Rocky Mountain Rose (Rocky Mountain Bride Series Book 3) by Lee Savino Read Free Book Online Page A

into a trot, then a gallop.
    The town fell away quickly. Horse and Lyle seemed to know the way, they moved swiftly over rocky ground, riding into the brush. With her face to the wind, Rose felt frozen. When she shivered, Lyle pulled the long lapels of his coat around her and pulled her back, forcing her to relax against his body. His warmth seeped into her as they rode into the breaking dawn.
    After a long, hard ride, they changed direction and swung to the right, so the mountains ranged along beside them. Lyle’s horse ran like a rushing river, and Rose found her body moving between man and beast, as naturally as breathing.
    The sun was up and climbing when they broke out of the wilderness scrub. The stallion swerved around boulders and leaped over a stream, its movements powerful and eloquent under its master’s guidance.
    After miles of nothing, they came over a hillock, and there were two horses. Jesse stepped out from behind a cactus, rifle in hand, grinning at them as they slowed to a stop.
    “I beat you here,” the younger, rougher brother observed.
    “Took the long way so we wouldn’t be followed. East, then south.” Lyle bounced down and then turned to help Rose.
    “Where are we?” Rose asked. She looked around the wild landscape, wondering why they’d stopped.
    “Safely away from Doyle.” Jesse grinned at her. “Good morning to you too, Rose. You look lovely.”
    She ignored him, but Lyle frowned at his flirtatious sibling.
    “We’ll take a break here,” Lyle told her. “Jesse brought that horse for you.”
    She noticed the gelding, smaller and more mild tempered than Lyle’s great stallion, it would suit her. Then she noticed the makeshift carrier it had pulled, and the still shape wrapped in a blanket.
    There were two shovels leaning against a rock.
    Rose drew in a harsh breath, and Lyle was at her side, pulling her back into his body.
    “I know it’s not a very grand spot,” he whispered. “But we wanted to pick a quiet place to lay your friend.”
    She shook her head, eyes smarting with tears she refused to let fall. “It’s plenty grand.” She couldn’t keep her voice from breaking. “Sam would love it here.”
    With a nod to Jesse, Lyle stripped off his jacket and shirt, and took up a shovel. For a while the only sounds were of two men laboring to dig a grave.
    Rose wandered to the sad bundle, pulling back the blanket wrapping Sam’s face. The boy looked peaceful in death, his expression sweeter than she’d ever seen.
    “Good bye,” she whispered, and when the brothers laid the body in the grave, she took a handful of dirt and let it dribble from her hand before retreating, wiping her hand on her skirts. “Here lies Sam,” she announced to the Wilders, the horses, and the harsh landscape. “A true friend.”
    “A true friend,” both brothers echoed.
    Rose stepped back, keeping her face expressionless. Heart of stone , she reminded herself, and it was easier then to push back her tears.
    “I’m finished,” she told the two brothers waiting by the grave, keeping her face frozen in its usual mask.
    Jesse looked a little uneasy, faced with her cold and imperious mien. Lyle’s head tilted as he regarded her. His torso, pale except for some wiry hair on his chest, was muscled and strong. He started to put away the shovel and come towards her, but she turned away. “I’ll see to the horses.”
    By the time the men were finished, Rose was saddled and waiting.
    Jesse strapped the shovels to the little mule that carried the heavier saddlebags, then swung up onto his own horse, urging it forward to stop near Rose. “How long did you know him?”
    “Years,” Rose replied. “He was a street urchin, taken in by the show I traveled with. When I wanted to leave, he came with me. He was my only friend.”
    “You loved him,” Jesse said, and Rose jerked her head no.
    “I’m incapable of love. The world I live in, I don’t have the luxury.”
    Jesse’s brow furrowed, then he