Prairie Song by JODI THOMAS Page A

time in her life Cherish wanted to hold a man to her and never let go. Something more than pity bound her to this man. If she had shown him beauty, he had flooded her with feelings she thought herself incapable of having. All her life she’d heard women talk about caring for a man, caring more than reason would allow. Suddenly, she realized she cared for Brant. Somehow he’d broken the window through which she’d always watched the world. Somehow he mattered.
    “I’m strong enough to walk, and Bar will help me get to a safe place.” He leaned close and brushed his lips against her ear. “Before I go, tell me that I’ll be in your dreams just as you will always fill mine.”
    “No!” Cherish looked into his chestnut eyes filled with a lifetime of longing. “It isn’t safe for you to leave.”
    He moved his lips across her cheek until he was lightly brushing her mouth with his words. “Why did something as perfect as you have to fall in this world gone to hell?” Then he was kissing her, not hard and demanding as he had on the train, but soft and filled with need.
    She melted into his arms, carefully placing her fingers over his bandaged chest. Being in his embrace was like dancing in a fire without getting burned. She felt the warmth spread into every pore of her body, but there was no pain. All her life she’d watched the firelight and been fascinated. Now the flames had become a flesh-and-blood man before her; and the fascination, passion.
    His finger moved along the seams of her dress from her waist to her shoulder. “Dream of me,” he whispered. “Dream of me, pretty lady.”
    “No,” she answered, but her kiss testified to her lie.
    Brant’s low laughter tickled her ear. “I think you will, my love. I think you’ll dream of me for a long, long time.”
    A sudden rattle at the door handle made them both jump. Brant stepped behind the door as Bar entered, carrying a tray of food. “Azile thinks you are the eatingest woman she’s ever—” He froze as he looked up into Cherish’s face. “What’s wrong, Miss Cherish?”
    Cherish tried to hide her emotions. “Brant is leaving.”
    Bar looked around and smiled as Brant stepped from behind the door and lifted his gun belt from the table. “You feelin’ better, sir?”
    “I been kicked worse and still got up to ride.” Brant smiled at the boy. “You walk me out just in case I fall over?”
    “Sure.” Bar shoved the tray onto the table and dusted his pants like he had just been given an honor.
    Brant looked over the boy’s head to Cherish. “Bar, I’ve got a man’s job for you when you get back. Would you keep a close eye on Miss Cherish and see that she stays out of trouble?” He winked boyishly. “She needs to know better than to doctor wanted men.”
    Bar stood an inch taller. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”
    With a last look at Cherish, Brant disappeared out the door before she could say a word. Bar was right behind him like a shadow. For a moment Cherish stood in the center of her room, wondering how she could let this man slip once more out of her life without knowing if she ever was going to see him again.
    A moment later, the slamming of the front door and her aunt’s calling for her brought Cherish back to reality. She darted out of her room and down the stairs, knowing that Brant and Bar were on a collision course with her aunt and Grayson. But when she was halfway down the stairs, she realized that Bar and Brant had disappeared completely.
    Aunt Maggie was storming in such a whirlwind of her own making that she probably wouldn’t have noticed a buffalo herd heading down the stairs. But Grayson, just behind her, would have.
    “I don’t understand it!” Maggie yelled. “What do I have to do to get the money that Tobin left us? You’d think I was trying to rob the bank.”
    Cherish tried to be calm, but her voice broke slightly, making her sound like a child. “What’s the problem?”
    Maggie stormed up the stairs with