To Tame a Renegade (34 page)

“Thanks for nothing,” Chad muttered as he took his leave. Hospitality wasn’t what he wanted. Nor could he afford to waste precious time warming himself over a campfire while Sarah was wandering around in a raging blizzard and Abner was missing. He had a gut feeling that Sarah was close. This time he was going to follow his gut.

Two days later, Chad stumbled into Cunning Wolf’s camp. Dusk had already turned the sky to murky gray as he rode boldly into the cluster of tents, displaying no fear. He was quickly surrounded, pulled from the saddle, and brought before the chief.

Roughly, Chad was pushed down beside the small fire in the center of the chief’s tipi. The heat felt good and Chad held his hands out to the blaze. When the warmth finally began to thaw his bones, he took note of his surroundings. The chief sat across from him, smoking and studying Chad through hooded eyes. A woman sat beside him, staring openly at Chad. It took a moment for Chad to realize that he’d seen the woman before.

Spotted Deer. He spoke her name aloud and she bowed her head in acknowledgement.

“I know you, white eyes, but not your name.”

“My name is Chad Delaney.”

“Why are you here, Chad De-laney?”

“I’m looking for my woman. Her name is Sarah Temple. Have you seen her?”

Spotted Deer continued to stare at Chad. Chad could almost see the wheels turning in her brain. Then she turned to her father, speaking rapidly in the Shoshone tongue. After what seemed like an eternity, Spotted Deer smiled and nodded in acknowledgement of her father’s wisdom.

“Your woman is with us, De-laney.”

Chad leaped to his feet “Sarah is here? Thank God. Is she all right?”

“Sarah and Abner are our hostages. Father intends to trade them for cows and warm blankets.”

Chad reeled in confusion. “Abner is here, too? I don’t understand. Where are Jackson and Sanchez?”

The smile Spotted Deer gave Chad was not a pretty one. “They are my prisoners. They await public torture and death before the entire camp. Fred-die will suffer for his insult to me.”

“I will take my woman and her son and leave,” Chad said, not waiting for permission.

He was stopped in his tracks by Spotted Deer’s reply. “They cannot leave. Our people are starving. The army will give us cows for their return.”

“The army is camped not far from here. I left them not two days ago. When they find you, you’ll be driven back to the reservation. It will go easier on you if you release Sarah and her son to me now.”

Spotted Deer turned to confer with Cunning Wolf. “Cunning Wolf does not think the army will find us.”

“I found you,” Chad reminded her.

“We let you find us. Our warriors saw you coming. They let you pass because you were alone. Had you been the army, you would not have found us so easily.”

Chad realized he was getting nowhere with Cunning Wolf and his daughter and racked his brain for a solution. Suddenly the answer came to him. He was amazed at how simple it was.

“There are many cows on my ranch. I will give you cows in exchange for your hostages. Release Sarah and Abner and I will bring the cows to you myself.”

Chapter 17

“Y
ou will give us cows?” Spotted Deer asked, skeptical of Chad’s offer.

“In exchange for your hostages,” Chad bargained.

“How do we know you do not speak with a forked tongue? Promises come easy, keeping them is more difficult. White eyes have broken countless treaties with the people. They forced us from our lands, promised us food and blankets, and gave us nothing.”

“I am not the government,” Chad said. “My word is my honor. I will bring the cows to you personally.”

“I will confer with Cunning Wolf. He will decide.”

Spotted Deer spoke with Cunning Wolf at length while Chad chafed impatiently, unable to contain his anxiety. He didn’t see how Cunning Wolf could refuse his generosity but there was no knowing the savage mind. Finally Spotted Deer was ready to announce her father’s decision.

“Cunning Wolf accepts your offer.”

Chad felt like leaping for joy, but forced himself to harness his exuberance. He had a feeling there were conditions, so he composed himself and waited for Spotted Deer to continue.

“The hostages will be released when you return with the cows and blankets, but Fred-die and Sanchez are ours to keep. Fred-die is a wicked man and must be punished.”

Chad did some swift calculations in his head and didn’t like the answer. “It will be at least a fortnight before I can get back here with the cows and blankets. The distance isn’t great, but winter is a bad time to drive cattle anywhere. What you’re asking is impossible. I can’t leave Sarah and Abner here. You have to let them leave with me. Isn’t my word good enough for you?”

“Promises have been made and broken before,” Spotted Deer said. “Your woman will be safe with us until you return. But if you break your word…” Her sentence fell off, leaving an ominous threat hanging in the air.

“Tell your father I will hold him personally responsible for Sarah and Abner’s well-being. If they are harmed, I will hunt him down like a dog. I could bring the army if I was of a mind to. They are camped not far from here.”

Spotted Deer translated swiftly. Cunning Wolf’s reply did nothing to relieve Chad’s mind. “We are desperate people. We have nothing to lose by killing the woman and boy. Without food, our people will starve before spring. Bringing the army here will gain you nothing except the deaths of your loved ones.”

Frustration sat heavily upon Chad. These Indians were desperate for food and blankets. Had they enough to eat they would never have left the reservation. They saw Sarah and Abner as a means to an end, a way to obtain relief. He couldn’t blame Cunning Wolf for wanting to save his people.

“You will have everything you requested,” Chad said. “First, I wish to see my woman and Abner. I won’t leave until I know they are well.”

Spotted Deer conferred briefly with her father. The conversation was quite heated before an agreement of sorts was reached.

“I will take you to your woman,” she told Chad. “The hour grows late. Tonight you will share her meal and her mat. You will be escorted from our camp at first light. We will look for you to return with the cows and blankets at the end of a fortnight. If you bring the army, you will see your loved ones in the spirit world. Come, I will take you to Sarah.”

