Chapter One

Hannah was a bedraggled sweaty mess. At one point on that hot night, she’d been so tired after walking miles upon miles that she lain down beneath a tree and napped—she had no idea how long, although it was still dark when she awakened. By then, her hair was stringy and her dress dirty and torn from a sudden fall she’d taken some hours before. It had been a long night and a futile search for her brother, Beau.Damn him!She silently swore. The brash little tart, Millie Peacock, led her on a wild goose chase. Hannah almost believed it was a deliberate ploy to keep her from finding her delinquent brother. Now facing home, she wiped her brow and trudged the last few hundred yards from the road to the white frame house where she and Daniel lived. It was just before dawn and the sky was becoming brilliant with the ethereal glow of a new sunrise. Somewhere she heard a cock crow, and looking toward the house, she noticed a trail of smoke curling from the chimney. Perhaps Jolie had lit a fire. Daniel wouldn’t be home; he’d left the morning before to check his traps on the high ridge and wouldn’t be back for at least two days.

Hannah had no intention of telling her husband about the impromptu excursion when he did come home. The less he heard about Beau and his shenanigans the better for them both. All she could think of now was washing her hands and face and dropping into bed for a long sleep. Gazing downward with unseeing eyes, she wearily put one foot in front of the other, and on reaching the fence she pushed forward the swinging gate that opened into the yard. On looking up, she immediately stopped short, her eyes barely believing what she saw.

Daniel! Yes, it was Daniel standing on the porch, hands on his hips, watching her. Her body immediately leapt with the desire to run to him for comport, but then the impulse quickly passed and her heart sank when she realized what this meant. A painful jolt of shame made her blush long before she reached the porch. When she did, she looked up into her husband’s coal-colored eyes.

“You’re home, sir?”

“I guess I am.” He coolly appraised her, saying nothing for an interminable period. Then he finally broke the terrible silence. “Do I dare ask why my wife is not at home in bed where all good wives should be at such an hour?”

“Oh, it’s such a terrible story, Daniel, and I am so sorry. You must have been so worried.”

The firm set of his jaw said it all. He was a tall, lean and muscular man,