QUOTE : As if to banish the terror and pain already screaming through his body, he shook his head, backing away. <br /><br />“No!” he whispered, and then his voice rose to a tormented shout. “No, damn you! Don’t tell me that—!”<br /><br />“Jason—”<br /><br />“Don’t you dare tell me that!” he shouted in agony.<br />Mike Farrell spoke, but he turned his head away from the unbearable torment on the other man’s ravaged face. <br /><br />“Her horse threw her off the ridge into the river, about four miles from here. O’Malley went in after her, but he couldn’t find her. He—”<br /><br />“Get out,” Jason whispered.<br /><br />“I’m sorry, Jason. Sorrier than I can say.”<br /><br />“Get out!”<br /><br />When Mike Farrell left, Jason stretched his hand toward Victoria’s cloak, his fingers slowly closing on the wet wool, pulling it toward him. The muscles at the base of his throat worked convulsively as he brought the sodden cloak to his chest, stroking it lovingly with his hand, and then he buried his face in it, rubbing it against his cheek. Waves of agonizing pain exploded through his entire being, and the tears he had thought he was incapable of shedding fell from his eyes. “No,” he sobbed in demented anguish. And then he screamed it.