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Page 327

| was needed to protect the people on the ship, she pushed herself back up beside Ashton and started to fire. Then she stopped and gasped when, at the outer edge of the attackers, was a man she instantly recognized. |

| "Stanford Sidwell!" she whispered, paling. "So he is the cause" |

| Her lips parted, and another gasp escaped them when Stanford's body lurched with the impact of a bullet and he grabbed at his left arm as blood began rolling from a wound, down across the sleeve of his elegant suit jacket. |

| "I got the son of a bitch," Ashton grumbled, laughing throatily. |

| "You saw him also?" Sasha asked, edging closer to Ashton, glad that the gunfire had stopped and that they were quickly retreating. "You saw Stanford Sidwell?" |

| Ashton aimed his revolver and fired into the retreating men, then slung his smoking firearm into its holster. "Aye, I saw him, and I'm sure it was not his intention to be seenmost definitely not to be shot," he said, easing his revolver from Sasha's hand and twirling it back into its holster also. "The bastard. He's not going to stop until I reveal" |

| Sasha peered up at him as he suddenly broke his words off, looking down at her with a strange light in his eyes. "Until you reveal what?" she asked. "What were you about to say?" |

| Ashton gazed down at her a moment longer, then looked away from her into the brush where the horsemen had disappeared. "It was nothing," he said, kneading his brow. "Nothing at all." |

| Frustrated, knowing that Ashton was lying to her, |

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