cap adorned with eagle and owl feathers. His hair was black and straight
as Nalte's, but worn shorter. Even as she stared at him, he turned
slowly, pointing her way.
She gasped, stunned to see that the newcomer was Jon Red Feather. He
smiled at her briefly, a sign of encouragement, she thought, then his
expression quickly sobered again, and he continued to talk to Nalte.
The tall Apache was dressed for the ceremony, too. He wore a fringed
buckskin shirt, buckskin pants, high, laced boots and eagle feathers in
his hair. He was also adorned with a turquoise amulet around his neclq
and silver studs and beads upon his bonnet and shirt. He was listening
to Jori Red Feather--and watching Tess gravely as he did.
Nalte nodded, and Jon let out a whistle.
Then Jamie rode into the clearing. He was in calico shirt, denim pants,
knee-high boots and a Western hat. He didn't glance at Tess, but lifted
a hand to Nalte. When he reached the chief, he slipped from the horse
instantly and approached the man, speaking quickly.
She felt as if her heart slammed hard again. ~t her chest. He was a
fool! she thought. He didn't know Nalte, he didn't know how the Apache
chief hated the white man, nor did he seem to realize the things that
had been done to the Apache by the cavalry. Fool! She wanted to scream
to him, but she couldn't breathe, she could only pray that Nalte
wouldn't slay him right on the spot.
Nalte shook his head violently.
Forty warriors suddenly drew their weapons, facing Jamie.
His Colts were around his waist, but he didn't make a move to touch
them. He spoke calmly once again, and Nalte called out something
sharply. Guns and war clubs were lowered.
Frightened still, Tess cried out, shaking off the hands of the women
around her and racing toward Jamie. She pitched herself against him, but
he caught her shoulders hard and thrust her away.
Thrust her away--straight into Nalte's arms. Her eyes widened with alarm
and fury.
"What in God's name are you doing?" she gasped. She couldn't move.
"Nalte's dark fingers were a vise upon her.
Nor did Jamie seem to want her. His eyes flashed upon her with dark
fury.
"Stop it, Tess."
"But" -- "Stop it! Shut up!"
"Damn you, Jamie" -- He switched into the Apache language, addressing
Nalte.
At the last, he spoke English once again.
"Nalte, may Jon Red Feather take the woman away so that we may speak
without interruption?"
"Speak without interruption!" Tess flared. But Nalte was nodding.
"Tess, come!" Jori called to her.
Apparently she didn't move quickly enough. Jamie reached for her arm and
thrust her toward Jon. He pulled her away even as she protested.
"Jon" -- "Tess, he's trying to negotiate for your return."
"They were going to shoot him! I had to do something." She tugged free
of Jon and turned back to watch Jamie, still talking with Nalte.
"What are they doing now?"
"Talking about prices."
"For what?"
"For you, of course," he told her with a crooked smile. "How can Jamie
pay Nalte?"
"Well, he can't pay him ... not very much, that's why he's arguing
that you aren't worth the price."
"I'm not worth the price!"
"Tess" -- Tears touched her eyes.
"He shouldn't he here to begin with! He must not understand Nalte"
"Nalte would have killed most men by now. He is seeing Jamie because he
knows about him, he knows that Jamie has always been fair. Tess, keep
your mouth shut, all right?" She wanted to keep her mouth shut, but she
was still in terror that the Apache would betray Jamie, as they had been
227 betrayed so many times themselves. She was deliriously glad to see
him and Jon, and she wanted to know about Chavez, but she was afraid to
ask. Her temper was rising because she was so desperately scared of what
was to come. Before she could say more, Nalte came striding by with
Jamie and his guard behind him.
Jamie cast her a fiercely warning glare; Nalte barely glanced her way.
They entered Nalte's dwelling.
"What are they doing now?" Tess demanded. "Negotiating," Jon said
briefly.
She started to shiver. Nalte didn't need to negotiate. He could kill
Jamie and ke~P her. He had all the power. He could do anything he wanted
to do.
"There's no hope!" she whispered.
Jon set his hands on her shoulders.
"Courage, Tess. There is every hope. Nalte's little sister begins her
puberty rite today. The rite goes on for four days. The woman over there
will be her sponsor. She is of impeccable character, and she will stand
for the sister. The man there with the buffalo horns upon his cap and
the white eagle feathers, he is the shaman, the medicine man, and he
will add the sacred religion to the ceremony. The girl is dressed for
her role as White Painted Woman or White Shell Woman, a sacred maiden
and one of the most important of the Apache supernaturals.
She will pray to the sun. The dancers with the headdresses, they are the
Gan, or Mountain Spring Dancers.
It is an expensive ceremony, but Nalte is a great chief, and he has
supplied much for his sister's rite. The Gan dancers symbolize the four
directions.
