Stacey Kayne Read online

  “I can’t stay. I’ve already lost two days.”

  Running Bear crossed his arms. “You will search for lost days tomorrow,” he decided.

  “Don’t pull the chieftain bit with me,” Jed said, shoving Running Bear off balance. “I’m not too old to pluck a few feathers from your headdress.”

  Running Bear laughed, and nudged Jed forward, toward the sweat lodge. “You will rest, and cleanse your body of illness.”

  Silently determined to get his way, Jed allowed Running Bear to lead him to the dome-shaped hut, giving a greeting to friends and relatives along the way. As they neared the sweat lodge, he gazed out at his horse hobbled in the meadow.

  “Sage isn’t known to be friendly to anyone other than me. I hope he wasn’t too much trouble.”

  Running Bear frowned as he glanced at the large buckskin. “Friendly like angry snake. Only Imp touch bastard horse.”

  “Rachell?” Jed said in disbelief. “My saddle alone must be twice her weight.”

  Running Bear laughed as he gave a nod. “She strong like ant.”

  Jed grinned, feeling a touch of pride, which dissolved the moment he realized Running Bear still believed Rachell to be his wife. Before he could say otherwise, Running Bear ducked into the lodge. The moment Jed followed him into the hot muggy climate, he knew this was a bad idea. He knew just as well that Running Bear would not rest until Jed had purified his body with a good hard sweat.

  By the time he sat before the hot stones, Jed was dizzy. Running Bear lifted a ladle filled with water from a pail and poured it over the superheated stones. White steam rose in a crackling hiss of evaporating moisture. He dipped the ladle back into the water and held it out to Jed.

  “You drink,” he instructed. “Imp is good match for you,” he said as Jed took a swallow of cool water. “Her spirit is bright.”

  “She’s not really my wife.” He tossed the ladle back into the pail of water. “She’s tangled up with this guy by the name of Sumner and I—”

  “You steal Imp from another man?” Running Bear’s face contorted with shock.

  “No,” Jed said in a short laugh. “She’s not Sumner’s wife. She’s not really mine either.”

  “Imp say you marry,” Running Bear insisted, visibly displeased by Jed’s announcement.

  “We’re married but—”

  “Imp is your wife,” Running Bear said with a firm nod.

  “No, she’s a woman stuck in my care until I can deliver her safely to Buck. You remember Judge Widell?”

  A lethal glint came into his dark eyes.

  “Figured you would,” Jed drawled. “That four-week jail sentence he gave us back in Texas was pure justice compared to the ruling I got last week. Rachell and I ran into Widell in Colorado. He took it upon himself to hitch us together, despite our protests. You know how unpredictable Widell can be when he’s wielding that gavel. I lit out of there before I ended up with a noose around my neck for murdering an elderly judge. Rachell was madder than a wet hen when she left that saloon with my last name. She hadn’t known me for a full day, and she sure hadn’t liked me one bit up to that point.”

  Running Bear’s frown deepened. Both men studied the tendrils of steam rising from the rocks until Running Bear broke the long silence, saying a single word.

  “Malika.”

  Nothing else could have summed up Jed’s situation. Jed raised his knees, folded his arms over them and lowered his throbbing head.

  Running Bear poured more water over the stones, surrounding them in a hissing white mist. “Not the same,” he said.

  Jed felt a tap on his arm. Lifting his head, he saw the ladle of water being held out to him.

  “Drink,” Running Bear ordered. “Imp is your wife,” he said, waiting until Jed had a mouth full of water.

  Jed met the stubborn gaze of the large Ute beside him. “I’ve known the woman a week. I didn’t intentionally lead you to believe she was my wife.”

  “You fight for her.”

  “I had to. She’s Buck’s sister-in-law. I gave my word I’d get her safely to California,” Jed said, telling himself that was the only reason.

  Jed didn’t like the slow smile spreading across Running Bear’s face.

  “You feel nothing of love for this woman with hair of fire?”

  “I hardly know her, and what would I know about love?”

  He shifted uneasily under Running Bear’s steady glare.

