"He must be furious to be disturbed today!" she whispered.
"He is not disturbed. He will make his decision quickly," Jon told her.
An Apache warrior emerged from Nalte's tent. He spoke briefly with Jori
and took Tess by the arm.
"Jon!" she cried.
"Go with him," Jon ordered her.
"He isn't going to hurt you. I'm wan led with Nalte. And you are not."
She didn't want to let Jon out of her sight, but he moved away
resolutely, and she had no choice but to accompany the warrior who took
her by the arm.
Seconds later she was thrust into an empty tepee. The fire that had
burned in the center was nearly out. On rocks beside it were corn cakes
and dried meat. She hadn't been told she could, but she was alone and
she was starving, so she helped herself. She had barely bitten into the
food when she became so nervous she couldn't chew. She set the food down
and began to pace.
After a while she sat again and looked sadly at her tender and torn
feet.
They would never be the same again.
Moments later, she heard a rush of air. She catapulted to her feet,
staring toward the opening of the tepee. Jamie was coming in. She gasped
softly, then raced toward him, flinging her arms around him.
He quickly untangled himself, staring fiercely into her eyes.
"We're going to get out of this. If you can manage to behave."
"Behave!"
"Listen to me!" He shook her so hard that she felt her teeth rattle.
Indignantly she tried to jerk away from him, but his grip on her was
firm and he wasn't letting go. "You're hurting me!"
"I'm hurting you! We're in the midst of a fiasco like this" -- "It
wasn't my fault!"
His jaw twisted hard.
"I know. It wa~ mine. For being so damned determined to try to
understand you.
She felt the color drain from her face. The planes of his face seemed
very lean and hard. He was more bronze, tauter. There was a fresh scar
upon his cheek. She wanted to touch it tenderly, but he was holding her
with too great a vigor. And the smoky anger in his eyes told her he did
not want her touch.
He had come for her. He had survived both yon Heusen's guns and his
fight with Chavez to come for her. But now she realized that he had come
only because he considered himself responsible for what had happened to
her. She paled, trying to pull from his grasp, but he wouldn't let her.
"The puberty rite for Nalte's sister will last four days. He will not
attend to any other business during that time. Jori and I are to be his
guests. You are to stay here, do you understand me?"
"Just stay here ... for four days?" she whispered.
"Can't I be with you?"
He swore, vehemently.
"You were purchased, Tess! Damn it, don't you realize that? And not for
your talents with a newspaper."
"Jamie, don't you start with me" -- "No, don't you start with me," he
said heatedly.
"You can manage yourself, and you can manage a lot, and you probably are
a damned good rancher and newspaper woman. But if you try anything here,
Tess, we'll both probably die. Do you understand? We're walking a very
narrow line here. I've tried to explain von Heusen to Nalte.
He has a sense of honor; there is a chance he will return you. But I
can't do-any of this if you interfere. Do you understand?"
She wrenched free of him at last. His hands fell upon his hips and his
hat brim tipped over one eye, yet she could still see the silver glint
in the other. She swung around and walked with her shoulders stiff and
straight, then she sat Indian fashion upon a blanket roll. She mustn't
let him see how hurt she was.
He didn't say anything else to her, but started to turn to leave. She
couldn't stand that, and called out to him.
"Jamie!"
"What?" he demanded impatiently.
"What" -- She paused, licking her lips. "what happened to Chavez?"
"He's dead," Jamie said flatly.
"And the Comancheros" -- "The Comancheros never saw me," he said.
"But if we're going to get out of the mountains, we're going to need an
Apache escort. So don't create problems."
"Me!" "You," he said succinctly, and he was on his way out again.
"Jamie!"
"what now?"
She hesitated a second.
"Thank you. Thank you for coming after me.
Thank you for risking so much."
"You don't need to thank me. I owed you this." This time he stayed,
staring at her. But she couldn't speak anymore because sudden tears were
welling behind her lashes and threatening to spill over on her cheeks.
He owed her this. He had come for her because he owed her. She had
dreamed that he was falling in love with her.
Maybe she was proving to be too much trouble. She had traded half her
land for a hired gun. But she had never told 231 her hired gun he was
going to have to go after Comancheros and Apache as well as von Heusen's
men. I'll member to thank Jon," she said coolly.
"He didn't owe me anything."
"You do that," Jamie told her. But still he didn't leave. He stood by
the entrance, and she sat across from him, her knees crossed, her
shoulders and back-very straight, her hands resting upon her knees. The
distance between them seemed immense, and yet she felt the touch of his
eyes as if it was fire.
It was he who spoke. ~this time, lightly, softly. "Tess?"
"What?"
"Did--did any of them--hurt you?"
She knew what he meant. Her cheeks burned and her lashes fell over her
cheeks.
"David was a monster, and he probably would have killed me. Jeremiah
wasn't so bad--he wouldn't let David touch me. I was sorry to see
Jeremiah killed." Her voice faded slightly.
"Especially the way he was killed.
And Chavez. Well, you know about Chavez, because. because you were
there."
"Yes, I know about Chavez. What about Nalte?" She shook her head.
"He let me be. Because of his sister."
She started, hearing the long, ragged exhalation of his breath. She
thought, for a moment, that he would cross the distance between them and
take her into his arms. He did not. She could scarcely breathe, longing
to leap to her feet once again. But he had already set her from him. She
wasn't going to touch him again.
"You're still Nalte's," he told her harshly. She gazed at him, wondering
what he meant. Then she realized that he would not touch her until he
had completed his negotiations with the Apache chief.
He didn't say any more. He swung around and left, and she knew that even
if she had called his name then, he would have left her.
The day wore on endlessly. Tess could hear the ceremonial drums beating
and the chants of the puberty rite, but she could see nothing, and she
was involved in nothing. She tried very hard to be patient, and to
understand that everything rested upon negotiation.
Late in the afternoon, Jon came in. She almost leaped into his arms, but
he was carrying a dish of food for her. He set it down, and she did hug
him, fiercely. "Eat," he told her.
"You may need your strength."
She nodded and sat and looked suspiciously at her bowl. "What is it?"
she asked.
"Something exotic and Apache," he told her, "beef. Probably, from cattle
taken in a raid. You should not worry.
The Apache are very finicky about what they eat. They will not eat
snake, for they believe that the creature is evil, and they will not eat
evil meat.
Here they are close enough to the plains to seek out the buffalo. They
also hunt deer, antelope, elk and bighorn. Their food is quite safe, I
assure you."
She flashed him a quick smile and ate the beef with her fingers. It was