Excerpt from The Last River

Excerpt from The Last River, the sequel to Beyond Double Mountain...

She stood, brushing grass from her skirt. "You know what I mean," she said, walking over to her horse. "When do you go to Texas?"

He hurried to help her into the saddle, but she quickly pulled her skirt to her waist, stepped into the stirrup and slung herself up before he got to her.

"We have a few days, maybe a week," he said.

As he was pulling into his saddle, Sparrow said, "You better not be gone long, Caleb Thomason, or some cowboy might come and take me away." She slapped her heels against the pinto's sides, launching it forward, yipping like a Comanche.

His face split with a grin, and he lightly touched spurs to the mare's flank, and set out after her. They raced down the flowered slope, and across the golden prairie, toward town.