by Sara Orwig
He shrugged. “She would have been as savage as any of them if I had been her captive.”
The sun was on the horizon, splashing the sky with pink, as Vanessa watched the empty land. Then dusk came and the first stars twinkled. “You’ve waited long enough. I kept my part, now you keep yours. We go.”
Reluctantly, Vanessa turned to walk beside him back to his quarters. When she stepped inside, she watched as he lit a lamp and shed his coat. He pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside, standing bare-chested and studying her. She saw the large jagged scar on his right shoulder.
“That’s where you were shot by Lone Wolf?”
“Yes.” He crossed the room to her, putting his arms around her to kiss her.
Vanessa slid her arms around his neck. She felt cold inside, as if she had fallen into a pond of icy water. All her thoughts were on Lone Wolf, seeing his dark eyes, his impassive gaze, knowing he could do nothing now to help her. She prayed that he could get the others to safety and that Milos had kept his word and not sent any men after them.
Milos’s hands roamed over her and her flesh felt prickly, but she tried to cooperate, fighting tears and a burning in her throat. If she cried, he would be enraged, yet she hated his touch, hated what he wanted from her.
His fingers worked at her buttons and the dress fell, billowing around her ankles. He stepped back to look at her as he pulled off his belt. “You’re damned poor at your part of the bargain.”
“I’m trying,” she said, hating his eyes on her. “I’m not accustomed to men.”
“Just to a dirty redskin,” he sneered. Dupree looked at her, bursting with his desire, yet wanting to take his time to try to stir her to passion. He suspected she was capable of great depths of passion. The cascade of riotous red curls couldn’t belong to a cold woman, and her body was enough to set him aflame. He cupped her breasts, bending his head to take one in his mouth.
He paused to look at her while he shed the rest of his clothing and his boots. He pulled her warm, soft body against his, his arousal pressing into her flesh as his hand slid between her thighs.
His mouth covered hers and he kissed her, trailing kisses to her throat as her hands slid over his back, but her efforts were half-hearted. He no longer cared; he was lost to passion, ready to possess her.
“Taps,” she murmured, and he dimly heard the bugle, his attention on her soft body. And then he paused, raising his head to look at her. He tilted her face up, his fingers pinching her jaw, and her eyes widened.
“How the hell do you know that’s taps? If I’ve got me a damned soiled dove or camp follower—” he snarled.
“No. My father was in the military,” Vanessa admitted, suddenly not caring what happened. She felt as if she were dying, knowing she would recover from Dupree’s lust and passion, but hating it, consumed with revulsion, aching for Lone Wolf and White Bird, Belva and Muaahap.
The captain’s fingers shifted to her shoulders and he gave her a shake, his hands holding her tightly. “He’s not in the military now?”
“No.”
“Where’s he live?”
For the first time she heard the earnest note in his voice. “What difference does it make? You and I have our bargain.”
“It makes a hell of a difference if he can ruin my career! Where’s he living?” he snapped, winding his fingers in her hair and jerking her face up to stare into her eyes.
“He’s at Fort McKavett.”
“Then he’s a military man! What rank is he? Who is he? Dammit, whose daughter are you?”
She debated whether or not to lie, but it no longer mattered, because she might not ever see Lone Wolf again.
“Who is he?” Dupree shouted, pulling her hair until she cried out.
“He’s Abbot Sutherland. He’s working for the President, building railroads.”
Dupree Milos’s eyes narrowed, and he released her. His body burned for satisfaction, but he knew Abbot Sutherland and the man was powerful. Dupree crossed the room, trying to control his urges before he lost himself in passion and made a blunder that might cost him his career. “Get dressed!” he snapped.
For an instant, Vanessa stared at his bare back in shock and then she scooped up the dress, needing no further urging. Her hands shook and she felt faint with relief because it was obvious that the mention of her father had stopped Dupree. He was having second thoughts about bedding her.