  “I’m not sayin’ she’s not a fine woman. I’m sayin’ she’s not my woman.”

  She’s not my woman, he silently repeated, trying to make that fact stick in his mind.

  “My vision complete,” Running Bear said in a confident tone. “Imp is your mate.”

  Jed groaned and ran his hand across his jaw. His calloused palm grated across coarse stubble.

  Damnation. I must have chafed the soft skin of Rachell’s face. What had gotten into him? Rachell was Buck’s sister-in-law. She was too damn young for him. Yet no woman had ever had such a pull on his self control, not since Malika. But with Malika, she’d always been the aggressor. Rachell didn’t do anything but smile, which worked on his self control like fire to a haystack.

  He had to get out of here today. The sooner he unloaded the woman onto Buck the better. He didn’t want to complicate what was already a rotten situation. Physical attraction was nothing to base a marriage on. He and Malika had proven that.

  His refusal to bed his Indian bride the night of their union had nothing to do with his lack of attraction to her. She’d been a beautiful young woman. He’d noted that fact often enough during the three days he and his friends had escorted her and Running Bear to their camp. He’d also noted the grave sadness in her large coffee-shaded eyes. Running Bear had told him the brave she was to marry had died trying to protect her.

  Jed was certain Malika’s father had reasons for marrying them the way he had, but Jed refused to bed her. He supposed now that he’d only prolonged the inevitable. He’d been raised around Indian culture and even at nineteen, he wasn’t a man who turned away from his responsibility. Like it or not, Malika was his wife. When he’d left their camp, she went with him.

  He’d shown nothing but patience and kindness to his young bride, but he couldn’t win with Malika. She paid him no more notice than a grain of sand, unless she was raving at him, finding fault in his every word and action. In her next breath, she would demand he make her his wife. Eventually he’d given up, figuring she hated him so much because she couldn’t find a valid reason not to like him. When he’d awakened one night with Malika hovering over him, he’d given her all she’d been asking for.

  There had been no question of the passion they’d ignited in each other. And afterward, she had hated him all the more for it. But her anger didn’t slow the flood of desire when they touched. He came to expect her cold moods and accusing glares, knowing she struggled with her own guilt over the man she’d betrothed her love to. He’d done his best to try to make her happy. The day he’d watched her run headlong into gunfire, he realized he’d failed miserably.

  “Imp is not Malika.”

  Jed met Running Bear’s piercing stare, and quickly averted his gaze. His Ute brother was too perceptive, and probably knew him better than anyone. “You think I don’t know that?”

  “My sister’s death has long shadowed your heart. Imp will bring life to your spirit. Time of mourning is past.”

  “This has nothing to do with her. Malika has been gone for eighteen years.”

  “Eighteen years and you have not taken a mate. Eighteen years and you do not find peace.”

  Jed mumbled a few harsh words.

  Running Bear didn’t doubt his anger. Jed never allowed talk of Malika, but much needed to be said. “We ride together many seasons, tracking the men who thirst for blood of others. We kill every one to avenge Malika and still you find no peace. The law of your people find you guilty of no crime. You find guilt in yourself.”

  Jed’s rage-filled ey
es met his gaze.

  “You fear Malika chose death.”

  The anguish in Jed’s expression told Running Bear he’d guessed correctly.

  “I tell you, she did not.”

  Jed shook his head, not believing.

  “My sister did not choose death.”

  “You weren’t there,” he ground out, dropping his head back down to his arms.

  “I know my sister.”

  “Then why did she go to the mine?” Jed asked, his expression hidden in the folds of his arms. “She knew I didn’t give a damn about any pilfered gold. Hell, we were planning to leave within the week.”

  “Were you not heading to the mines to warn boys called O’Conner of danger?”

  “I was, but she couldn’t have known that.”

  “She could hear gunfire from your cabin, yes?”

  “I told her to stay away!”

  “My sister was great warrior. Even faced with death, she would not run.”

  Jed met Running Bear’s gaze. “She didn’t run away. She ran full-force into a steady stream of gunfire.”

