One Wore Blue by Heather Graham Read Free Book Online

her in a husky rich voice.
    But she was still being followed.
    “I’ll kill the bitch!” she heard.
    She kept climbing, nearly mindless as her desperation grew.
    “Climb, Kiernan, climb!”
    She didn’t need the husky warning. She could only pray that the rider in the street had dismounted and was following her own pursuer.
    Her breath came quickly, and her heart hammered. She was gaining ground, though—of that she was certain. If she could reach the crest, she could race to the church. Perhaps she could wake Father Costello—perhaps he was already awake and at prayer. Maybe the church would provide a refuge.
    As she reached the crest, her nightgown caught on a branch. Gasping for breath, she paused to tug it free.
    Then hands fell upon her shoulders. She screamed as she was dragged to the ground. She struggled fiercely, seeing the hard-lipped white man atop her. She screamed again. His hand fell flat over her mouth, and she tried to bite. His fist went up in the air, and she knew that it would connect shortly with her jaw.
    But it didn’t.
    Instead, the man’s eyes went very wide. Kiernan was dimly aware that a leather-gloved hand had clamped onto the man’s wrist. Someone was behind him. The rider, tall and fierce, dragged her attacker from her.
    She heard a wicked-sounding blow connect with the man’s body.
    But she screamed anew, for the earth beneath her had broken under the conflict. She couldn’t catch herself, and she started to fall over the side of the cliff, above sheer rock.
    “Kiernan!”
    For a moment she saw him, tall and in uniform, dark in the shadows, holding on to her attacker.
    He thrust the man away and pitched forward to come rolling after her.
    His body covered her, and his weight threw them both far to the left and back to the trail. They tumbled endlessly together back to the yard.
    They landed with her on top. Coughing, dizzy, she tried to rise. And stared down into endlessly blue eyes.
    “Jesse!” she gasped. “Jesse Cameron!”
    He smiled his lazy, taunting smile. “Hello, Miss Mackay. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? But then, a man never knows quite when he’ll run into you, eh, Kiernan?”

Two
    “When you’ll run into me?” Kiernan repeated. It was too incredible that he was there. She was straddled over him in her white nightgown with its lace and smocking, now torn and disheveled. Her hands rested upon his chest, and her hair trailed over the navy blue of the uniform cavalry shirt he was wearing. His hair, like her own, was in reckless disarray, dark strands trailing over his forehead. “Oh, my God, it’s Jesse!”
    “In the flesh,” he agreed.
    She suddenly cuffed him upon the broad chest. “And rude and abrasive at that!”
    He slipped his hands around her waist, lifting her to his side. She should have risen instantly, Kiernan thought, mortified, but he had only moved her in order to rise to his feet. Once he was up, he reached for her hands, pulling her up before him. “Kiernan—”
    “What are you doing here?” she demanded. “How can you be here?”
    “The night train spread the word,” Jesse said. “I was sharing a late whiskey with a general friend, and he ordered me here to tend to any wounded. Troops will be here soon.”
    “What’s going on?”
    “Kiernan, that will have to wait. I have to find that man.”
    “Jesse, he knew
who
I was and
where
I was!”
    “I know.”
    “But what—”
    “Get back into the house.” He strode away, picking up his hat where it lay in the dirt.
    “What if he comes again? There were two of them.”
    He strode back to her, pulling a Colt six-shooter from the holster that hung on his hip. “You know how to use this?”
    She nodded. He grinned at her and touched her cheek. “He’s probably long gone by now. Get back into the house, Kiernan, and stay there until I get back. All right?”
    She nodded slowly. A quivery warmth spread through her limbs. She stretched out her fingers and clenched them tightly