He paced restlessly, seemingly unaware he was still nude, and she turned her back, dressing and buttoning as swiftly as she could.
Dupree turned to look at her. Vanessa’s back was to him as she struggled to button her dress. He wanted to charge across the room, shove her to the floor, and possess her. His body ached for release, for she was a breathtaking beauty, but Abbot Sutherland’s daughter gave him pause. Something nagged at him about the name. Where had he heard Sutherland mentioned recently?
Why was she out here on the plains with her sister and three redskins? Her father hated and despised Indians, and everyone had heard how Sutherland had offered ten dollars for any dead Indian when he was trying to get his railroad built in Kansas.
Why would she be here with such a strange assortment of people? Why was the sister with her? McKavett wasn’t impossibly far away. He had seen them in Tucumcari, and he had observed her at the stage station seeing someone off. Had it been Sutherland? No. Abbot Sutherland would never have left her with the redskin.
Dupree’s eyes narrowed as he studied her. Had the girls run away from home? The nagging thought returned, and he remembered stopping in Tucumcari to read a flyer nailed to a post.
“Great God!” he exclaimed. Dupree yanked on his pants and buttoned them. “You and your sisters have run away from your father!”
She turned around, and he had a suspicion she was weighing what to say to him. “My father wanted to marry my sister to an older man, and Phoebe didn’t want to wed him. I helped her to escape.”
“And you put her on a stage in Tucumcari.”
She flushed and nodded her head. “Phoebe is gone now. I would rather you didn’t notify my father.”
Suddenly Dupree realized he’d let the youngest sister go. “I’ll be right back,” he snapped, charging across the room and out the door.
He remembered a large reward; but if he returned Vanessa to her father, Sutherland might be grateful enough to reward Dupree in a way that would further his career.
Vanessa hurried to the window and watched him stride across the parade ground. She wondered if he intended to send a telegram to her father now.
She looked at the open door and hurried outside. At a nearby building a saddled horse was tethered at a hitching rail. There had been no guards at the gates earlier, and she couldn’t see well enough to tell whether or not there were any there now, but she was going to take the risk. She hurried to take the reins and she mounted, wheeling the horse around and kicking her heels. The black horse plunged forward.
“Stop her!”
She recognized Dupree’s voice as she leaned over the horse and galloped toward the open gates. She heard him yell again behind her, the noise torn away by the wind rushing against her and the sound of the horse’s pounding hooves.
The black galloped through the gates, racing in the direction she had watched Lone Wolf go so many hours earlier. Only he was on foot and she was on horseback.
She glanced back, her eyes adjusting to the night, and she saw one rider racing after her. She urged the horse faster, feeling a desperate need to get to Lone Wolf.
The rider drew alongside her. Panicky, Vanessa urged the horse faster, seeing her hope of escape dwindling. Dupree Milos galloped beside her and gradually pulled ahead, crowding her horse. Suddenly he grabbed her reins and tugged, pulling back to stop both horses.
Desperate to escape him and get to Lone Wolf, she flung herself out of the saddle the moment the horse halted. She knew it was useless to run, but she had to keep trying to get away from Milos until there was no chance at all. He conti
nued at her heels and yanked her up before him, crushing her against him, his arm banding her tightly.
She beat against his chest, struggling to break free, until he grabbed her hair and yanked her face up. “Stop fighting me! It’ll do you no good. I’m taking you back.”
Eight soldiers rode past them, and he returned a salute. She watched them and went cold suddenly. “Where are they going?”
“After your sister. If you’re Abbot Sutherland’s daughter, he’s going to want both of you back.”
“What about the others? You made a bargain, and I tried to keep my part.”
“I told them I only want the sister.”
“You’ll hurt the others,” she exclaimed in fright. “Please, I’ll do whatever you want. Please, stop those men.”
“I told them I just want the white girl.”
“Please go after your men and call them back. Leave Belva where she is. Leave the others alone.” The strain of the day was finally too much, and Vanessa broke into sobs.