  “If she believed you to be captured, do you think she would not fight for you?”

  Jed opened his mouth as though to respond, but no words came. He clamped his jaw shut and looked away.

  Running Bear drizzled more water over the stones. “You fight the truth, brother. You gave Malika love she longed to return, but could not. She would give you no less than her life.”

  Jed’s elbows dropped to his folded legs, his fingers rubbed firmly at his temples. Running Bear glanced back at the steam rising from the stones, pleased by all he’d been able to say.

  “Imp will bring your spirit peace.”

  “She’s brought my spirit nothin’ but trouble.”

  “No. Your spirit have much trouble already. I see sunlight in your Imp.”

  “You see her damn red hair!”

  Running Bear grinned. “I see light to brighten your spirit and bring you peace. Why do you fight it?”

  “Those Apache we ran into, were they looking for your camp?”

  “Perhaps,” he said with a shrug, accepting Jed’s refusal to answer.

  “You been having trouble?”

  “With Apache, no. They steal my horses. Blue Coats are my trouble. They herd my people like horses and steal our land.”

  “Why haven’t you sent word to me? Who’s been coming out here, agents or cavalry?”

  Running Bear smiled. “You fight for me in many battles. Now we fight our own.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Jed persisted.

  The rest of their conversation centered around government agents, sour treaties, and the possible solutions and rebellions being discussed amongst various tribes.

  As Jed rose to leave the sweat lodge, he found he barely had the energy to stand. He had truly hoped to head out by afternoon, needing to get to Shadow Canyon well before Sumner.

  That overgrown Ute intentionally drained me, he thought as he followed Running Bear into the sunlight. A light breeze felt cool against his heated skin. Running Bear had given him just enough water to remain conscious.

  Jed started toward the river for a much needed bath when a glimpse of red caught his attention.

  Good God.

  Rachell was walking towards him. Her gaze was on Running Bear’s wife, her smile bright, her dark auburn hair secured in two long braids, and her dainty body clad in the buckskin britches and shirt he’d asked Red-Flower-That-Grows-In-Snow to provide.

  His body surged with heat as his eyes moved over the warm curves he’d measured in his hands. His gaze settled on soft pink lips still swollen from his kisses. Rachell stopped in her tracks as she caught his gaze. Her smile faltered. Red-Flower-That-Grows-In-Snow took her by the arm and tugged her along until she stood directly in front of him.

  Rachell’s cheeks flushed to a brilliant pink as she met his gaze with clear reluctance. “Snow Flower brought them to me,” she said, obviously noting his reaction to her clothes. “I didn’t understand what she said, but I assumed she wanted me to put them on.”

  Jed was thankful Rachell didn’t speak the Ute language. She surely wouldn’t have appreciated knowing that Running Bear’s wife had given her clothes she’d made for her young son. Although, the buckskin pants took a whole new form on Rachell’s feminine body, defining her small waist and the curve of her hips all too well.

  “Snow Flower is implying that you want to leave today,” Rachell continued. “You need to rest.”

  What he needed was to get away from her. Anxious to divert his gaze, Jed glanced over at Running Bear. “Snow Flower, huh?”

  “I make short for Imp.”

  “Her name isn’t Snow Flower?” Rachell asked.

  “Close,” Jed said, smiling at the sweet woman who put up with his annoying Ute brother. “In our language her full name would be Red-Flower-That-Grows-In-Snow.” Jed allowed his gaze to stray back to Rachell. He told himself the cool morning breeze caused the prickling sensation sweeping across his sweat-slickened body, not the warm concern in Rachell’s eyes as she gazed up at him.

  “Has your fever returned?” she asked as she advanced on him in a rush, rising onto her tiptoes as she reached a palm toward his forehead.

  “No,” he said, silently ordering himself to step back, away from her touch, her scent, but his feet stayed planted on the ground.

  “You’re warm.”

  “We just came from the sweat lodge,” he explained, releasing a silent sigh of relief as Rachell stepped back.

  “Are you insane? Jed, you need to be drinking water, not sweating it out!”

