By next morning Daisy had decided to escape.

She had lain awake most of the night adding up Tyler's transgressions. His refusal to help her find her father's killer was the final straw.

She was tired of being told what to do. She was tired of having her opinions ignored. He treated her like a prisoner. Most of all, she resented his determination to take her to another member of his family rather than the Cochranes. Aurora's father would help. He had been her father's friend. He wouldn't stop until the killers were brought to justice.

For a brief moment she considered asking Zac to help her, but she doubted he would do anything to endanger his own hide.

"I'm going hunting," Tyler announced after breakfast.

"See if you can find something besides venison," Zac said.

"I'll be lucky if I can find any game at all," Tyler replied.

"Which way are you going?" Daisy asked.

"Why do you want to know?"

She could see suspicion in his eyes. "I was just curious. You said you couldn't go anywhere because of the snow."

"I can't go to Albuquerque. The pa.s.s is snowed in."

"There must be other paths if you can go hunting."

"There are always paths along ridges or in the lee of a cliff. But you have to go where they take you. That's seldom where you want to go."

"Won't there be less snow farther down the mountain?"

"Yes."

"So if you could get down far enough, you could go just about anywhere you wanted?"

She could tell he wasn't fooled. His eyes bored into her until she wanted to squirm.

"I doubt it, but in any case, you can't make it down the mountain. I'm not sure I can get more than a few hundred yards myself, and I'm using makeshift snowshoes."

"Just wondering," she said.

"You still don't believe me when I say it's too dangerous. You think if you keep asking, I'll give in and take you back now."

He didn't know why she was asking. Daisy found it difficult not to breathe a sigh of relief.

"I just want to go home," she said, trying to sound pathetic. Apparently she succeeded. Zac jumped up like a prairie dog escaping a burrow invaded by a snake. "I can look for rabbits," he said, grabbing for his shoes. "It's not much, but it'll be a change."

"Stay within sight of the cabin," Tyler warned. "You're not one hundred percent well yet."

"I'm just a little stiff."

Tyler looked at Daisy. "I hope you don't mind being left alone for a while."

"No."

"Don't go outside."

"Why would I do that?"

Tyler gave her a hard look. "Try to get some rest."

"I'll take good care of myself," Daisy promised.

"There's plenty of stew on the stove. All you have to do it heat it."

"She'll be just fine," Zac said, impatiently. He grabbed his coat. "How much trouble can she get into by herself?"

"I'm not in the habit of getting into trouble," Daisy said.

"Maybe not," Zac said, "but you've sure done a bang-up job so far."

Tyler handed Zac a shotgun and pushed him out the door. "Keep the door locked and don't let anybody in," he said to Daisy.

"I won't." She doubted she'd see a new face if she stayed here a month.

The minute the brothers were out of sight, Daisy began gathering enough food to last her two days. She warmed the stew and ate as much as she could hold. That was one less meal she would have to fix.

She chose a coat with a hood and searched until she found a pair of gloves that didn't entirely swamp her hands. She put on the pants Tyler had lent her and the smallest pair of boots she could find.

Outside she saddled the first mule she came to. Then tying everything to the saddle, she headed down the mountain.

She felt a little guilty about taking Tyler's food and clothing. She also felt guilty about running away the minute his back was turned. It made it look like she didn't appreciate what he'd done. She did, but she'd never make him understand why she had to get away.

Most surprising of all, she discovered she was a little reluctant to leave. She had the vague feeling she was leaving something important behind. But that couldn't be true. Tyler had tried to be kind and thoughtful, but he hadn't been very successful. She doubted he would ever learn. Besides the last thing she needed was to be even vaguely interested in a man eaten up with gold fever. There would be no room in his life for anything else. Gold would be his mistress, his wife.

Daisy wanted to stay as far away from the routes taken by Tyler and Zac as possible, so she decided to go around the mountain rather than straight down as she wanted. One look at snow deep enough to cover trees to their upper branches convinced her it would be impossible to go over the crest.

