Confused, April tilted her head slightly. “Miller?”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re good, I’ll give you that. The perfect picture of innocence.”
April felt her temper begin to rise. Trying to keep it in check, she took a deep breath before continuing.
“Mr. Jackson, I am innocent. I have no idea who this Miller is that you’re talking about.”
“Mm hmm.”
Throwing all restraint to the wind, she snapped back at him. “Fine, then take me back to town. I’m certain no jury in the world would convict me if they knew the facts.”
“And the facts being…?”
She was sorely tempted to smack that smug look off of his face. “I was unwittingly involved in that bank robbery.” Something occurred to her, and she gave him a hard look. “How did you find this place so fast anyway? Surely you weren’t just passing through the vicinity when they called for you.”
A quick look flashed into his eyes and was just as quickly gone. “Hoping to have more time to get away?”
He was obviously going to ignore her question. “I told you. Just take me back to town and be off on your search.”
His slow smile made her insides tingle. “No can do,” he told her softly. “It’s been raining for the last hour, and with the temperatures dropping, we’re going to have an ice storm.”
Panic robbed her of speech. To be lodged inside this small cave with this big…man suddenly shortened her breath. Her chest rose and fell in alarming rapidity.
“We can’t just stay here,” she finally managed to whisper.
“Woman,” he told her in aggravation, shifting away from her until his back was against the cave wall. “If I wanted to do something to you I could have done it long before now. I’ve been sitting here for the past three hours.”
The thought of him sitting there watching her sleep left her slightly rattled. She didn’t know what to say.
“By the way,” he said, lifting the steaming cup to his lips. “Did you know that you snore?”
Affronted, she forgot to be afraid. “I most certainly do not!”
He grinned, nodding his head. “Yep, you do. It’s kinda cute, though.”
Of all the compliments to receive, this had to be the worst. He was unlike any man she had ever met, savage or otherwise.
“Look, Mr. Jackson.”
“You can call me Wolf. Most folks do,” he interrupted.
With his slanting eyes gleaming at her, he certainly reminded her of one. The wolf from Little Red Riding Hood had been a sweet talker, too. It was an analogy she would rather forget.
“Mr. Jackson,” she reiterated and watched the slow smile curve his lips again. If she didn’t know better, she would believe him capable of reading minds. “I don’t mind a little rain and cold. We can’t be that far from town.”
His amused look made her feel like a foolish little schoolgirl. “We’re a good forty miles.”
Her mouth dropped open. “That can’t be. We made it here in one day.”
“Yep, hard, long riding will do it. I made it in six hours, myself. I’d say it probably took you the better part of fifteen.”
She went to the entrance to the cave, but he didn’t try to stop her. Peeking out, she watched the rain falling in torrents. The river at the floor of the canyon was already rising. She turned back to Wolf.
“Will we be safe here?”
He shrugged, refilling his cup. “Safe as anywhere, I expect.”
Restless, she wandered around the cave noticing things she hadn’t when she had arrived last night. This cave must have been used by Ted and the others for some time. There was a load of supplies in one corner, along with extra kerosene for the lamp that hung from a nail pounded into the wall. Ted had been so close yet hadn’t come to see her until he was ready to use her in his crime. Her heart felt as though it were breaking into a million pieces.
She felt Wolf watching her and turned. He was regarding her warily now, no smile left on his face.
“You say you’re innocent. Tell me what happened.”
So she did.
Wolf noticed every changing emotion on her face, every nuance of her body language. He was tempted to believe her, but he had been this route before. It wasn’t often his intuition failed him, but it had been known to happen. Especially where the weaker sex was concerned.
He studied her earnest face, noting the freckles speckled across her nose. She was neither attractive nor unattractive, but she was interesting, though he couldn’t put a handle on why he thought so. He hadn’t been attracted by any woman since Moonwater, and he didn’t relish the idea now.
But then maybe that’s why this woman was so attractive to him in the first place. She had the same coloring as the Comanche. If anything, she looked more like an Indian than he did, though her skin was much fairer and her eyes were the color of the summer sky. Even her scent was unlike any he had come across, soft and fresh like the spring rain. His mouth twisted wryly at his decidedly poetic thoughts.
She finished her story and stood looking at him, expecting him to believe her. And strangely enough, he did. Still, he wasn’t taking any chances.
“That’s all very interesting,” he told her. “Now when you tell it to the judge and jury, maybe they’ll believe you.”
She glared at him. “But you don’t, do you?”
He leaned back against the wall of the cave, one eyebrow lifted upward. “It doesn’t really matter what I believe, does it?”
April got up from the crate and stormed across to her blanket. For some reason, it bothered her that he held such a low opinion of her. Throwing herself down in a huff, she shifted the blanket to make herself more comfortable. If she was going to have to stay there with this giant of an Indian, she might as well make herself as cozy as she could.
She heard something rattle, and lifting the blanket, she found a piece of paper lodged between two rocks on the floor of the cave. She picked it up and unfolded it, recognizing her brother’s handwriting at once.
Sis,
I had to leave you. It’s for your own good. I’ll be back for you as soon as I can.
