Authors: Connie Mason
“I think not.”
“You can’t leave until I say so. Unless you and Will want to rot in jail. Have you forgotten that stagecoach robbery so soon?”
“You conniving rattlesnake!” Sam snarled. “If it weren’t for Will I’d take my chances with Sheriff Bauer and confess. Do you intend to hold that over my head for the rest of my life? You despise me, so why should you care if I leave?”
Deliberately ignoring her taunts, Colt said, “I don’t hate you, Violet Eyes, it’s what you represent. You’ll stay at the ranch till I say otherwise. I still aim to put the Logans and Crowders behind bars, but Jake is capable of handlin’ you in my absence. One way or another,” he hinted slyly, “you’ll earn your bride-price.”
“Bride-price?”
“Chief Black Bear demanded ten beeves delivered each fall to feed his people durin’ the long winter months.”
“And you agreed?” Sam asked incredulously.
“I had no choice.” He turned to leave.
Suddenly Sam remembered that she had had no opportunity to tell Colt about Laura. “Colt, don’t leave.”
A slow smile altered the harsh lines of his face. “I would have thought after last night your—cravin’ had been satisfied. But I’ll gladly oblige if you’re still hankerin’.” Deliberately he unfastened his pants.
“Hellfire and damnation! You randy billy goat! I ought to let you go on thinking Laura is either dead or beyond your reach.”
Colt froze, all his senses alive as he fell to his knees and grasped Sam’s shoulders, pulling her to a sitting position. “What do you know about Laura? Speak, damn you!”
“Colt, you’re hurting me! I tried to tell you last night, even though she begged me not to.”
“Who?” His hold eased somewhat but not enough to stop the bruises that were sure to show up tomorrow.
“Laura. Black Bear adopted her. She’s his daughter. She is called Eawn.”
“Christ! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Colt exploded, releasing her so quickly she fell back with a thump. “Where is she?”
“She lives with Black Bear and his family.”
“You mean she sleeps in the same tipi with Brave Ragle?” His face was a mask of rage.
“He’s her brother,” Sam said, exasperated.
A string of curses fell from Colt’s lips. “I’ll find her.”
“She insists she won’t leave the Comanches.”
“Like hell!”
“Colt, they’re her family now. She’s reluctant to leave them. She was a child when she ame to them, and they’ve treated her with kindness. She loves them.”
“They killed our parents! I can’t believe she’d live with savages and enjoy it.”
“No,” Sam refuted, rising and shrugging into her dress. “It was another tribe who killed your parents and took Laura captive. They traded her to Black Bear later. Singing Wind, the chief’s wife, lost a daughter and wanted Laura to replace her. According to Laura she’s had a good life with them. She’s to marry soon. A … a brave Black Bear considers worthy of a chief’s daughter.”
“Over my dead body!” erupted Colt. “I have to talk to her.”
“I’ll get her, Colt,” Sam offered. “She’s not the Laura you once knew. She’s a woman now. You’ve already seen her and failed to recognize her. She said she doesn’t want to return to the white world, so be gentle with her.”
Colt’s jaw clenched tightly and he merely nodded, unwilling to trust his voice.
The Indian maiden who entered the tipi couldn’t be Laura, Colt decided. The Laura he remembered had golden hair and creamy white skin. This dusky maiden had coal-black braids. Surely Sam had been mistaken. Or was she using unfair means to repay him for forcing her response last night? He was on the verge of dismissing the Comanche girl and lighting into Sam when she raised her head to stare unblinkingly into his eyes. Abruptly his world spun dizzily when a pair of tawny eyes locked with his. Colt searched the sun-bronzed face, and what he saw jolted through him like a bolt of lightning. The features were white. The delicately tanned skin, slightly upturned nose, distinctive Colter eyes. It
was
Laura. Christ! After all these years.
“Laura,” he whispered, his breath catching on a sob. “Little sister, thank God I’ve found you.” He felt her stiffen when he enveloped her in a crushing hug. “I’d nearly given up hope.”
“Steve.” Laura rolled the name around experimentally on her tongue. “Violet Eyes told you, didn’t she? I asked her not to.” She bent an accusing glare at Sam, who had retreated mutely to the rear of the tent in order to allow brother and sister privacy.