She headed due north, or what she thought was north. An hour later she knew she'd made a serious mistake. The snow was deeper than Daisy had antic.i.p.ated. Even under the trees, it came up to the mule's belly. Where it drifted, it was too deep to allow pa.s.sage. In places it was over her head.

She had hoped travel would be easier in the open, but she had never been on the eastern slopes of the Sandia Mountains. She expected them to be covered with rocks and small stunted trees like the west side.

They weren't. Tall pines, spruce, even aspens covered the mountainside. They kept the snow from drifting so badly, but the shade of their branches also kept it from melting or blowing away. The recent thaw-and-freeze cycle had formed a crust too fragile to hold her weight but strong enough to rub the mule's legs raw. Daisy was afraid if she didn't find some softer going his legs would start to bleed. If that happened, it would be impossible for the animal to continue.

She worked her way through a stand of fir only to find her path blocked by a wall of snow that towered well above her head. The mule refused to attempt to break through. She suspected his instincts told him the snow concealed some dangerous terrain such as a canyon or a ravine. After several minutes spent in a futile attempt to find a way around, Daisy turned back to look for another path. She didn't find one. As much as she hated to admit it, Tyler was right. It was impossible to reach Albuquerque until the snow melted.

She would have to go back to the cabin. She cringed at the prospect of having to face Tyler and admit what she had done, of having to acknowledge her failure. He had been remarkably patient with her. After this, he'd probably tie her to the bed. Maybe if she hurried, she could get back before he did.

But retracing her steps wasn't as easy as she had expected. Even though they had broken a path through the snow, fighting his way through the deep drifts had tired the mule. Going up the mountain was much more difficult than going down.

Daisy was miserably cold.

It was stupid to have gotten mad at Tyler. Catching her father's killers wasn't his responsibility. She had no reason to think Tyler was a gunman or that he'd ever hunted murderers. She'd just a.s.sumed he could do anything he wanted. He somehow gave her that feeling.

Maybe he wasn't good with a gun. He hadn't killed the man who came back that second time. He'd have to face three men who had twice tried to kill her and probably wouldn't hesitate to kill him. She had already endangered him and Zac by just being here. She was an ungrateful female, and if she lived long enough to get back to the cabin, she'd apologize to him.

Suddenly, for no reason she could see, the mule let out a squeal and plunged through a drift, running her into snow-covered branches, nearly knocking her into the snow. Clutching desperately for a secure hold on the mule's mane, she righted herself. Frantically, she looked around her for the cause of his wild behavior.

At first she saw nothing. Then she caught a glimpse of a tawny streak. Struggling to stay in the saddle, she craned her neck. A moment later she detected the top of a small, elegant, furry head with white and black markings. Just then the animal seemed to leap straight into the air. The mule brayed in panic and plunged into the center of a huge drift.

They were being followed by the largest cougar Daisy had ever seen. It was struggling through snow almost over its head. Daisy didn't know if it could catch them, but she did know there was nothing she could do to stop it if it did.

She had failed to bring a rifle.

"She's run away," Zac announced when Tyler walked into the clearing around the cabin.

"What are you talking about?" Tyler hadn't found any game, and he was irritable.

"Daisy. She's run away. She's not here. She took one of the mules."

It had started to snow again.

"Where did she go? When did she leave?"

"She went that way," Zac said, pointing to a trail through the snow. "I expect she left soon after we did."

"She'll never get through."

"I know that. You know that. Apparently she doesn't."

She was angry at him. Tyler had seen it in her eyes at breakfast, but he hadn't expected her to do anything as crazy as this. He'd told her over and over again she was too weak travel. She could easily pa.s.s out and freeze to death in the snow.

Tyler had run away once. George had found him and brought him back.

