Hunter stared into the thick coffee. "That it was," he said more to himself than to Jon. He looked up, his eyes unfocused. "But it's time to move on. Time to see to Blue-Green Eyes. I've tired of the chase. I'm ready for the kill."
Jon lifted his booted foot, resting it on the tabletop. "Heard some rather interesting gossip last night. No need to go on to Fort Maurice."
"No?"
"Overheard two sentries talking when I went out to relieve myself. Interested?"
"Yes."
"Seems the army's lost control of one of its men. He no longer reports to his superiors. No longer follows orders. He's apparently decided the army isn't profitable enough so he's gone into his own business."
Hunter lifted a dark eyebrow. "And what business might that be?"
"The buying and trading of women."
Hunter swore softly. He looked away. "Who is he?"
"Someone important, or his family is at least. Important enough that no one's yet been sent to stop him."
"His name, Jon," Hunter said softly. "What is the man's name?"
"John Cain. Captain John Cain."
"Where is he?"
"That's part of the army's problem. He keeps moving from one fort to the next. They can't catch up with him. Apparently he's got quite a reputation with the Indians. They despise him. I think our government keeps hoping some savage will just scalp him and everyone will save face." He crammed the rest of his biscuit into his mouth. "So far luck hasn't run with the army. The captain has been quite busy. It seems that the Iroquois desire for women is so great, Mr. Cain has been selling white women as well."
"Alex . . ." Hunter murmured under his breath. That was what he wanted her for. That was why he'd bought her from Two Crows—to sell to the Iroquois . . .
Jon picked up the biscuit Hunter had left untouched. "That would be my guess." He took a bite. "And get this. I asked around a little this morning. The son of a bitch has one blue eye and one green one."
Hunter pushed back on the bench. "You mean to tell me the bastard who murdered Laughing Rain is the same man Two Crows warned us about? The same man Two Crows supposedly sold Alexandra to?"
Jon shrugged. "It's a hell of a coincidence, but the pieces fit. How many English captains can there be out there capturing and selling women?"
Hunter glanced at Jon. His head was suddenly clear, his thoughts in order. He'd not lose another wife to that butcher—not Alex. Not his hell and fire Alex. "Where is he, Jon?"
"I told you, the army's not sure. But you're going to love this. The last sighting was two days ago, just west of the Chesapeake. Guess he broke camp, or Two Crows lied."
"Back into Shawnee country."
"Looking for Alexandra would be my guess."
Hunter rose. "He might be looking for Alex, but what he's going to find is me." He started for the inner door, his stride long and determined. Suddenly he wanted to hold Alexandra in his arms again, to feel her heart beat against his chest. He had to assure himself she was safe. "Get the mule saddled and say your farewell to the twins, Jon. We head south in half an hour's time."
Hunter closed the door softly behind him.
Chapter Fifteen
Self-consciously Alexandra pulled the coverlet to her bare breasts as Hunter walked into the bedchamber they had shared last night. Last night had been magic, a night she would remember the rest of her days, but by the light of the sun pouring in the two tiny, crude windows near the ceiling, she wondered how it would be between her and Hunter. The copper band around her finger caught a ray of sunlight and glimmered. She looked up at Hunter, trying not to appear nervous.
"Sorry to wake you, sweeting."
"No, it's all right. I was already awake." She smiled hesitantly. "I know I should have come down to break the fast with you, but I was lying here being lazy."
He sat down on the edge of the bed and caught a corner of the bedsheet. He tugged on it and she let the material slip through her fingers. He kissed the swell of her breast and then looked up at her. "I want you to stay here for a few days."
She drew her bare legs up beneath her and sat up on her knees. "Without you?" She lifted the sheet to cover her nakedness. She couldn't think reasonably with him looking at her like this, touching her . . . "I won't do it."
"Alexandra—"
"I'll not discuss it. I've come this far with you. I'll not be left behind now. Not in a fort full of soldiers. You go north, I go north."
He looked away. "It's not north I travel."
