Lowell, Elizabeth - Only 05 by Autumn Lover

Author:Autumn Lover
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

s the rangy mare thundered across the landscape, Elyssa

was less concerned about Culpep-pers than she was with staying right

side up in the saddle. Her mount was having a tough time keeping up

with Bugle Boy, but at least the mare was surefooted.

At the moment, agility counted for more than speed. Racing along

the edges of the marsh was a dangerous game. The footing went from

hard to soft and back again without warning. A tangle of grasses could conceal a muddy depression or a hillock or even an outcropping of

rock.

Any of the three could bring down a horse and send its rider flying.

The sunstruck ground whipped beneath the mare’s feet with

dizzying speed. Elyssa ducked her head, squinted against the wind

tears in her eyes, and rode the mare with a skill she had honed while foxhunting at her cousins’ English estates.

Despite the rush of air around them, the hard-running horses soon

raised a sweat. The horses’ coats darkened, then began to show white

lines of lather. The marsh, with its memory of water and clouds of

birds, seemed like a tawny mirage conjured out of the heat of the dry land.

Abruptly Bugle Boy cut hard toward the mountains. Then the big

horse really flattened out, neck stretched and tail streaming in the

wind. Heedless of the danger, Elyssa’s mare thundered down the side

of the shallow wash, turned, and followed Bugle Boy up the wash at a

reckless pace.

Hunter glanced quickly over his shoulder. The raw-boned mare

was fifty yards behind him, running hard. Elyssa was bent low over

her horse’s neck. She clung like a burr to the mare’s long, black mane.

Abruptly the mare staggered, thrown off stride by a hidden

obstacle beneath one foot. Elyssa stood in the stirrups and hauled up on the reins to pull her mount back into balance. After a

heart-stopping few seconds, the mare collected herself.

Elyssa’s brush with disaster chilled Hunter. He faced to the front

again and wished futilely that there had been a way to avoid this.

I should have made her stay at the ranch, Hunter thought savagely. She has no business risking her neck out here!

Yet Hunter had no way of enforcing such an order, short of tying

Elyssa hand and foot to the bed.

And if he got her anywhere near a bed, it wouldn’t be to tie her up

and leave her.

With a searing curse, Hunter reined Bugle Boy to his right. The

horse lunged up and over the lip of the shallow wash. All around

Bugle Boy’s flying hooves the grasslands unfolded in sunny, tawny

glory.

On Hunter’s right, less than a mile away, lay the vast stretch of the dried-up marsh. It rippled beneath the wind in shades of gold and

brown.

About a quarter mile ahead, a large band of mustangs thundered

flat out across the land, pursued by Ladder S riders and their straining mounts.

Hunter and Elyssa joined the chase. As they closed the gap

between themselves and the mustangs, they were careful to stay

between the wild horses and the marsh.

Any mustang that thought to run off into the tawny maze of the

marsh would be turned back by one of the Ladder S riders.

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