“Have you forgotten your brother, little sister? Have you abandoned your white heritage? Our parents didn’t raise you to become Comanche.”
“Black Bear and Singing Wind are my parents,” Laura insisted, tilting her small chin at a stubborn angle.
Colt winced, wounded deeply by Laura’s denial. For years he had searched for her, thinking her lost to him forever, and now that he’d finally found her, she wanted nothing to do with him. “You don’t mean that, Laura.”
“My name is Fawn.”
“Your name is Laura. It was our grandmother’s name.”
“I’m not the girl you remember.”
“You’re not a savage,” Colt snarled harshly.
“How could you be so hateful?” Laura accused, glowering darkly. “Your own wife is part Comanche.”
“My wife!” spat Colt disparagingly. “Are you referrin’ to my Indian whore!”
A gasp of horror escaped Sam’s lips, echoed by Laura, who stared at Colt in stunned silence. Was this brutish, opinionated man the brother she remembered with love? How could he treat Violet Eyes so cruelly? She retreated a step, her tawny eyes dark with condemnation. Immediately Colt realized his mistake and sought to remedy it.
“I’m sorry, Laura, I didn’t mean that. I’ve searched years for you. I’ve traveled the length and breadth of Texas and far into Kansas Territory. Christ, Laura, you’re all I have left in the world!”
Laura’s expression softened. “I’m Comanche, Steve. I’ve long forgotten my white beginnings. I… I wouldn’t be happy with whites. They’re my enemy. They killed my friends as well as members of my Indian family. I’m to marry soon.”
“Once you’re back with your own kind, all that will change,” Colt promised. “You’ll see, things will be the same as when Mother and Father were alive. I own a ranch, you can stay there with Sam. Life will be good again, I promise. Just give yourself a chance to adjust.”
“Life is good now,” Laura insisted. “Besides, my father would not allow me to leave.”
“We’ll see,” Colt said with grim determination. “Prepare yourself. When Sam and I leave here, you’ll go with us.” Turning on his heel, he stormed from the tipi.
“My brother is a stranger to me, Violet Eyes,” Laura sobbed. “Why was he so hateful to you? Doesn’t he know you love him?”
“Colt can’t see beyond his own prejudice,” Sam replied astutely. “He’s spent half his life fighting Mexicans and Indians. He can’t stand the thought that I’m part Comanche. You have to admit he has good reason to feel as he does.”
“I’m Comanche,” Laura contended.
“No, Laura, you’re Colt’s sister, his own flesh and blood. He hates what the Indians did to you but loves you regardless. It’s me he wants nothing to do with.”
Colt sat cross-legged on the hard ground beside Black Bear. As usual, Spirit Dancer was present. Thankfully Colt had calmed down enough to speak coherently as he presented his demands to the chief. Spirit Dancer was the only one who appeared unmoved when Colt revealed that Fawn was Laura, his long-lost sister. His wise old eyes held certain knowledge that was denied the others.
“Eawn is my daughter,” Black Bear stated with unrelenting firmness. “I will not give her up.”
“Laura is my sister,” Colt refuted tightly. “I won’t give her up, either.”
“Have you spoken with my daughter?”
“We … talked,” Colt admitted tightly.
Spirit Dancer grunted, recognizing the impasse. Turning to Black Bear, he intoned, “My vision foretold such a happening, but until now I did not fully understand it. You love fawn, but for the good of your people you must give her to Lion Heart. What Lion Heart offers in return will benefit the entire tribe. And in the end you will not lose your daughter.”
“You speak in riddles, old man,” Black Bear said irritably.
But Colt understood the wily shaman better, perhaps, than Black Bear. He wanted something. Something only Colt could provide. Silently he mulled over Spirit Dancer’s words, until it dawned on him what the shaman was hinting at.
He cleared his throat loudly. “You know, of course, that I own a ranch and many hundreds of acres in the hill country where you rest and hunt during the winter months. It is the same land that once belonged to William Howard.”
Black Bear nodded slowly. “That is so.”
