Moonsong

As one day blended into another, time lost all meaning for Skylar. On the reservation she had carefully kept track of the days, ticking them off one by one on a mental calendar, counting down to the day she would return to Rancho Verde. Now she had no goal other than surviving and learning how to be a good Apache wife. She had no future, and the past was a memory that seemed to slip farther away every day. All that was left to her was the 224

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present, and each day she reveled in the simple joys that Sun Hawk brought into her life.

She knew their mountain idyll couldn’t last, of course. There were hard times ahead. Winter was coming, and they couldn’t live in the high mountains once the snows came. Before long they would be forced to turn themselves in or join Geronimo in the Sierra Madre. Neither choice boded well for their future, but Skylar resolutely kept those thoughts at bay. She gathered and stored every precious moment with Sun Hawk because she knew that once the happy, tranquil times were gone, they might never come again.

That was why she had been so sorry to leave the Nagona. When Sun Hawk had spotted the White Mountain brave hunting in the mountains, they had broken camp quickly and disappeared without a trace. But where before they had gone north each time they moved, this time Sun Hawk had led her south. The brave had tried to follow them, but Skylar and her husband had been careful to leave no trail; thanks to Sun Hawk’s patient teaching, that was one thing at which she had come to excel.

They had traveled for two days and made camp again, but Skylar knew they wouldn’t be here long. There was no guarantee that the brave who had spotted them would keep the information to himself, and staying in one place made the risk of discovery too great.

Each evening, no matter where they were, Sun Hawk carefully scouted the area before they settled in for the night. He was gone longer than usual that evening, and when he finally returned to camp, Skylar studied him with concern. His moods were difficult to read at times, and she was never quite sure what he was thinking.

“Is there trouble, beloved?” she asked as he sat next to her. “Should I put out the fire?” Skylar hoped he wouldn’t say yes. It was the first they’d had since leaving the Nagona, and the nights were getting much, much colder.

But Sun Hawk shook his head. “No, there is no one about. We will be safe here tonight.”

“Then why do you look so serious?”

Sun Hawk glanced at her, then stared into the fire, knowing she wasn’t going to approve of the decision he had made. “I was thinking of tomorrow.”

“Will we move on again?”

“No.”

Skylar sighed patiently and cupped his jaw in her hand, forcing him to look at her. “Then what is wrong? If you do not share your thoughts with me, I will be frightened.”

He gathered her into his arms, and Skylar nestled her head on his chest.

“There is a ranch far to the west. Tomorrow I will go there, and when it is dark, I will take two of their horses. When I return, we will journey south again.”

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Skylar didn’t have to be told the meaning of his decision. “We will join Geronimo,” she said quietly.

He was silent for a long time, and when he finally spoke, his voice was laced with regret. “We have no other choice. I am sorry.”

Skylar raised her head and looked into his eyes. “When you took me as your wife, you promised that you would do whatever it took to keep me safe.

If you think this is best, I will go where you go.”

Warmed by her words, Sun Hawk gazed into her eyes and gathered into his heart the love he saw there. There was no other woman like this one. She accepted the hardships of their life with gentle smiles. When he failed her, she never accused. She found joy in the simplest of things and brought him a kind of happiness he had never known. If it had been his to give, he would gladly have made a present of the world and placed it in her hands.

That could never be, though. The world that had once belonged to all the Apache had dwindled to a few pitiful pieces of land, and even these were places he could not take his bride. He knew what lay ahead for them, and it frightened him.

But not as much as the thought of losing Skylar. If the only way to keep her was to join Geronimo on the warpath, he would do what he had to do and pray that his beloved would forgive him for it.

Rayna stood in the center of the deserted campsite, taking in the forlorn little wickiup and the cold circle of ashes in front of it. Part of her felt lost and totally alone as she imagined Skylar living in such isolation, but another part of her felt closer to her sister than she had in months. There was no proof that the Apaches who had made this camp were really Skylar and Sun Hawk, but Rayna was as positive of it as Case had been last night after Black Rope’s visit.

They had left Eagle Creek before dawn that morning and had pushed their horses hard to reach the Nagona Valley in one day. When they arrived nearly an hour ago, Case had wasted little time studying the immediate area. Instead, he left Meade and Rayna to set up camp while he used what was left of the daylight to look for the trail Black Rope had lost.

“Are you all right, Rayna?” Meade asked as he dropped another load of firewood into the pile he’d been collecting.

His return startled her out of her reverie, and she turned to him. He was giving her that strange, tender look again and she still didn’t know what to make of it. It almost seemed to her that he had something on his mind that he couldn’t quite bring himself to say. The change from his usual combative stance to this new one unsettled her because she didn’t know what to expect next. Of course, there was really nothing unusual about that.

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“I’m fine,” she told him. “I finished grooming and watering the horses, and I was just . . .” Her voice trailed off as she looked at the wickiup again.

“Trying to visualize Skylar in this place?”

She nodded. “Silly, isn’t it?”

“Not at all. I’ve been doing much the same thing myself. I saw some small footprints on that hillside, and could almost see her walking ahead of me. I can only imagine how much stronger those images must be for you.”

He crouched by the cold remains of Sun Hawk’s campfire and began constructing a new one.

“They must have stayed here for quite a while,” Rayna commented as she bent down to help him.

“A week or more, I’d guess,” he replied.

A small silence fell between them before she asked, “Did you notice there’s only one wickiup?”

Meade stopped and looked at her. “Yes.”

“And there’s no sign that either of them slept on the ground outside it. Do you think . . .” She couldn’t bring herself to ask the question that had been plaguing her since she’d first learned of Skylar’s abduction.

But Meade knew what she was thinking. “Rayna, contrary to what is printed in the eastern press, rape is almost unheard of among the Apache. If they were . . . lying together, it wasn’t because Sun Hawk forced her.”

Rayna appreciated his reassurance. “I hope you’re right.”

“According to Case, your friend Gatana believes that Skylar is in love with Sun Hawk,” he reminded her.

“I know,” she said with a confused shake of her head. “But I find that so hard to believe. Sun Hawk is obviously a very courageous and skillful warrior, but he’s—” She realized how bigoted her thoughts were and stopped.

“But he’s an Apache?” Meade supplied. When she nodded, he told her,

“That’s very much the way I felt when Libby fell in love with Case.”

“Yes, but Case had lived most of his life with Jedidiah. You told me yourself that he was educated and almost courtly in his manner. But Sun Hawk, for all the fine qualities he might possess, has never known any way of life but that of the Apache.”

Meade could understand her confusion, but he had also recently learned that love wasn’t always logical. “That doesn’t mean she couldn’t fall in love with him, Rayna. Apparently love is something we mere mortals have no control over.”

We? Was Meade including himself in the category of people who had fallen in love? Rayna wanted desperately to ask him that question, but she couldn’t. And he didn’t seem inclined to say more.

Meade went back to laying the fire, and Rayna began unloading supplies from their bags of provisions. She went to the stream to fill the coffee pot 227

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with water, and by the time she returned, the campfire was blazing. She made the coffee, then set the pot on the rock rim of the fire to heat while she began filling a skillet with salt pork.

“I never did thank you for convincing Case that I should come along,” she said quietly. “I appreciate it more than you can know.”

A smile creased the corners of his mouth. “I was just trying to spare my brother-in-law the brunt of your wrath.”

She looked up sharply, but instantly realized he was teasing her. It had been a long time since they had been able to joke about her temperament. “I wouldn’t have damaged him too much,” she assured him. “A few broken bones, one or two cuts and bruises . . .”

Meade chuckled, but the sound died away as he fell under the intoxicating spell of her wistful smile. “This is the way we should always be, Rayna,” he said.

More confused than ever, she tilted her head inquisitively. “What do you mean?”

“Making each other smile. We do that very well.”

“We also make each other impossibly angry,” she reminded him, terrified that something was going to break the fragile thread that was holding this moment together.

“I know. But I’d rather live with the fights than have to survive without the smiles.”

“Meade . . . ?”

A noise somewhere behind Rayna signaled Case’s return, and the thread broke. Meade and Rayna both stood abruptly and peered into the gathering darkness. A moment later Case appeared.

