When he told her of the promises Gray Fox had supposedly made, the most magnificent smile Sun Hawk had ever seen spread over Skylar’s face.
“This is wonderful!” she exclaimed as happiness suffused every part of her body, cleansing it of the fear she had experienced in the last few weeks.
“There is no reason to hide in the mountains or join Geronimo. We can be free now!”
“Free . . .” He nodded solemnly. “Yes, we can be free.”
Skylar felt the first flush of her exuberance fade. “Why are you not as happy as I? If the Gray Fox promised you will not be punished, then you can believe it. You will see your family again very soon.”
And you will see yours, he thought grimly. “I cannot be happy until I have the proof.”
Though she clung to hope as tightly as she could, she trusted Sun Hawk too much to discount his opinion. “You think it is a lie designed to trap us?”
He pulled her more tightly into the circle of his arms. “For your sake I hope it is not,” he said fervently.
Overwhelmed by the intensity of his emotions, Skylar rested her head on his shoulder and could feel the strong steady beating of his heart. It was a long while before she finally asked, “If it is a trap, should we not take precautions, beloved?”
“Yes, but there is still time,” he said in a voice that sounded very far away.
“I wish to hold you as long as I can.”
Before it was time to go to the meeting place, Sun Hawk made love to Skylar again with an intensity and sadness that made her weep. They dressed then, and her tears had only barely dried when he finally gave her the necklace. As she clutched it lovingly to her heart, Sun Hawk explained how the brave had come by it.
“If Gatana and Consayka trusted him, he must be telling the truth,” Skylar told her husband, trying as hard to convince him as she was herself.
“Perhaps.”
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Skylar looked down at the necklace and traced the lines of the crude carv-ing on the medallion. “Do you know what this is?”
“The Thunder Eagle,” he replied. “It is a symbol of importance to the White Mountain Apache.”
She smiled at him. “No, I meant the whole necklace. Have you ever heard the legend of Willow and Gray Wolf?”
“Yes. Gray Wolf was a powerful warrior who defied the traditions of his people and married the daughter of his enemy.”
“And he gave Willow a necklace to prove how much he loved her.”
Sun Hawk glanced from Skylar’s radiant face to the piece of jewelry in her hands. “Is that the necklace?” he asked, betraying his skepticism.
“No,” she said with a wistful shake of her head. “But that story has always had great meaning to me. I can remember hearing Consayka tell it many times at Rancho Verde, and I remember it from before, too.”
“Before?” Sun Hawk believed in legends and the power they had to direct people’s lives, but that was not what enraptured him about Skylar’s memories.
She was sharing something sweet and sad with him, and he wanted to treasure the moment.
“Before I went to Rancho Verde,” she replied, her smile fading. “Before my parents were killed.”
She had already told him that she remembered very little of that part of her life, and Sun Hawk was glad she had this one pleasant memory. “Where did the necklace come from, and what has it to do with the legend?” he prod-ded her gently.
“I made this necklace long ago from Consayka’s descriptions of the one that Gray Wolf gave to Willow.”
“It is very beautiful.”
Skylar looked down at the medallion as she tied the choker around her neck. “Not as beautiful as the real one Gray Wolf gave Willow,” she said sadly.
“How can you know that?”
She brought her gaze up to his. “I’m not sure. I just know.”
Sun Hawk nodded and rose reluctantly. “It is time to go now.”
She offered him her hand, and he pulled her to her feet. “I love you, my husband,” she said, gazing deep into his eyes. “Whether this is a trick or not, we will still have our love to make us strong.”
“I pray you are right, beloved.”
“I know that I am.”
He pulled her into his arms and held her close for what his own heart knew was the last time.
“Come,” he said finally, pulling away, his voice rough with emotions he could not control. “We must hurry if we are to arrive before them.”
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He turned away from her so abruptly that Skylar felt bereft. She didn’t understand his strange moods, but she helped him collect their belongings and break camp. He led her to a ravine that she vaguely recalled, having passed through it in the early hours of the morning, and once he was satisfied that the area was safe, he helped her up the rocky hillside to a place where she had a commanding view of both ends of the ravine.
“I will take the horses to the mouth of the ravine and hide them. Then I will come back. We will watch the Apache and the ones with him as they come in from the north. If they are being honest with us, they will ride in together without fear.”
“And if not?”
Sun Hawk looked around him. He had chosen this spot because there was nothing above it, and no one could approach without being seen. The brave would not be able to surprise him again; Sun Hawk had never in his life made the same mistake twice.
“If they mean to trap us, I will have no choice but to kill them.” He waited expectantly for her to protest, but what he saw in her eyes instead was calm acceptance.
“You have the rifle and the many fine arrows you made at Nagona.” She held out her hand. “I will take the revolver.”
Sun Hawk was astonished. “Could you use it to kill a white man?”
Skylar nodded. She had thought about this often in the last few weeks.
Talbot’s death had been a horrible accident, but she knew now that if she had to, she could kill with purpose. “I would do anything to protect what I love most.”
Sun Hawk removed the revolver from its holster and gave it to her, then left to tether the horses in a spot that would be easy to reach. When he returned to Skylar, they settled into their hiding place and began the long wait.
“Are you sure he’ll be there?” Rayna asked Case for what might have been the hundredth time.
“I’m sure,” he said without looking at her. The three of them were riding abreast, and it seemed to Case that their pace quickened every time Rayna asked the question. If she didn’t let go of her anxiety, they would be riding at a full gallop by the time they reached the mouth of the ravine.
“But if what you told us about your conversation with Sun Hawk is accurate, he didn’t actually give his word that he’d bring Skylar,” she reminded him irritably. “It could have been a trick to delay you and give them a chance to escape.”
“It wasn’t,” he replied.
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“But—”
“Rayna! That’s enough,” Meade commanded, throwing her an exasperated glance. “If Case says Sun Hawk will be there with Skylar, you can believe it.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” she said tartly, then fell silent and tried not to think about what could go wrong. When Case had intercepted them at midday, the story he related seemed too fantastical to be believed. Terrified that she was being led into another devastating disappointment, she had refused to accept anything Case said at face value. She had looked for flaws in his plan and tried to quell her anger at him for having allowed Sun Hawk to walk away.
He should have forced Sun Hawk to take him to Skylar, at gunpoint if necessary, instead of confronting him unarmed. He said he had released Sun Hawk to earn the brave’s trust, but it seemed like ridiculous manly bravado to Rayna. If Case’s actions cost her the only chance she might have to find Skylar, Rayna would find a way to make him pay for it.