“Thank you, Mrs. Mercer,” Gilmore said, tip
ping his hat. “To the barn, men.”
Abby clutched Zach’s arm. “What is it, Zach?
What do they want?”
A nerve twitched in Zach’s jaw. “They want
Ryder.”
“Dear God! Why?”
“I don’t know yet, but I aim to find out.” He
took off for the barn at a run.
“Wait for me!” Clutching the baby to her
breast, Abby followed close on his heels.
*
*
*
“I’d better go up to the house and help Abby
with breakfast,” Hannah said with marked reluctance. She touched Ryder’s face and bent
down to kiss him.
“Now isn’t that a pretty sight.”
Hannah froze, her gaze swiveling upward.
She saw Trent Gilmore looking down at her and jerked upright, her hands flying up to cov
er her bare breasts. “Oh, no!”
Ryder sprang to his knees, rummaging in
the straw for his knife. He gave a feral snarl,
crouching low and swinging the blade from
side to side.
“Take him, men. Be careful of the knife. You
know how vicious animals can be when cor
nered.”
Instantly, six men jumped on Ryder. It took
all six to wrestle him to the ground and bind
his hands.
“Leave him alone,” Hannah cried, too dis
traught to care that the men were leering at her.
Suddenly Zach and Abby burst into the barn. It took Abby a moment to recover from the
shock of finding Hannah and Ryder both naked;
then she rushed forward to shield Hannah from
view. “Zach, don’t let them do this!”
“What is this all about, Lieutenant? You’re invading my home.”
“I know who you are now, Mercer,” Gilmore
said. ”A courier arrived yesterday from Fort
Laramie
with
an
answer
to
my
dispatch.
You’re Wind Rider’s brother-in-law. You used
your influence to have him released from the
stockade. But Captain Purdue didn’t have the
authority to set him free. When I presented my evidence to Colonel Chivington he signed an
order for Wind Rider’s arrest.”
“What are the charges?”
“Murder. There are witnesses who will swear
they saw a white savage riding with Indians
and taking part in raids that resulted in the
deaths of soldiers and civilians.”
“That’s going to be difficult _to prove,” Zach
charged.
“Nevertheless, Chivington has ordered Wind
Rider held in jail until his trial.”
“Get him on his feet, men.” The six mem
bers of the Colorado militia wrestled Ryder to
his feet.
“For God’s sake, let him dress first,” Zach
said. He spied Ryder’s clothes lying nearby and
picked them up.
“He can put on his pants, but I’m not untying his hands until he’s behind bars.”
Hidden behind Abby’s skirts, Hannah scram
bled for her shift and pulled it over her head.
When she peeked up at Ryder and saw the
closed look on his face her heart went out to
him. Speechless, she watched as Zach helped
Ryder step into his pants. When the troopers
led him out the door she sprang from behind
Abby and grasped Gilmore’s arm.
“You can’t take him,” she cried beseechingly.
“Please, what can I say that will stop you?”
Gilmore stopped abruptly and stared at
Hannah, her disheveled beauty stunning him. “We’ll talk about this later.” His voice was pitched low, so that only she could hear.
“You can’t take him. He’s blind. He can’t
see.”
Gilmore stared at her in disbelief. “Blind? What do you take me for, a fool?”
“It’s true. Why would I lie about something
like that?”
“Why, indeed?” Gilmore stepped close to
Ryder and passed his hand before Ryder’s face. There was no reaction. Ryder’s eyes
were blank, expressionless. But Gilmore still
was not convinced. “Mount him up, men.” Then
he turned back to Hannah. “I’m not taking your
word on this. I’ll have a doctor check him out. But I warn you, it will make little difference.
Chivington wants to find Red Cloud’s camp real
bad, and Wind Rider knows where it is.”
“You don’t understand,” Hannah cried, shak
ing with anger.
“Hannah, don’t.”
Ryder’s strident voice carried a silent message that Hannah recognized immediately.
Having a woman plead on his behalf shamed him. Reminding Trent of his blindness would
embarrass Ryder and make him bitter, Hannah
thought as she clamped her lips tightly together.
One way or another, she silently vowed, she’d
help Ryder. She watched miserably as Gilmore’s
men dragged Ryder through the yard to where
the horses were tethered. A small cry escaped
her lips when she saw him stumble to his knees.
He was pulled roughly to his feet and hoisted onto his horse.
“Where are you taking him?” Hannah asked. “What will happen to him?”
Gilmore sent her a searching look, grasped her arm, and pulled her away from Zach and
Abby, where he could speak to her privately.
When both Zach and Abby moved to follow
Hannah shook her head, warning them away.
Gilmore’s voice lowered to a whisper. “What
happens to your lover depends on you.”
“Me?”
He sent her a meaningful glance. “Come to
town tomorrow and well talk about it.” He
turned his head in Zach’s direction. “Don’t
bring your guard with you.”
“Ill come to town now,” Hannah said. “Why
wait until tomorrow?”
Gilmore was adamant. “Tomorrow, Hannah.
Colonel Chivington wants to question him
first.”
Hannah stared with growing horror into the
small windowless cell where Ryder had been
imprisoned. For the past two days she’d been
trying to gain permission to visit him, but to
her chagrin, Lieutenant Gilmore did not have
the authority to grant visitation rights. Zach had
found her a room at a boardinghouse shortly after they had arrived in Denver, and togeth
er they had sought permission to visit Ryder.