“Did you pick up their trail?” Rayna asked anxiously as she came back to the reality of their situation. She wasn’t here to dally with Meade; she was here to find her sister.

“I found the same trail Black Rope found, heading to the south, but I lost it, just as he did,” Case replied, crouching by the fire. “Sun Hawk is very good.”

“So what now?” Meade asked.

“Tomorrow we will ride down to Littlefield’s.”

Rayna hated the fact that she knew virtually nothing about this part of the country. “Where’s that?”

“It’s the only ranch for thirty miles in any direction.”

“Surely you don’t think Sun Hawk would take Skylar to a ranch house,”

Rayna said in amazement.

“No, but if I were Sun Hawk, I would be thinking that it’s time they stopped traveling on foot. He can get horses for them at Littlefield’s.”

Rayna hadn’t considered that, and she frowned. “If Sun Hawk was responsible for the raids on the ranches to the east of the reservation, why didn’t he steal horses then? Why travel on foot for so long.”

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It was Meade who answered her this time. “Because horses are easier to track, and they sometimes create more trouble than they’re worth.”

“Because they have to be fed and watered?” she questioned.

“Yes, and because a rancher is more likely to pursue a horse thief than someone who just stole a few supplies.”

Case agreed. “Sun Hawk has been very careful until now to do nothing that would call attention to him.”

Libby frowned. “Why would he change that pattern now?”

“Winter is coming,” Case replied. “He has to go south. It’s been more than a month since he and Skylar escaped from Haggarty, and he can be relatively certain that any intensive search for them has stopped. He’ll take horses to make the traveling easier, and so that he won’t have to go to Geronimo empty-handed.”

That wasn’t something Rayna wanted to hear. “Why would he go to Geronimo? Didn’t his father tell you Sun Hawk didn’t like him?”

Case could see how much the news upset her, but he wasn’t about to lie. If everything Libby had told him about Rayna was true, she could bear to hear the truth. “That doesn’t matter, Rayna. Sun Hawk can’t stay in the mountains after the snows come, and there are too many ranches in the valleys.

Geronimo’s stronghold in the Sierra Madre is the last safe place for any Apache off the reservation.”

“Safe?” Rayna said with a gasp. “Between the Mexican government, the citizens’ committees, and Crook, who’s just waiting for permission to pounce, Geronimo’s people don’t have a prayer of surviving. How can you call that safe?”

“It is all a matter of perspective,” Case replied calmly.

“You mean Geronimo is the least of several evils.”

“Yes.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” she challenged.

Case gestured toward the skillet of salt pork that sat beside the fire. “We eat and sleep, and tomorrow we ride hard and pick up their trail at Littlefield’s.”

“You make it sound so simple,” Rayna said, irritated by his calm confidence.

Case picked up the pan and held it over the fire. “It is.”

Despite everything she had been told about Case Longstreet’s incredible prowess as a tracker and about the visions that supposedly guided him, Rayna had serious doubts about his plan to go directly to the Littlefield ranch.

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was no reason to suspect that Sun Hawk knew of the existence of the ranch Case was leading them to.

If Case had considered those possibilities, he had discarded them without discussing them with Meade and Rayna. His belief that Sun Hawk would eventually make his way to Littlefield’s was unshakable, and Rayna had no choice but to trust him.

There was one advantage to his plan if he was right, though. They had started their trip at least three days after Skylar and Sun Hawk had left the Nagona Valley, but the fugitives had been on foot and had little choice but to keep to the mountains or risk discovery. Case’s party had no such liabilities.

They could take easier trails and cover the same distance in one-third the time it would take Sun Hawk and Skylar.

Despite her skepticism, Rayna allowed herself to hope that Case was right, and by the time they reached the ranch, she had concocted a glorious fantasy about having arrived ahead of Sun Hawk. They would lay a simple trap to ensnare him, and once he was caught, he would lead them to Skylar, who was waiting for him a short but safe distance from the ranch.

It was a delightful fabrication, but nothing more. When they rode up to the ranch house, Hugh Littlefield was on the porch, shotgun in hand, to greet them. He didn’t lower his guard until he recognized Case, and even then he was in no mood to extend much in the way of hospitality. He had been robbed, it seemed. A huge band of marauding Apaches had raided his place the night before and taken all his horses.

His story might have been more credible had Rayna not known that one brave alone had raided the ranch and had she not seen the four horses in the corral beside the house. When she glanced curiously at the calm cow ponies, Littlefield recanted slightly, admitting that actually only three horses had been stolen. The others had just been run off, but he’d had a “devil of a time rounding them up!” he told them self-righteously.

As they rode away from the ranch, Case seemed neither surprised nor dis-mayed by the news. It was, in fact, what he had expected and hoped for. Now he had a fresh trail to follow and they were less than a day behind Skylar and Sun Hawk. An hour after they had left Littlefield, Case picked up Sun Hawk’s trail despite the effort the brave had made to conceal it. At dusk he led them to the remains of a recently vacated camp, and all Rayna’s doubts about Case’s prowess as a tracker evaporated like a drop of water on the desert.

That night, for the first time in months, she slept soundly because she knew she was about to be reunited with her sister.

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20

At first it was instinct alone that told Sun Hawk they were being followed. When the feeling refused to leave him, he stopped early and found a sheltered area in which to hide Skylar. Then he climbed to a bluff to look over the area they had just traversed, and waited. It had been two days since he took the horses, and he and Skylar made good time through the mountains despite the precautions he took to mask their trail. But his efforts hadn’t been good enough.

In the distance, too far away to be seen clearly, he finally spotted the movement of three, perhaps four, riders. They were less than half a day behind. There was a chance, of course, that they were merely travelers or a small hunting party of Apaches from the reservation to the west, but Sun Hawk knew better than to discount the threat they posed.

When he returned to Skylar, she knew at once that something was wrong.

“What did you see, husband?”

“You can make camp here, but we cannot have a fire tonight,” he told her.

“I am sorry.”

Skylar fought down a stab of fear. “Did someone follow us from the ranch where you got the horses?”

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“It is possible, or they could be a hunting party. I cannot swear that they are following us, but I must find out.”

“How many are there?”

“Three, four, maybe. They are still too far away for me to be sure. I must go back to look at them.”

He had left her before, and Skylar had always known he would return as surely as the sun would rise. Now, though, something had changed. She had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she couldn’t make it go away. “Be cautious,” she begged him, though she knew it was an unnecessary request.

“I will return when I can, beloved.” He looked at her for only a moment longer, touching her face in his mind, gathering her close to his heart, and then he left.

By the time night fell and Skylar finally drifted into a restless sleep, he still had not returned. It was not the first night he had been gone this long, but it was the first time since Sun Hawk had rescued her from the soldiers that Skylar had been truly frightened.

From a hilltop overlooking the narrow valley where the party was making camp, Sun Hawk studied the odd group below him. There were three of them, and he knew for certain now that they were following the scant trail he and Skylar had left earlier. He had seen them looking for sign, and despite the cold, they made no attempt to light a fire when they stopped. That could only mean they did not wish to betray their presence.

But Sun Hawk could not figure out who they were or why they would be searching for him and Skylar. Before he took the horses, he had studied the ranch and the people there carefully, and had seen only an aging rancher and his wife. None of the three men below him had been on the ranch he was certain, and their behavior was most strange.

One of the tall ones wore the hat and the heavy cape of a soldier, yet he did not seem to be in charge. The second man, smaller than the others, was bundled in a heavy cloth coat and wore a light-colored hat. Clearly he was not a soldier.

The third man was the one who troubled and puzzled Sun Hawk the most, for he was obviously an Apache. Yet for some reason he was the leader of the group. The others looked to him often, and appeared to do things as he directed them to be done.

Two white men—one of them a soldier—accepting orders from an Apache?

Sun Hawk could not fathom it, but he had to believe what his eyes told him.

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the Apache made him change his mind. He was a skilled tracker or he would not have been able to follow Sun Hawk’s trail. Until it was proven otherwise, Sun Hawk had to believe that his enemy was skilled in other areas, too.

Knowing that the risk of discovery was too great, he returned to the horse he had left a considerable distance away and began the long ride back to Skylar. She was sleeping fitfully when he arrived, but he did not awaken her.

