There was a woman in the tepee already. A young, very pretty woman, who
stared at Tess with wide eyes. Tess stared in return, coloring as dread
filled her. Nalte had wanted a blond woman: He already had a wife. He
intended to rape her here in front of his first wife.
He took a step toward her. She tightened her fingers into fists at her
side.
There was no escape here. This was not a place like the haphazard
Comanchero dwelling. If she could escape Nalte she would only be caught
by his warriors.
Jamie had been so close! Rescue had been within reach. But now she
couldn't even hope that he would come against the Indians. Nalte would
kill him.
Tess gazed from the young woman to the Indian.
"You are a savage!"
she shouted. Tossing her hair, she stared at him defiantly.
"I don't want you. I don't want to be here! I was kidnapped for your
entertainment! And now here sits your poor wife, and you think that
you're going to ... that you're going to ... No!" she shouted, for
the flicker of amusement had deepened in his eyes, and he was striding
toward her.
She lashed out wildly, her fists pummeling his chest. He seemed to
barely notice her effort, and bent low to pick her up and throw her on a
blanket roll. She opened her mouth to scream, but he did not come close
to her.
He stepped back, watching her.
"This is not my wife. This is my sister. And because of her, you will be
safe from me this night. With the light we begin the ceremony that makes
her a woman." He smiled at the woman, and there was deep affection in
his gaze, but it faded when he looked at Tess again.
"It is an important ceremony, a religious one."
He turned and found another blanket roll. He had dismissed her entirely,
Tess thought. She stared from the war' riot to the young woman, longing
to bolt for the opening. Nalte was already stretching out comfortably on
his blanket.
The woman tried to smile at Tess. She patted the ground, indicating that
Tess should sleep.
Tess swallowed, keeping a wary eye on Nalte. She pulled out a blanket
and carefully lay down on it. Stretching out, she pretended to close her
eyes.
But she kept watching Nalte. When he slept, she would try to escape. If
she could return to the trail in the mountains, she could possibly find
Jamie.
Was he alone? she wondered. Or was Jon out there somewhere with him?
She was exhausted, and tears threatened her eyes. No matter how hard she
tried, or how she fought, she never seemed to escape the fate that yon
Heusen had intended for her.
Jeremiah and David were dead, and she could pray that Chavez was dead,
yet it had done little for her. She was where von Heusen had intended
she should be, and she was certain that men braver than she and far more
knowledgeable of the rugged terrain could not escape the Apache.
Nalte was finally sleeping. She rose very carefully and tiptoed across
the dry earth flooring of the tepee to the slit.
She glanced at Nalte again. His eyes were closed, his features immobile.
She started to slip beneath the flap.
A hand wound around her ankle, bringing her down hard upon the floor.
In seconds the fierce warrior had crawled over her. His eyes were ebony
in the night.
"You have courage," he told her.
"But you are stupid!"
"You speak of our savagery!" she charged him.
"You deal with the despicable Comancheros, you buy rifles and women from
them!"
"My sister is my only family," he told her in turn, "because the others
were killed. Killed by white men. Beaten, skewered, broken and left to
die. My mother died this Way, my sisters. Babies, little babies. I have
not brought you here to kill you. Not unless you force me to."
"You are holding me against my will."
He touched a long strand of her hair. He seemed reflective for a moment.
"You will come to understand me," he told her.
"You will learn our ways, and you will be happy here."
"I cannot be happy!" she told him desperately. "We are not savages!"
She shook her head, moistening her lips.
"No, no more so than we. But I am not what you wanted. I" -- "You are
more than what I wanted," he interrupted, and he was smiling.
"Now go back to sleep or I will forget that I keep a sacred vigil this
night."
"Nalte, please" -- "Go back. Now."
She felt the tension in his arms and saw the fierce glitter in his eyes
and she knew that his warning was not without good reason. Hastily she
retreated. She curled into her blanket, pulling it around her ears. She
shivered. She didn't hate the Indian, but he didn't understand that. She
was not repulsed by him, but she had to be free, for she was not part of
his society. She wanted revenge. She wanted yon Heusen hurt as he had
hurt her.
And she wanted Jamie. She was in love with him, and that hurt more than
anything else. If it weren't for him, she could bear anything that
happened.
But he was out there, somewhere. And she could never forget him.
Morning came, and the blanket was pulled away from Tess's shoulders.
She gasped and opened her eyes, expecting to discover Nalte, but it
wasn't him. Several women stared at her.
They spoke to her, but she didn't understand them.
They pulled her to her feet. She protested, but was ignored. Nalte's
little sister smiled at her encouragingly. She had little choice, for
the women set upon her arms and drew her along with them. They left the
tepee to enter the family clearing. The sun was just beginning to shine
down upon the camp.
Men and women were busy, moving around. Some cleaned their weapons,
others watched her with curiosity.
The women moved around with buckets of water or with bowls of food.
A soft word was said to her, and she was moved forward. No one was cruel
to her, but she couldn't have escaped the women who were determined to
escort her.
She heard the stream before she saw it, as they walked a trail that
brought them through trees and dense shrubs.
From the trail she could hear the tinkling melody of the water,
reminding her that she was very thirsty, and that there was a certain
personal necessity she had to take care of. She was glad to he with the
women, even though she flushed when they tugged at her buckskins,
indicating that she was to strip and bathe.
Still, she felt better once the water was against her skin and once she
had swallowed huge mouthfuls of it. She realized that the women were
disappearing between a bank of trees, and she was certain the trees had
to be the latrine. She followed them, and thought longingly once she was
done of disappearing into the brush, but' even as the thought came to
her, she saw that two of her keepers had come for her. Again, they were
not cruel, but the women with the ink-dark hair and the huge dark eyes
placed firm hands upon her and took her to the stream.
There they ignored her. It was Nalte's sister who gained everyone's
attention. Once she, too, had bathed, she was dressed in a soft, pale
buckskin dress with shades of yellow coloring on it. A yellow paint was
smeared over her face, and her hair was lovingly combed out and let
loose to fall beneath her shoulders. Necklaces were placed upon her,
beautiful pieces of beads and silver cones, and one rawhide strand with
a claw upon it. She smiled during it all, flushed and lovely.
It was her ceremony day, Tess remembered. And then she realized that she
had not been forgotten after all. A woman called for her from the bank
of the stream. She had no choice but to crawl out and let them stare at