Wild Horses

Wild Horses
Bethany Campbell

Not even wild horses…Nothing could make Michele Nightingale betray the only family she's ever known. So when Adam Duran shows up–an uninvited stranger bearing bad news–at the Circle T, she wants nothing to do with him. But he insists on speaking with ranch owner Carolyn Trent.Since Carolyn's away, Mickey has to play host. She's horrified to learn who Adam is and what he wants. But the more she gets to know Adam, the more his story touches her. She finds herself torn between her loyalty to the Trents and the sympathy–and undeniable attraction–she's beginning to feel toward Adam.And then there are the horses….

What the hell have I walked into?

Adam stared at the closed door. He felt like an animal trapped in a cage.

He’d known this trip was going to be hard. And he refused to lie to himself—he’d felt edgy about meeting Carolyn Trent from the start. What sane man in his position wouldn’t?

During the whole trip he’d hardened himself to face her. When he’d climbed the stairs to her home, his heart had pounded like a sledgehammer. He’d supposed she’d be polite—initially. After that, he’d been prepared for anything.

Except this. The woman he’d come to meet wasn’t here. Instead, he’d been thrown off from the first moment by the strange, starchy Michele Nightingale. As haunting as he found her looks, her manner set his teeth on edge. She’d seemed snippy and stuck-up.

Or so he’d thought until the moment she’d burst into tears.

He swore aloud. What to do now? Everything had to be rethought. Everything.

Dear Reader,

This book exists because of four extraordinary people.

One is my husband, Dan, who learned that there were endangered wild horses in the Bahamas—and knew I’d love to find out more. He tracked them down and took me to see them. I was hooked by their story, and I hope you will be, too.

The second person is the all-too-modest Milanne Roher. Milanne has selflessly dedicated herself to these beautiful, mysterious and threatened creatures, the wild horses of Abaco.

I wanted a character who, like Milanne, could bring great passion to a cause, and that character turned out to be Adam Duran. Though he and the heroine, Mickey, have a volatile clash of loyalties, they find they also have deep and abiding similarities.

The two other people who influenced this story are my mother, Beatrice, who was orphaned at fourteen, and an older woman—a stranger, Frances—who took her in. What began as an act of charity turned into a lifelong friendship. Frances’s kindness, warmth and generosity continue to echo through the generations of our family.

These women are the basis of the relationship between the characters of Mickey, the protagonist, and Carolyn Trent, who proves so important to both Mickey and Adam.

Please drop in and visit me at my Web site, www.bethanycampbell.com. You’ll find more information about the horses there, a contest for you to enter, other goodies and a chance to get in touch. I’d love to hear from you!

Sincerely,

Bethany Campbell

P.S. To see the real horses that got this story off to its start, just check out the Web site for the Abaco Wild Horse Fund, Inc. There are photos, videos, a history and frequent updates. You’ll find it at www.arkwild.org or you can simply type the words “Abaco Wild Horses” into your search engine.

Wild Horses

Bethany Campbell

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

To Bea and Aunt Frances, with love

CONTENTS

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 ONE

IN THEIR DAY, the Randolph brothers of Crystal Creek, Texas, had been famed for three things.

They were handsome as sin. They were rebellious to the point of recklessness. And they tended to drift off to faraway places and never return.

Enoch Randolph was no exception. He’d left Texas over thirty years ago for a life of ease in the Bahamas and never looked back. As time passed, the crankier he grew. He cut off his ties with all the people of Crystal Creek—except one.

That person was his niece, Carolyn. He stayed in touch, not out of love, but for money. Each spring Enoch mailed her a handwritten receipt. This receipt acknowledged that she’d sent him the yearly check for the range land that she leased from him.

Although Carolyn was Enoch’s closest living relative, he never added any greeting or message, except this: “Mrs. Carolyn Randolph Trent: My will stands as per the agreement I made with your mother in 1968. Enoch Randolph.”

So, in May when an envelope arrived with the Bahamian stamp, Carolyn’s secretary, twenty-six-year-old Mickey Nightingale, opened it as a matter of course. She expected Enoch’s usual statement in his usual, crabbed handwriting.

But instead of the receipt, Mickey found an entire letter. Unfolding it, she saw that it had been typed with an old-fashioned typewriter on a sheet of yellowing paper. As she read, anxiety tightened her chest and her heart raced ominously.

May 7