My Heart's Desire by Jo Goodman Page B

"that's an awfully high horse you're ridin' now. A lady could get hurt fallin' from an animal like that." After delivering his set down, Jarret sauntered away.
    Rennie was stranded in the middle of the room. Her mother was talking to Mary Francis. Jay Mac was laughing over something amusing the judge had just said. Michael was encircled by her husband's arms. Skye and Maggie had been quick to include Jarret in their animated conversation. Rennie had never felt so isolated or so heartsick. For a moment she actually hated all of them. That feeling passed and she was left hating herself. While Jarret was occupied, Rennie slipped out the door.
    She made it down the courthouse steps before her elbow was seized in a bruising grip.
    "Don't you have regard for anyone but yourself?" Jarret asked.
    Rennie tried to shake him off. Her efforts only increased the pressure of his hold. Her chin came up challengingly. "What do you know about it?"
    "I know that the moment your family realized you were gone they were sick with fear."
    "Oh, you mean they actually missed me?"
    Jarret's fingers eased around her arm. "Feeling a little sorry for yourself, is that it?"
    Shrugging him off and turning away, Rennie hugged herself. "Feeling a whole lot sorry for myself. That's why I left. I'm not fit company."
    Her honest self-assessment surprised Jarret. He fell in step beside her as she began walking away from the courthouse. "We should take the carriage," he said. "It's safer."
    "I want to walk."
    "All right." He handed her the shawl she had left behind and watched her throw it carelessly around her shoulders. "The carriage is warmer."
    She ignored him.
    Burying his hands in his duster's pockets, Jarret shrugged. He knew she was cold, knew she was nearly shaking with it, and yet she seemed to accept the brisk night air as if it were a deserving punishment. Under the street lamps the delicate lines of her profile were starkly etched, and the expression in her eyes was somehow both empty and filled with hurt.
    It had seemed a whimsical thing to do, Jarret thought, to stop Rennie's wedding when Jay Mac made his outrageous offer. Now he wondered how many other women of his acquaintance would have acted with as much spirit and aplomb. He couldn't think of one. Hardly realizing his own intention until it was done, Jarret stepped a little closer to Rennie to protect her from the buffeting wind.
    "Your sisters would like you to journey with them to the summerhouse," he said.
    Rennie shook her head. "They're only hoping that if I go with them, I'll elect to stay. It will simply be another disappointment when I return to the city."
    "You won't consider changing your mind?"
    "I want to be close to Michael and as far away from Jay Mac as I can be right now. That shouldn't be so difficult for anyone to understand—even you."
    "I thought perhaps my presence here would tip the scales in favor of the valley."
    She stopped in the circle of light from a street lamp. The gaslight bleached the color from her face and turned her hunter green gown black and her emerald eyes gray. "Your presence here has little meaning to me now and even less when my mother and sisters leave."
    Looking down at her, Jarret was struck again by her resolve and the gravity of her tone. He was also struck by how very kissable her mouth looked. It was the more unsettling of his observations. He lifted the collar of his duster and turned away. "Let's go." When she hesitated Jarret slipped his arm beneath hers and gave her a nudge.
    Rennie almost brushed him off but then thought better of it. She would concede this small skirmish to Jarret, but she would win the war.
    Jarret was largely unfamiliar with the city, but he knew how to mark a trail. On his ride to the courthouse he had looked for landmarks that would help him find the Dennehy home again without assistance. Now, as Rennie took him past the St. Mark Hotel and Union Square, he knew he was not being led astray.
    Broadway was a busy