  “I was drinking water. And I don’t need a nursemaid.”

  “Just because you’re a mountain of muscle,” she said, punctuating each word by poking a finger at his chest, “doesn’t mean you’re invincible. You nearly died yesterday.”

  “I’m sure it wasn’t all that serious.”

  Her green eyes flared. “Your fever very nearly fried your brain. I know, because I’m the one who spent endless hours sponging water all over your miserable unconscious body. If I’d known you’d just bake yourself after my troubles, I wouldn’t have wasted my tears and prayers!”

  The image of her toiling over his rotten hide made him feel damned guilty. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “You’re absolutely right.”

  “I—” Her mouth snapped shut. She blinked several times. “What?”

  Jed tried to bite back a smile, and failed. She had the most animated expressions. “I said you’re right. I do appreciate all you did for me. I shouldn’t have gone into the sweat lodge. I’ve had a proper scolding. Can I go now?”

  She lowered her gaze toward the bandages at his waist. “I didn’t mean to shout at you.”

  “I deserved it,” he said, his body coiling with tension as he watched her eyes move over his damp skin. She met his gaze long enough for Jed to see the approval of what she’d been gaping at and the spark of raw desire that burned in the wake of her silent praise.

  Jed suddenly wondered if it was his loss of blood and injured side that had sapped his strength. Part of him was aching fit-to-die, but it had nothing to do with the gash in his side.

  He turned away without further comment, walking off to anywhere that was away from this woman who looked at him with passion-filled eyes. He had to get a grip on his self-control. Running Bear didn’t know what he was talking about. This imp was not for him. She was too damn young and too much damn trouble!

  From here on in, he was keeping his hands off her.

  Chapter Eleven

  After eating her afternoon meal with Snow Flower, and a few other women and children who sat at a safe distance, Rachell returned to her teepee. Exhausted from her hours of caring for Jed, she stretched out on their bedding and wrapped herself in the warm fur blanket.

  If her moody brave wanted to leave camp, he would have to wake her.

  When Rachell awoke, the lantern was burning overhead from i
ts perch high on the aspen pole. She was stunned to find that night had fallen. She sat up and stretched the knotted muscles in her back. The scent of lye lingered in the air.

  Jed had bathed, and had recently been in their teepee.

  Why hadn’t he awakened her?

  Just as she prepared to step outside, Snow Flower poked her head in. “Imp,” she said with a smile, and entered the teepee. “You stay,” she said in English.

  “Running Bear must have talked some sense into Jed,” Rachell mused. “Thank goodness.”

  Snow Flower smiled, clearly not understanding what she’d said. She motioned to the dress draped on her arm as she rattled off in her own language. She immediately waved her hand as if shooing her words from the air. She held the dress up to Rachell’s shoulders, then spoke again.

  “You want me to dress for supper.” Rachell nodded her understanding. “It’s beautiful,” she said, running a hand over the colorful, finely stitched trim at the neckline. Pretty white shells were sewn across the bottom of the skirt. Her breath caught as she saw the wide beaded sash Snow Flower held up to her waist. The tiniest of beads created a pattern of three red flowers with yellow centers and long green stems which wavered across the white belt.

  Snow Flower spoke again, saying something that included Jed’s name. By the warmth in her eyes, Rachell assumed she was speaking fondly of him.

  A short while later she followed Snow Flower from her hut, toward a huge fire blazing near the center of camp. Bundles of wood had been stacked taller than a man to create an enormous fire.

  She spotted the object of her newly budding desire sitting among the ring of people in the circular orange glow given off by the fire. He was dressed in a pair of buckskin pants and one of his ivory shirts. His freshly washed hair gleamed in the firelight. He sat beside Running Bear, talking to three women standing before him, all wearing warm, inviting smiles.

  A tad too inviting. She couldn’t see Jed’s face as she approached him from behind, but the giggling reaction of the women told her he was being particularly charming. Her muscles tightened in a sudden flash of fury.

  Our marriage may mean less than the paper it’s printed on, she thought as she stomped toward him, but for the time being, he’s legally bound to me.