Sweet Savage Heart

by Janelle Taylor

  “To stay?” he entreated, his mind dulled by imminent death.

  “Yes, Father, to stay forever.” Her heart thudded painfully.

  “Will you forgive me for not helping you?” he pleaded.

  “I forgive you, Father, if you will forgive me for hurting you.”

  “I love you, Missy,” he murmured, using his pet name for Marissa.

  “I love you too, Papa,” she whispered in his ear and kissed his cheek. “Rest easy, Papa; I am home to stay.”

  Nathan smiled one last time, then relaxed in her arms, dying without every learning of the tragic misconception that had tormented Marissa Crandall Michaels and had driven her from her home and love. “I love you, Father,” she whispered one final time, knowing that the tragic secret would be buried with him and the Caldwells. The dark past was ending, and a bright future for Rana Michaels and Travis Kincade was beginning.

  “I’m sorry, micante,” Travis told her as he knelt beside the man who had saved his life long ago and had changed it so drastically. “He was like a real father to me. I know how you must be hurting.”

  “It is best he did not learn the truth. I will think of him as my grandfather, as it should have been. He is at peace now, as is my mother. The dangers have passed, and we must begin a new life.”

  By Friday, Nathan Crandall and the others had been buried. The sheriff had collected the evidence against Harrison Caldwell and notified the past owners or heirs of the Lazy J, Flying M, and Box K ranches to return and lay claim to them. Since Harrison Caldwell had left a will naming Rana Michaels as his only heir, Travis and Rana discovered they owned a large, connecting spread that would one day belong to the child Rana was now certain she was carrying. With the other ranches being returned to their rightful owners, the area could be at peace once more.

  Travis held Rana securely and tenderly within the circle of his arms as they stood before the mantel, staring up at Marissa’s portrait. “She almost appears to be smiling at us,” Travis remarked softly, nuzzling the side of her head.

  Rana gazed into her mother’s blue eyes, which did appear to be smiling down on them. “She has found peace, mihigna. The past is over. We are home, and we must begin our life together.”

  “I asked the preacher to come out Sunday after church to marry us. Cody and Mace are trying to keep it a secret, but they’re planning a big party for us. We all know this is what Nate would have wanted us to do. Do you think we should tell everyone we’re already married under Indian law?” he inquired, patting her stomach.

  “You have found peace here. I do not wish others to learn of your Indian blood and torment you. They can say no words to harm me while I stand in your shadow,” she declared decisively.

  “It doesn’t matter anymore, my love. I’m not ashamed to be half-blooded. My friends won’t turn against me and others don’t matter to me. I think we’ve all found peace, micante. You’re not going to tell Todd anything, are you?” he ventured with mild curiosity.

  “No, it is too late for such words to be a kindness.”

  “You sure you want to be doubly bound to me?” he teased, returning to a happier topic as he bent forward to nibble on her ear.

  She quivered and warmed and leaned against him. “We are two people in each body; we must join two times.”

  “Good,” he murmured as he turned her to face him. “That should make us twice as happy. White Eagle gets Wild Wind, and Travis Kincade gets Rana Michaels.”

  She looked into his eyes and smiled. “No, my love. I have you, and you have me. See, I have learned much English,” she teased, then hugged him tightly. “Come, let us speak in a different way,” she entreated, grasping his hand and leading him toward her room.

  Saturday morning, Travis approached the family graveyard, which had been placed a mile from the house and beneath a lovely tree, whose sprawling limbs seemed to spread out protectively over those it guarded in their eternal sleep. The fence-enclosed space was a tranquil spot, and Travis had felt the need to visit it today to say a private farewell to Nathan Crandall.

  Travis found Todd Raines standing over Marissa’s grave, and he speculated that her funeral must have been a heartrending experience for Todd. Now there were three graves: Nathan’s, Ruth’s, and Marissa’s. It had taken death to reunite them.

  “I suppose I shouldn’t be here,” Todd murmured sadly. “It’s the first time in years that I’ve allowed myself to visit her. It’s hard to accept that they’re both gone forever, Travis; they were such a big part of my life. I think the reason I could never get over her was because she left so suddenly; she left everything open and unsettled. I know a part of me will always love her and miss her, but I have a good wife who loves and and needs me more than Marissa ever did or could. If I just knew why she deserted me, then I would be free of the past.”

