The woman laughed. “Antonio did not tell you about me, Crazy Hair?”
A sickening feeling hit Halle in the center of her stomach. Was this Antonio’s wife—his girlfriend? She caught a flash of something silvery glinting in the woman’s hand. Halle took two steps backward, fearing it might be a knife. Still, she held her ground. Her heart pounded out of control, but she wouldn’t allow herself to be intimidated. She lifted her chin a notch and straightened. “Do you know where Antonio is?”
“You should not wander away,” the shadowed figure answered, obviously ignoring her question. “There are many dangers here for a woman who is alone.”
“Then tell me where I might find Antonio and I won’t be alone anymore.” Damn, that was a brilliant come back!
The woman laughed. “You will find him sleeping in our family’s hogan tonight. After all, I am his wife.”
Halle’s knees began to buckle, but she quickly recovered. His wife?
She watched the woman smooth her hands over her a noticeably rounded tummy.
“Did he not tell you he had a wife…that our child will be born when the last snow comes?”
The world around her tilted. Halle fought to breathe. No! Say it wasn’t so. Is that why the bastard hadn’t touched her these past two days, why he didn’t force himself on her from the beginning when he had the opportunity? The lying, smooth talking snake already had a pregnant wife waiting for him at home?
Hot tears blinded her at her own stupidity. How could she have allowed him to seduce her with his charm? How could she have let him trick her into cooperating with him long enough to accompany him to this godforsaken Indian camp? Did he expect her to become his second wife? Or his whore? Well too damned bad. That was sooo not going to happen.
Halle turned her face, not wanting the woman—no, his bitchy little wifey-poo—to see tears. Her mind went into a whirl, recalling Antonio’s sweet kisses and gentle caresses by the pool. He’d seemed sincere the other night, telling her he wanted her to marry him. Yet it had all been a sham.
Huge tears rolled down her cheeks and she swiped at them with her hands. Damn the lying rat bastard! His tender words meant nothing! He was probably dishing out the same cheesy lines to his wife, this pregnant witch of a woman standing before her!
Then she wondered if he’d also lied about not handing her over to Cole for the reward. Perhaps he only seduced her with his sweet words to get her to cooperate and return with him to the camp until he could make arrangements to turn her in.
She couldn’t trust him anymore. She had to get out of this place, and fast. Come sun up, she was leaving this hell hole, even if she had to steal a horse and learn how to ride the damned thing on her own!
But first, she was going to give that cheating snake a piece of her mind. God help him when she finished with his sorry ass.
* * * * *
That night, Antonio dreamed he and Halle were back at the pool making love. He came fully awake, instantly realizing it wasn’t Halle snuggled against him beneath the covers. He threw back the hide pelt, then the blanket. His eyes strained to focus on the dark, naked feminine form which rose up beside him. Doli? “What are you doing here?” he whispered in Navajo, as so not to awaken his aunt, uncle, cousin and Lukachukai who slept nearby. He sat up quickly.
“It has been months since you left. I missed you.”
He maneuvered about the hogan as quietly as possible, gathering his boots and shirt, although he was fairly certain they had already awakened most of his family.
He fastened his breeches. “You must leave, Doli. We are no longer married.”
“That has never stopped you from coming to me in the past.”
He rubbed his eyes with his thumb pads and shook off a chill. “I have not come to you often,” he replied, barely above a whisper. “What was between us has long ended.”
Lukachukai stirred, as did Tani. He had to get Doli out of the hogan before his aunt awakened.
“Please do not send me away, Antonio. I came to tell you good news. I am carrying your child.”
He scoffed. The child could not possibly be his. It had been well over a year since he visited her bed—or any other woman’s for that matter.
“You are to never come to my family’s home again.”
“Because of Crazy Hair?”
He shook his head in disgust at the new name some of the others had given her. Clothing tucked beneath one arm, Antonio stepped over Tani and Lukachukai who’d since awakened. Grasping Doli by the arm, he escorted her outside.
