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Page 291

| wiped tears from her cheeks with the back of a hand. "No, never would I want to be back in Melbourne, not if you aren't there," she said softly. "And Ashton, I'm sorry I'm behaving like a child. I'm sorry. Truly I am." |

| Ashton smoothed more tears from her cheeks with a thumb. "Sasha, if you weren't behaving like this right now, after all you've seen, I'd begin to worry about you," he said, chuckling. |

| "You would . . .?" Sasha asked, her voice faint. "Why would you, Ashton? I must seem so weak." |

| "Sweet darlin', you're not weak," he said tenderly. "You just have a heart that's in good working order." |

| Ashton drew away from her when he heard the thunder of approaching horses. He turned and shaded his eyes as he gazed intently at riders approaching on the horizon. He took steps toward them as the riders wheeled their horses to a halt a few yards away and dismounted. |

| Sasha recognized them as men from The Homestead. She grew cold inside as she surveyed their expressions. None was pleasant; most of their faces were knit with worry. |

| "It looks like I didn't come home any too soon," Ashton acknowledged as the men came to him, their heavy holstered pistols flapping at their hips. "How much of this has gone on while I've been gone?" he asked, gesturing with a hand toward the dead and bloody sheep that had been shot to put them out of their misery. "Just how many of these damn crow attacks were there besides the one I just witnessed?'' |

| "Too many to keep track of," was the solemn |

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