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With a tre hand, she lifted the flower and tucked it behind her right ear This was one time she couldn't ride the fence It was tied

The decision made, she left the room to find Bordeaux He wasn't in the lobby, so she stepped outside the hotel and sauntered down the boardwalk Ashley was growing bigger every time she saw it It was balanced perilously between a s frontier town Even at this hour a piano was pounding out a raucous tune in one of the three saloons At the edge of town the sound of ha of another hotel

As she stepped off the walk to cross an alley, a faure stepped out of the saloon Bordeaux had one arirl His attention was so focused on the girl that he didn't notice Cassie He turned his back to her, facing the girl

Cassie gasped She wanted to run but her feet wouldn't move She wanted to scream at him, but her vocal cords were paralyzed The town ceased to exist as she stood transfixed, watching in horror

The girl turned to face Bordeaux There was nothe devotion in the beautiful blue eyes Bordeaux lifted her chin in his hand

"I'll always love you, Darcie" His voice was tight with emotion Cassie had never witnessed "I don't care what other people think Don't you know that by now? When you ran off like that, I didn't knohat to think I've been looking for you every since An old prospector told me about a woman he met in Ashley I had to come and see if it was you He pulled her close in an embrace "I can't believe I've finally found you" He lifted her chin again and looked deep into her eyes "I have a ranch, down in Texas Coazed up at hio back It'll never work out" She let out a long agonized sigh" It's always the same, Chauncey Men say they love me They say it wasn't my fault - but they don't want to marry me That's why I left That's why I alind up in places like this"

"If they don't want to marry you, they don't love you Cootten what constitutes love You won't find love here in this saloon"

"I know you love me, but when people find out I lived with the Indians for three years"