She would need all her strength for what was ahead of them.

Wrapping himself in blankets, he lay down next to her and forced himself to sleep. A few hours later, long before dawn, he awoke and roused Skylar. He held her in his arms as he told her what he had seen, and then they began what would be the longest day of the many they had spent on the run.

Leading the horses, they covered as much ground as they could before it became light, but at sunrise they mounted up and started traveling fast. Sun Hawk abandoned all attempts to hide their tracks and kept to the easiest routes available. Speed was all that mattered, and they stopped only when it was necessary to rest the horses.

But late that afternoon their three shadows were still there.

“We cannot stop tonight,” Sun Hawk told Skylar at sunset when they stopped to water the horses and let them forage. “The Apache who leads them is too clever, and he knows this land better than I. We will have to walk the horses much of the night, but we can escape them only if we travel while they sleep.”

“Then we will walk tonight,” Skylar said stoically as she knelt by the trickling brook to drink.

Sun Hawk knelt beside her. “Can you do so much? It will be hard, and you are already tired.”

She looked at him and her heart swelled with love as she took his face in her hands. Skylar had no concern for her own fate, but if something happened to this man, she would not want to live. “I love you,” she told him, a strange sense of urgency coloring her voice. “And your love for me has made us both strong. I will walk forever if you ask it of me.”

Sun Hawk gathered her into his arms and held her as tight as he dared. It was not appropriate for a brave to feel fear; it was an emotion that blocked out reason and made a man careless. Fear was to be controlled, mastered, and rel-egated to a place where it could not cause damage.

But when he felt Skylar’s heart beating heavily next to his and he imagined never knowing that joy again, he was afraid. More afraid, in fact, than he had ever been in his life.

“We can make camp just ahead there,” Case told Meade and Rayna as they stopped at a brook Skylar and Sun Hawk had crossed only a few hours earlier.

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He dismounted and studied the ground, finding the places where their horses had grazed and the spot on the bank of the brook where they had knelt to drink. It bothered Case greatly that Sun Hawk was no longer making any attempt to cover his trail.

Rayna reluctantly dismounted and let her horse drink. Though she was exhausted from their hard ride, she hated the thought of stopping. Case was right, though. It would soon be too dark to read the signs, and the little canyon they were in was a likely spot to make camp.

“We’re not gaining on them, are we?” Meade asked as Case returned to the stream.

“Very little, but that isn’t surprising,” he answered. “Sun Hawk knows we’re following him, and he’s forsaken stealth for speed. If we continue like this, it will simply be a matter of whose horses wear out first.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Rayna asked, arching her back and rubbing at the aching muscles.

“We are going to do nothing,” he said cryptically, and Rayna frowned.

“What does that mean?”

Case took a deep breath and prepared for a fight. Over the last few days he had developed a healthy respect for everything about Rayna—including her formidable temper and her iron will. “I want you and Meade to stay here and rest tonight I’m going on ahead.”

Rayna shook her head adamantly. “No. If you go, we all go.”

“I’m sorry, Rayna. I don’t want to wound you with my bluntness, but I will never be able to catch Sun Hawk and Morning Star with you and Meade along.”

Rayna started to protest, but Meade spoke up before she had the chance.

“They won’t stop tonight, will they?”

“I wouldn’t, in Sun Hawk’s place.”

Rayna didn’t have to be told that one of the things that made the Apache so hard to track and catch was their uncanny endurance and their ability to travel day and night. But Skylar wasn’t accustomed to such rigors, and Rayna reminded Case of that, using a little bluntness of her own.

“I know,” he replied patiently, “but we are a threat to them, and Morning Star will do whatever she must to escape. Even if it means traveling all night.”

Rayna wasn’t sure what bothered her more, his calm, dictatorial manner or the fact that he always referred to Skylar as Morning Star. It was so hard to think of him as Skylar’s brother. “Then that’s all the more reason for me to go with you, Case,” she argued. “If Skylar sees me—”

Case was shaking his head. “Rayna, Sun Hawk won’t let us get that close.

Unless we have absolute surprise on our side, he’ll hide Skylar and then turn on us and fight. That’s a corner we don’t want to force him into.”

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She knew he was right, but Rayna couldn’t bear the thought of staying behind. As she stood indecisively, trying to force herself to let go of her instinct to continue the pursuit, Meade moved closer to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, turning her to him.

“Trust him, Rayna,” he said gently. “He’s been right about everything else.”

He wasn’t ordering her to stop fighting; he was merely giving her the reassurance she needed to let go. All the combativeness flowed out of her, leaving only weariness in its place. She nodded and turned to Case. “All right. You go ahead, and we’ll follow your trail tomorrow.”

“Thank you.” Case collected his horse and a few moments later was gone.

Rayna stood quietly, watching him leave, and Meade stood quietly, watching her. “You’re not thinking of doing something foolish, like sneaking off after him tonight, are you?”

Somewhere inside her she found the remnants of a weary smile and gave it to him. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not that impetuous. Unlike Case, I can’t track even with a nearly full moon, and I know nothing about this country. I’d be hopelessly lost in an hour.”

“By God, I think there may be hope for you yet.”

His teasing grin was Rayna’s undoing. If he’d been harsh or abrupt with her, she could have found the strength to fight him, but kindness stripped her of everything—even her defenses against her own fears. She searched his face and finally abandoned every last shred of her pride. “I need you, Meade,” she said softly.

It was the one thing Meade had never expected to hear her say, and it was what he needed to hear most. “I’m here,” he told her, enfolding her in his arms.

She clung to him, and they stood there for a long time, giving strength and taking it, renewing hope and calming fears. It wasn’t a passionate embrace, but when they finally stepped apart and began making camp, they both knew that everything between them had changed.

Case no longer needed to see the trail to follow Sun Hawk and Morning Star. His quarry was taking the path of least resistance out of the mountains, but even that made little difference to Case.

For twenty years the spirit of the eagle had guided his way. It had led him to Gato, the renegade who had murdered his parents, and had given him back the necklace that Gato had taken from his mother. It had warned him of danger and shown him visions that had never failed to come true. It had even given him Libby, the greatest gift of all.

Now the eagle was leading him to Morning Star, and he had never seen the way ahead more clearly than he did that night.

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If Case was right, and Meade had no reason to believe otherwise, it was finally safe to build a fire. They had done without one the last few nights, and despite the fact that they were coming gradually out of the higher elevations of the mountains, the weather was turning beastly cold.

Without Case there, Meade and Rayna fell into the old habits they had formed on the trail from Holbrook to Fort Apache. He gathered wood while she unpacked supplies for supper; and while Meade cooked, she tended the horses.

Sitting on opposite sides of the fire, they ate, talking very little but gathering a strange kind of comfort from the silence. Meade didn’t have to wonder what Rayna was thinking about, and he wished he had more to offer her than the tired refrain he’d recited to her so often.

“He’ll find her, Rayna,” he said confidently.

She looked up from the deep blue flame she’d been staring at in the center of the fire. “I know he will.”

“Then why are you so pensive?”

She shrugged. “Because I’ve let myself believe it was over too many times.

I believed it just before my first meeting with General Whitlock, and again before I saw Crook. I wanted to believe that Case was going to come riding into Eagle Creek with Skylar. When we reached the Littlefield ranch, I just knew it was nearly over.” She shook her head. “I’m afraid to believe again, Meade. And mostly, I’m just plain afraid.”

He held her gaze for a long moment. “Would it help any if I told you how much I love you?”

The words took Rayna’s breath away. She knew she should have been surprised or shocked, maybe even a little distrustful. She felt none of those things because she’d known that he loved her as she’d stood earlier in the comforting circle of his arms.

“When did you figure that out?” she asked quietly.

Meade gave her a gentle, wistful smile. “When did I know it, or when did I admit it to myself?”

“Both.”

“I think I knew it somewhere inside myself the night we sat in the courtyard at Rancho Verde. You came down the stairs in a white dressing gown, and your hair spilled around your shoulders like an angel’s halo. You were so vulnerable that night, but you weren’t at all defeated. And you were too proud to let a stranger see you cry.” He nodded as he recalled the moment. “Yes, I’m quite certain of it. That’s when I fell in love with you. Of course I wouldn’t admit it to myself until a few days ago.”

