“Look, Miss Pierce,” Jason said. “I’m not looking for a wife now or anytime in the future.”
“If you’d just let me explain.”
“The last thing anybody here needs is a wife,” Jason said.
“But—”
“This is a logging camp,” Jason said. “My men work twelve hours a day, six days a week. It’s dangerous work. Just a few seconds of lost concentration can cost a man his life—or the life of the men he’s working with. I’m not having a bunch of women up here distracting my crew from their job. Nobody here wants a wife.”
“Nobody?”
“Nobody.”
Amanda drew in a deep breath. “I see….”
Bitter disappointment coursed through her. She’d pinned so much on this trip. All the plans she’d made—plans that had kept her going in the past few days—were gone. Along with her high hopes for the future.
Amanda swallowed hard, refusing to let her feelings overwhelm her. She’d come here to find out, to learn, to investigate. Now she had her answer.
She drew in a big breath, pumping up her courage. “Well…I suppose there’s nothing left to do but…leave.”
Ethan poked Jason in the arm. “You could at least tell her you’re sorry she came all the way up here for nothing—on account of you.”
“Oh, yeah.” Jason shifted uncomfortably and turned to Amanda. “Look, Miss Pierce, I really am…sorry…you got dragged up here on some wild-goose chase.”
“No you’re not,” Amanda said, her disappointment turning to anger. She’d had enough of the Kruger Brothers’ Lumber and Milling Company, and enough of the Kruger brothers themselves. Jason had made it abundantly clear that he had no use for her whatsoever, and she was in no mood to be patronized.
“Well, look, Miss Pierce—”
“You’re not the least bit sorry I wasted my time, so don’t pretend otherwise,” Amanda told him. “You, Mr. Kruger, are thoughtless, inconsiderate, and rude. Don’t add lying to your list of faults.”
Amanda put her nose in the air and sailed across the office, then looked back at him. “And you have horrible table manners!”
She gave the door a very unladylike slam on her way out.
Jason and Ethan just stood there staring at the closed door.
“Damn….” Jason mumbled.
Ethan grinned. “Yeah, bedding down with her would—”
“That’s not what I was thinking,” Jason said quickly.
“Like hell you weren’t.”
Jason turned away, pacing the width of the office, refusing to look at his brother.
“What are we going to do with her?” Ethan asked, as he pulled matches from the desk drawer and lit the lanterns on the walls.
Jason spun around. “Do with her? I’m not going to do anything with her.”
“It’s too late to get her down the mountain tonight,” Ethan said. “Shady can’t make that trip in the dark. The trail is dangerous enough in broad daylight.”
“She can’t stay here.”
“What do you want to do, Jas? Give her a candle and a map and tell her to start walking?”
Jason grumbled under his breath. “This is why I don’t want women up here. They’re nothing but trouble.”
“Maybe,” Ethan said. “But she’s here now. We’ve got to do something with her.”
“You’re right. I guess she’ll have to stay.” Jason paced a little more, thinking. “Take her over to Mrs. McGee’s place and see if she’ll put her up for the night.”
“Meg…?”
“There’s no other place for a decent woman to stay.”
“Yeah, I know…but…”
“But what?”
“Nothing.” Ethan shifted from one foot to the other. “I can take her over there…I reckon.”
Outside, Amanda stood on the porch holding on to the rough support column and gazing around at the logging camp. What little she could see of it, at least. When she’d arrived earlier, she had only gotten a vague impression of the camp, and that wasn’t much to go on now that it was dark.
Off in the distance a few windows glowed yellow with lantern light. She made out shadowy silhouettes of buildings and a couple of dark figures passing in front of them. A cool breeze blew. A dog barked somewhere.
If she had good sense she might be frightened, Amanda decided. But right now she was simply too tired, too angry, and too disappointed to feel anything else.
She needed to find Shady Harper and ask him to take her down the mountain tonight. But where was he? The freight wagon she’d arrived in was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Shady. She had no idea where to look for him.
The little cluster of buildings that Shady had called a town was only a short walk east. Maybe he was there. If not, surely she’d find a hotel where she could spend the night. All she had to do was get there without falling over something and killing herself stumbling along in the dark.
Amanda glanced back at the door of Jason Kruger’s office that she had slammed so indignantly moments ago, and decided that she wasn’t desperate enough to ask that man for help—not now or in the foreseeable future.
The door opened just then and he walked out, his tall, wide frame outlined by the lantern light behind him. Amanda’s temper rose again.
His face was in shadows and when he stepped closer Amanda realized it wasn’t Jason, but his brother. Her anger turned to something that for a flicker of a second seemed like disappointment. Amanda pushed it aside quickly. Certainly it couldn’t be that.
“Miss Pierce?” Ethan said. “I’m going to take you some place to stay for the night.”
“That won’t be necessary, Mr. Kruger.”
“Just call me Ethan. It can get kind of confusing around here, otherwise.” He grinned and nodded toward the office. “Besides, I don’t like being mistaken for my brother, if you get my meaning.”
“I do indeed get your meaning.” Amanda glared at the office door, then looked at Ethan. “But your help isn’t necessary. I’m going to have Shady take me back to Beaumont.”
“Not tonight, he can’t.” Ethan shook his head. “Shady can’t make that trip after dark.”
“Then I’ll get a hotel room for the night.”
“There is no hotel.”
“No hotel?” Amanda asked. “But surely—”
“Just do like you’re told.” Jason walked up, his footsteps heavy on the wooden porch. Amanda sensed he’d been standing there, listening…watching.
Anger threaded through her again. “You may be in charge of the logging camp, Mr. Kruger, but you have no say over what I do. Now, I am going to find Shady Harper and arrange for transportation down the mountain tonight.”
“No, you’re not.”
His big hand closed over her elbow. Long fingers exerted just enough pressure to keep her in place. She sensed incredible power in his grip, power barely under control.
Heat rushed up her arm, twined down her throat into the pit of her stomach causing her anger to bloom again.
And