“I do not know what you find interesting about that skinny bilagaana. She looks like a stick wearing a dress.”
Antonio whisked on his shirt, grimacing when he glimpsed Doli’s pregnant belly beneath the open blanket. “Cover yourself.”
She whisked the blanket around her shoulders. “Your new woman is ugly like a mangy dog.”
“I have asked her to be my wife. You will treat her with respect.”
Doli snorted. “I was your wife once.”
“Yes, and you are no more because of your affairs.”
Doli flung herself against him, clung to him. “I could be your wife again.” She sobbed against his chest. “I promise to love only you, this time. There will be no more men.”
“We cannot return to the past.”
She slipped her arms around his midsection and hugged him tight. The blanket fell away. “Take Crazy Hair for a second wife. She can cook and wash for you but I will please you in all the other ways. I will give you Dine children.”
He plied her arms from around him and grasped her by the shoulders and gave her a quick shake. “Go back to your own hogan and leave me alone.”
She tore away. “Crazy Hair cannot love you as I can.”
“Doli, go!”
“She will never please you, Antonio. She is not like us. She does not understand our ways.”
“Now!”
Doli spat on the ground at his feet. “You are a pig and she is a dog!” she screeched. “May you have ugly four-legged dog children!”
Doli snatched up her blanket, turned on her heels, and stormed away.
Antonio leaned back against the mud and timber wall of his aunt and uncle’s home and closed his eyes. He’d worried Doli might cause trouble. Sonny, too, had warned him of Doli’s jealousy.
While his maternal family was respectful of his decision to marry Halle, he knew they were disappointed. She wasn’t Navajo. Life for her would be difficult with The People but there was no alternative. At least as his wife she would become a member of the tribe and retain full ownership of the home and children—the Dine way. It was a good life for a woman—much better than her life at Elena’s.
He was about to enter his family’s hogan when he saw Halle coming toward him. She was dressed in a traditional Navajo blanket dress, and if he hadn’t seen the fiery tips of her red hair, he wouldn’t have recognized her. He took a few steps toward her. “Why are you out alone? You should be resting.”
She barreled down the trail, her shoulder length locks flying like flames behind her, the tiny dog on her heels. Her face was taught, clenched in anger. She launched herself at him, nearly knocking the breath from his lungs upon impact.
“You lying, stinking, rat bastard!” She gave another hefty shove which caught him off guard and sent him staggering backward against the hogan.
He threw his hands up when she came at him again. “What has you so angry?”
“You’re married!” she shrieked, beating her tiny fists into his chest. “What, did you think I’d ever agree to be a part of your harem?”
Within seconds, a few people arrived to check out the commotion. Others peered around the blanket covered doors of their homes.
He grasped her by the hand to lead her away from curious eyes.
“Don’t touch me you lying snake!” She jerked against his grasp, but he held her firm.
With Halle raging at him all the way, he led her to the edge of the sleeping en
campment. No doubt Doli was behind her rage. Perhaps his former wife had paid her a visit before she’d snuck into his bed.
Once they were a good distance away, he spun her around to face him. Taking her face between his palms, he gazed into tear filled eyes.
“I’ve been an idiot,” she whispered brokenly. “I trusted you. I believed you…you really wanted me.” Her voice broke and her shoulders shook with each choked sob.
“Halle, no. Don’t cry.” He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand., “I do want you. Did someone say something hurtful?”
She recoiled. “Don’t you dare try to sweet talk me! And don’t you touch me again. Go touch your precious wife!”
So it was true. Doli had set about causing trouble again. “You have spoken with Doli.”
“Oh, so is that your wife’s name, Doli?”
“She is not my wife. We have been divorced for many years.”
“That’s not what she says. She claims the two of you are married and are expecting a child together!”
“That is a lie. We are not married. The child in her belly is another man’s.”
