The Dancer Read Online Free Page A

drew the pistol.
     
    "No," she whispered, her gaze on the gun.
     
    "If you don't come along quiet-like," he warned. "I'll kill Patrick first. He's better off dead than living with Burwashes."
     
    He was crazy. She didn't dare risk the baby's life, she'd have to do what Mike said. "At least let me bring blankets for him," she begged.
     
    At gunpoint, she entered her room and retrieved the old black cloak for herself, blankets and clothes for the baby. Mike forced her to walk ahead of him down the stairs to the front door. Once outside, despite her protests, he lifted Patrick from her grasp.
     
    "Tell the stable boy you want a horse saddled," he ordered. "I'll be listening to what you say so you'd best watch your words. You try to give the alarm and Patrick dies first."
     
    Clem, the stable boy, gawked at her when she asked for a horse. "Right now, tonight?" he asked unbelievingly.
     
    "I've had bad news from home," she told him, her voice quivering with dread lest Mike misinterpret Clem's delay.
     
    What would he do if the baby began crying? "Please hurry."
     
    "I'm sorry, miss," Clem said, reaching for a saddle. He paused. "You want a side saddle?"
     
    She knew he'd asked because she was wearing an ordinary house gown, not a riding habit with a divided skirt but she grown so accustomed to riding astride she didn't dare risk a side saddle.
     
    "No, a regular saddle is fine."
     
    He shrugged and bore the saddle inside. When he brought the mare, she noticed it was Meg's palomino, Bella, not her own elderly horse. "Had to give you the missus's," Clem said. "Your mare's lame, I been poulticing her."
     
    Elena had no choice but to mount Bella, glad the long cloak covered her hoisted skirts. She rode to where she'd left Mike and found him gone. Before she had time to panic, she heard him call her name in a low tone.
     
    "Elena--over here." Mike was mounted, Patrick clutched in one arm--precariously, or so it looked to her.
     
    Let me take the baby," she pleaded.
     
    "No. Follow me."
     
    They rode south through the dark of night, keeping a slow but steady pace. Unused to riding a great distance, her unprotected thighs chafing, Elena tired long before Patrick woke and began to wail.
     
    "Pull up," Mike ordered. When she did, he reined in next to her. "You take him," he said. "Get him to shut up."
     
    She lifted Patrick from his arms. "How can I quiet him?" she demanded. "He's hungry and I have nothing to feed him."
     
    "If he needs milk, I'll find a cow."
     
    "He needs his mother's milk, not a cow's."
     
    "Milk's milk." Mike surveyed the countryside.
     
    Elena, doing her best to shush the screaming baby, was vaguely aware the sky had lightened a bit and there were rolling hills to either side of them. She had no idea how far they'd gone or where they were.
     
    "We're on the ranch now," Mike said at last. "Much as I hate to give the kid Burwash milk, I guess I'll have to."
     
    The Burwash ranch! Could she possibly get away from Mike and ride to the ranch house?
     
    As if in answer, Mike reached for Bella's bridle and tied a rope to it. "Not that I don't trust you," he told Elena mockingly.
     
    They rode on with his bay leading the mare. When he finally located, a few head of cattle, several with half-grown calves, near a single live-oak tree, she was ready to fall from her mount in exhaustion.
     
    "Know how to milk a cow?" he demanded.
     
    "Yes." Her answer was reluctant.
     
    "Good. This is gonna take two of us, these range cows ain't used to having people milk 'em. Now don't move."
     
    He untied the rope, fashioned a lasso, twirled it and sent it flying over the horned head of one of the cows. The bay braced himself but the cow didn't bolt. Using a second rope, Mike cast another loop over the animal, binding her legs. When she tried to run, the cow fell onto her side. With the bay braced to hold her, Mike backed him, then had the horse circle the tree twice.
     
    With the cow now firmly tethered, Mike