“Do you have proof that Gray Fox has sworn this?” he asked, afraid to believe it could be true.
Case briefly considered giving him the papers Crook had written so that he could show them to Morning Star, but they might do more damage than good. The pass for Sun Hawk and Skylar had been created for the benefit of any soldiers who might question Case’s authority, and it said only that Case was to take them into custody and deliver them to Crook. Skylar might assume them to be nothing but arrest papers.
“I have nothing but my word with me,” Case finally told him, “but I can bring proof to you.”
“What can you bring?” he asked suspiciously.
“One of the people who traveled with me until last night is the white sister of the woman you know as Skylar.” Case was finding it increasingly difficult to read Sun Hawk’s reactions, but when the young brave’s face turned to stone, Case feared he had made a grave mistake.
“I saw no woman with you when I looked at your camp,” he said accusingly.
Case wasn’t surprised to know that Sun Hawk had been close enough to study them. “She dresses like a man, but she is a woman. She has traveled far and risked much to see her sister.” As have I, Case thought. But this was not the time to try to explain something so complicated. “If you will let them meet, Rayna Templeton will tell Skylar that everything I have said to you is the truth. Rayna would not betray her sister.”
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As Sun Hawk considered his words, Case carefully reached into his pouch and removed the necklace Skylar had made. He held it out to Sun Hawk.
“This belongs to Skylar. The Verdes gave it to me because they knew they could trust me.”
Edging forward cautiously, Sun Hawk took the necklace and examined it.
He had seen Skylar wear it many times on the reservation, but she had left it behind with her Apache parents. If nothing else, this finally proved that his enemy had truly spoken with his father and that the Verdes trusted this man enough to give him something precious that had belonged to Skylar.
Sun Hawk nodded slowly. “I will give it to my wife. I know it has great meaning for her.”
“And will you let her see her sister?”
Sun Hawk’s face was completely unreadable. “Where is she?”
“Perhaps half a day behind us.”
Sun Hawk was silent for a moment before he said, “Bring her to this place at sunset.”
Case nodded. “Very well. We will meet you here.”
They stared at each other warily for a moment; then Sun Hawk turned and began climbing out of the ravine. Case watched him until he disappeared over the top before making his own way down to the floor.
It didn’t occur to him as he went that Sun Hawk had never agreed to bring Skylar back there. He had only told Case to bring her sister.
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21
Every instinct Sun Hawk possessed told him he should use the time he had purchased to spirit Skylar away. The Apache was no longer following them; he had ridden off across the valley, presumably to get Skylar’s sister. Knowing the brave could be laying a trap, Sun Hawk wanted nothing more than to bury the necklace, return to his wife, tell her nothing of what had been said, and ride with her like the wind until they were far away. That course of action was his only hope of keeping Skylar.
Whether it was a trap or not, Sun Hawk had seen the sadness in his wife’s eyes when she thought of her white family. Her heart grieved for them, and if her sister was truly here to take her home, Skylar would go with her.
Though he believed his wife loved him, Sun Hawk could offer her so little, and she had lived among the whites for too long. He had to take her away, or he would lose her.
But of course he couldn’t do it. If there was a chance that Skylar could be freed from a life as a renegade, he had to give her that chance. Anything less would be a selfish betrayal of the love he felt for her.
Knowing it was going to cost him the woman he loved more than his own life, Sun Hawk returned to the place where he had left her.
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She was asleep when he arrived, but he could see the small place where she had paced back and forth before exhaustion had claimed her. He knelt beside her, studying her face, memorizing every perfect line. He thought of every word they had exchanged, every touch they had shared. He remembered the way she had come to him as his wife, and all the nights since when she had slept with her head on his shoulder and his cheek pressed against her brow.
Their life together had been too short, and now their future was com-pressed into the span of a single day. By nightfall his life would be over, but until then she was still his.
After removing his clothing, he lifted the blankets that covered her and lay down beside her. As he pulled her into his arms, Skylar slowly came awake. Her mind felt drugged, but she gladly left her fretful dreams behind for the security of her husband’s embrace. She had no sense of time or place, only the sweet pleasure of his kisses on her throat and her face. He touched her intimately, pulling away her clothing until their bodies pressed together without restriction.
His mouth found her breasts, and Skylar sighed with pleasure. Some part of her mind realized that it was daylight, and another remembered that they had traveled all night to escape a grave danger. But that danger had passed, or Sun Hawk would not have awakened her with sweet kisses. After so many days of fear, it was easy for her to give herself over to passion, to touch her husband as intimately as he touched her, to let his need become her own.
They came together with an abandon that took her breath away and robbed her of her senses, but when the glorious pleasure finally subsided, she realized that this one time had been different. There was a desperation in the way Sun Hawk held her long after the moment of release had passed. When he finally shifted his body off of hers and wrapped her in his arms, Skylar knew something was wrong.
“Why do you look so serious, husband?” she asked, gently caressing his face, trying to smooth away the strange hardness she saw there. “I know those who followed us are gone now, or you would not have awakened me so sweetly.”
Sun Hawk closed his eyes and pressed his lips into the palm of her hand.
“They are gone, but they will be back.”
Skylar’s eyes widened in alarm, and she started to rise. “Then we should go quickly.”
“No.” He pulled her back into his arms. “There is time. We have until sunset.”
She frowned. “To do what?”
“Be together.”
Skylar didn’t like the sound of that. “And then what will happen?”
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Sun Hawk didn’t want to tell her yet. If she knew her sister was near, she might not want to wait. She might ride after the brave who had gone to get her, and Sun Hawk couldn’t bear to see her go a moment before it was time.
“Then we will meet the Apache who tracked us so skillfully. He has words you should hear.”
“How do you know this?”
“He said the words to me, but I was not sure it was wise to believe him. He has promised to bring proof that will make you know what he says is the truth.”
“Husband, what did he say?” she asked anxiously, unable to imagine what it could be.