Ignoring her, Dupree rode back in silence. At his quarters he swung down off the horse, and Vanessa dismounted swiftly.
Inside, he kicked the door shut and crossed the room to pour two brandies.
A knock on the door interrupted him, and he opened the door to motion two men to come inside. Two privates brought in trays of food and set them on the table.
They hurried out and closed the door.
“We’ll eat shortly,” he said, picking up the glasses with brandy and bringing one to her. “Drink this. It’ll help,” he said in a kinder voice.
She drank the fiery liquid and coughed. He drank some of his and motioned to her. “Go ahead. Drink more. You’ll feel better.”
Vanessa took another long drink. She watched him as he faced her. He stood only a few feet away, his blue eyes full of speculation as he studied her. “Why are you out here?”
“I was being sent to a convent—”
“A convent!” he exclaimed, interrupting her. He reached out to touch her hair. “You should never be in a convent. Your father was sending you?”
“Yes. I was with a wagon train headed to Denver where I was to enter the convent.”
“Why wouldn’t your father marry you to someone?”
“The men he approved of didn’t want to marry me.”
“The devil you say! I find that impossible to believe, Vanessa. You’re a beautiful woman.”
“Thank you,” she answered, his words leaving her cold. Her thoughts were on the soldiers riding after Belva to bring her back to Fort Bascom.
He studied her, and Vanessa’s heart beat quickly because he knew now she had run away. He could do what he wanted with her and her father would never know. Her reprieve from his bed was only temporary.
“I can’t believe that there wasn’t anyone who wanted to marry you,” he said, regarding her.
She shrugged. “No one my father could accept wanted to marry me. He wanted a successful man with a promising future, not someone eighteen who had just joined the army. Unfortunately, I was more interested in a young man nearer my age than the colonels and majors and generals I met.”
Dupree stroked her shoulder, letting his fingers trail down over her breast. He saw the flicker in her eyes and knew she didn’t like his touch. He debated with himself. She admitted to running away, so he could do whatever he wanted with her and she would have no protector. There would be no one he would have to answer to if he got rid of her after he was through with her.
On the other hand, Abbot Sutherland was a powerful man with friends in the military and in Washington. Dupree studied her. If he could control his lust and think straight, this might be an opportunity for him. “Sit down, Vanessa.”
She noted the change in his tone. She sat in a wing chair, and he took down the decanter of brandy. He refilled his glass and sat facing her, setting the decanter on a table beside him. “You were on your way to Denver to a convent when you ran away and encountered the Indian and the child.”
“That’s right, and later Comanche warriors found us and took us to their camp. When we left them, Muaahap, the older woman, went with us because she had grown to love the child.”
“Three females traveling with the warrior?”
“Yes. I wanted to go back for my sisters, and finally Lone Wolf agreed to go with me. We got both of them, and I put Phoebe on a stage in Tucumcari.”
“You’re in love with him.”
“Yes, I am. He’s asked me to marry him.”
“You know how your father will feel about that,” Dupree said. “Most soldiers who’ve served in the West know Colonel Sutherland’s hatred for Indians and his bounty for dead ones. He wouldn’t consider the marriage binding, and he’d kill the warrior.”
She turned her head to look at the crackling fire. “It doesn’t matter now because Lone Wolf is gone and I don’t know where or how to find him.”
Mulling over possibilities, Dupree continued to study her. She was a beauty, intelligent, from a good family, and her father could help him greatly with his army career. On the other hand, Dupree could take her right now, keep her as his mistress for as long as it pleased him, and no one would know or care.
At the thought of the last, he weakened, thinking about her lush body, his gaze going over her. She was staring at the fire, her lustrous eyes brimming with tears again while she probably thought about the redskin. She sipped the brandy with which he suspected she was unfamiliar and which had already mellowed her slightly. Which did he want, to take her now, possess her body and have immediate satisfaction, or to wait, try to win her and her father, hoping Sutherland would help his career?