Rayna remembered that night at Rancho Verde and the way he’d tried to comfort her. “I think I envy you.”

“Why?”

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“Because you can recall the exact moment,” she told him. “I’m not sure when I fell in love with you. It just seems to me that all of a sudden the certainty was there.”

Meade felt his heart constrict with a joy so intense it was almost painful.

“But you do love me?”

Rayna looked into his eyes with the same intensity as she’d gazed into the fire, only this time she wasn’t looking for answers; she was giving her heart.

“More than I ever imagined possible.”

“Do you love me enough to marry me?” He held his breath, waiting for her answer.

She tilted her head to one side. “Loving you won’t change who I am, Meade,” she warned him.

“I hope not. The world would be a dismal place without at least one Rayna Templeton Ashford around to stir things up from time to time.”

“Rayna Templeton Ashford . . .” She murmured the name and a delicious warmth spread through her. With a single word she could soon be Mrs. Meade Ashford. She would marry and raise a family. Neither had been part of Rayna’s vision of her future, but now she couldn’t imagine anything more wonderful.

Unable to bear the distance that separated them, she moved around the fire and slipped into Meade’s arms as though she’d been doing so all her life.

“I’ll marry you if you promise me one thing, Meade,” she said, reaching up to caress his face.

“What?” he murmured, mesmerized by the loving light in her eyes.

“When we wake up in each other’s arms tomorrow morning, promise me you won’t have any regrets this time.”

“No regrets,” he promised as his lips closed over hers.

A series of valleys and ridges marked the beginning and end of the White Mountains, and by dawn Sun Hawk and Skylar had traveled across and over the first ridge. Before they moved into the next valley, Sun Hawk knew he had to be certain he had lost his enemy. He found a safe place for Skylar to hide and rest, then returned to the highest point of the ridge and surveyed the wide open valley, praying he would see nothing but sage and cactus.

What he discovered instead was a lone Apache rider pushing his horse to its limits in an attempt to reach the shelter of the ridge. Sun Hawk’s heart thudded heavily in his chest. There could be no escape this time, for once he and Skylar began to cross the next valley, the tenacious Apache would spot them when he reached the top of the ridge.

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best not to kill their pursuer, but the brave had to be stopped or Sun Hawk would never be able to get his wife to safety.

Knowing his enemy would follow the trail Sun Hawk had left, he worked his way along the ridge and down. He lost sight of the brave, but it didn’t matter. He knew just the place to lay his ambush. He and Skylar had ridden through a ravine that cut the ridge in half, and his enemy would have to trans-verse it, too. He approached it from above, and found a good hiding place with an excellent view of the entrance. Readying his rifle, intending only to kill his enemy’s horse, he waited.

Patience had always been Sun Hawk’s friend, but as the minutes crept by, he began to realize something was wrong. The brave could not have made it through the ravine before Sun Hawk arrived, but he should have arrived soon after. But nothing stirred. Everything was silent. There was not even a hint that anyone was approaching.

“You do not want to kill me, Sun Hawk, or I would already be dead.”

The voice was close, and Sun Hawk sprang into a crouch and whirled. His enemy was on a ledge above him, not close enough to touch, but close enough to kill or be killed. The fact that Sun Hawk was still alive told him a great deal, as did the realization that his enemy had drawn no weapon. He stood boldly in view, waiting to see how Sun Hawk would respond.

Slowly he came to his feet. “And you could have killed me, my enemy, but you did not. Why?”

“Because we are not enemies.”

“Then why do you follow me?”

Moving very slowly, Case crouched at the rim of the ledge and looked questionably at Sun Hawk. The Mescalero brave nodded, and Case jumped down. For an instant he was completely vulnerable, and they both knew it.

The show of bravery impressed Sky Hawk. “How did you know I would not kill you then or when you first spoke?”

“I know many things about you, my friend,” Case replied. “Your father told me you are a wise man who believes in peace. I trusted his faith in you.”

Sun Hawk frowned, not certain whether to believe him or not. “When did you speak with my father?”

“Two days before your people arrived at the Rio Alto reservation. He was very sad because he did not know what had become of you.”

Sun Hawk shook his head. “My father would not have sent you and two white men to find me.”

“No, he did not.”

“Then why do you follow me?”

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was obvious, and it deepened even before Case told him, “The woman who travels with you will not be punished for killing the soldier, Talbot.”

Sun Hawk frowned. “Why should I believe this?”

“Because the Gray Fox himself sent me to tell you this. The soldier who accused her of murder confessed that he lied, and now everyone knows she was only protecting herself. She is free to do whatever she wishes. She has no reason to hide.”

One part of Sun Hawk rejoiced in the news, but another part of him withered and died. If Skylar was truly free, she could go back to her white family, now. “What of the soldier I killed? Will she be punished for that?”

Not will I be punished, but will she be punished. Case knew then that Morning Star had found a wise and brave warrior who loved her above all else. When this nightmare ended, he would gladly rejoice in the love she had found, but for the time being, he was grateful to be able to tell Sun Hawk,

“The soldier you attacked did not die. He is alive, and the Gray Fox knows that you took Skylar from the soldiers because you feared for her life. He cannot turn away from the fact that you wounded one of his warriors, but he has promised your punishment will be small. You can soon be free to return to your own people.”

“Do you have proof that Gray Fox has sworn this?” he asked, afraid to believe it could be true.

Case briefly considered giving him the papers Crook had written so that he could show them to Morning Star, but they might do more damage than good. The pass for Sun Hawk and Skylar had been created for the benefit of any soldiers who might question Case’s authority, and it said only that Case was to take them into custody and deliver them to Crook. Skylar might assume them to be nothing but arrest papers.

“I have nothing but my word with me,” Case finally told him, “but I can bring proof to you.”

“What can you bring?” he asked suspiciously.

“One of the people who traveled with me until last night is the white sister of the woman you know as Skylar.” Case was finding it increasingly difficult to read Sun Hawk’s reactions, but when the young brave’s face turned to stone, Case feared he had made a grave mistake.

“I saw no woman with you when I looked at your camp,” he said accusingly.

Case wasn’t surprised to know that Sun Hawk had been close enough to study them. “She dresses like a man, but she is a woman. She has traveled far and risked much to see her sister.” As have I, Case thought. But this was not the time to try to explain something so complicated. “If you will let them meet, Rayna Templeton will tell Skylar that everything I have said to you is the truth. Rayna would not betray her sister.”

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As Sun Hawk considered his words, Case carefully reached into his pouch and removed the necklace Skylar had made. He held it out to Sun Hawk.

“This belongs to Skylar. The Verdes gave it to me because they knew they could trust me.”

Edging forward cautiously, Sun Hawk took the necklace and examined it.

He had seen Skylar wear it many times on the reservation, but she had left it behind with her Apache parents. If nothing else, this finally proved that his enemy had truly spoken with his father and that the Verdes trusted this man enough to give him something precious that had belonged to Skylar.

Sun Hawk nodded slowly. “I will give it to my wife. I know it has great meaning for her.”

“And will you let her see her sister?”

Sun Hawk’s face was completely unreadable. “Where is she?”

“Perhaps half a day behind us.”

Sun Hawk was silent for a moment before he said, “Bring her to this place at sunset.”

Case nodded. “Very well. We will meet you here.”

They stared at each other warily for a moment; then Sun Hawk turned and began climbing out of the ravine. Case watched him until he disappeared over the top before making his own way down to the floor.

It didn’t occur to him as he went that Sun Hawk had never agreed to bring Skylar back there. He had only told Case to bring her sister.

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21

Every instinct Sun Hawk possessed told him he should use the time he had purchased to spirit Skylar away. The Apache was no longer following them; he had ridden off across the valley, presumably to get Skylar’s sister. Knowing the brave could be laying a trap, Sun Hawk wanted nothing more than to bury the necklace, return to his wife, tell her nothing of what had been said, and ride with her like the wind until they were far away. That course of action was his only hope of keeping Skylar.

Whether it was a trap or not, Sun Hawk had seen the sadness in his wife’s eyes when she thought of her white family. Her heart grieved for them, and if her sister was truly here to take her home, Skylar would go with her.

