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Page 70

| winced when great zigzags of lightning flared across the purple sky. |

| Just as Sasha caught a glimpse of Ashton scurrying around, helping to gather up the cooking and camping paraphanalia, a great gust of wind ripped the tent from around her. Her lips parted with surprise, she watched the tent and her hat flip and flop across the ground, then land in the river and float away in the current. |

| Scrambling to her feet, Sasha ran to Ashton, whose back was still to her as he gathered supplies up into his arms. "Ashton, I'm frightened," she said breathlessly, watching other tents being stripped from their stakes. She then glanced up at the sky and flinched when lightning flared over and over again. "I don't think I've ever seen such windsor lightning." |

| "Well, sweet darlin', you'd best hold onto your hat because you haven't seen anything yet," Ashton said, still not looking her way. |

| "Ashton, my hat blew away with the tent," Sasha said, her eyes wide. "It ended up in the river." |

| Ashton chuckled low and stopped his desperate rescue of whatever could be protected from the vicious wind and the rain that threatened to fall at any moment. He turned to Sasha, glad to hand over what he was holding when one of his men came and emptied his arms. "Well at least you didn't blow away with the tent," he teased. |

| Then his heart skipped a beat, realizing that Sasha was staring at his clean-shaven face, and at the scar that he had kept hidden beneath his beard. He searched her eyes, trying to read her feelings about the discovery. All he could see was astonishment, |

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