She blinked. “But…I saw her follow you outside the hut. You were putting on your clothes. She was butt ass naked. She was kissing and touching you. What else am I to think?”
“Doli cannot accept that I no longer desire her. And if you had paid closer attention you would recall that I did not reciprocate her affection.”
“Well if you ask me, it appeared the two of you already reciprocated a little affection! Did you have sex with her?”
“No, I did not. What you witnessed was not as it appeared.”
“Oh, really? She was kissing you against your will? Why you poor, poor man.”
He sighed and thrust a hand through his hair, realizing his encounter with Doli must have looked incriminating. “She came to my bed without my knowledge or consent. I awoke to find her there.”
“You’re a liar, Antonio.”
Exasperated, he threw his hands up. How could he make her understand that Doli had purposely created trouble?
“I hate you.” She sniffled, swiping at her eyes. ”And I hate this place, too. It’s dirty. There are rats everywhere. I want to go back to Albuquerque where people are civilized. I want a bathtub with real soap and a soft feather bed with warm quilts. Or better yet, I want to go home—to my cozy little apartment in Albuquerque. I want to take a warm shower, then get up at six-thirty in the morning, stop off at Cuppa Joe for a big ass latte and tart cherry bagel, and then go to work at Back Stage and pretend none of this crap ever happened!”
“You are a spoiled and ungrateful woman.”
She gasped. “How can you say I’m spoiled because I want to live in a civilized manner?”
Antonio would listen to no more. His family had taken her in, had fed her and found her warm clothing. They had asked an elderly couple who’d lost all their children over the years and whose fondest wish was to have a child again, if they would become her adoptive parents. They happily agreed, despite the fact Halle wasn’t Navajo
“These people have taken excellent care of you since we arrived,” he reminded her. “Have you not been fed and clothed? Did my aunt and uncle not find a family to give you shelter? You insult their hospitality, Halle, and by doing so, you insult me.”
She placed a hand on her hip and did some odd craning bird-like movement with her head and neck. “Well excuse me, if I’m not groveling with gratitude at your saintly feet, but have you forgotten you kidnapped me and forced me to stay with you?”
“What would you have me do now? Return you to Elena’s where you’ll earn your living on your back? Or perhaps I should send you to Frank Cole and collect the reward after all. Is the idea of being abused by him preferable to the thought a safe and peaceful existence among the Navajo? With me?”
Her stance relaxed a bit. “These people hate me, Antonio. I see it in their eyes. They blame me for what the soldiers are doing. How do you expect me to live a ‘peaceful existence’ here? They’ll never accept me.”
“Become my wife and they will.”
“But I don’t even know you.”
After spending these past few days and nights with her, he figured they knew one another extremely well. “We know enough for now.”
“You’re a traitor.”
He scoffed at her remark. “Your government’s term for anyone who isn’t on their side.”
The slur wasn’t lost on Halle. “Hey, I’m not on the government’s side in this mess so don’t take a ‘tude with me, mister.”
“A ‘tude?”
“An attitude,” she clarified.
Antonio let out a pent up sigh. “You are right. My remark was unfair. I apologize.”
“Did you know that soldiers are scalping Navajo to claim a bounty?”
His heart lurched in his chest. Yes, he knew of this, but had told no one, not even Sonny, fearing such news might spark retaliatory attacks on soldiers. How had she acquired this information? He kept his expression blank so as not to give anything away. “What are you talking about?”
She took a few steps closer. “In the beginning, Carson offered his troops a dollar for each head of Navajo livestock they rounded up. But there were some renegade soldiers who extended that reward to scalps as well.”
Likely, she had read a newspaper before they departed Albuquerque. Unimpressed, he folded his arms across his chest. “If you have finished with your imaginative ramblings, perhaps we might discuss my marriage offer one final time.”
He watched as her dark brows knitted together.