Ted was coming back. Her heart leaped with joy at the realization that he hadn’t deserted her after all, but just as suddenly she was seized with fear. If he came back now, he would come face-to-face with Yellow Wolf. She had to get the ranger out of there somehow. Crumpling the note in her hand, she casually crossed to the fire. When she reached out to drop it into the flames, a large hand wrapped around her wrist. Though the hold was gentle, she knew he could crush her bones if he wanted to.
Prying her fingers open, he retrieved the paper. After reading it, he glared at her.
“So you’re innocent, huh?” He placed the paper carefully in his pocket, noting her attention. “Evidence,” he told her coldly.
“It’s not what you think,” she argued.
“Sit down.”
She wasn’t certain why she felt she had to justify herself in his eyes, but she couldn’t let things stand the way they were.
“Mr. Jackson…”
“I said, sit down.”
April sat. If other Indians looked that ferocious when they were angry, no wonder they were called savages.
Wolf rummaged through the supplies stacked in the corner until he found what he was looking for. Using his knife, he pried open a can of beans, his silence profound. He wasn’t exactly sure why he was so angry, although maybe disappointed would be a better word.
He dumped the beans into a small pot and set it over the fire. This woman might look like a Comanche, but it would seem she hadn’t the honor.
“As God is my witness, I am innocent,” she told him clearly.
He lifted one eyebrow arrogantly without looking up from his work. “God? What would you know about God?”
She knelt on the ground across from him, her eyes beseeching. “I’m a Christian, Mr. Jackson. I don’t lie nor do I steal.”
He dumped half of the pot
of beans onto a tin plate and handed it to her. His enigmatic eyes met hers.
“You ever hear of John Brown, Miss Hansen?”
She had. The man was a notorious abolitionist who wasn’t beyond killing to further his cause, and all in the name of Christianity.
“I’m not John Brown,” she told him scathingly.
He took up his own plate of beans and began to scoop them into his mouth. He politely chewed and swallowed before answering.
“Maybe not,” he told her, his eyes traveling over her slowly. “But in my eyes you’re about the same caliber of Christian.”
Hackles rising, April set her plate on the floor untouched. Her appetite had deserted her.
“And what exactly would a man like you know about Christianity?”
His look was so dark she shivered. “A man like me? You mean a half-breed?”
Horrified at his train of thought, she shook her head vehemently in denial. “I didn’t mean that at all! I meant your profession.”
He got up, reaching for her plate. He scooped the contents up with his own spoon until the plate was empty, then took both and disappeared outside. When he returned, the plates were clean. He set them with the other supplies.
Coming close, he knelt beside her, and she shrank back from the anger in his eyes.
“I’m a lawman, Miss Hansen. I keep and uphold the law. What about you?”
“I’m the same,” she told him, her voice softly supplicating. “I’m telling you the truth.”
He pulled the slip of paper from his pocket. “This tells me otherwise.”
They stared at each other for a long time, searching for the truth in each other. The atmosphere between them grew tense with suppressed emotions. Nostrils flaring, Wolf moved away first.
The thought that April could so move him that he wanted only to believe her, to deny the evidence, made Wolf angry. Being close to her clouded his thinking, and he didn’t fully understand why. It wasn’t like him to accept a woman so quickly.
She returned to her blanket, sitting cross-legged across from him. Dirt streaked her face where traces of tears had been the night before. Something wasn’t right here. He couldn’t believe that his judgment was that faulty.
For three hours he had watched her sleep, her face innocent in its repose. Back and forth, his emotions had surged. Something about her touched his icy heart, and he felt it slowly begin to thaw. And that was before she was even awake. Now, after talking with her, he was even more confused.
She had been more hurt by his denial of her Christianity than by anything else he had said. It was there in her face, as plain as day.
The day passed with turtlelike slowness, their cramped quarters making them both edgy. They made desultory conversation some of the time, at others falling into a silence fraught with unanswered questions. Each of them thought of what would happen when the rain stopped, but neither broached the subject.
When April next spoke, her words scattered Wolf ’s thinking to the four winds.
“Did your mother love your father?”
April regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. What on earth had possessed her to ask such a personal question in the first place? The anger in his voice when he had said the word “half-breed” told her clearly that it was a sore spot with him. Maybe she had wanted to hurt him as badly as he had hurt her, but then, she really did want to know.
Wolf ’s body went so rigid, it seemed as though he had turned to stone. His dark eyes glittered dangerously.
“He didn’t rape her, if that’s what you mean.”
April dropped her gaze to the floor. “I’m sorry,” she whispered contritely, knowing that if her purpose had been to give him pain, she had succeeded.
“My mother was the daughter of a missionary to the Comanche people. She was a child when her parents came to try to teach the people about the white man’s God.”
April lifted her head at this. “He’s not a white man’s God,” she interrupted.
“I know who He is,” he answered harshly. “My mother taught me all about Him. How His people love and care for one another.”
His biting sarcasm caused April to flinch. She remained silent.