They are elaborate." Tess watched the dancers as they prepared for the
day.
They were painted black and white, and they carried huge fan racks and
wore buckskin kilts. They carried wands. On their arms were trailers
made of cloth and eagle feathers. Their huge masks had false eyes. The
fan racks portrayed snakes and other creatures.
She shivered, grateful that Jori was there to assure her that the
dancers were involved in a ceremonial rite and were not preparing for
war. She looked into his green eyes and realized that he had kept
talking to ease her mind from worry, and she was grateful to him.
"He must be furious to be disturbed today!" she whispered.
"He is not disturbed. He will make his decision quickly," Jon told her.
An Apache warrior emerged from Nalte's tent. He spoke briefly with Jori
and took Tess by the arm.
"Jon!" she cried.
"Go with him," Jon ordered her.
"He isn't going to hurt you. I'm wan led with Nalte. And you are not."
She didn't want to let Jon out of her sight, but he moved away
resolutely, and she had no choice but to accompany the warrior who took
her by the arm.
Seconds later she was thrust into an empty tepee. The fire that had
burned in the center was nearly out. On rocks beside it were corn cakes
and dried meat. She hadn't been told she could, but she was alone and
she was starving, so she helped herself. She had barely bitten into the
food when she became so nervous she couldn't chew. She set the food down
and began to pace.
After a while she sat again and looked sadly at her tender and torn
feet.
They would never be the same again.
Moments later, she heard a rush of air. She catapulted to her feet,
staring toward the op
ening of the tepee. Jamie was coming in. She gasped
softly, then raced toward him, flinging her arms around him.
He quickly untangled himself, staring fiercely into her eyes.
"We're going to get out of this. If you can manage to behave."
"Behave!"
"Listen to me!" He shook her so hard that she felt her teeth rattle.
Indignantly she tried to jerk away from him, but his grip on her was
firm and he wasn't letting go. "You're hurting me!"
"I'm hurting you! We're in the midst of a fiasco like this" -- "It
wasn't my fault!"
His jaw twisted hard.
"I know. It wa~ mine. For being so damned determined to try to
understand you.
She felt the color drain from her face. The planes of his face seemed
very lean and hard. He was more bronze, tauter. There was a fresh scar
upon his cheek. She wanted to touch it tenderly, but he was holding her
with too great a vigor. And the smoky anger in his eyes told her he did
not want her touch.
He had come for her. He had survived both yon Heusen's guns and his
fight with Chavez to come for her. But now she realized that he had come
only because he considered himself responsible for what had happened to
her. She paled, trying to pull from his grasp, but he wouldn't let her.
"The puberty rite for Nalte's sister will last four days. He will not
attend to any other business during that time. Jori and I are to be his
guests. You are to stay here, do you understand me?"
"Just stay here ... for four days?" she whispered.
"Can't I be with you?"
He swore, vehemently.
"You were purchased, Tess! Damn it, don't you realize that? And not for
your talents with a newspaper."
"Jamie, don't you start with me" -- "No, don't you start with me," he
said heatedly.
"You can manage yourself, and you can manage a lot, and you probably are
a damned good rancher and newspaper woman. But if you try anything here,
Tess, we'll both probably die. Do you understand? We're walking a very
narrow line here. I've tried to explain von Heusen to Nalte.
He has a sense of honor; there is a chance he will return you. But I
can't do-any of this if you interfere. Do you understand?"
She wrenched free of him at last. His hands fell upon his hips and his
hat brim tipped over one eye, yet she could still see the silver glint
in the other. She swung around and walked with her shoulders stiff and
straight, then she sat Indian fashion upon a blanket roll. She mustn't
let him see how hurt she was.
He didn't say anything else to her, but started to turn to leave. She
couldn't stand that, and called out to him.
"Jamie!"
"What?" he demanded impatiently.
"What" -- She paused, licking her lips. "what happened to Chavez?"
"He's dead," Jamie said flatly.
"And the Comancheros" -- "The Comancheros never saw me," he said.
"But if we're going to get out of the mountains, we're going to need an
Apache escort. So don't create problems."
"Me!" "You," he said succinctly, and he was on his way out again.
"Jamie!"
"what now?"
She hesitated a second.
"Thank you. Thank you for coming after me.
Thank you for risking so much."
"You don't need to thank me. I owed you this." This time he stayed,
staring at her. But she couldn't speak anymore because sudden tears were
welling behind her lashes and threatening to spill over on her cheeks.
He owed her this. He had come for her because he owed her. She had
dreamed that he was falling in love with her.
Maybe she was proving to be too much trouble. She had traded half her
land for a hired gun. But she had never told 231 her hired gun he was
going to have to go after Comancheros and Apache as well as von Heusen's
men. I'll member to thank Jon," she said coolly.
"He didn't owe me anything."