Though he believed his wife loved him, Sun Hawk could offer her so little, and she had lived among the whites for too long. He had to take her away, or he would lose her.

But of course he couldn’t do it. If there was a chance that Skylar could be freed from a life as a renegade, he had to give her that chance. Anything less would be a selfish betrayal of the love he felt for her.

Knowing it was going to cost him the woman he loved more than his own life, Sun Hawk returned to the place where he had left her.

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She was asleep when he arrived, but he could see the small place where she had paced back and forth before exhaustion had claimed her. He knelt beside her, studying her face, memorizing every perfect line. He thought of every word they had exchanged, every touch they had shared. He remembered the way she had come to him as his wife, and all the nights since when she had slept with her head on his shoulder and his cheek pressed against her brow.

Their life together had been too short, and now their future was com-pressed into the span of a single day. By nightfall his life would be over, but until then she was still his.

After removing his clothing, he lifted the blankets that covered her and lay down beside her. As he pulled her into his arms, Skylar slowly came awake. Her mind felt drugged, but she gladly left her fretful dreams behind for the security of her husband’s embrace. She had no sense of time or place, only the sweet pleasure of his kisses on her throat and her face. He touched her intimately, pulling away her clothing until their bodies pressed together without restriction.

His mouth found her breasts, and Skylar sighed with pleasure. Some part of her mind realized that it was daylight, and another remembered that they had traveled all night to escape a grave danger. But that danger had passed, or Sun Hawk would not have awakened her with sweet kisses. After so many days of fear, it was easy for her to give herself over to passion, to touch her husband as intimately as he touched her, to let his need become her own.

They came together with an abandon that took her breath away and robbed her of her senses, but when the glorious pleasure finally subsided, she realized that this one time had been different. There was a desperation in the way Sun Hawk held her long after the moment of release had passed. When he finally shifted his body off of hers and wrapped her in his arms, Skylar knew something was wrong.

“Why do you look so serious, husband?” she asked, gently caressing his face, trying to smooth away the strange hardness she saw there. “I know those who followed us are gone now, or you would not have awakened me so sweetly.”

Sun Hawk closed his eyes and pressed his lips into the palm of her hand.

“They are gone, but they will be back.”

Skylar’s eyes widened in alarm, and she started to rise. “Then we should go quickly.”

“No.” He pulled her back into his arms. “There is time. We have until sunset.”

She frowned. “To do what?”

“Be together.”

Skylar didn’t like the sound of that. “And then what will happen?”

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Sun Hawk didn’t want to tell her yet. If she knew her sister was near, she might not want to wait. She might ride after the brave who had gone to get her, and Sun Hawk couldn’t bear to see her go a moment before it was time.

“Then we will meet the Apache who tracked us so skillfully. He has words you should hear.”

“How do you know this?”

“He said the words to me, but I was not sure it was wise to believe him. He has promised to bring proof that will make you know what he says is the truth.”

“Husband, what did he say?” she asked anxiously, unable to imagine what it could be.

When he told her of the promises Gray Fox had supposedly made, the most magnificent smile Sun Hawk had ever seen spread over Skylar’s face.

“This is wonderful!” she exclaimed as happiness suffused every part of her body, cleansing it of the fear she had experienced in the last few weeks.

“There is no reason to hide in the mountains or join Geronimo. We can be free now!”

“Free . . .” He nodded solemnly. “Yes, we can be free.”

Skylar felt the first flush of her exuberance fade. “Why are you not as happy as I? If the Gray Fox promised you will not be punished, then you can believe it. You will see your family again very soon.”

And you will see yours, he thought grimly. “I cannot be happy until I have the proof.”

Though she clung to hope as tightly as she could, she trusted Sun Hawk too much to discount his opinion. “You think it is a lie designed to trap us?”

He pulled her more tightly into the circle of his arms. “For your sake I hope it is not,” he said fervently.

Overwhelmed by the intensity of his emotions, Skylar rested her head on his shoulder and could feel the strong steady beating of his heart. It was a long while before she finally asked, “If it is a trap, should we not take precautions, beloved?”

“Yes, but there is still time,” he said in a voice that sounded very far away.

“I wish to hold you as long as I can.”

Before it was time to go to the meeting place, Sun Hawk made love to Skylar again with an intensity and sadness that made her weep. They dressed then, and her tears had only barely dried when he finally gave her the necklace. As she clutched it lovingly to her heart, Sun Hawk explained how the brave had come by it.

“If Gatana and Consayka trusted him, he must be telling the truth,” Skylar told her husband, trying as hard to convince him as she was herself.

“Perhaps.”

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Skylar looked down at the necklace and traced the lines of the crude carv-ing on the medallion. “Do you know what this is?”

“The Thunder Eagle,” he replied. “It is a symbol of importance to the White Mountain Apache.”

She smiled at him. “No, I meant the whole necklace. Have you ever heard the legend of Willow and Gray Wolf?”

“Yes. Gray Wolf was a powerful warrior who defied the traditions of his people and married the daughter of his enemy.”

“And he gave Willow a necklace to prove how much he loved her.”

Sun Hawk glanced from Skylar’s radiant face to the piece of jewelry in her hands. “Is that the necklace?” he asked, betraying his skepticism.

“No,” she said with a wistful shake of her head. “But that story has always had great meaning to me. I can remember hearing Consayka tell it many times at Rancho Verde, and I remember it from before, too.”

“Before?” Sun Hawk believed in legends and the power they had to direct people’s lives, but that was not what enraptured him about Skylar’s memories.

She was sharing something sweet and sad with him, and he wanted to treasure the moment.

“Before I went to Rancho Verde,” she replied, her smile fading. “Before my parents were killed.”

She had already told him that she remembered very little of that part of her life, and Sun Hawk was glad she had this one pleasant memory. “Where did the necklace come from, and what has it to do with the legend?” he prod-ded her gently.

“I made this necklace long ago from Consayka’s descriptions of the one that Gray Wolf gave to Willow.”

“It is very beautiful.”

Skylar looked down at the medallion as she tied the choker around her neck. “Not as beautiful as the real one Gray Wolf gave Willow,” she said sadly.

“How can you know that?”

She brought her gaze up to his. “I’m not sure. I just know.”

Sun Hawk nodded and rose reluctantly. “It is time to go now.”

She offered him her hand, and he pulled her to her feet. “I love you, my husband,” she said, gazing deep into his eyes. “Whether this is a trick or not, we will still have our love to make us strong.”

“I pray you are right, beloved.”

“I know that I am.”

He pulled her into his arms and held her close for what his own heart knew was the last time.

“Come,” he said finally, pulling away, his voice rough with emotions he could not control. “We must hurry if we are to arrive before them.”

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He turned away from her so abruptly that Skylar felt bereft. She didn’t understand his strange moods, but she helped him collect their belongings and break camp. He led her to a ravine that she vaguely recalled, having passed through it in the early hours of the morning, and once he was satisfied that the area was safe, he helped her up the rocky hillside to a place where she had a commanding view of both ends of the ravine.

“I will take the horses to the mouth of the ravine and hide them. Then I will come back. We will watch the Apache and the ones with him as they come in from the north. If they are being honest with us, they will ride in together without fear.”

“And if not?”

Sun Hawk looked around him. He had chosen this spot because there was nothing above it, and no one could approach without being seen. The brave would not be able to surprise him again; Sun Hawk had never in his life made the same mistake twice.

“If they mean to trap us, I will have no choice but to kill them.” He waited expectantly for her to protest, but what he saw in her eyes instead was calm acceptance.

“You have the rifle and the many fine arrows you made at Nagona.” She held out her hand. “I will take the revolver.”

Sun Hawk was astonished. “Could you use it to kill a white man?”

Skylar nodded. She had thought about this often in the last few weeks.

Talbot’s death had been a horrible accident, but she knew now that if she had to, she could kill with purpose. “I would do anything to protect what I love most.”

Sun Hawk removed the revolver from its holster and gave it to her, then left to tether the horses in a spot that would be easy to reach. When he returned to Skylar, they settled into their hiding place and began the long wait.

“Are you sure he’ll be there?” Rayna asked Case for what might have been the hundredth time.

