Rayna whirled on him. “You bastard. This is all your fault. Let my sister go!”
“Sister or no sister, that squaw is coming with us.”
“But I told you, she’s not a Mescalero. My parents got her from Mexican slavers nearly twenty years ago. She was raised as my sister,” Rayna told him desperately.
“That doesn’t change the fact that she’s an Apache, and all Apaches are to be confined to the reservation.”
“But we have legal papers to prove that she was adopted.”
“That’s a matter you’ll have to take up with General Whitlock, miss. My orders are clear.”
Rayna took a step back. Nothing she could say would make a difference to this arrogant ass. “You really are enjoying this, aren’t you, Captain?” she asked with disgust.
“Actually I am,” he said with an unconscionable smile.
Rayna’s hands knotted into fists. “And if my father dies because you’ve kidnapped his daughter? Will you enjoy that, too?”
Greenleigh’s smile faded. “Your father’s illness is regrettable, Miss Templeton, but his poor health is not the fault of the United States Army. If it’s any consolation to you, I will be leaving Major Ashford here to tend to your father until another physician can be located. The major can rejoin the company as soon as it is convenient for him.”
“How very generous of you,” she said sarcastically. “However, you’re overlooking one important detaiclass="underline" You’re not leaving here with my sister.”
“And just how do you propose to stop us? Any further resistance on the part of these Apaches or anyone on this ranch will be met with force.” He fixed her with an arrogant gaze. “Now, do you want to be responsible for the resulting casualties?”
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Rayna had never felt so helpless in her life, and that feeling fueled her anger even further. “I will get my sister back, Captain,” she vowed. “And if one hair on her head has been harmed, you will pay for it personally, sir. Do you understand me?”
“Quite,” he replied, completely uncowed.
The laughter in his eyes was almost more than Rayna could bear. At that moment she realized that she was fully capable of committing cold-blooded murder. Stiffening her jaw against the violent emotions flooding through her, she took another step back and squared her shoulders. “I’d like to speak with Skylar before you take her,” she said, mustering all the dignity she could locate.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible. We are pulling out.”
“Please! Our father may be dying. At least let me tell her that he’s being cared for.”
Greenleigh gathered up his horse’s reins and mounted. “Miss Templeton, that squaw’s father is an Apache, and your father could probably benefit from having you at his side. Good day to you.” He wheeled his horse around and galloped off, bellowing an order for the company to mount up.
Rayna darted back to the wagon, but there were more soldiers surrounding it now. Horses had been brought up, and Rayna found that she couldn’t penetrate the barrier of men and mounts. Her breath came in hot gasps, and tears scalded her eyes as the wagon began to inch forward.
“Skylar!” Her hoarse, agonized scream was drowned out by the creak of the wagons and the hooves of a hundred horses clattering into motion.
“Rayna! Rayna, stop them!” Skylar shrieked. “I have to see Papa! Rayna, help me!”
Inside the wagon, Tsa’kata plucked harshly at Skylar’s arm, forcing her to look at the Mescaleros she called her friends. “You are an Apache, child,” the old woman said sternly in her native language. “An Apache does not look back. The wild one cannot help you.”
Tears streamed down Skylar’s face. “My father may be dying. I must go to him.”
Tsa’kata shook her head. “No. We are your family now. You are one of us.”
Trying to muffle the sobs that welled up in her throat, Skylar looked toward her sister, knowing how much Rayna’s inability to prevent this was costing her. She had always been Skylar’s protector, her buffer against hatred and prejudice. With Rayna at her side, Skylar had always known that she would be safe.
Now Rayna was gone, and Skylar was alone. A deeply buried memory came back to her, and she felt more than remembered another time when she had been taken against her will. The smoke of her burning village hung in the stifling air, and her Apache sister placed herself between the five-year-old 56
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Skylar and the grinning Apache renegade who had slaughtered the entire population of their village.
“She will make trouble. Kill her,” the renegade had said. He was standing over the bodies of her parents, and a shiny necklace dangled from his hand as he pointed to Skylar’s sister. “The other one will come with us.” He had turned his back as his order was carried out, and Skylar had screamed and screamed as she watched the renegades club her sister to death.
Skylar closed her eyes tightly, trying to shut out the hideous memory, but it stayed with her. When she opened her eyes again and looked out of the wagon, Rayna was gone. Skylar was alone.
All of her life she had wondered what her life would have been like had the Templetons not taken her in. She was about to find out . . .
And she was terrified.
Rayna paced the courtyard, her fists clenched almost as tight as the knot of fear and uncertainty in her stomach. Major Ashford had been with her father for an hour, and he had banished everyone but Collie from the study that had been turned into a makeshift sickroom. Rayna hadn’t seen either of her parents, and she had no idea how serious her father’s illness was. For all she knew, he was dying, and she was powerless to do anything to help him—
just as she’d been unable to help Skylar.
“Miss Templeton?”
Rayna turned and found the major at the study door. “How is he?” she asked, hurrying toward him.
“He’s resting now,” Meade replied, taking in the young woman’s disheveled appearance with a single glance. After what she had been through today, it wasn’t surprising that her clothes were torn and her face smudged. What astonished him was that her red-rimmed eyes gave mute testimony to the fact that she had been crying. Meade found it impossible to imagine this woman weeping and vulnerable, particularly when she was glaring at him so fiercely.
“May I see him?” she asked, her voice as tightly strung as a bowstring.
Meade nodded. “He’s asking for you and your sister.”
Rayna looked away from him as she struggled to control her emotions.
“My sister is gone. Captain Greenleigh took her with him.”
“What?” Meade couldn’t believe it. “Greenleigh is gone?”
“That’s right,” Rayna said viciously. “But I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that he left your horse and a trooper in case you needed assistance in locating the regiment. Private Baker is outside.”
“Damn him,” Meade swore, moving away from the study door. “How could he do that? I understood there were papers proving that Skylar was adopted.”
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“The captain wasn’t interested in legalities,” Rayna snapped, then tried to calm herself. Her father’s life was in this man’s hands, and there might be other ways that he could help, too. Though it galled her to beg for anything from a man in uniform, she managed to soften her voice and ask, “Can you do anything to get her back?”
Meade could see what it had cost her to ask the question. He wished he could give her a better answer. “I don’t know, Miss Templeton. It’s unlikely that Captain Greenleigh will listen to anything I have to say, but I can send a dispatch to General Whitlock explaining the situation and asking for your sister’s immediate release.”