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Page 425

| settled on something at the edge of the road just ahead. It was an overturned buggy. "Oh, no," she moaned, recognizing the buggy. "Please, Godno!" |

| Ashton cast her a worried glance. He edged his horse closer to hers and grabbed her by the hand. "Sasha, I'm going ahead and check things out," he said, unable to keep the fear out of his voice. He too had realized whose buggy it was. Silas Howland's. |

| "Oh, Ashton, I don't think I could go an inch closer if I tried," Sasha cried, looking wildly at him. "I can't bear to see if . . . if Tobias . . ." |

| Ashton reached a hand to her lips and silenced her words. "I'll be back as quickly as I can," he reassured her, then rode on ahead, dizzy with a building fear. |

| Crispin rode up next to him. "It's him, isn't it?" he shouted. "It's Silas Howland. He's had an accident." |

| "It seems that way," Ashton shouted back. He tried to steady his heartbeat as he grew closer to the buggy, but when he saw the broken wheelchair at the side of the road, he knew for sure that what he had feared was fact. He wheeled his horse to a stop when he discovered Silas Howland's body not far from the wheelchair, a bullet wound in his chest. |

| Feeling as though every inch of him had been rendered numb, Ashton then discovered the body of another man not far from the overturned buggy, the cause of his death also a bullet wound. |

| "Damn," Crispin gasped, quickly dismounting to check Silas for a heartbeat. When he found none, he gave Ashton a slow nod. |

| Ashton dismounted, and in a crazed fashion began searching through the brush for any signs of |

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