A Lady of the West Read online

  LOOK FOR THESE PULSE-POUNDING

  NOVELS OF ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

  FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  LINDA HOWARD

  She’s hunting for a mate—and there’s

  no more playing it safe.

  OPEN SEASON

  Handsome, rich, sexy, deadly.…

  MR. PERFECT

  …and don’t miss

  ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN

  KILL AND TELL

  NOW YOU SEE HER

  SON OF THE MORNING

  SHADES OF TWILIGHT

  AFTER THE NIGHT

  DREAM MAN

  HEART OF FIRE

  THE TOUCH OF FIRE

  All available from Pocket Books

  “A LADY OF THE WEST IS… TEXTURED WITH GRITTY REALITY, RIVETING ACTION AND SIZZLING SENSUALITY…. I COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN.”

  —IRIS JOHANSEN

  * * *

  PRAISE FOR THE SENSATIONAL NOVELS OF NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  LINDA HOWARD

  * * *

  KILL AND TELL

  “Linda Howard meshes hot sex, emotional impact, and gripping tension in this perfect example of what romantic suspense ought to be.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  OPEN SEASON

  “A perfect mystery for a late summer weekend. It’s part romance with a dollop of suspense.” -The Globe & Mail (Toronto)

  MR. PERFECT

  “A frolicsome mystery… Jaine Bright lives up to her name: she’s as bright—and explosive—as a firecracker.”

  —People

  ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN

  “A high-suspense romance…Howard’s trademark darkly sensual style and intense, layered plot will delight her fans.”

  —Booklist

  NOW YOU SEE HER

  “Steamy romance morphs into murder mystery….”

  —People

  “An eerie, passionate, and thrilling tale….”

  —Romantic Times

  Books by Linda Howard

  A Lady of the West

  Angel Creek

  The Touch of Fire

  Heart of Fire

  Dream Man

  After the Night

  Shadow of Twilight

  Son of the Morning

  Kill and Tell

  Now You See Her

  All the Queen‘s Men

  Mr. Perfect

  Open Season

  Published by POCKET BOOKS

  This book is a work of historical fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents relating to non-historical figures are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance of such non-historical incidents, places or figures to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  An Original Publication of POCKET BOOKS

  Pocket Star Book published by

  POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Copyright © 1990 by Linda Howington

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  ISBN: 0-671-01973-2

  ISBN-13: 978-0-6710-1973-0

  eISBN-13: 978-1-4516-6448-5

  First Pocket Books printing September 1990

  18

  POCKET STAR BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Front cover illustration by Jae Song

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  Dedicated to two wonderful friends,

  Catherine Coulter and Iris Johansen,

  for a lot of intangibles, such as support,

  encouragement, laughter, and memories.

  Thank God for Houston, Texas, February 1985.

  A man in a passion rides a wild horse.

  —Benjamin Franklin

  Beware the fury of a patient man.

  —-John Dryden

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  About the Author

  PROLOGUE

  The land itself was extraordinarily beautiful, which was perhaps why the earliest humans to settle on the continent chose to live there. Twenty-five thousand years later, give or take a century, it would be called New Mexico, a name that failed utterly to suggest the magic of the pristine alpine forests in the north that were dotted with cold, crystal clear lakes, and graduated to rolling grasslands and solitary mountain cones. The air was so clear it soothed both the eyes and the brain, and the sunset skies were always filled with color.

  The first people to live in New Mexico were what the white man would later call Indians, and they flourished for thousands of years in the beautiful land. But when the Spaniards came with their armored warriors, steel lances, and fierce horses to unearth the gold buried in the rich land, they claimed the earth itself for their faraway king. As a reward to the intrepid settlers, the Spanish kings gave them land grants, pieces of paper that declared ownership of the wild land they attempted to tame.

  One of these early Spanish settlers was Francisco Peralta, a tall, quiet man with fierce green eyes. He marked out the boundaries of what he would call his, and defended it with his blood. He built an adobe house and sent to Spain for the gently born woman who had agreed to be his wife.

  They had only one child, a son. But what a son he was! Juan Peralta extended the boundaries of his father’s land, he mined gold and silver, raised horses and cattle, and so became wealthy. In his turn he took a bride from Spain, a woman who fought beside him during Indian raids and who bore him three children, a son and two daughters. For his family, Juan Peralta built a new house, far grander than his father’s. His was a harmonious design with arched doorways, cool white walls, and dark earthen tile floors. Fragrant flowers bloomed in the courtyard.

  Juan’s son, named Francisco after his grandfather, worked even more wealth out of the rancho. But his delicate wife died only six months after the birth of their first child, a daughter. The grieving husband never remarried and cherished his daughter, Elena, as the most precious thing in his life.

  By that time, 1831, Americans were wandering all over the West, spreading out from Texas. Most of them were trappers and mountain men, some adventurers. There weren’t many at first, but more and more of them came, hard, restless men who were careless of the great beauty of the land. The Peraltas looked down on these crude Americans, and Francisco forbade Elena to speak to any of them.

  But one of the Americans, Duncan Sarratt, didn’t care a snap of his fingers about Francisco’s edicts. When he saw dainty Elena Peralta, he fell in love. Worse, Elena fell in love with him, too. Francisco raged, he threatened, he tried to intimidate both his daughter and the American. But he had given Elena too many years of loving indulgence for her to take his threats seriously. She would have her American.

  So she did, and they married with Francisco’s reluctant permission. Not being a stupid man, however, he quickly saw that Duncan Sarratt was, perhaps, just what El