She probably would, but she had to point out, “It would be most improper for me to sleep near you.”
“Well, if you don’t want me nearby to protect you, I can sleep somewhere else.”
Her eyes flared, her mind filling with possibilities of what he would need to protect her from. Did he have to be agreeable about this when herds of bears and snakes could converge on them? “Perhaps near but not too close?” she amended.
“I wasn’t planning on sharing your blanket, lady. I’ll wait for you to invite me.”
She gasped and looked away from him again to hide her blush. She heard him walk toward the mules again and glanced to the side to watch him rummage through the baskets until he had a handful of carrots. He proceeded to snap them in two and give each mule half of one, then a whole one to his horse. Feeding his animals lunch—no, she’d seen them eating grass. He was giving them a treat. He definitely had a fondness for them.
She supposed that might be considered a good trait in a man. His sense of humor was another one. He didn’t hesitate to laugh when he was amused. So far that humor had all been at her expense, but two good traits were better than none, she supposed. Still, it was quite surprising that an abductor of women had any.
Her boots suddenly landed next to her. She sighed and tugged them back on before she noticed him standing in front of her with an extended hand. She groaned loudly when he helped her to her feet.
“It’s probably going to feel worse tomorrow,” he warned.
“Impossible.”
“Meant to stay here longer and sleep off some of this heat, but we can’t with that bear in the area. We’ll stop again at the next water.”
She nodded, but gasped when she took the first step toward Carla. She couldn’t bring herself to take another, which might have been why Morgan swooped her up in his arms and deposited her—on his horse.
“No—” she began.
“I wasn’t asking,” he said very firmly as he mounted the animal in front of her. “It’s either this or you’re going to be in bed for the next week crying in pain, and I’d just as soon not hear it. So ignore that I’m on the horse with you and try to forget that you’re touching me.”
Her abhorrence of their proximity had nothing to do with propriety at that point. It simply concerned who he was. Her torturer! Her abductor! The man who’d tried to force her to eat snake!
But then he added, “Use my back if you want to take a nap. I promise I won’t mind.”
She sputtered. He took off—at a bloody trot!
Chapter Nine
VIOLET HAD NEVER BEEN this close to a man before. She was actually touching Morgan. Her thighs were touching the sides of his hips. And when he’d taken off at a trot, she’d instinctively grabbed his waist. She was thoroughly embarrassed by this physical proximity, but there was no way around it. After a while, she let go of his waist and just clutched the material of his long vest until he slowed the horse to a walk. That didn’t happen soon enough for her.
Even after she could safely remove her hands from his person, she still didn’t like riding so close to this frightful beast of a man. He was too big, too masculine, and everything about him made her nervous, but he’d been correct in one regard. She didn’t need to use her already screaming leg muscles to stay on the back of his horse. She was perfectly balanced now and firmly seated.
Another disadvantage of riding with Morgan was being unable to see ahead of them because of the width and height of his back. She couldn’t tell where he was going anymore. He seemed to meander for a while in different directions, probably to avoid the steeper slopes of the hills they were crossing over.
After perhaps two hours of riding, they crossed a river. She glanced down to see if her boots were going to get wet, but the river was shallow enough at that point for her feet to stay dry. Were they stopping? He had said they would when they reached water again. But he kept going, following the river until they reached a lone tree on its bank. There were forests on all sides of them, most of them in the distance, and mountains on three sides, also in the distance.
Dismounting, he slipped his hands under her waist-length hair to lift her down from his horse without asking permission. “You can sleep until dusk.”
If she could move. It hurt so much just standing there, she wasn’t sure she could. But at least her legs hadn’t buckled this time. And getting to sleep through the remainder of this awful heat sounded heavenly to her—if only there were a bed to do it in.
“I told you I can’t sleep on the ground. I’d like to talk to you about my father instead.”
“I don’t know your father. If you mean Charley, then say so.”
She gritted her teeth, but persisted. “What was his life like out here? Did he get used to these wilderness hardships?”
“Charley had help.”
“You?”
“And he’s none of your business.”
“Please.”
He gave her a hard look. “I can’t see what interest Shawn would have in these questions. You improvising, lady? Think this will make your tall tale more believable? So it’s actress after all? Too bad, I was hoping for the harlot.”
She gasped. “I’ve had quite enough of your insults.”
“And I’ve had enough of your jabbering. Sleep or don’t sleep, doesn’t matter to me, but the animals need rest, so we’ll stay here till dusk.”
Then what? “Does that mean you intend to ride at night?” He only nodded, which brought the alarmed question, “But isn’t that dangerous?”
“Shouldn’t be, as long as the sky remains as cloudless as it’s been today. Moonlight can be pretty bright out here.”
His lack of concern should have been reassuring, but it wasn’t. She kept her eyes on him as he went to get her blanket from Carla and spread it out under the tree for her before he unsaddled his horse.
At least she wasn’t hungry. The last meal had been quite filling and palatable—minus the snake. But she shuddered to think what the next one would be like, so she wasn’t looking forward to it. And then she saw the deer at about the same time Morgan did, some hundred or so yards away.
He reached for his rifle. Violet let go of her parasol to clap both hands over her ears before he could fire. She was watching him, not their soon-to-be dinner, and frowned when he put his rifle away without shooting. She figured the deer must have fled. But when she glanced around, she saw it was still there and so indifferent to their presence that it actually lay down near the river’s edge.
“You’re letting it live?” she said in surprise.
“Takes time to bleed it so it doesn’t taste so gamy. I don’t like gamy.”
She was surprised that a man who ate snake could be so picky. But she didn’t share that thought with him, or how much she abhorred being dependent on him for every morsel of food she got. She wanted to get some rest while she could, even if she couldn’t sleep. Dusk came late in summer, but that might be only a few hours away, for all she knew. In Butte she was usually done with dinner long before it started to get dark.
She proceeded to ignore Morgan and inch her way to the blanket. Each little step she took was painful, but she managed not to cringe. Finally sitting down on the blanket in the shade, she continued to watch Morgan because she didn’t trust him one little bit. When he walked away, she lay down to rest her back, planning to sit up when she heard him returning. She never heard him. Despite her sore muscles and the lack of a bed, she fell asleep instantaneously.