Her brow creased. "What do you mean? I don't understand. You're not going after Laughing Rain's killer?"
Hunter rose off the bed. He began to pace the floorboards of the tiny room. "Oh, I'm going after him. Now he even has a name. Captain John Cain."
"You've gotten information on where he is?" She watched him pace. Four long strides across the room, four back.
"Vague information. It seems . . ."
When he didn't complete his sentence she got out of the bed, dragging the sheet behind her. "What? It seems what?" She laid her hand on his arm, forcing him to stop and look at her. "Tell me."
"It seems Two Crows may have been telling the truth. The captain may be looking for you." He paused. "And I think he may be the man who killed Laughing Rain."
"He's Blue-Green Eyes?"
"Aye."
For a moment both were silent. Fingers of chilling fear crept up Alexandra's spine. For the briefest moment she wondered if perhaps it would be better for her to stay here. But Hunter was her husband now. She belonged with him, no matter what. If they were to have even a fighting chance at making this mismatched marriage work, they had to remain together. She had to be with him when he dealt with his first wife's killer. It was the only way to put Laughing Rain to rest in Hunter's mind and in Alexandra's. That was one thing she was certain of.
She slid her hand up and down his arm in a soothing caress. He had already dressed in buckskins and knee-high moccasins. His hair was pulled back in a neat queue and tied with a band of leather. A single eagle's feather dangled from the knot of fiery hair. "1 can't stay here, Hunter."
"Why not? Joshua will see to it you're not harmed. The men wouldn't dare touch you. Not when you're my wife. You could rest a few days. Once Cain is dead, I could come back to get you. We could go to Annapolis together." He tried to make light of the conversation with a half smile. "You can introduce me to your family."
She shook her head. His face was so wrought with underlying fear, fear for her, that a part of her wanted to concede just to spare him the pain. But she knew she couldn't. If Hunter was going to walk into the face of danger for her, for Laughing Rain, then Alexandra knew she had to be at his side.
Her mind suddenly made up, she dropped the sheet and walked nude across the room. She picked up her leather tunic and leggings left on a chair by Martha and began to dress. "I can be ready in five minutes. Is Jon packing the mule?"
Hunter spun around and snatched the sheet up off the sand-washed floor. "I said you weren't going." .
He hadn't exactly shouted at her, but he had come very close. She spoke softly, but her words were steely. "And I say I am."
He threw the sheet onto the bed. "You're my wife and you'll do as I bid!"
She stepped into her legging and began to lace the leather ties with sharp, jerky movements. "The hell I am! You didn't hear me repeat any vows last night, did you? We may be wed, but I never agreed to obey you. You wanted me as your wife. You've got me, Hunter. But you get me as I am. I'll never be controlled by another man, not ever again, not by my father, not by scum like Two Crows, not even by you." She jerked hard on a leather tie, lowering her head to secure the knot. She gave him a moment to let her words sink in. When she spoke again, it was matter-of-factly. "I'll meet you out in the yard. Don't forget to pay the minister."
"I could lock you in this room," Hunter threatened.
"Perhaps. But if you have an ounce of sense, you won't." Her right leg propped on a chair, she looked up, the
leather ties of her leggings still laced through her fingers.
Both were eyeing each other now, assessing the other's words, the other's motives.
"I just want you to be safe," he said finally. "Don't you understand that?"
When she made no reply, he went on. "I lost Laughing Rain to him." He touched his chest. "It's my fault she's dead. I didn't protect her from that animal. I didn't—"
"I understand what you're saying. Maybe I can even understand how you must feel. But you should understand that if this Captain Cain really is looking for me, I'm probably safer with you than anyone else." She lowered her gaze to her leggings again. "After all, at this point, you've got more interest in my life than anyone else, haven't you?"
Hunter exhaled angrily. She was right. Damned if she wasn't right! Slowly he walked to the door. "Five minutes, Wife." He held up five fingers as he walked out the door. "Five minutes and I'm gone."
The door swung shut behind him and Alexandra was left alone in the room to dress hurriedly.
