A Heart for the Taking by Shirlee Busbee Read Free Book Online Page B

age, Chance hardly resembled a boy, standing nearly six feet three in his stockinged feet. Beneath the fringed buckskins that he wore with such carelesselegance, his shoulders were broad, his body whipcord lean, and his dark face was hard and shuttered. An unforgettable face, Fancy thought in spite of herself, her gaze noting the swooping black brows, the startling cobalt blue eyes, and the long, mobile mouth.
    Their eyes suddenly met, and Fancy felt her heart drop right down somewhere around her curling little toes. Mercy! No one had ever looked at her that way before! The cool contempt was plain to see, as was the inexplicable dislike, but it was the flash of something else deep in his eyes that made her pulse leap.
    Ignoring a craven impulse to pick up her skirts and run back up the gangplank to the relative safety of the ship, Fancy lifted her chin even higher, and her lovely eyes held an angry sparkle. Who did he think he was, this backwoods buffoon, looking at her in
such
a manner?
    Sam cleared his throat gently, breaking the odd spell between them, and Fancy’s mouth nearly fell open in shock at the change of expression that swept over Chance’s features as he glanced at the older man. A warm, stunningly attractive smile tugged at the corners of that long mouth and lit those blue, blue eyes as he said in a deep voice, “It is good to see you, sir. And as for my trip . . . well, it was not very successful—you know that Logan has joined with Cornstalk and that the Shawnees and other Indian tribes have banded together. They have been raiding and killing all along the Ohio since Logan’s family was slaughtered in April. I went more at the governor’s request to see if I could convince them to meet to talk peace, but . . .” Chance shrugged. “I was, I am unhappy to admit, no better a peace emissary than I was a trader.”
    It was too good an opportunity for Jonathan to pass up, and he drawled, “I must say that I am surprised that Lord Dunmore sent someone of your ilk to deal with these warring savages. After all, your, er, skills are more in fleecing the unwary, aren’t they?”
    Chance smiled coolly in Jonathan’s direction. “I have often wondered how you explained your losses that night.”
    Jonathan’s face congealed with fury, and he took a threatening step forward. It was his mother who recalled him to his senses by saying sharply to Chance, “How dare you speak to my son in that manner!” She looked angrily over at Sam. “Are you going to just stand there and let him get away with insulting your only brother in that manner?”
    Sam shook his head wearily. “I have told you a hundred times, Constance, that I am not going to be drawn into the middle of this senseless feud between the pair of them. And as for Chance insulting Jonathan, I believe,” he said dryly, “that it was Jonathan who cast the first stone. Now then, before we subject our guests to any more of our inexcusable rudeness, I suggest that we bid Chance good-bye and continue on our way.” Sam looked at Chance. “In view of the circumstances, I think it would be best if we postponed introductions to our guests to a later date, do you agree?”
    Chance nodded curtly and, after one long, insolent glance at Fancy, turned on his heel and strode swiftly down the wharf. Feeling as if she had just survived a fall from a high cliff, Fancy let her breath out in a rush and only then became aware of how tightly she had been clinging to Jonathan’s arm. Embarrassed and feeling a little silly, she loosened her hold instantly and said with an attempt at lightness, “Well! You did promise us some exciting moments in the Colonies, Jonathan—I just did not think that they would start the moment we stepped off the ship! I was fearful for one awful moment that you were going to come to the blows with that impertinent creature.”
    Jonathan laughed, his good humor restored now that Chance’s tall figure was lost among the shifting crowd on the