The Heart's Pursuit by Robin Lee Hatcher

thought of his mother, father, and sister as he’d last seen them, lying in their coffins. “No, that isn’t why I left.” He heard the hard edge in his reply and hoped she’d heard it too. Maybe then she wouldn’t continue.
    He wasn’t that lucky.
    “Don’t you miss your family?”
    “I have no family left to miss.” He reached for his dinner plate and stood.
    “No one?” She rose as well. “I’m sorry, Mr. Newman. I can only imagine how hard that must be, to lose the people you love.”
    With a nod, he reached out and took the plate from her hands. “I’ll take care of the dishes. You get ready to turn in. We’ll be on our way at sunrise.”
    He turned and walked to the stream.
        
    That night Silver dreamed about horses. Hundreds of Thoroughbreds galloping across rolling fields of green. Black horses, sorrel horses, buckskins and palominos and roans. Big stallions and young foals and pregnant mares.
    She ran with them. Right in the midst of the herd. Feet soaring over the ground. Her hair whipped out behind her like a horse’s tail in the wind. She felt wild and free. Laughter blossomed in her heart, although she made no sound. Everything was beautiful in the dream, from thebright yellow sun in a powder-blue sky to the brook running through the pastures. Joy. She felt a joy she’d never felt before. Oh, the freedom!
    But then the horses turned in a tight circle and came to a halt. Their heads came up, and they all looked in the same direction at once.
    That’s when she saw him, the man on horseback. He wore a hat that shaded his face from view as his horse loped toward her. She knew him and yet she didn’t know him. He was a stranger to her and yet he seemed somehow familiar. Perhaps it was the way he sat on his horse. Perhaps it was the breadth of his shoulders. In a moment she would know who it was. In a short while she would see his face.
    Her heart beat faster and faster. Faster even than when she’d run with the herd.
    Whoever he was, he was coming for her.
    Yes! I’m ready! Hurry!

     CHAPTER 12     
    J ared and Silver were on the trail before the sun rose in the east. It had been only two days since they’d left Central City, but already they’d settled on a morning routine that was both fast and efficient. They rode in a silence that was becoming familiar to Silver. Many times she would think of something she wanted to say to Jared or wished to ask him, but more often than not she swallowed the words and retreated into her own thoughts.
    And those thoughts were usually about the man riding ahead of her. Jared had called her difficult when she refused to return to Twin Springs, but if she was difficult, so was he. Still, he could have refused her request to go with him. Or, worse yet, he could have left her in Central City or abandoned her on the trail during the night. Some menwould have done that. But not Jared Newman. His profession might not be highly esteemed and he might hate having her tag along, but he remained a man of his word.
    It had been hard for him to talk about Fair Acres, about the horses being taken during the war, about his family being dead. Whether because he was a private man or because he’d been on his own too long, he didn’t like to talk about himself. She’d seen it in the set of his jaw and the look in his eyes, and she’d been moved with compassion for him.
    What had happened to his family? Had they died in the war or after? Why had he left Kentucky? What made a man with his background become a bounty hunter? Those questions and more swirled in her mind as they rode north, the Rocky Mountains on their left, the plains of eastern Colorado to their right.
    As morning passed, her thoughts drifted on, this time to her previous night’s dream. It had been fresh in her mind when she’d awakened, so fresh she remembered it now as if she’d just dreamed it. How wonderful it had been, running with the horses. Almost as if she’d taken flight. No