The Wildest Heart by Rosemary Rogers Page A

wait until my son gets here,” Katherine Shannon said in her quiet voice. “Mark would know what to do. And I’m sure my brother-in-law would never approve of my having let you travel alone, through that awful, Indian-infested country!”
    â€œBut I’m quite determined to do so,” I said gently but firmly. “Please, Mrs. Shannon, I beg you not to worry yourself on my account. I’m quite used to traveling by myself, and I’m sure that there will be other people traveling with me, so that I will never be totally alone.”
    Corinne, however, was more outspoken than her aunt, and especially when she discovered how I meant to travel. “Rowena, I think you’re out of your mind!” she said frankly, when I told her of my plan. “You’re rich enough to travel in style, which is what I should do if I were you. I really cannot imagine why you should want to disguise yourself in those perfectly horrible, ugly clothes! And besides,” she added, “my Uncle Todd despises plain women! I’ve heard him say so a dozen times at least. Oh, and I was so hoping that you would be the one woman to give him a set-down! He’s such an arrogant, overbearing man—exactly the type you cannot abide. I’ve often thought that he imagines women were put on earth purely to serve men. To be their playthings. I remember how sorry I used to feel for Flo. She’s his stepdaughter, you know. But of, course, that was before I knew her!”
    Corinne wrinkled up her nose, diverted, for the moment, from her purpose. “I was prepared to like her when Uncle Todd packed her back here to school, you know. I’d hear them all whisper about the terrible scandal, and I really did feel sorry for her, knowing how stern Uncle Todd can be. We used to ask her out to tea, and Aunt Katherine would have her spend weekends with her.”
    â€œAnd—” I prompted, more to get Corinne’s mind off my plans than from any real curiosity.
    â€œAnd I discovered what she was like!” Corinne’s pretty face became flushed with emotion. “You can’t imagine what a snob she is! And a flirt. I swear, all she could think about was men, and all she could talk about was how rich Uncle Todd is, and how she had her own horses to ride, and all the men in the territory were mad for her. I could almost feel sorry for that poor young Indian boy who was almost hanged because of her. And then she met Derek Jeffords, who is much older than she is, and because he’s so rich, even Uncle Todd approved. Or maybe he was just anxious to get her married off. Anyhow, she married poor Mr. Jeffords, and she led him a dance from the very beginning. That was when we all started feeling sorry for Mr. Jeffords instead. She never loved him. I don’t think she’s loved anyone but herself, ever! She went after Mark too, for a while, and then, all of a sudden, she decided she was going back to New Mexico, to visit her pa, she said. I don’t know what she told Uncle Todd, but he let her stay. So you’ll have her to contend with too. And Flo doesn’t like competition!”
    â€œWell, if I travel in my ‘disguise,’ as you call it, she could hardly consider me competition, could she?” I objected reasonably, but Corinne was not to be mollified.
    â€œBut I want you to go as yourself!” she wailed. “I want you to show her up! And I want Uncle Todd to like you. It will be so much easier for you if you can win him over!”
    â€œI don’t intend to try to win Todd Shannon over. He’ll have to accept me as I am, or as I appear to be. You must understand, Corinne, that I have a reason for doing what I plan. I want to discover people as they really are. Let Todd Shannon and his daughter see me as a dowdy, inconspicuous female. There was a time when I was exactly that. Perhaps, if they don’t take too much notice of me, I’ll see them as they