“Ciká!” she screamed again as she began running toward the mouth of the ravine, but Rayna caught up with her quickly and grabbed her arm.
“Skylar, what are you doing?”
“Let me go,” she demanded, tugging against Rayna’s hold on her. “Sun Hawk doesn’t understand. I have to find him!” Her eyes wide with panic, she wrenched free and ran.
“Skylar!” Afraid of losing the sister she’d only just found, Rayna started after her, but Meade held her by the shoulders.
“Rayna, don’t,” he commanded.
“What are you doing? Let go!”
“No, Rayna, you let go! Skylar is doing what she has to do.”
“But she’s going after him! What if he takes her away again?” she asked desperately, struggling to get out of his grasp.
Meade gave her a hard shake, and she stopped struggling. “Rayna, if Skylar goes with him, it will be because she wants to go, not because he forced her.
She loves him.”
Case moved closer to them. “And he loves her very much. Believe me, he won’t do anything to put her in danger now.”
“Then why didn’t he come down here? Why did he slink away like a thief in the night?” she demanded hotly.
“Because he has no reason to trust us.”
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Rayna looked after her sister, but she had already disappeared from view.
“Oh, God, don’t let me lose her again,” she whispered.
Her heart pounding with desperate fear, Skylar ran out of the ravine to the place where Sun Hawk had tied the horses. All three were still there.
Trying to control her breathing, she fought for rational thought. Would he have gone on foot, thinking that he could disappear more easily that way? It was possible. In fact, it was very likely.
Feeling her life slipping away from her, Skylar sank to her knees, unable to stop the tears that had turned from joy to sorrow in the space of a single heartbeat. “Why could you not trust me, husband?” she whispered. She closed her eyes, but it didn’t shut out the pain.
She knelt there for what seemed like an eternity, unable to think, feeling only an aching sorrow and a growing anger. How could he leave her?
She could never have walked away from him, and yet he had left without even a good-bye. She had thought their love was strong, but it wasn’t. It was like a web shining with diamonds of morning dew—beautiful but too fragile to touch.
When she heard a restless movement among the horses, she looked up, and some of the pain slipped away. Sun Hawk was silently untethering his horse. Skylar stood up quickly, and he whirled toward the sound.
“Where are you going?” she asked as she moved to him.
Sun Hawk found it hard to believe his eyes. He had not expected she would discover him gone so soon, and he had never imagined she would come after him. “You are safe now, and if Gray Fox’s promises are good, I will take my punishment and return to my family.”
Skylar shook her head. “That is not the Apache way. A husband takes his wife’s family and lives with them.”
Sun Hawk’s heart was beating so hard that it was difficult for him to think.
“But your home is with your white family.”
“My home is with you,” she said forcefully, feeling a wave of anger rising inside her. “You had no right to try to leave without me. When you took me as your wife, you swore to love and care for me as I swore to love and care for you. Were your words a lie?”
“No,” he said, moving to her. “But your heart has always been with them.”
“My heart has been with you,” she argued. “If you cannot see that, you are blind.”
Sun Hawk shook his head. “You have lived in a world I do not understand.
Now that you are free, you will never be happy in mine.”
“I will never be happy without you.” She looked at him defiantly. “Do you love me so little that it is so easy for you to let me go?”
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“I love you enough to give you what I thought you wanted,” he replied tenderly.
“You were wrong.”
They looked at each other, letting hope and trust renew them. “I cannot live in your world,” he said sadly after a long moment.
“Then I will live in yours; or we will find a place and make it our own. But we will do it together, because I cannot live without you.”
The pain that had formed a cold wall around Sun Hawk’s heart began to fade, and the wall crumbled. She was right. He had been foolish not to trust her. He pulled her roughly into his arms and clung to her. “You are my beloved,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion.
“You are mine,” Skylar whispered. “And it will always be so.”
They held each other close until Skylar finally stepped away from him and took his hand in hers. “Will you come and meet my other family?” she asked.
“Or do we leave here alone?”
He hesitated a moment, then nodded. “I will learn to love those who love you.”
She smiled up at him tenderly. “You will not be sorry.”
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Epilogue
As she leaned against the top rail of the corral, Libby looked up at the graceful hacienda, taking in the lacy balconies, graceful arches, and lovingly tended gardens. Rancho Verde was a beautiful place, but what was most important to Libby was that Meade was happy here with Rayna. He was finally living the life of a gentleman rancher, and if his days weren’t always as placid as he’d once anticipated, at least they were never boring.
Though Case had made the trip to Rancho Verde nearly a year ago with Rayna, Meade, Skylar, and Sun Hawk, this was Libby’s first visit. She had been here less than a day, but already she loved the Templetons, and it had eased her mind to see for herself that Meade was really as happy as his letters had indicated. It made being separated from him much easier to bear, and she knew that before long, a network of railroads would connect his part of the world with hers. Their visits wouldn’t be so infrequent, and that would make them both even happier.
“There you are,” Meade said as he approached her. He’d been giving her a tour of the stables, relishing the opportunity to show off Rancho Verde, and enjoying even more the chance to visit with her alone for the first time since 256
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she’d arrived. Then Gil had stopped him with a question, and when he turned around, Libby had been gone. “I thought I’d lost you. What are you looking at?” he asked, letting his gaze follow hers up to the house. “Has Rayna been drying her petticoats on the railing again?”
Libby chuckled. “No, I was just thinking how lucky you are.”
“That is something of an understatement,” he said, draping his arm across her shoulders. It felt good having her close to him again. “I do miss you, though, dear sister.”
“I don’t see how you could,” she said with a teasing smile. “Between your medical practice in Malaventura and helping Raymond and Rayna operate the ranch, I would think you keep quite busy.”
“Rayna and her father run the ranch. I just ride over it now and then, looking lordly.”
“Something you do very well, I’m sure,” she said drolly as she turned toward the corral and rested her forearms on the top rail. Case was in the center of the ring with Sun Hawk, who was working at gentling a rather ram-bunctious mustang. “How’s your brother-in-law doing, really?” she asked him.