"Do you get the idea our friend here is leading us on a wild-goose chase?" Jon questioned Alexandra as he lifted a pine bough, letting her duck under it.
As she led the mule through the thick brush she looked up at Hunter, who walked a dozen yards ahead of them, his head bent in concentration.
She was worried about him. Since they'd left Fort Potter two days ago, and headed toward the Chesapeake, he'd been withdrawn and silent, speaking only when spoken to. He treated Alexandra with the utmost respect and consideration, but he wasn't treating her like his wife. The emotion she had witnessed the night of the wedding was gone. Though the kid-glove treatment was pleasant, she was beginning to think she preferred the rougher side of him. It was that side that she had shared passion with. It was that side she yearned to share passion with again.
"You heard the scout yesterday," Alexandra finally answered Jon. "He said Captain Cain was headed for the fort on the Noniack River. Hunter seems to think we can catch up with him there."
Jon groaned. "I don't know about you, sweetheart, but I'm sick to death of this revenge. These feet of mine have traipsed over half of this continent and for what? Killing this murdering whoreson isn't going to bring Laughing Rain back to life. He's got himself a new wife now." He nodded in Hunter's direction. "He's an important man back in London or will be in a few years time. Why doesn't he just forget the past and go with the future?"
Alexandra yearned to ask Jon who this man she now called husband really was, but she didn't. That was now between her and Hunter. He would have to tell her.
She looked at Jon. "It's not that simple and you damned well know it." Though she was exhausted, she trudged forward, knowing she had to keep up with Hunter's grueling pace or he'd leave her behind. "Sometimes you can't begin a new life until you've ended the old one." She paused. "Besides, if Hunter doesn't stop him, who will? How many women, red and white, will be taken from their homes to be sold? How many women will have died rather than be captured as Laughing Rain was?"
"Laughing Rain." Jon sighed, shaking his head. "I'm curious. Aren't you just a little jealous of this obsession he has with her? You're his wife now. He ought to be concerned with your safety. You're still alive."
Alexandra stopped in her tracks. She placed the palm of her hand firmly on Jon's chest. "Now you just wait one minute! Hunter wanted to leave me behind at Fort Potter where he thought I'd be safe. I refused." She whipped around and started forward again, keeping her gaze on Hunter's broad back. "I come by my own choice. You remember that. I'm responsible for any danger I might put myself in."
"God's bowels! You needn't get so riled with me!" Jon stepped over a fallen tree, quickening his pace to keep up with her and the mule. "You sound like him now."
Alexandra turned back to reply, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hunter stop in the center of the game path. She immediately dropped into a crouch. Once she would have spoken, questioned him, but now she just waited in silence.
For a minute or two all three of them held perfectly still, listening to the sounds of the forest. A V-formation of geese flew overhead, the haunting cries of their migration song filling the air.
After a moment Hunter walked back to Alexandra. "You and Jon stay put. Jon, load your musket. Anyone who comes near her, shoot first, question later."
"Where you going?" she whispered, touching the fringe of his winter tunic. Her breath made frosty clouds in the air. God, she wanted to touch him so badly. She wanted him to want to touch her.
"We're very near the fork in the Noniack River where the fort lies. Maybe only a mile, maybe two. I'm going to catch the river and walk upstream. I'll come back for you as soon as I know it's safe. This fort is notorious for being one the soldiers just can't hold. It's right on the north-south road the Mohawks take. They raid it at least twice a year. Two years back they held it for an entire winter." He looked at her. "Every time they take control, they kill every man, woman, child, and mangy dog inside the walls."
She nodded. "We'll wait here. Give me a musket."
He cut his eyes at her. "You know how to use it?"
"Load it for me. I know how to pull a trigger. I'll just wait till someone is close enough for me to be certain I can't miss."
Hunter hesitated for only a moment and then reached into a pack on the mule. He brought an oak-butted wheel lock with an engraved barrel. He loaded it with a ball and powder and pushed it into her hands. "It's like you said. Just pull the trigger."
