie ran to herhorse and took off. She didn’t mind crying, she just didn’t want anyone to see her at it. She rode south, away from the ranch, away from the cause of her tears.

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