“Lily, wait!” he scrambled after her, slipping on the fresh snow. She ignored him, tucking her hands under her arms. “Wait! Singing Bird!”
She stopped dead, turning to face him, trembling with fury.
“You have no right-”
“Why don’t you let me walk you home?”
She marveled at his arrogance. He had no idea how infuriating he was.
A touch of inspiration hit her. She clasped her hands behind her back and plastered on a smile. “Why certainly, Mr. Avery. Walk me home.”
“All right,” he said. “Let’s go.”
He took a few steps but stopped when she didn’t move.
“I said let’s go.”
“Certainly.” She nodded. “You lead the way.”
Christian huffed out a breath and shifted his weight, catching on. “Where do you live?”
“You mean you don’t know?” Lily arched an eyebrow.
“No, I do not.” He matched her smarmy tone.
“Imagine that,” she said, shaking her head and marching off ahead of him. “Christian Avery, Justice of the Peace, rushing to stick his nose into something he knows nothing about.”
Christian was silent. Lily charged on, hoping that at last he would leave her alone. She heard the shuffle of his feet behind her, but nothing he could say would make her turn around.
“You are one hell of a-”
A sharp crack of gunfire cut through the night. The suddenness of the noise froze Lily in her spot, heart in her throat. She cowered as the front door of the house to her right banged open.
Two men in buckskin coats with bandanas over their faces pushed out into the front garden. Each of them held a sack in one hand and a pistol in the other. One of them fired a shot into the house before rushing towards the gate in the garden fence. The shot was met by a woman's scream. More shots
followed, whizzing inches past Lily’s head.
Christian threw his arms around her, yanking her out of the street as the gunmen charged at them. His grip was tight and protective and Lily buried her face against the soft wool of his coat. More gunshots. Christian’s chest heaved with deep, alarmed breaths. His arms squeezed her close. The gunmen shouted, but their words were indistinct over the muffled panic ringing in Lily’s ears.
Christian cradled her head. His touch was soft in the darkness. His fingers slipped across her hair and brushed her neck. With a strange rush of heat, her tension evaporated. Christian held her.
She wouldn’t fall, she couldn’t be hurt. He wouldn’t let that happen. Somehow she knew that.
She took a deep breath, tobacco and cedar, then summoned the courage to look up over Christian’s shoulder at the scene around them. The gunmen slipped on the snowy street only a few yards from where they stood. Samuel Kuhn dashed out of the house and onto the porch, fully dressed in fur-collared coat and top hat, a gun in his hand. He’d fired a shot that went over Lily and Christian’s heads then fired another one for good measure.
“Stop them! Stop those Injuns! I’ve been robbed!”
Christian cursed. Lily felt tension ripple through him. Her own fear returned with it. He wavered between holding her and loosening his grip before giving up and letting her go.
Her hands clenched the lapels of his coat, keeping him close. She met his wide, flashing eyes, loathe to release him. He stared back at her alive with an energy for which there were no words. She was safe, safe in his arms.
Sense struck a moment later and she let go with a gasp. Christian reached out as though he would take her back. He hesitated, then twisted to find the robbers. With a tight curse he turned to chase after them.
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About In Your Arms
Lily Singer has never belonged. Taken from her tribe as a child and raised in a white man’s school, she no longer has a place in either world. Teaching has become her life. When that life is threatened by rumors and prejudice after a string of robberies, she must turn for help to the one man who spells disaster for her carefully ordered existence. Will he save her or steal her heart?
Christian Avery, Justice of the Peace, is used to having things his way. Cold Springs is his responsibility, and when its citizens blame the local Indian population for the mysterious robberies, it’s up to him to restore order and maintain calm. The one person who refuses to follow his lead is the beautiful, native-born Lily. Her defiance turns his life upside down.
But when town gossip shifts from robberies to romance after a foolish indiscretion, Lily’s job and reputation are on the line. She must choose between the only life she has ever known and the only place she has ever felt at home, in Christian’s arms.
About Merry Farmer
Merry Farmer is an award-winning author of Historical Romance and what she likes to call “Sci-Fi for Women.” She lives in suburban Philadelphia with her two cats and enough story ideas to keep her writing until she’s 132. Her second novel, The Faithful Heart, was a 2102 RONE Award finalist and her unpublished futuristic novelA Man’s World won first place in the Novel: Character category at the 2013 Philadelphia Writer’s Conference. She is out to prove that you can make a living as a self-published author and to help others to do the same.
Find Merry Farmer on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon Author Page.
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