When their request was denied Zach had gone
straight to the governor, but thus far he’d been
unable to gain the man’s ear. Zach had been
kept cooling his heels in the governor’s outer
office with promises of an audience.
Meanwhile, Trent had managed to cut
through the red tape, and when Hannah
had presented herself at his office early on
the morning of the third day to argue her
case she had been gratified to learn that he
had pulled some strings and gotten her a
visitor’s pass, allowing her a brief visit with
Ryder. But he had warned her that his gen
erosity carried a heavy price. Too excited at
the time to inquire about the cost, Hannah
had accompanied Trent to the dank cell where
Ryder was imprisoned. Unfortunately, there
hadn’t been time to inform Zach so he could join her.
To Hannah’s horror, she realized Trent hadn’t
warned her about what she was likely to find.
“Oh, my God! What have you done to him?”
A single candle provided the only light in
the room. Ryder lay sprawled on the floor, his face turned away from her. His hands and legs were shackled and the chains were attached to
the wall, preventing free movement. He was
so still, Hannah feared he was dead. Rushing into the room, she dropped to her knees beside
him.
Ryder heard her voice and tried to tell her to
go away, but his split and bloodied lips were too swollen to work properly. He didn’t want
her to see him like this, beaten and bruised
beyond recognition. In an incredibly short time
he had gone from proud Cheyenne warrior to lowly prisoner. They could beat him all they wanted, he silently vowed, but he’d never tell
them where to find Red Cloud’s camp.
Hannah reached out and gently turned his
face toward her. What she saw sent the breath rushing from her lungs. “Ryder, dear God, they’ve beaten you!” Her head whirled around
to glare accusingly at Gilmore. “Why did you
let them do this to him? Look at him: He’s been severely beaten. Get me some water, quickly.”
She didn’t waste precious time wondering
if Gilmore would do as she bid. Instead, she
ripped the hem from her petticoat to use as a cloth. When he reappeared at her elbow
with a bucket of water she merely grunted,
too enraged by Ryder’s condition to speak coherently. Dipping the cloth into the water,
she tenderly cleansed his face of blood and gore.
Both his cheekbones were discolored, and the swollen flesh around his eyes had turned an
ugly shade of purple. There was a deep cut
above one eyebrow and another at the corner of his mouth.
Gilmore sent Hannah a censuring look. “I
didn’t order the beatings. Once I turned Wind
Rider over to Colonel Chivington and the Colorado militia it was taken out of my hands. Chivington wants information badly, and he
believes Wind Rider can give it to him.”
By now Hannah had finished bathing Ryder’s
face and was turning her attention to his torso,
still bare from the waist up. When she ran the cloth over his ribs he groaned.
“His ribs are broken,” Hannah accused. “How
could they do this to a helpless man?”
“I told you, Hannah, I had nothing to
do with it. I understand Wind Rider has
been questioned daily since his capture. He
was also examined by a doctor, who con
firmed that he is blind. This isn’t my doing;
I had no idea Chivington’s men would be so brutal/’
Tears streamed down Hannah’s pale cheeks. “You could have stopped them! You must have
known what would happen.”
Placing his hands on Hannah’s quaking shoulders, Gilmore tried to lift her to her feet.
“It’s out of my hands, Hannah.”
Hannah shrugged his hands aside. “You can do something, Trent; I know you can. Please,
help him.”
Gilmore gazed down at Hannah, thinking
her more beautiful than any woman he’d ever known. He wanted her as much now as he had the first time he’d set eyes on her in that Indian
camp. “Perhaps there
is
something I could do,”
he allowed cautiously.
“Hannah, don’t. Don’t believe anything he
tells you.” Bordering on the edge of conscious
ness, Ryder struggled to make himself understood. “Don’t worry about me. Go back to the
farm.”
“Tell them what they want to know, Ryder,
please. I can’t stand to see you like this.”
Ryder tried to rise to his elbow, grimaced,
and fell back down. “I will not betray the People
.”
“Think of yourself for a change. Think of
me!” She almost said, “Think of our child,”
but now was not the time to let Ryder know
he was going to be a father.
“Come away, Hannah. There is nothing more
you can do for him. He can escape these beat
ings if he tells us what we want to know.”
“He’ll never do that. You don’t know Ryder as I do.”
The words had scarcely left her lips when
two enlisted men entered the cell. Surprised
to see visitors with the prisoner, they stared at
Hannah before recalling protocol and saluting Lieutenant Gilmore.
“We’re here to interrogate the prisoner again,
Lieutenant,” the senior enlisted man said. “We
didn’t expect to find anyone here.”
Gilmore returned the salute. “Sergeant Collins, Corporal Holmes. We were just leaving.”
Hannah leaped to her feet. “No! You can’t beat him again. Can’t you see he can’t stand
anymore? You’ll kill him.”
The sergeant, a husky man with meaty fists
and a thick neck, gave her a leering grin. “Well, now, ma’am, that’s just too bad, ain’t it? Our
orders come from Colonel Chivington, and
we’re only doing our duty. Are you this here white Injun’s squaw?”