“I’m sure,” he said without looking at her. The three of them were riding abreast, and it seemed to Case that their pace quickened every time Rayna asked the question. If she didn’t let go of her anxiety, they would be riding at a full gallop by the time they reached the mouth of the ravine.

“But if what you told us about your conversation with Sun Hawk is accurate, he didn’t actually give his word that he’d bring Skylar,” she reminded him irritably. “It could have been a trick to delay you and give them a chance to escape.”

“It wasn’t,” he replied.

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“But—”

“Rayna! That’s enough,” Meade commanded, throwing her an exasperated glance. “If Case says Sun Hawk will be there with Skylar, you can believe it.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” she said tartly, then fell silent and tried not to think about what could go wrong. When Case had intercepted them at midday, the story he related seemed too fantastical to be believed. Terrified that she was being led into another devastating disappointment, she had refused to accept anything Case said at face value. She had looked for flaws in his plan and tried to quell her anger at him for having allowed Sun Hawk to walk away.

He should have forced Sun Hawk to take him to Skylar, at gunpoint if necessary, instead of confronting him unarmed. He said he had released Sun Hawk to earn the brave’s trust, but it seemed like ridiculous manly bravado to Rayna. If Case’s actions cost her the only chance she might have to find Skylar, Rayna would find a way to make him pay for it.

Meade’s attempts to calm her down and reason with her hadn’t worked, and some of her anger with Case had spilled over onto him. He had made love to her last night with a passion that was heartbreakingly tender at times and at other times breathtakingly tempestuous. He had kept his promise to wake up with no regrets, but the sweet words they had exchanged that morning didn’t change the way she felt that afternoon.

As they neared the ridge, Rayna caught Meade looking at her a number of times, but she ignored him. If she looked at him, he would probably give her a tender look of understanding that would disarm her completely, and she wasn’t ready to be disarmed. She needed her anger if she was going to survive another disillusionment.

They reached the base of the ridge, but before they began climbing, Case stopped and dismounted.

“What are you doing?” Rayna asked.

“The horses need rest,” he told her.

She started to protest as she patted Triton’s lathered neck, but she bit back the ridiculous complaint. As usual, he was right, and even that irritated her.

She climbed down and joined Case and Meade. “How far to the ravine?”

“Thirty minutes, maybe a little less,” Case replied. “We don’t want to arrive too early, or Sun Hawk may suspect that we’re there to lay a trap.”

She wanted to ask again what made him so positive that Sun Hawk would even be there, but she restrained herself. No matter what he replied, she wouldn’t believe it, so it was pointless to question him. She slipped her canteen off the saddle horn and drank, then let Triton have some water, too. The men followed suit, and Meade looked over at Case.

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“Do you think one of us should take to the hills just in case Sun Hawk decides to try an ambush?”

“No. If he doesn’t see all three of us coming in, he’ll think we’re the ones setting a trap. We’ll leave the horses at the mouth of the ravine and walk in.

It’s the only way.”

Meade accepted his decision and was surprised when Rayna didn’t take the opportunity to argue. “All right. We’ll do it your way.”

Case looked at Rayna. “There is one thing you must do, though.”

She squared her shoulders and faced him belligerently. “If you’re going to tell me I have to wait behind or stay in the background like a good little girl, you can just go—”

“Take off your hat and unbind your hair,” he said, cutting her off. “From a distance Sun Hawk thought you were a man. I want him to see that I didn’t lie, and the sight of your hair will make you much easier for Skylar to recognize.”

It was a reasonable request, and she was happy to comply. She was less happy about having to apologize because she suddenly felt ashamed of her cantankerous behavior. “I’m sorry I snapped at you. Case.” She sighed heavily.

“I know I haven’t given you much reason to believe this, but I do appreciate everything you’ve done for my sister.”

“She’s my sister, too,” he said calmly.

Rayna felt her ire rising again as a burst of uncontrollable jealousy swept through her. “So you keep reminding me.”

Case frowned slightly, regarding her more with curiosity than with displeasure. “Why does knowing that Morning Star is my sister trouble you so much?”

“Because I don’t know any Morning Star. I only know my sister, Skylar.”

“And you’ve never had to share her with anyone, have you?” he asked quietly.

Rayna felt unwanted tears stinging her eyes, and she hated the weakness at a time when she needed all the strength she possessed. “No, I haven’t, and I’m not sure I like the idea,” she said crossly. “You have a blood tie to her that I can never share.”

Case nodded slowly. “And you have had her love for twenty years. You have seen her smiles and heard her laughter. You know what makes her cry, what she dreams of, and where she goes when she is sad. I have nothing but a memory of a bright-eyed little girl who made arrows out of sticks and brought joy to the hearts of all who knew her.” He paused a moment when he saw the twin tears that carved a path down Rayna’s face, but he couldn’t stop himself from adding, “It is I who should be jealous of you.”

“Damn you,” she whispered as a sob escaped her control. “Damn you.” The tears came in a rush and nearly buckled her over, but Meade was there to hold her up. She turned to him, resting her forehead on his chest until she con-247

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quered the tears. Case’s words made her feel selfish and small. Resenting him for loving Skylar as much as she did was so wrong.

When Rayna finally collected herself and turned back to Case, her resentment of him was gone.

“Skylar goes to a place called the Enchanted Mesa to weave her dreams,”

she told him, her voice as soft as a sigh. “And she feels sad only when she tries to touch the memory of the family she lost but can’t quite reach it. If I am jealous, it’s because you can give her back those memories, where I’ve never been able to.”

Case smiled at her. “You have given her everything else. Don’t begrudge me that.’

“I don’t,” she said with a little shake of her head. “All I’ve ever wanted is her happiness.”

“As have I,” Case replied.

Meade placed his hands on Rayna’s shoulders and looked at his brother-in-law. “I think we’ve reached an understanding.”

“Yes,” Case said.

Rayna nodded, then glanced over her shoulder at Meade. “Yes, we have.

But if he’s wrong about Sun Hawk being at the ravine, he’s still going to have to reckon with me.”

Both men laughed, and Rayna smiled at them. “Can we go now? I don’t know about the horses, but I’ve had all the rest I can handle.”

“Mount up,” Case said, and they did.

The confrontation with Case had released a number of Rayna’s emotions, including the ones that had been shielding her expectations. She felt raw and vulnerable as they approached the ravine, and when they dismounted and left the horses, her heart began beating so hard that it nearly leapt out of her chest. Sandwiched between Meade and Case, she walked over the rocky ground on legs that seemed barely strong enough to hold her up. And then they reached the mouth of the arroyo, and Case stopped.

“Go,” he told Rayna. “Walk ahead.”

“No, Case,” Meade protested. “It’s too dangerous.”

“It’s not,” Case replied, looking down at Rayna. “Our sister is in there. I feel it. Call to her and she will come to you. Now, go.”

Balling her hands into fists, Rayna stepped away from them and walked slowly into the arroyo. It was sunset, and darkness had begun to gather, making contorted shadows of every rock and stunted tree. The fear she felt had nothing to do with the ghostly landscape.

She stopped and opened her mouth to call out, but nothing came. She tried again, whispering, “Please, God, please,” before the name she needed to say was ripped from her very soul.

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“Sky-lar!” Her cry echoed off the walls, and before the sound had died, she shouted it again, “Sky-lar! Sky-lar!”

A strangled cry blended with the echo, and from above her, stones tumbled as Skylar came running down the hill. When Rayna looked up and saw her, she began running, too, and somewhere on the shadowed hillside they fell into each other’s arms.

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22

Laughing and crying with unrestrained joy, Skylar and Rayna held on to each other as though they would never be able to let go. Eventually, though, Skylar’s questions began spilling out one on top of the other as she and Rayna stumbled down to the floor of the ravine.

How did you get here? How did you find me? How is Father? The questions came too fast to answer, but when Rayna hugged Skylar to her again, she told her that when she had seen their father last, he was well. It didn’t seem like the proper time to explain that she had heard nothing from their parents since she had written them of Skylar’s ordeal. If something had happened to their father, they would at least be able to share their grief this time.

Cherishing the sight of her sister, Skylar stroked Rayna’s golden hair lovingly. “I had given up all hope of ever seeing you again.” She smiled wistfully.

“I should have known you would come for me.”