  “I know what it’s like to be chained to a dark past, Todd, and I wish I could help you. It’s something only you can resolve.”

  Todd laughed. “When you rode up, I was thinking about Nate and all he did for me. He was practically a father to me too. He taught me most of what I know, or made sure I learned it. Not long before Marissa realized I was alive and set her sights on me, I had never been with a woman. You might say I was the shy, serious type. Nate said I needed to become a whole man, so he sent me to this house outside town in his place. He told me the girl wouldn’t know any difference because he always insisted on darkness and no talking so he could pretend she was Ruthie for awhile. He told me he wasn’t ever going to visit that whore again, so he sent me in his place to be educated. I never knew who she was, but I could tell she wanted to be any place but in bed with me. I couldn’t blame her. Lordy, I was so clumsy and scared, and she didn’t help relax me or teach me anything. I never went back there either, but I’ve never forgotten that night. In less than a month, I was seeing Marissa, and she was the only woman I wanted. She nearly destroyed me, but I think the pain would cease if I only knew why she rejected me for that no-good gambler.”

  Travis looked into Todd Raines’s gray-blue eyes and watched the sun bring out the reddish gold highlights in his hair. He stared at Todd’s eyes, his nose, his mouth, his expression. The truth was as clear to Travis as the blue sky overhead: Todd Raines had been the stranger Marissa had slept with that night; Todd Raines was Rana’s father, not Nathan Crandall; and no one involved in that tragic incident had known the whole truth. Travis gingerly questioned Todd about that fateful night to make certain he was not mistaken. He was not.

  Shortly thereafter, Travis returned to the house and told Rana what he had learned. She gave the matter careful thought and made her decision. “Perhaps I will be sorry one day, but I feel this must not remain our secret. To tell him I am his child gives him a new bond to the past, and that might be cruel, but he needs to hear the truth to be free. He is my father, and he has the right to know this. So many secrets in the past, and look what damage they have done. My mother’s spirit cannot rest until it has made peace with the past, peace with her true love.”

  “You want me to bring him over here so you two can talk privately?” Travis inquired, knowing this would be hard on both of them.

  Rana inhaled and nodded. “Yes, my love. Bring my father to me, and we will settle the past for all time.”

  “It’s gonna hurt, Rana, but I think you’re right.”

  She smiled at him. “As when you had to seek your past in the Hunkpapa camp, I must ride this lost trail alone and with courage. I will tell him all; then he can decide what to tell Rachel.”

  After Travis left to fetch Todd Raines, Rana retrieved Marissa’s “treasures” from her closet. The wild winds that had blown destructively over Travis’s life and over hers had been tamed and calmed. Their turbulent pasts were settled, and they had found love and peace together. It was time to allow Todd Raines, her father, the same opportunity for peace and contentment. She looked at Marissa’s portrait and smiled. “Soon, Mother, you can rest peacefully. I have avenged the evil that
befell you and I have returned your honor.”

  When Todd entered the room, his gaze first went to Marissa’s image, then to Rana’s face. Love and anguish filled his gaze, though he quickly tried to conceal his emotion. Yes, she decided, this was the right thing to do. She went to him and smiled. Taking his hand, she led him to the settee. She told him softly, “Sit. There is much I must tell you about me and my mother, secrets that have harmed many of us. It is time you knew all, so the pain and sadness can vanish from your eyes and life, as they have from mine.”

  Todd looked at the portrait of Marissa Crandall above him and protested, “Miss Rana, I don’t think we should talk about your mother. That was long ago, and it was a bad time for me.”

  “Yes, Father, we must talk about it. We must end the secrets that drove her from your arms, for I am proof of her true love for you. As are these,” she added, placing Marissa’s keepsakes in his shaky hands. She smiled and nodded when he gaped at them, then at her. She murmured, “It is true; you are my father, and she loved only you. Now I must tell you all of it…”

  Epilogue

  July 3, 1868

  Deep in Dakota Territory, in the Oglala camp, Lone Wolf was playing with his son while Myeerah nursed their daughter. The twins had been born on the eighth of March and they had been named Moon Flower and War Hawk. For the present, peace and happiness abounded in his lands and in his tepee. He looked at the wanapin around his son’s neck and imagined how the child would grow to wear it proudly. He thought about his friend, Travis “White Eagle” Kincade, and his adopted sister, Rana “Wild Wind” Michaels, and he smiled, for he believed they too had found peace and happiness.

