Tracie Peterson by Hearts Calling Read Free Book Online Page A

least a head taller and her hair was dark, not golden like ripening grain.
    Jim shook his head. What was he doing? Reaching over, he gently shook her shoulder.
    “Go away,” she muttered and rolled to her other side. The blanket fell away revealing her disheveled state. Her once white blouse was now dirt stained and pulled out from the waist of her tailored burgundy skirt. The skirt itself had ridden up to give Jim a view of silken ankles and dainty satin slippers.
    Now he was really disturbed. Seeking to rid himself of his attraction to her, Jim gave Pamela’s arm a firm smack and jumped back.
    “What are you doing?” Pamela exclaimed, coming up from the ground. She got to her feet and whirled around to face her attacker. “Are you now going to beat me?”
    Jim laughed. “At least you’re talking to me. Come on. I’ve got breakfast ready, and we’ll be riding out of here in about fifteen minutes.”
    Pamela put her nose in the air and turned away. “I shan’t eat anything you provide.” She moved away with a regal step that was almost amusing, given her state of disarray.
    “My grub is the only grub here,” Jim said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Suit yourself, but it’s going to take us most of the day to get back to Dawson.”
    Pamela seemed to come wide awake at once. “Are we really so far away?” She had thought their ride only a short one.
    “We rode for over eight hours. Even if the pace wasn’t always very fast,” Jim admitted, “it was steady.”
    Pamela frowned, then noticed her hair. “Oh my,” she murmured. “My hair!”
    Jim grinned. “Looks fine. I’m just sorry my blanket got you so dirty.”
    Pamela hadn’t noticed the stains on her clothes, nor the way her blouse hung outside her skirt. A gasp escaped her lips as she fought to put everything aright at the same time.
    Jim chuckled and walked over to where the coffee steamed aromatically from a worn pot. “Coffee?”
    Pamela shook her head vigorously. “I prefer tea, but I suppose you don’t have any.”
    “No, you got that right,” Jim replied. “I do have cold biscuits and jerked beef. I know you’re used to better, but it’s filling.” Reluctantly, she gave in and, after combing her fingers through her hair, joined Jim.
    Pamela ate silently while Jim watched her for a moment. In spite of her desire for tea, she eventually took a cup of coffee in order to wash down the biscuit.
    Jim could stand the silence no more. He pressed forward to ease his curiosity by asking her questions. “Why did you come so willingly with me? Why didn’t you fight?”
    “I thought,” she finally answered, “that you were someone else.”
    “That’s right,” Jim remembered. “You kept mentioning some other guy. Bradley, wasn’t it?”
    Pamela nodded. “Yes. Bradley Rayburn, the man I love.”
    Jim digested the information for a moment. “Is he your intended?”
    “I hope so,” Pamela said miserably. “It’s been so long since we’ve been together, he may well have forgotten me by now.”
    “A man would have a difficult time doing that,” Jim mused aloud.
    Pamela gave him a quizzical look, then continued. “My parents separat ed us. I thought perhaps Bradley had come to take me away. When you said you’d come to rescue me, what else was I to think?”
    “So you just climbed on the first horse offered, mindless of the danger and stormed off into the night?”
    Pamela glared at Jim and narrowed her eyes. Again Jim noticed how blue they were. “I thought you were Bradley! I wanted you to be,” she added in a wistful voice.
    “Well, I guess I can sympathize with that,” Jim answered. Seeing that Pamela had finished her fare and that the sun was even now peeking up over the snowy eastern range, Jim started collecting his things. “We’d best be on our way.”
    
    Pamela stood uncomfortably and frowned. “I would like a moment of privacy,” she murmured.
    Jim immediately understood and nodded. “I’ll saddle the