Dupree sipped the brandy, feeling the heat warm his insides. “You were taking your youngest sister to live with the Indians?”
“Yes. We gave her the choice of going with my sister or staying with me. She chose to stay with me.”
“Tell me their names.”
He listened as she talked, her voice growing listless, and he suspected she was feeling the influence of the brandy. He needed to come to a decision because they would soon return with the sister.
All three girls had run away from home—that meant that all three were unhappy, so it had to be they wanted to get away from the father. Vanessa was being sent to a convent and she didn’t want to go. Phoebe was being married to a man she despised, and they hadn’t wanted to leave Belva behind.
He made his decision and stood up, crossing to Vanessa to take the snifter of brandy from her hand and set it down. He picked her up and sat down with her on his lap.
As she started to get up, his arm tightened around her waist and he held her. “Be still. I want to talk to you.”
She settled, sitting stiffly on his knees. She smelled of roses and he longed to peel away the dress, knowing what she looked like beneath it. Trying to get his mind back to the problem at hand, he fingered her collar.
“You know your father would never allow you to stay with a tribe or be married to a redskin.”
“He wouldn’t find us.”
“He has the U.S. Army at his disposal in his work for the President.”
“He doesn’t know about Lone Wolf. All he knows is that I ran away from the wagon train and came back to Fort McKavett.”
“He’d find out. You’ve traveled and people have seen you together. Now I know.”
She looked at him sharply, and he felt a twinge of cynical amusement, knowing the brandy had fuzzed her sharp thinking. And he was thankful it had. “He’d find you and kill the Indian.”
She stared at him, mulling over what he had said. He let his hand rest against her soft breast as he smoothed the lace on her dress with his fingers. “Vanessa, I can take you now and make you my mistress. You promised to please me, and I can do whatever I want.”
She nodded, her eyes round and solemn.
“I want more than that. You don’t want to live in a convent, do you?”
“No, I don’t.”
“I saw you
with the little Indian girl. You were meant to have your own little girls. You’ll make a good mother. You’ll forget the warrior; and you should, because your father would kill him and take you back and put you in the convent.”
“No,” she whispered, but there was no force in her voice.
“You know he would,” Dupree declared emphatically. “I think I can give you things that would make you happy, and you can give me things that would make me happy. If your father wanted to, he could help my career because he has influence in high places.”
She nodded solemnly, and he wondered if she were so fogged by brandy, she didn’t know what he was saying. He saw opportunity sitting on his lap with a lush body and big green eyes. This was his chance for a big promotion, for powerful contacts in Washington.
“Vanessa, will you marry me?”
Twenty-one
Vanessa stared at Dupree Milos as his words swirled in her head. She felt hot and dizzy and wanted to get away from him. Uncertain she had heard him correctly, she stared into his blue eyes. “Why would you want to marry me?”
“I told you, I can give you things you want. I think you can give me things I want. Or your father can. Even if we don’t wed—your father is offering a big reward for you. He’ll be grateful to me for returning you and your sister to him. As enticing as your body is, I’d be foolish if I let the reward go by.” He smiled at her. “But I’d rather marry you, Vanessa.”
Vanessa scooted off his lap, moving away from him to stand in front of the fire and hold out her hands, the warmth of the flames doing little for her chill. She debated how to answer, aware he could so easily go after Lone Wolf and kill him. Finally, she turned around. “I’ll have to give your proposal thought; but if Belva tells me your men murdered Lone Wolf, then the answer is no.”
“I don’t think that will happen. I told them I just wanted the white girl. I told them to tell your sister that you sent for her. I think she’ll come willingly. He can’t fight. He doesn’t have a weapon and he’s injured.”
Vanessa nodded. Her head was spinning, and she knew it was from the brandy because she was unaccustomed to spirits. He stood up and crossed the room to her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
