Beth commanded in her loudest, most authoritative voice as she pushed past the housekeeper and swept Percy up in her arms. A squab leg dangled from his mouth. he cook, an old woman as fat as Mistress Campbell was thin, lowered her cleaver grudgingly, her round red face scrunched with fury. ...
the young spokesman said in an awestruck voice, kneeling before Rigo. Looking at the pitiful gaggle of worshippers, Rigo did not know whether to laugh at the irony of it or storm off in disgust for their craven servility. He had seen enough of such at the Spanish court of Carlos and thought...
Isobel Darby snapped angrily, then took a calming sip from her glass of champagne. Andrew always imported Dom Perignon from France. “I want Roxanna Fallon destroyed.” Powell watched her agitated pacing from his chair by the window. This house had a splendid view of the bay—almost as fine as...
Is it perchance a temperature gauge?” Michael Jamison asked warily, nodding toward the dash panel of the speeding Mercedes. “Yup,” Josh murmured. Even though he'd checked the radiator and knew it still held plenty of water, the heat was climbing way too high. Small wonder. In the past hour ...
They walked hand in hand across the courtyard, pausing briefly at the well for him to rest. “Are you certain—the fever?” her voice was breathless and tentative. He smiled with his eyes. “I'm certain,” was all he replied as he stood up and they resumed their walk into the house. ...
For the past two weeks her elder sister had been blue-deviled to the point of outright surliness. At first Harry had ascribed Rachel's ill temper to the fact that Jason had returned to Falconridge in the midst of the Little Season. Upon further consideration, she realized how absurd that was, sin...
Murky blackness, icy cold and fast moving, surrounded her as she thrashed frantically, trying to propel herself upward to breathe, to scream for help. What if no one saw her fall? What if they continued upriver without stopping, leaving her to a watery grave in the wilderness? No, she refused to ...
Although not possessing as large a population as Virginia City in its boom years, Denver in 1870 was growing steadily with five thousand residents. After earlier fires and floods, churches and newspapers, banks and mercantiles had all been rebuilt of sturdy brick and stone. When Rory and Be...
Obviously, he had used the facilities often over the course of his academic career. Gilly felt reassured. After all, this was New York, and she was by nature cautious. They both went to work on their separate projects, he scrolling through reams of old newspapers while she took careful notes from...
Out of deference to the Tainos, he had left his mount with the Colons, who would return it to the settlement. He ran along the rough, twisting pathways, now so familiar to him, observing afoot all the splendors of this paradise that were so often trampled by men on horseback. The warm, fecund sme...
Everywhere around her chaos erupted as mothers called out for their children and babies wailed in fright. Young children stood by, their eyes round with fear. Two girls began gathering the smaller children together in a protective huddle while the boys looked to their elder brothers, hoping for t...
When she shivered and pulled her wrap closer, he offered her his suit coat. “No, thank you, I'm not really cold. I just need to walk for a bit and clear my head.” She smiled tremulously at him and then looked up at the sky. “Ever since I came to Texas as a twelve-year-old girl, I've been as...
He was five yards from the carriage and the carriage was five yards from the tree as the horse veered frantically at the last moment to avoid the obstacle in its path. There would be an even finish unless Reiver could beat the odds. The black responded to the desperate challenge. With one m...
When Max had wired Blackie to begin tracing Deuce, he'd also wired Loring and asked if one of his custom cars might be available for the trip. What he had not realized was that the convenience of a real bed still meant that he had to share the spacious railcar with his wife. They slept separately...
He dismounted and had walked as far as the first step when Cormac, out for his morning exercise, came racing around the side of the building. The big hound ground to a halt with a low growl. His raised hackles made him look even more formidable. Lissa heard the sounds of growling and cajoli...
She had endured incessant bone-chilling rains and crude camps made by the trailside. She had slept on wet, rocky ground beneath Obedience's wagon and eaten the meager trail fare prepared hastily over sputtering fires. The fatigue and nausea that had plagued her since leaving New Orleans refused t...
Sleep would not come. She squeezed her eyes closed to keep from crying and muffled the sounds of her sobs in the mattress when she could not. How had they reached such a terrible impasse? She had always believed marrying him and spending her life with a man who was unaware of her as a woman would...
Some capital, he harrumphed to himself, but then it fit this godforsaken Texas Republic. Washington-on-the-Brazos was named after Washington on the Potomac, which, he had been given to understand, was only marginally more civilized. Just then young Mr. Miller entered the small anteroom and ...
The land was invigorating. He let his eyes sweep the majestic high prairie, now awash with pristine snow gleaming diamond bright in the blinding sunshine. The snow had drifted high as a horse's head in many places, tossed about by the cruel plains wind that left other spots swept clean. It was as...