“Release my sister and in return your people are welcome to camp in the hills surroundin’ my land to hunt and fish as you see fit to supplement the beeves I promised as bride-price for Violet Eyes. Laura can ride out frequently to visit. It won’t be as if you’re losin’ her forever.”
It was a concession Colt had never expected to make, but an unavoidable one. Though he hated the Comanches, he was prepared to promise anything for Laura’s sake. Even if it meant consorting with the enemy. “You’ll have beeves to replace the buffalo that no longer roam the prairie as freely as they once did. What I offer will be good for your people.”
Black Bear mulled over Colt’s offer, knowing in his heart it was a good one. “What about Long Bow? Fawn is promised to him.”
“Long Bow will have to find another wife,” Colt threw out tightly. “Eventually Laura will marry one of her own kind. I’ve spent years searchin’ for my sister. I just can’t leave her behind now that I’ve found her.”
“I will give you my answer after I’ve spoken to Fawn,” Black Bear said dismissively.
“Chief—”
“Go now, Lion Heart,” Spirit Dancer advised. “Our chief’s heart is heavy, but he is wise and will come to the right decision.”
Fuming impotently, Colt left. He had plans to make. If Black Bear refused him, how in the hell would he get Laura out of here? And he didn’t dare leave Sam behind or that damn Brave Eagle would be all over her like honey over biscuits.
“What are your feelings for Lion Heart, daughter?”
Laura knelt beside Black Bear, her luminous eyes bright with unshed tears. “I hardly know him, Father,” she whispered tremulously. “My life is with you and my Comanche family.”
“Your brother wishes you to return with him to the white man’s world. Do you want to go?”
Laura’s eyes widened with an unnamed fear. With the Comanches she felt safe, she knew what to expect. Life with her own kind offered unknown challenges, uncharted territory. She’d been still an untried girl when taken from the bosom of her family and had grown to womanhood during the intervening years. A woman who knew only the simple life of the Comanche. How could she hope to make a future with the whites she had been taught to hate? And yet, some nearly forgotten memory inspired her with a warm feeling she could not explain.
“Why do you hesitate, daughter? Are you uncertain of your feelings?” Black Bear asked astutely.
“I was thinking of my marriage to Long Bow,” Laura hedged.
“Do you love Long Bow so much? I do not possess the wisdom of Spirit Dancer, but my feelings tell me you agreed to the joining only to please me and Brave Eagle.”
Laura squirmed beneath Black Bear’s scrutiny. Impaled by his dark, inscrutable gaze, she could not lie. “I… do not love Long Bow, Father, but he is brave and strong and will make me a good husband, just as I will be a dutiful wife to him. I am grateful for the love you have given me all these years and want only to obey you.”
Black Bear searched Laura’s face carefully, looking into her soul through the window of her tawny eyes. What he saw there neither pleased nor displeased him. He merely accepted what he saw as the design of things. Spirit Dancer had said the People would prosper with the coming of Violet Eyes, and it would be so if Lion Heart kept his word. Spirit Dancer had also predicted that they would forfeit something of value in order to gain prosperity, and it had come about. Fawn was dear to him, and losing her would leave a definite void in his heart, but the Great Spirit had spoken and the People would obey.
Black Bear read indecision in Fawn’s eyes. Panic, confusion, and fear of the unknown all warred within her slim body. Buried deep within her heart Black Bear sensed a yearning, recognizing it immediately as a feeling of kinship with Lion Heart she could not deny. It was enough to provoke a decision.
“You have been a good and loving daughter, Fawn, and it would pain me to lose you.”
“Then I may stay?” Laura asked hopefully.
“You will leave with Lion Heart.”
“Father, no! You and Singing Wind are the only family 1 know. I can’t bear the thought of not seeing either of you again.”
“We will meet again, daughter. Lion Heart has invited us to make our winter camp on his land, to hunt and fish to supplement the beeves he will provide us as bride-price for Violet Eyes.”
“I
don’t believe it!” Laura gasped, stunned. “My brother hates Indians, especially Comanches. He holds his own wife in contempt because of her mixed blood. My brother has changed. He’s a hard, cruel man.”