  Myeerah looked at her husband and asked, “Why do you smile so?”

  “My thoughts are of Wild Wind and White Eagle. I long to see them and speak with them. Peace fills our lands and hearts this moon, but soon a time will come when it is no longer this way. When that moon comes, I will take you and our children to live with White Eagle and Wild Wind. The season of the buffalo and the Lakota is fading swiftly, my love. We must change, or we must die. I wish our children to grow and be happy, as we are this moon. I wish them to know of their lands and people. White Eagle and Wild Wind will carry out my wishes. Many times I have dreamed of our children playing as one family. It will be so, Myeerah, for Grandfather has told me.”

  “Such evil days are far from this one, my husband. Forget them and share this flower of happiness.”

  Lone Wolf gazed into her eyes and smiled. “You are as cunning and quick as my sister, Wild Wind,” he teased.

  “Is that not good?” she playfully retorted, placing their daughter beside their sleeping son. They were children of one image, the image of Lone Wolf.

  “Yes, it is good,” he concurred, then drew her into his arms.

  In Texas, on the Rocking C Ranch, Rana smiled at her husband as he entered the room. He strolled forward and looked down at her. “How’re my two favorite girls today?” he asked. He watched Rana as she fed the tiny female child with fuzzy red hair and slate-colored eyes, and his heart overflowed with tenderness.

  “We are fine, and happy, my love,” she replied with a radiant smile. “Serrin Rose Kincade has been a very good girl today.”

  Travis looked at the tiny face and felt his heart lurch with joy. This bundle of bliss that had entered his life on the third of April had brought him great pride and contentment. He glanced at the shiny ring on Rana’s finger, a wedding band made from the gold nuggets Sitting Bull and the Hunkpapas had allowed him to take. He had never told anyone where he had gotten them, and he never would reveal that secret.

  One year ago this day, Travis had left her side to seek the gold. So much had changed during that year. Cody and Mary Beth Slade were expecting their first child. Todd and Rachel Raines had adopted a jolly baby boy and were waiting to adopt another. Bart and Lettie were happy together. Mace had fallen in love with a girl from a new family that had taken up residence nearby. The owners or heirs of the adjoining ranches had returned and their spreads were flourishing. The Rocking C Ranch was prospering far beyond anyone’s imagining.

  “You know who’s been on my mind nearly all day?” he asked. Without waiting for her reply, he told her, “Lone Wolf. I’ve been doing some checking, and things are calm in that area at the moment. They’ve got new treaties and they should keep peace for a time. Maybe we can visit them as soon as they complete those railroads. If things get bad, we can encourage them to come live on our ranch.”

  “You are the kindest and most generous man I know. Lone Wolf will never leave his lands. They are a part of him, as the air he breathes or the blood of his body. Once I felt that way, but you entered my life and changed me. You, Travis Kincade, did what no other could do; you tamed the Wild Wind.”

  Travis laughed skeptically. “You’re bound to me in two worlds, but you’re still as free as a wild wind, and that’s as it should be.” Travis glanced at his twin son, who favored him, and he jested, “You never do anything halfway. You’ve made me doubly happy, Rana Michaels Kincade.”

  Rana joined him beside the cradles and looked down at their twins. Her arm slipped around his waist as she whispered, “Tanner Crandall Kincade is as impatient and demanding as his father. He is always first in everything: eating, wetting, crying, and loving. He is spoiled like his father.”

  Travis pulled her into his arms. “They’re beautiful like you, Rana. I never imagined I could be this happy. The past seems so far away,” he stated dreamily as he began to kiss a trail down her neck. “You aren’t sorry you and Todd decided to keep the truth a secret?” he asked suddenly. “He’s lost two ways; he can’t claim his daughter or his grandchildren.”

  “He has another family and the truth would cause them suffering. The past is over.” Rana turned to face him and mussed his sable hair. Her eyes met his and she coaxed, “The children are asleep, my love. Why do you not come and ride a wild wind?” She kissed him hungrily.

  “Why not?” he teased. “If I can’t tame it, I might as well enjoy it. I love you, Rana Kincade. Lordy, how I do love you!”

  ZEBRA BOOKS

  are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  850 Third Avenue

  New York, NY 10022

  eISBN: 978-1-4201-2763-8

  Copyright © 1986 by Janelle Taylor

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Tenth printing: February 1996

  Printed in the United States of America