Wild Conquest. Hannah Howell

had paid her fine and so indentured her to him. A part of him had wished to see her rescued from the heartless disloyalty of her family—in fact, a large part of him, which troubled him a little. But he had also been quick to see the advantages of the arrangement for himself.

      He and Pleasance would be together for a full year. In that time he felt sure that he could get a clear picture of her character. She would not be able to maintain any airs and elegance in the hills. He had a good life, far better than she probably suspected, but it was a hard one, and the place where he had chosen to live was still sparsely settled. He could not even be certain that the recent peace with the French had truly ended all the Indian troubles.

      “You have become very quiet, Tearlach,” Corbin observed.

      “Merely pondering all ye have said. I will keep it in mind. I dinnae wish to let the sin of pride blind me. Did ye gather up all of her belongings?”

      “Aye, but with some difficulty. I cannot think what the Dunstans meant to do with her clothing, since she is so much smaller than her sister and mother. Howbeit, at first they refused to turn her belongings over to me.”

      “Thomas Dunstan is a merchant to the verra marrow of his fat bones. He probably thought to sell her clothes.”

      “Well, I exerted what meager power I have and forced him to pack up her things. That allowed me to offer her the luxury of a bath and some clean clothes. You will find her looking much improved.”

      Finishing off his wine, Tearlach stood up. “I will set her belongings in the wagon and then collect her.”

      Pleasance tensed when she heard two sets of footsteps approaching. Corbin had told her that she would be leaving with Tearlach O’Duine this morning, but she had hoped that some intervention of Providence would prevent it. It was clear that Providence was not on her side at the moment.

      When Tearlach came into view she felt a resurgence of her anger. He might not have intended to bring her to this pass, but he had. What truly fed her anger, however, was that, despite all he had done to her, she still found him attractive. Tall, dark, and with strongly hewn features, he twisted her insides with wanting. She hated him for that even as she savored the feelings he aroused, feelings that, before she met him, she had begun to believe herself incapable of.

      He wore tight buckskin breeches that revealed long, well-shaped legs. His loose buckskin shirt was not fully laced and revealed some of his smooth, dark chest.

      Pleasance felt a flicker of desire and firmly repressed it.

      “’Tis time to leave, Mistress Dunstan,” Tearlach said as Corbin unlocked the door to her cell. “I am a little surprised to find ye still here. Ye have shown a true skill at slipping in and out of securely locked places.”

      She donned her cloak as she looked at him. “I would never be so inconsiderate as to deny you your full victory, sir.”

      “A few days of hard work, away from all the luxuries ye are accustomed to, and ye might regret that decision.”

      “Quite probably, but I should not worry yourself over that. I am becoming accustomed to making decisions I regret.”

      “Shall we go?” urged Corbin.

      “Aye,” Pleasance replied. “There is no reason to stay here.”

      As she, Corbin, and Tearlach ascended the cellar stairs and stepped out into the drive that curled around to the back of Corbin’s house from the main road, Tearlach took her by the arm. She almost yanked free of his hold. His touch, light and impersonal though it was, caused the heat of desire to flicker through her veins. That frightened her. One long year of living close together stretched ahead of them. Such wild feelings could easily bring about the completion of her downfall. She knew she had to fight them, yet she was not sure how.

      Tearlach’s large freight wagon and its double team of horses loomed up in front of her. Before she could succumb to a flash of panic and try to flee, Tearlach grasped her firmly by the waist and lifted her up on the high wagon seat. As if he sensed her urge to run, he kept a gentle but firm grip upon her wrist as he stood beside the wagon and took his final farewell of Corbin.

      By the time she and Tearlach started on their way, Pleasance had calmed herself somewhat. She sat stiffly, her gaze fixed on the horses’ ears as they drove through town. It was not until the houses began to grow farther apart as they neared the western edge of town that she began to relax. As the stiffness began to leave her body, she suddenly realized where they were and tensed again. Her house loomed up ahead of them.

      Despite her best efforts not to, she glanced toward her home as they drove past it. There was no one outside of the two-story gray-shingled garrison house to watch her leave or answer her faint hope that her family might still step forward to help her. There did not even appear to be anyone watching for her from inside the house. Not one face appeared in the multipaned windows. Staring down at her tightly clenched hands, Pleasance fought back her tears and swore to herself that she would never let her family’s betrayal break her spirit.

      Tearlach watched her covertly. He saw the hurt she struggled to hide, and he felt a strong urge to stop the wagon, march inside the Dunstan home, and beat Thomas Dunstan soundly. John Martin and the spoiled Letitia were deserving of a good thrashing as well. This strong surge of anger and outrage on Pleasance’s behalf troubled him. He recalled her ability to stir a lot of puzzling emotions in him. Tearlach began to wonder if he was making a very big mistake, if perhaps he should have released Pleasance after he paid her fine.

      He quickly shook his doubts aside. In several ways, some righteous and some not, he needed her. She stirred a desire within him—one that possessed him to the point of denying all others—that demanded satisfaction. Society might frown upon his fulfilling that desire outside of the bonds of marriage, but the society of Puritan-born Massachusetts still frowned darkly on a great many things. He was past caring. In the wilderness one played by different rules. He also needed Pleasance Dunstan to help care for Moira, his rebellious half sister. Moira needed the guiding, gentling touch of a woman.

      The girl would turn thirteen soon, and full womanhood was not far away. Moira was too wild, too rough, and now that she was getting older she must be tamed. Tearlach grimaced as he recalled the incident that had brought him to Worcester looking for a wife. Even in the wilderness there were things a young woman could not do without stirring up a scandal, and beating a young boy with her fists was one of them.

      Yes, Pleasance Dunstan would fulfill his needs for the year to come, in his bed and in helping Moira. But he would make certain that she never had the chance to use those needs against him.

      Chapter Four

      Pleasance grimaced and glanced around to be sure that Tearlach was not watching her. With an inner sigh of relief, she rubbed her aching backside. Her petticoats did not provide as much padding as she had hoped. She suspected that the road they were traveling on was the only usable route to the far western settlements of the colony, but it had to be the worst road in all of the northern colonies. Just traveling on it should be considered punishment enough for the crimes she had been accused of. The only thing she had to be thankful for was that the September heat was eased.

      The lack of any good inn did not help matters. Either Tearlach was avoiding the places or there were not any. After all, until the recent war’s end, the Indians and the French had kept the western lands in utter turmoil and the roads had remained little traveled. A man would not set up an inn unless he felt assured of some commerce.

      So, instead of finding herself at a warm, welcoming inn at the end of the long, exhausting day, she arrived at a small, one-story log outpost around which lounged a few slothful soldiers. Peace had made them lazy, she mused. She would not be surprised to find that a posting to one of these remote fortified waysides was now considered a form of punishment. The way the soldiers eyed her made her begin to think that the last thing she would find here was safety.

      When Tearlach returned from unhitching the horses and securing them for the night, she almost shared her concerns with him. She quickly shook that urge