“Yes, you should have,” Rayna agreed, not caring that tears were still streaming down her face, because they were tears of joy, not weakness.

“I’m only sorry I didn’t find a way to protect you from the horror of what you’ve suffered.”

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Skylar shook her head. “It was not all suffering, Rayna. My journey took me away from you, Mother, and Papa, but it took me to something I had never imagined I would find.”

Rayna searched her sister’s face and discovered a strength and serenity in her eyes that had never been there before. “You’ve changed, Skylar.”

“Yes, I have. In ways I don’t even understand myself yet.” A movement caught her eye, and she looked beyond Rayna to the two men who were moving toward them. A happy smile lit up her face as she recognized Meade.

“Major Ashford!” She flew toward him and embraced him. “What are you doing here? Oh, how good it is to see you.”

“It’s a great pleasure for me too, Skylar,” he said fondly. “I’m so happy to know you’re finally safe.”

“I feel safe.” She turned toward her sister. “Rayna, did the major tell you how kind he was to me on the way to the reservation?” She looked up at Meade again. “I will never forget that kindness. It sustained me more than you can know.”

“I should have been able to do more,” he said regretfully.

But Skylar shook her head. “No, Major. Nothing could have changed what has happened to me. It was a journey I had to make, and I gained much more than I lost.”

Rayna placed a loving arm around her shoulders. “Even more than you know, Skylar. There is someone else you have to meet,” she said, drawing her toward the third member of the rescue party. “This is Case Longstreet.”

Skylar smiled and extended her hand to him graciously. “You are the one who confronted Sun Hawk this morning.”

Case had been watching her, devouring every word and gesture. He had always known his little sister would grow into a lovely woman, but he had not expected this. Her clothes were ragged and her face was stained with smudges and tears, but she was poised and eloquent. Her manner was graceful, and her eyes held a serenity that warmed his heart. His sister had grown into everything he had dared hope she would be, and much, much more.

Though he longed to gather her into his arms, Case could only take her hand and press it between both of his. “Yes, I gave Sun Hawk the promises General Crook made to both of you.”

Skylar didn’t doubt for a moment that the promises were good ones. “You risked your life, following us as you did,” she told him. “If it had been necessary to protect me, Sun Hawk would have killed you.”

“I know.”

“Thank you.”

“I had good reason to risk so much,” he told her as he slowly unbuttoned his coat. Beneath it was the Thunder Eagle necklace. “Do you recognize this?”

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The sight took Skylar’s breath away, and she gingerly reached out to touch the medallion. A flood of memories came rushing back to her. Images that had always been nothing more than phantoms took shape in her mind. She saw that necklace on a beautiful woman and remembered running into that woman’s arms. She remembered touching the beads one by one and hearing her mother laugh because Skylar’s hand was tickling her throat. She saw a tall, handsome man who made her feel safe and loved as he put his arms around both of them. She saw her dark-haired sister and remembered the face of the brother who had teased and adored her.

For the first time, Skylar saw past the hideous memories of her parents’

death to the pleasures of her earlier life. Images flashed one after the other, and with them came a knowledge that filled the dark void in her heart where only shadows had lurked . . . until now. She looked up at Case with a kind of wonder. “You are my brother.”

A coil of happiness constricted around Case’s heart. “Yes.”

Skylar felt tears on her cheeks. “I remember loving you,” she said, her voice tremulous.

“And I have never forgotten loving you,” he told her as he opened his arms. She stepped into his embrace and felt as though she had come home.

From his hiding place atop the hill Sun Hawk watched his wife embrace the golden-haired woman, then the soldier, and finally the Apache. Their words reached his ears, but meant nothing to him. He knew only that they were happy words. Skylar was where she belonged, where she wanted to be. These people would take care of her now. She no longer needed him.

He watched until his heart could bear no more. Then he quietly made his way along the top of the ridge and down toward the horses.

It seemed like a long time before Case let Skylar go, yet it didn’t seem nearly long enough, either. They couldn’t make up for the lost years in a single moment, but there would be time to discover each other in the years ahead.

Standing in the little circle that Meade, Rayna, and Case had formed around her, Skylar shook her head in amazement as she looked at her sister.

“I have so much to tell you.”

“I know,” Rayna said, and found her gaze drawn to Meade. “I have a lot to tell you, too.”

“You must meet my husband, Rayna.” Skylar’s radiant smile took on a rapturous glow. “He has changed my life.”

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Until that moment, Rayna hadn’t been able to believe that Skylar was in love with Sun Hawk. Now she knew it was true. “If you love him, he must be very special indeed.”

“He is,” she replied, then glanced around, looking for Sun Hawk. It took her a moment to realize that he had not followed her down the hill. She could hardly blame him, since he had no reason to trust these people as she did. She looked up at Case. “The promises General Crook made . . . you believe them, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“And Sun Hawk won’t be punished for rescuing me from the soldiers?”

“If there is punishment, it will be very light,” he assured her. “Perhaps a few days in the stockade at the most.”

Skylar moved away from him and looked up toward the place where she had left Sun Hawk. “Ciká!” she called out in Apache. When there was no answer, she called, “My husband!” again and told him it was safe. “The promises of the Gray Fox are good ones. We have nothing to fear.”

The words echoed, but no one answered. A stab of fear pierced her as she recalled how fiercely Sun Hawk had made love to her and the strange, sad looks he had given her afterward. With a sickening sense of dread, she realized that he was gone.

“Ciká!” she screamed again as she began running toward the mouth of the ravine, but Rayna caught up with her quickly and grabbed her arm.

“Skylar, what are you doing?”

“Let me go,” she demanded, tugging against Rayna’s hold on her. “Sun Hawk doesn’t understand. I have to find him!” Her eyes wide with panic, she wrenched free and ran.

“Skylar!” Afraid of losing the sister she’d only just found, Rayna started after her, but Meade held her by the shoulders.

“Rayna, don’t,” he commanded.

“What are you doing? Let go!”

“No, Rayna, you let go! Skylar is doing what she has to do.”

“But she’s going after him! What if he takes her away again?” she asked desperately, struggling to get out of his grasp.

Meade gave her a hard shake, and she stopped struggling. “Rayna, if Skylar goes with him, it will be because she wants to go, not because he forced her.

She loves him.”

Case moved closer to them. “And he loves her very much. Believe me, he won’t do anything to put her in danger now.”

“Then why didn’t he come down here? Why did he slink away like a thief in the night?” she demanded hotly.

“Because he has no reason to trust us.”

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Rayna looked after her sister, but she had already disappeared from view.

“Oh, God, don’t let me lose her again,” she whispered.

Her heart pounding with desperate fear, Skylar ran out of the ravine to the place where Sun Hawk had tied the horses. All three were still there.

Trying to control her breathing, she fought for rational thought. Would he have gone on foot, thinking that he could disappear more easily that way? It was possible. In fact, it was very likely.

Feeling her life slipping away from her, Skylar sank to her knees, unable to stop the tears that had turned from joy to sorrow in the space of a single heartbeat. “Why could you not trust me, husband?” she whispered. She closed her eyes, but it didn’t shut out the pain.

She knelt there for what seemed like an eternity, unable to think, feeling only an aching sorrow and a growing anger. How could he leave her?

She could never have walked away from him, and yet he had left without even a good-bye. She had thought their love was strong, but it wasn’t. It was like a web shining with diamonds of morning dew—beautiful but too fragile to touch.

When she heard a restless movement among the horses, she looked up, and some of the pain slipped away. Sun Hawk was silently untethering his horse. Skylar stood up quickly, and he whirled toward the sound.

“Where are you going?” she asked as she moved to him.

Sun Hawk found it hard to believe his eyes. He had not expected she would discover him gone so soon, and he had never imagined she would come after him. “You are safe now, and if Gray Fox’s promises are good, I will take my punishment and return to my family.”

Skylar shook her head. “That is not the Apache way. A husband takes his wife’s family and lives with them.”

Sun Hawk’s heart was beating so hard that it was difficult for him to think.

“But your home is with your white family.”

“My home is with you,” she said forcefully, feeling a wave of anger rising inside her. “You had no right to try to leave without me. When you took me as your wife, you swore to love and care for me as I swore to love and care for you. Were your words a lie?”