“Fine. We’ll talk. Hell yeah, we’ll talk. But first you answer a question. Suppose I do marry you, Antonio, and we have children? What if something happens to you or me. What if you or I get killed. Will they be imprisoned when the soldiers find your people? Or will they be left orphaned? Have you thought that far ahead?”
“As my next of kin, Sonny will look after you and our children should anything happen to me.”
“Don’t you understand? Your cousin will probably be dead, too.” She shook her head. “I won’t put a child of mine through that uncertainty…never knowing their parents….never having a permanent home.”
“There will be no more talk of soldiers. They have not found us—and will not. Navajo scouts are tracking their every move. If they do locate our camp, we will have advance warning.”
“Still, it changes nothing, Antonio. I don’t want to get married. Not to you or anyone else.”
“But your new parents have accepted my offer. There will be a ceremony in a few weeks.”
She gaped at him. “Hellooo. You’re not listening, Antonio. I don’t want to get married. I want to go back to Albuquerque, specifically to Elena’s.”
“Elena betrayed you!” he thundered out. “What must I do to convince you of the truth?”
He watched the fire fade from her eyes.
“Okay. I’ve thought about what you said before, about Elena giving me the initiation dress. Maybe you were mistaken. Perhaps it was another dress that looked exactly like that one. And so what if she knows Franklin Cole? It’s a small world, right?”
“You read the letter.”
“Yeah, I read the letter but it wasn’t specific enough for me to suspect Elena was negotiating with him for any reward.”
“You are naïve.”
Her delicate nostrils flared in anger. “You’re wrong. Elena wouldn’t take advantage of me. I was her confidante, Antonio—her closest ally for the past three months. I know more about Elena Costanza possibly more than anyone including you.”
How could he make her understand the danger she was in? She was innocent. Too much so for her own safety. No, he knew Elena extremely well. “You deceive yourself, Halle. Elena is an opportunist. She will look you in the eye, lie through her teeth and then in the next breath sell you for a gaudy pair of cheap earrings.”
“Okay, fine. I don’t have to go back to Elena’s. Max and I can get a
long in Albuquerque without her. I’m talented. I can sew dresses and style hair and write letters for people who can’t read or write. If I had the right tools and supplies, I could craft things you wouldn’t believe—props for the theatre and really cool stuff like body parts, fake scars and sores and realistic looking burns.”
He grimaced at the image of sores and burns.
“Come on. There must be a demand for my talents in a city the size of Albuquerque.”
“You will not survive alone for one day in that city on your own.”
She threw up her hands. “Then what am I to do? Stay here in this hellish place until the government forces us into hiding?”
“You have no choice. Either you will marry me, or your new family will select a husband for you. One-Ear has also asked for you. He is wealthy. Considering that fact, he is the better match.”
“Well they can’t force me to marry the old, one eared man.” She moved away from him and folded her arms over her breasts.
“They can and will, Halle. Given your advanced age they will be in much of a hurry to see you wed.”
“Advanced age? I’m twenty two, thank you.”
“And a virgin,” he muttered under his breath.
She frowned. “I told you once I didn’t want to be. Guess you missed your chance, huh?”
He held back a response. There was plenty of time left. And despite his anger, the present almost seemed as good a time as any.
“Okay. Fine. I surrender. I’ll marry you, but only under one condition.”
Antonio could only imagine what ridiculous terms she would set forth. He wasn’t certain he wanted to know. “What condition?”
“We won’t sleep together.”
“You want separate hogans?”
“No, just separate beds and no sex. It will be a marriage in name only.”
He laughed harshly. “I will never agree to that.”
“Then it’s off.”
Anger rolled through him like a ball of fire. “Is the thought of lying with me unbearable now?”
“It’s not that.”
A nerve in his jaw ticked. “Then do tell, because before we arrived here you did not shy away from my touch. In fact, I seem to recall you enjoyed my pleasuring. You even requested it on occasion. What has changed?”
Ride The Wild Wind (Time Travel Historical Romance) Page 22