She offered him her brightest smile and then lifted up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips. "Take care," she murmured. His gaze locked with hers. She missed seeing the earring in his ear, but she liked the weight of it around her finger. "Promise me," she whispered.
"Promise," he answered.
For two hours Jon and Alexandra waited on the game path for Hunter's return. They huddled together for warmth beneath a bare sumac tree, resting and talking.
Jon told her she'd made a mistake in marrying Hunter. He told her it would never work. He told her she should have taken him up on his offer. He could have had her in London by now. She told him to shut up or she'd use the musket on him.
Just as the sun began to set Alexandra heard the cry of a bobwhite, Hunter's signal that he was approaching. She rose and was waiting for him when he came around the bend in the path.
"Is he there? Have you found him?"
"He's not there, but he's been there in the last day."
"They expecting him back?" Jon slid his musket into the mule's pack and reached for the flask of whiskey he'd purchased at Fort Potter.
"No. I don't think so. They sent him away."
"Sent him away? I don't understand." Alexandra drew her cloak closer. "Why didn't they take him into custody? Why didn't they arrest him? It's not right that our government should allow a man to continue—"
"Alexandra," Hunter said gently. "What's right is not what's always done. There's apparently been no order to arrest Cain as of yet."
"But everyone must know what he's doing! How many women must die before he's stopped."
"Apparently others do know what he's doing. That's why the commanding officer at this fort sent him on, but he had no jurisdiction to arrest him."
"And why not?"
"He's someone important. That's all I know. I didn't ask more. I didn't want to appear suspicious. I want no one to suspect what I'm about. This has got to be handled delicately. I want to be certain I find the right man. Laughing Rain's killer will die, but I'll make no mistakes. I'll kill no innocent man. There's already been too much bloodshed in the country." He grabbed the mule's lead line.
"So we go to the fort?" Alexandra asked.
"We go. We'll spend the night so as not to look suspicious. I'll find out just where the bastard's gone and then Jon and I'll see the deed to the end."
Alexandra fell in beside her husband as he started toward the Noniack River. The sun was beginning to set and a biting wind was beginning to blow. Winter was
descending quickly on the Tidewater. The thought of a warm fire and a soft bed to share with Hunter was invigorating. They'd not made love since their wedding night and she was anxious to feel his touch again.
They arrived at the fort—a structure which looked much like Fort Potter—just as the last red glow of the setting sun disappeared below the line of treetops on the horizon. The only difference between Fort Potter and this one was that this fort on the Noniack River was smaller and the spiked log walls were higher. Everywhere Alexandra looked she spotted signs of previous Indian attacks. One wall was scarred with embedded musket balls, another had been partially burned and then rebuilt. On one of the corner palisades a single feathered arrow protruded from the bark roof, jutting into the air as if it were a symbol of survival.
Alexandra pushed her hand into Hunter's. He squeezed it. "It's almost over," he told her as they walked through the massive log gate and it swung closed behind them. "A few more days and it will be our turn, Alex. I swear it."
The three were greeted by a low-ranking officer who was the acting commander in his captain's absence. The dark-haired man, Lieutenant Winslow, was pleasant, but not chatty. Hunter asked him a few questions about the fort and the hostiles. The soldier answered, but only halfheartedly. He seemed more concerned with getting back to Annapolis by Christmastide than with protecting the wilderness fort and the few civilians living within the fort walls or in the area.
Alexandra was escorted to the only private room in the fort. Hunter gave her a quick peck on the cheek and promised to return later. He followed one of the red-coated enlisted men to the bunkhouse where Jon would sleep. Hunter told her he would play a few hands of cards and see what information he could glean from the men's conversation. He warned to keep the door locked and not let anyone see her. There was always the possibility that Captain Cain could have left some of his own men behind.
Hunter had been gone barely half an hour when Alexandra heard a scratch at the door. "Yes?" she called, rising off the hard plank bunk. "Who is it?"
"Food," came a graveled accented voice. "For the Missy Lady."
His Wild Heart Page 16