“No,” he said, moving to her. “But your heart has always been with them.”

“My heart has been with you,” she argued. “If you cannot see that, you are blind.”

Sun Hawk shook his head. “You have lived in a world I do not understand.

Now that you are free, you will never be happy in mine.”

“I will never be happy without you.” She looked at him defiantly. “Do you love me so little that it is so easy for you to let me go?”

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“I love you enough to give you what I thought you wanted,” he replied tenderly.

“You were wrong.”

They looked at each other, letting hope and trust renew them. “I cannot live in your world,” he said sadly after a long moment.

“Then I will live in yours; or we will find a place and make it our own. But we will do it together, because I cannot live without you.”

The pain that had formed a cold wall around Sun Hawk’s heart began to fade, and the wall crumbled. She was right. He had been foolish not to trust her. He pulled her roughly into his arms and clung to her. “You are my beloved,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion.

“You are mine,” Skylar whispered. “And it will always be so.”

They held each other close until Skylar finally stepped away from him and took his hand in hers. “Will you come and meet my other family?” she asked.

“Or do we leave here alone?”

He hesitated a moment, then nodded. “I will learn to love those who love you.”

She smiled up at him tenderly. “You will not be sorry.”

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Epilogue

As she leaned against the top rail of the corral, Libby looked up at the graceful hacienda, taking in the lacy balconies, graceful arches, and lovingly tended gardens. Rancho Verde was a beautiful place, but what was most important to Libby was that Meade was happy here with Rayna. He was finally living the life of a gentleman rancher, and if his days weren’t always as placid as he’d once anticipated, at least they were never boring.

Though Case had made the trip to Rancho Verde nearly a year ago with Rayna, Meade, Skylar, and Sun Hawk, this was Libby’s first visit. She had been here less than a day, but already she loved the Templetons, and it had eased her mind to see for herself that Meade was really as happy as his letters had indicated. It made being separated from him much easier to bear, and she knew that before long, a network of railroads would connect his part of the world with hers. Their visits wouldn’t be so infrequent, and that would make them both even happier.

“There you are,” Meade said as he approached her. He’d been giving her a tour of the stables, relishing the opportunity to show off Rancho Verde, and enjoying even more the chance to visit with her alone for the first time since 256

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she’d arrived. Then Gil had stopped him with a question, and when he turned around, Libby had been gone. “I thought I’d lost you. What are you looking at?” he asked, letting his gaze follow hers up to the house. “Has Rayna been drying her petticoats on the railing again?”

Libby chuckled. “No, I was just thinking how lucky you are.”

“That is something of an understatement,” he said, draping his arm across her shoulders. It felt good having her close to him again. “I do miss you, though, dear sister.”

“I don’t see how you could,” she said with a teasing smile. “Between your medical practice in Malaventura and helping Raymond and Rayna operate the ranch, I would think you keep quite busy.”

“Rayna and her father run the ranch. I just ride over it now and then, looking lordly.”

“Something you do very well, I’m sure,” she said drolly as she turned toward the corral and rested her forearms on the top rail. Case was in the center of the ring with Sun Hawk, who was working at gentling a rather ram-bunctious mustang. “How’s your brother-in-law doing, really?” she asked him.

Meade glanced at the two men. “Which one?”

Libby poked him in the ribs. “Don’t play dense. I mean Sun Hawk, of course.

I know he had doubts about living on the ranch. Every time I get a letter from you, I expect you to tell me he’s decided he’d rather live on the reservation.”

“Oh, I think he got a little more than he bargained for when he agreed to try living here, but he’s adapting nicely. You heard for yourself earlier how well his English is coming along, and he and Skylar are able to visit his family fairly often. I actually think he likes it here.”

Like everyone else, Meade had been delighted when General Crook had used his considerable influence to get the Mescaleros transferred back to their own reservation. The citizens of New Mexico weren’t too happy about having the Apache tribe back, and some of Rancho Verde’s neighbors were still complaining because Consayka’s people had been permitted to come back to Verde where they belonged, but to Meade’s way of thinking, everything had worked out for the best.

Since Skylar was an Americanized citizen, more or less, Crook had been able to persuade the head of the Indian Bureau to allow Sun Hawk to live on Rancho Verde with the other Mescaleros. Meade was happy about that because it had made his wife happy.

“How do Rayna and Sun Hawk get along?” Libby asked him.

Meade chuckled. “They manage. Rayna hates it that he refuses to live in the house and prefers to camp among the Mescaleros, but she tolerates it because she doesn’t have any choice. You mark my words, though, before the year is out, she’ll have her brother-in-law sleeping in a bed.”

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“Oh, Meade,” Libby said with a sigh as she turned back toward the house.

“Life is a never-ending series of changes, isn’t it?”

“It is at Rancho Verde,” he commented dryly.

“What will you—”

The sound of a woman’s shrill cry cut her off, and Meade’s tanned face turned pale as a sheet. “Rayna!” he yelled as he began running toward the house. Libby hurried after him, and they heard another shriek and the sound of Lucas’s and Jenny’s high-pitched voices as they darted through the walled garden and into the arcade.

“Rayna, what’s wrong?” Meade called out urgently as he burst into the courtyard, and then stumbled to a halt. Rayna was standing in the courtyard blindfolded, her arms flailing wildly as she tried to find the giggling niece and nephew who were dancing around her just beyond her reach. His beautiful seven-months-pregnant wife was playing blindman’s buff!

“Where are they, Meade? Am I hot or cold?” she begged him to tell her as she spun around, lunged at Jenny, and came up with an armful of air.

“What the devil do you think you’re doing?” he asked, charging across the courtyard. He yanked the blindfold off her face and threw it to the ground.

Rayna sighed with exasperation and looked at Jenny and Lucas.

“Obviously your Uncle Meade’s education has been seriously lacking if he doesn’t know a game of blindman’s buff when he sees one. Shall we show him how it’s played?” She stooped to retrieve the blindfold, but it required Meade’s hand on her elbow to help her back up again. She smiled at him sweetly and offered him the strip of cloth. “Would you like to be the blind man for a while?”

Meade bit down on his tongue and reined in his temper before he finally answered, “No, thank you. Three children in the house are more than enough.” He looked at Jenny and Lucas. “Why don’t you two run out to the corral? I think your father and Sun Hawk are about ready to ride El Niño.”

“Yes, sir,” Lucas said gravely. Then he and Jenny were off and running.

Meade turned back to his wife. “Rayna, don’t you have even a single lick of sense? You could have fallen and hurt yourself or the baby.”

“Don’t be silly,” she scolded. “I had a little peephole in the blindfold that allowed me to see everything.”

“Oh, wonderful. My wife is not only reckless, she’s an unscrupulous cheat.”

Rayna batted her eyelashes at him and grinned. “Of course. How do you think I keep beating you so badly at poker? No one’s luck is that bad, darling.”

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Meade sighed heavily as he pulled her into his arms. Her swollen belly made it a little more of a stretch each day, but he couldn’t complain. “Good Lord, what am I going to do with you?”

She laced her arms around his neck and looked up at him coquettishly.

“The same thing you’ve always done. When you get the urge to strangle me, kiss me instead.”

He cocked one eyebrow at her. “I suppose you realize that means we’re going to have a very large family?” he asked, and then his lips closed over hers, silencing her laughter.

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About the Author

CONSTANCE BENNETT is the award winning, best-selling author of twenty contemporary and historical romances. A native of Missouri, she spent four years in Los Angeles performing live theatre and studying film and television acting before returning home to launch her writing career in 1985. Her Harlequin Superromances, PLAYING BY

THE RULES and THINKING OF YOU, were both

nominated by Romantic Times as Best Superromance in their respective years of publication, and PLAYING BY THE RULES went on to win a Romantic Times achievement award as best

Romantic Mystery of 1990. Two years later, Bennett received the first of her two prestigious Rita Award nominations from Romance Writers of America.

Her Berkley/Diamond historical, BLOSSOM, was nominated for a Rita in 1992, and in 1995 her Harlequin Superromance SINGLE... WITH CHILDREN was nominated as Best Contemporary

Category Romance. That book was also her first Waldenbooks bestseller.