Spotted Deer couldn’t have made it any clearer. If the army showed up before the cows, Sarah’s life wouldn’t be worth a plug nickel. And yet, he couldn’t help feeling compassion for these downtrodden people. Starvation led people to act rashly and without conscience. He knew he could get the cows back here in the allotted fourteen days, but he wasn’t so sure the army wouldn’t find Cunning Wolf first. He had to make sure that wouldn’t happen.

Huddled before the meager fire inside the tipi, Sarah felt miserable. Little of what she’d eaten had stayed with her since that first morning she had awakened and rushed outside to empty her stomach. She had her suspicions about what was wrong but she was still in a state of denial. She couldn’t be pregnant. Not now. She wasn’t even sure she and Chad had a future together.

Earlier that morning Spotted Deer had informed her that Abner had accompanied an ancient Indian brave into the forest to check traps, and Sarah had felt too wretched to protest. Abner was a big hit among the tribe members. He was spoiled outrageously, and it worried Sarah. What if the Indians wanted to keep him? Neither she nor Abner had been mistreated in any way, but she didn’t fool herself into thinking their good will would continue if the army refused to ransom her.

When the tent flap was thrust open Sarah didn’t bother to look up. Had it been Abner she would have heard his exuberant cries of greeting. And there was no other person she cared to acknowledge in this place. The first signal that her visitor wasn’t an Indian was the scrape of boots upon the ground. Indians didn’t wear boots. Slowly she raised her eyes, gliding past buckskin-clad legs and sheepskin jacket, over a broad chest and impressive shoulders, to vivid hazel eyes set in the ruggedly handsome face she knew better than her own.

She stared at him, closed her eyes, then opened them quickly. When he didn’t go away, she rose slowly to her feet and stepped into his arms. A sob was wrenched from her throat as his arms closed around her.

Chad hugged Sarah tightly, feeling as if he held the whole world in his arms. The moisture that gathered in his eyes was so foreign to him that he blinked in dismay. Chad couldn’t recall when he’d last shed tears. Perhaps when his mother had left, but he wasn’t sure it had happened even then. He felt Sarah brush away the moisture with the tips of her fingers and he no longer cared that it wasn’t considered manly to cry.

“How did you find me?” Sarah asked, stunned at the sight of a grown man shedding tears.

“Pure luck,” Chad replied, swallowing past the lump in his throat. “I ran into Major Dalton from the fort. He told me you’d been there asking for help. I couldn’t believe it. How did Jackson get by Ryan? Something must have happened. What?

Sarah trembled against him.

Noting the fragile condition of her composure, Chad swept her up into his arms, lowered himself to the pallet, and cradled her in his lap.

“That’s better,” he said, kissing her forehead. “Now you can tell me how Jackson got to Abner.”

“Ryan stuck close to the ranch like he promised,” she explained. “He didn’t leave until he learned that some calves were trapped in a gully. I could tell Ryan was itching to help the men. The only reason he declined was because of his promise to you. Both Cookie and I urged him to go. Everyone assumed Jackson had already left the area.”

“Jackson was just waiting for the right time,” Chad muttered. “He found it when Ryan left. Damn Ryan! I told him not to leave for any reason.”

“Don’t blame Ryan. We all became too complacent.”

Chad shrugged away her excuse with a wave of his hand. “I’ll never forgive Ryan for allowing you to go off on your own.”

“There was an accident. Ryan broke a leg. He wanted to send for Pierce but I couldn’t wait. I had to catch up with Jackson and Abner before it was too late. I wouldn’t have stopped at the fort if Ryan hadn’t insisted.”

“What about the hands? Ryan could have spared someone to accompany you.”

“He did. Brock Murray went with me, but I sent him back to the ranch when I reached the fort. No one expected Major Dalton to refuse my request for help. You don’t understand. I had no recourse but to continue on alone. A few days ago I became lost in a blizzard and wandered close to Cunning Wolf’s camp. I was surrounded and brought here.”

“Was Abner here when you arrived?”

“Yes. Jackson blundered into the camp a few days before I did. He and Sanchez are prisoners, but Abner fared much better. Indians love children, so he’s been treated very well. But he’s anxious to go home.”

Chad tightened his hold on her. “I feared I’d lost you after I spoke with Major Dalton. I envisioned you lying in a snowdrift, injured or dead. I was in agony when I learned there were renegade Indians in the area. Any number of things could have happened. I don’t think I could have borne it if you or Abner had come to harm.”

Sarah stared at him, drawn into the mesmerizing intensity of his glittering gaze. His eyes were still moist with tears and tenderness welled up inside her. This incredible man had ridden blindly through heinous weather searching for her. How could she not love him? She raised her chin for his kiss.

Chad cupped the smooth curve of her cheek, and she lifted her face as he licked the soft fullness of her lips. She parted them, welcoming the bold thrust of his tongue as he tasted her fully.

She moaned with pleasure. Her arms circled his neck, pressing closer to the heat of his body. This was the man she loved. The only man she would ever love. And whether he said the words or not, she knew he loved her too.

“I love you, Sarah,” he whispered against her lips.

Sarah’s eyes grew misty and her heart nearly burst with happiness. “I think I’ve always loved you, Chad. You’re the kindest, the most compassionate man I have ever known.”

“Only for you, love, only for you.”

She wanted Chad to kiss her again, and they probably wouldn’t have stopped with mere kisses had Abner and Spotted Deer not entered the tipi just then.