“When my mother’s parents died, the Comanche took her in and raised her as one of their own. She and my father fell in love, and he chose to marry her.”
Curious in spite of herself, April leaned forward. “Do you have brothers and sisters?”
She could see him tense. He got to his feet and walked away from her, as though her very presence disturbed him. He stared out at the wet landscape, watching the sun slowly sink below the horizon.
“No. My parents were killed when a group of white settlers attacked their village in reprisal for an attack on their own town by renegade Comanches.”
Appalled, she could think of nothing to say except to tell him that she was sorry. He smiled at her, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Don’t be. If what you believe is true, then they are with your God.”
Chapter 4
April awoke the next morning slightly disoriented. It took her a moment to get her bearings, rubbing sleep out of her eyes as she did so.
She glanced around the cave and noticed that it was empty. Her heart plummeted to her toes. So Yellow Wolf had gone after her brother after all and left her there alone. Would he come back for her? She had no horse, and the thought of the long walk to town in the freezing cold was a daunting one.
But maybe he hadn’t gone far. Maybe she could still catch him. And then what? He had already said that he wouldn’t take her with him, but could she possibly get him to change his mind?
Stumbling over her blanket, she got up and rushed out of the cave. She hadn’t taken more than two steps past the entrance before she found her feet flying out from beneath her. She would have plunged over the edge of the trail and catapulted to the rushing river in the canyon below if not for a long arm snaking out and pulling her back to safety.
Her back was against Wolf ’s chest, and she thought surely he must be able to feel the pounding of her heart against his arm. He bent his face forward until their cheeks almost touched.
“Going somewhere?” he wanted to know.
She tilted her head back slightly, bringing her face even closer to his. The fresh scent of the cold outdoors clung to him, but he seemed totally unaffected by the cold. Her heart slowed its thundering pace.
“I…I thought you were gone.”
One corner of his mouth tilted up on the side. “What, and leave you here alone?” His eyes twinkled down into hers, laughing at her. “But then, I’m not a gentleman, am I?”
He slowly released her, keeping one hand on her arm to give her support. Only then did April notice the landscape around her. Prisms of rainbow light were reflected all over the small canyon from the ice clinging to every surface. She caught her breath sharply.
“Oh! It’s beautiful!”
He nodded, watching her carefully. “Beautiful and dangerous.”
She moved slightly, and her feet slipped again. His hold on her arm tightened fractionally until she steadied herself.
“I see what you mean.” She peered over the edge to the canyon below. “We’ll have to be very careful leaving here.”
He lifted one brow, the twinkle back in his eyes. “We’re not going anywhere. At least not for awhile. It would be suicide to try to make it out of here just now.”
Her eyes flew to his. “When can we leave?”
Wolf shook his head, picking up the cup of coffee he had sitting on a rock beside him. He took a swallow and grimaced. In the short time April had been out there, it had already grown cold.
He had been standing there drinking his coffee and marveling at the beauty around him when she had come plunging out of the entrance to the cave. Only his quick reflexes had averted a near disaster.
He had felt her heart drumming in her chest and knew that his was pounding in equal rhythm. He looked at her again. It w
as odd, but he wanted to take her back into his arms just to feel her nearness, to know that she was truly safe. She aroused every protective instinct in him that he had thought long ago dispelled.
With his feelings in such chaos, he knew that it was not a good idea to stay there another night, but he also knew that he had no choice. Were he alone, he would manage it, but with April in tow, he couldn’t take the chance. His horse would have to pick his way carefully back up to the top of the canyon as it was, but he couldn’t walk his horse and hold on to April, too. And he couldn’t let her ride, just in case the horse did slip.
“Mr. Jackson.”
He brought his attention back to the matter at hand.
“I said, when can we leave?”
He threw the cold coffee over the ledge. Without looking at her, he told her, “Another day or two, probably.”
Her appalled look brought a quick frown to his face. “As the day warms, the ice will melt, but by then it will be too late to travel. We can’t camp out in the open in this kind of weather. It would be foolish.”
Her throat worked convulsively. She crossed her arms, shivering against the cold, and met his look. He could see the fearful uncertainty in her eyes. What was she afraid of, anyway? Hadn’t he proved himself trustworthy?
“You mean we have to stay here?”
Without realizing it, his face took on the immobile mask that the Comanche used to hide their thoughts.
“ ’Fraid so.”
She carefully pulled out of his grip and moved cautiously toward the cave. She threw him one last look before ducking back inside. Wolf lifted his head upward, closing his eyes. Somehow, he just knew this was not a good idea.
April stood in the entrance to the cave, her lips pressed tightly together. Closing her eyes, she rubbed her forearms to relieve herself of the chill. She couldn’t stay there another day. She just couldn’t. There was some kind of force at work here, and she was very much afraid it wasn’t godly. Why else would there be such undercurrents of emotions between her and a perfect stranger? Well, she thought wryly, not quite perfect.
Her eyes flew open. Could it be that God had brought her to this point to show this heathen the way to Him? He knew about the Lord, but she sensed that it was an area of his life he wished to ignore. Much like her own brother.
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