"You do that," Jamie told her. But still he didn't leave. He stood by
the entrance, and she sat across from him, her knees crossed, her
shoulders and back-very straight, her hands resting upon her knees. The
distance between them seemed immense, and yet she felt the touch of his
eyes as if it was fire.
It was he who spoke. ~this time, lightly, softly. "Tess?"
"What?"
"Did--did any of them--hurt you?"
She knew what he meant. Her cheeks burned and her lashes fell over her
cheeks.
"David was a monster, and he probably would have killed me. Jeremiah
wasn't so bad--he wouldn't let David touch me. I was sorry to see
Jeremiah killed." Her voice faded slightly.
"Especially the way he was killed.
And Chavez. Well, you know about Chavez, because. because you were
there."
"Yes, I know about Chavez. What about Nalte?" She shook her head.
"He let me be. Because of his sister."
She started, hearing the long, ragged exhalation of his breath. She
thought, for a moment, that he would cross the distance between them and
take her into his arms. He did not. She could scarcely breathe, longing
to leap to her feet once again. But he had already set her from him. She
wasn't going to touch him again.
"You're still Nalte's," he told her harshly. She gazed at him, wondering
what he meant. Then she realized that he would not touch her until he
had completed his negotiations with the Apache chief.
He didn't say any more. He swung around and left, and she knew that even
if she had called his name then, he would have left her.
The day wore on endlessly. Tess could hear the ceremonial drums beating
and the chants of the puberty rite, but she could see nothing, and she
was involved in nothing. She tried very hard to be patient, and to
understand that everything rested upon negotiation.
Late in the afternoon, Jon came in. She almost leaped into his arms, but
he was carrying a dish of food for her. He set it down, and she did hug
him, fiercely. "Eat," he told her.
"You may need your strength."
She nodded and sat and looked suspiciously at her bowl. "What is it?"
she asked.
"Something exotic and Apache," he told her, "beef. Probably, from cattle
taken in a raid. You should not worry.
The Apache are very finicky about what they eat. They will not eat
snake, for they believe that the creature is evil, and they will not eat
evil meat.
Here they are close enough to the plains to seek out the buffalo. They
also hunt deer, antelope, elk and bighorn. Their food is quite safe, I
assure you."
She flashed him a quick smile and ate the beef with her fingers. It was
delicious.
"How does the ceremony progress?" she asked. "The gift has been taken to
the ceremonial tepee with her shaman. She has knelt down on the buckskin
and lain prone to be massaged by her sponsor, and she has run in the
four directions. Tonight she will dance in the ceremonial tepee, and
others will dance in the center of the village."
He paused, looking at her.
"I am leaving tonight. Nalte will not let you go until this ceremony is
ove
r, and we think it is important that I hurry to Wiltshire with the
news that you have been found."
"Oh!" Tess said, setting down her bowl and staring at him. Then she
moved across the tent and hugged him close.
"I don't want you to leave. I'm so afraid for you."
"The Apache will see me past the Comancheros, as they will do for you if
they choose to let you go."
"If" -- "Whenl" he assured her.
She pulled slightly away, staring into his deep green eyes and feeling
as if she had found a friend she would cherish all her life. In his
buckskins he appeared very much the Indian, but his words were those of
the white man who knew her society and understoocf her fears.
"Oh, Jon, be careful!" she pleaded with him. "I'm quite sure he will
be."
Jamie's deep drawl startled them both. Tess stood quickly. Jon came to
his feet more slowly, staring at Jamie.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," Jamie said drily. He ducked beneath
the flap and was gone.
Tess instinctively ran after him.
Jon caught her before she could leave.
"You cannot go to him!" he ordered her hoarsely.
"He has explained to you.
You are still Nalte's. You remain here, untouched, until a decision is
made.
"But he--he misconstrued what he saw!" Tess wailed. Jon offered her a
dry smile.
"Perhaps he deserved to, eh?" She didn't smile in return, and he
hastened to reassure her.
"He is my friend, and I am his. He knows we said goodbye and nothing
more." He didn't let her answer, but gave her a quick squeeze.
"I'll see you in Wiltshire," " he whispered, then he was gone.
And she was left alone. Outside the light was fading. Darkness was
coming, and despite the summer heat of the day, the night was coming
with a chill.
Tess shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, staring miserably at
the center of the tent where the fire burned no longer.
Jamie walked almost blindly into the growing darkness of the night.
Soon, the evening ceremonies for the young girl would begin, but at the
moment, there was a lull as preparations were made. This puberty rite
was one of the most important for the Apache. It was a structured
society, a social one, and respect and honor were tremendously
important.
The anger that seethed through him lightened for a moment as he thanked
God that Nalte happened to be an exceptionally honorable man. Nalte had
known when he first bargained with yon Heusen that the man who intended
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