"There's a crust on the snow," Zac pointed out. "If it cuts the mule's legs enough for them to bleed, it'll attract wolves or cougars."

Tyler didn't need to be reminded. He knew wild animals could smell blood from amazing distances. Their senses would be all the more acute if they were starving. He didn't relish the idea of being stalked by a wolf pack.

He saddled the second mule. "Don't leave the cabin. It'll probably be dark before I get back."

"If you don't find her in a hurry, her trail might be drifted over," Zac said, pointing to snow falling fast enough to make it hard to see. "I don't imagine she has any idea how to get back to the cabin."

Tyler decided if Zac had been a female, he would have been named Ca.s.sandra. No one he knew could deliver so many gloomy predictions in such a short time.

"You'd better pack something to eat in case you get caught in the storm," Zac said.

"I don't have time. Besides, if we get caught, food won't do us any good."

The look of Zac's features altered subtly. He looked so much like George it was unnerving.

"If you're not back in two hours, I'm coming after you," he said.

"Stay here."

Zac looked like himself again.

"I may be selfish, spoiled, and self-centered, but there's no way I'm going to face the family and say I stayed here and let you die."

Zac's reaction surprised and pleased Tyler. The brat was full of nonsense, but there might be some good in him yet. "No point in both of us snuffing it. There's got to be somebody to tell George what happened."

"It sure as h.e.l.l won't be me!"

But as Tyler mounted up and headed after Daisy, he had another cause for worry. Two miles down the mountain, along an exposed shelf where the snow was hardly more than a foot deep, he had found the trail of three horses. The big horse carrying the heavy rider was one of them.

The killers were still after Daisy.

They were going in the wrong direction and the snow now falling would make it even more difficult for them to find the cabin, but Tyler had to face the fact those men meant to find her. He couldn't go on depending on the snow to protect them. Sooner or later he was going to have to do something about them.

He wouldn't tell Daisy just yet, a.s.suming he found her safe. He wouldn't put it past her to head out after the killers. All he had to do to get her to do something was tell her to do the opposite. He admired her determination, but worried she didn't seem to have any understanding of danger.

Tyler heard the cat scream a long way off. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Daisy could be around the next ridge, or she could be a mile away. It was impossible to tell. He drove his mule forward at a faster pace, but his mount had also heard the cougar, he might have caught its scent as well. It was reluctant to head toward what instinct told him was a mortal enemy.

Tyler cursed the swirling snow, which nearly blinded him and was already filling the trail left by Daisy's mule. A mule brayed somewhere ahead, and he felt a little rea.s.sured. If the animal was still on its feet and capable of fighting, Daisy would be okay until he could reach her. But when he rounded a grove of snow-covered pines, the sight ahead caused the breath to catch in his throat.

Daisy was on the ground, up to her waist in snow. She had the plunging mule's rein caught in the crook of her arm while she used a spruce branch in her other hand to hold off the cougar. The cat, confused by the branch as well as the sight of a human being, the one member of the animal kingdom it feared, circled warily.

Tyler drew his rifle from the scabbard and fired a bullet into the snow close to the cougar. The cat whirled and snarled.

Daisy whirled, too, her expression a mixture of fear, surprise, and relief.

Tyler put another bullet into the snow. He didn't want to kill the cougar, but he didn't want it stalking them all the way back to the cabin. The cat still seemed unwilling to abandon its prey. Tyler slammed the rifle back into its scabbard. He jammed his heels into the mule's side, and letting out a yell, he charged forward in a shower of snow.

The cat held its ground for a moment. Then favoring them with a parting snarl that showed four gleaming white five-inch fangs, the beast bounded away through the snow and was soon lost from sight.

Daisy turned to face Tyler.

Chapter Eight.

Tyler had expected to be furious at her. And he was. He hadn't expected to feel so relieved he felt weak in the knees. But he did. Yet even as his body sagged with relief, he felt anger rise up in him that she could do such an incredibly foolish thing.