He shook his head, still staring toward the top of the tepee and the
poles that seemed to reach toward the stars.
"A
day will not make a difference. Nothing will a make a difference.
That's the point. When we go home, Tess, von Heusen is still going to be
there. And we still haven't any proof of what he is doing."
"But--but Jeremiah and David kidnapped me--and they left you for dead!"
Tess protested.
"Jeremiah and David are dead. They can't be brought to trial, and they
can't be forced to testify against von Heusen.
We're right back where we started. And I know you. You'll head right
back to that newspaper office of yours."
"Jamie, I have to!"
"You don't have to!" he told her savagely. "Jamie" -- "We're going back,
Tess, and we're going to fight yon Heusen. But we have to do it by my
rules."
"I don't" -- "That's right--you don't. You don't make a move without
someone by your side, do you understand me? Things are going to get
worse. Von Heusen may be thinking right now that you and I are gone. He
may even have had a few moments of divine pleasure, thinking that he'd
won at last. But Tess, by now he must have discovered that he can't get
his hands on that property, even if we're both believed to be dead and
gone. He's going to be furious when he finds it's willed to my
family--and he's going to be ready for a full- scale war. We've got to
pray that we're going to be ready for it."
"Can we be?" Tess whispered.
"Yes, we can," he said. But then he swung around on her, staring at her
fiercely, clutching her chin with a grip so tight that it was painful.
"But Tess, so help me God, you'll do it my way."
"Jamie" -- "You'll do it my way?"
"Fine! All right!" she snapped.
He dropped her jaw. Tears were stinging her eyes, and she quickly rolled
away from him, furious that no matter how close it seemed they became,
he still played the dictator. And left her frightened that she was
falling more and more deeply in love with a man who would wage war for
her, who would risk his life for her. And yet ride away in the end, when
it mattered the most.
He did not reach for her, and she did not come back to touch him that
night.
Her back was mid, and she drew the blanket more fully around her.
She shivered in the night. But the distance remained between them.
They spent one more day with the Apache, watching the sacred ritual when
a young boy departed with his first hunting party. The boy's first four
raids would be accompanied by ritual. This day he was instructed by the
war shaman and accepted by the adult members of the party. He was given
a drinking tube and a scratcher with lightning designs, and he was
bestowed with a war cap.
Jamie spoke to her while they stood watching. He pointed to the war cap
and told her, "It will not yet contain the spiritual power that belongs
to the men. He must complete his passage before the spirits will enter
into his cap." The men and women of the village were gathering around
the boy to throw pollen upon him as be departed with the warriors.
"It is a blessing," Jamie told her.
"And we are standing here, watching this, and these men and that boy
will go off and raid some white settlement and perhaps kill our own
kind," Tess murmured. Jamie glared at her.
"I'll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself. We're lucky to be
leaving here alive. And, Miss. Stuart, for your information, this party
is moving against the Comancheres. I don't believe you can feel too much
sympathy for that particular group."
She could not, but she didn't have a chance to tell him so. He turned
her around and propelled her toward the tepee they were sharing.
"Go in, be quiet. I'm going to ask Nalte if we might leave tomorrow."
She didn't hear, that afternoon, whether Nalte gave his permission.
She waited endlessly for Jamie to return, but he did not. When it was
dark one of the Apache women came to help her rekindle the fire and to
give her a plate of beef and yams and roe seal cakes. She ate
halfheartedly and waited, but Jamie still didn't return. Finally her
impatience brought her to the opening in the tent, and she looked out to
see Jamie and Nalte and the victorious raiding party sitting around the
central fire, laughing, talking, enjoying some newly arrived bottles of
whiskey, and apparently enjoying one another as if they were long lost
friends. In a fury she went to the fire and called Jamie's name sharply.
Every man there paused and stared at her, none of them more surprised or
annoyed than Jamie. Nalte shot him a quick glance and said something in
Apache. Jamie was quickly on his feet. He replied casually to the chief,
but two rugged strides brought him to Tess.
Before she could move or react he had butted her belly with his shoulder
and lifted her precariously. Her head dangled dangerously down his back.
She screamed out her protest, but Jamie ignored her and the Apache
laughed, enjoying the show.
Within seconds they were back in the tepee. She landed hard on one of
the blankets, desperately inhaling as he stared at her furiously. She
might have thought at first that he was drunk, but the sharp fire in his
eyes denied such a possibility. She accused him anyway before he could
yell at her.
"You're totally inebriated!"
"Inebriated--you mean drunk, don't you? I wish I were. Drunk enough to
give you what you need! And what you need is a good switch taken to your
hide."
"Oh!" She shimmied up to her knees.
"Don't you dare speak to me like that, Jamie Slater" -- "I don't think
I'm just going to speak!" he warned her, his lashes falling over his
eyes so that they were narrow and dangerous.
"I think I'm going to act" -- She was on her feet instantly, running for
the flap in the tent with a speed and agility as fleet as a doe's. But
at the flap she paused, realizing that she would be running into a group
of raucous Apaches.
She spun around, certain Jamie was almost upon her. But he was standing
back, watching her with supreme arrogance and amusement. He had known
she wouldn't run out of the tent.
She decided to take her chances with the Apache. She didn't make it.
Jamie had been still, but he came to motion in a flash. Just as she
reached for the rawhide flap, his arms swept around her calves, and she
came crashing down to the hard ground. She coughed and gagged and
struggled against his weight to turn around and face him. He straddled
her. Her sir~ple doeskin dress was wound high around her hips, and she
was naked beneath it. Jamie didn't seem to notice. He sat calmly upon
her, crossing his arms over his chest, aware that she wouldn't be going
anywhere at all.
He stared down at her.
"Undisciplined--brat!"
"Brat! I'm twenty-four years old" -- "An old maid! Maybe that's half the
problem."
She gasped, stunned by the remark, and started to struggle furiously
beneath him. Her fingers wound into fists but he was ready, leaning
forward to pin her wrists to the sides of her head.
"I told you--it's done my way. You may be Miss. Stuart, and you may be
the publisher of the Wiltshire Sun, and you may own one of the finest
ranches this side o the Mississippi, but you're with me now, and I
warned you, it's going to be done my way! Especially among the Apache!
You don't make a fool of a man in front of them!"
" But I just wanted to know what was going on!"
"I really should take a switch to you--but at some later date." The fury
suddenly faded from his voice. He released her wrists, his hands