Tender savage (31 page)

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"I am Song of the Wren, but you must tell no one that I am the one who has spoken to you about Viper. No onel"

She reached out to grip his arm tightly, and Mark did no more than look down at her hand until she released him of her own accord. "I understand. If I give you the money, you can tell everyone you earned it by being my whore." With that rude farewell, he left her among the trees and returned to Camp Release. Seeing John Other Day talking with a group of troopers, he called him over.

"Is there a Lower Sioux by the nameof Vip>er?" he asked without making an attempt to disguise the anger of his mood.

Other Day knew, as all the others did, that Captain Randall was seeking news of his fiancee. "Yes, there is such a brave. He is cunning and quick. If you meet him, be very careful. He would make the worst of enemies."

"I thank you for your warning. I won't forget it." Viper's existence confirmed, Mark went straight to Sibley's headquarters.

Colonel Sibley listened with interest as Mark requested f)ermission to take a search party out to scour the area near New Ulm for captives. "Of course, take as many men as you need. There are so many people still unaccounted for, you are bound to find someone m need of rescue. I hop>e one of them is your fiancee. I am looking forward to meeting her. We all are."

Mark rose quickly to his feet, anxious to be on his way. "Thank you, sir. She is a lovely young woman, and I am certain she will enjoy meeting you, too." He could not face the prospect that she might be changed in any way. As Mark left to make the arrangements to get his search party under way, he could not get Wren's comments about Erica out of his mind. Erica was an enchanting creature. Men always found her appealing, but could she actually have bewitched a cunning Indian brave by the name of Viper? He needed only a moment's reflection to decide she could have done such a thing for only one purpose: to save her life and come back to him. He swore to himself that no matter what wretched thing she had done, or been forced to do, he would still make her his wife, and proudly.

Erica sat crosslegged on the grass at the side of the house, the striped tomcat cradled in her lap as she watched Viper chop wood. He worked with an effortless ease, swinging the axe with a lazy rhythm, splitting the logs without appearing to feel the slightest bit of strain. As usual, his chest was bare, and she found the sight of his muscular body as deeply pleasurable as his charming company. "Since gathering wood for the fire is the woman's responsibility, I'm surprised you did not tell me to chop « the firewood for the winter," she teased happily.

Laughing with her, Viper paused for a moment to rest. "Gathering wood is women's work," he agreed. "But since white women insist upon living in houses and cooking on cast iron stoves, they need logs to burn. What would you say if I told you to go out and gather logs?"

"I would say that I might be gone a very long time." They often talked about the differences between his life and hers, but it was always with humor, never with one insisting the other's way of doing things was wrong.

"It would not take you long to find a man to do your work," Viper responded with a sly grin. "Just be careful he does not ask to be paid before the work is done."

"And how would you expect me to pay him?" Erica scratched the cat's ears playfully, but her eyes never left her handsome husband's face.

"With money, of course. How else?" Yet Viper's

suggestive glance said there were far more intriguing possibilities than his teasing question implied.

"I think I am very lucky you are willing to chop the wood," Erica remarked with an enchanting smile.

"Yes, you should remember that." Viper picked up the next log and placed it on the stump, eager to finish his day's work so he and his wife could get on to far more exciting things. He looked up often and smiled, silently promising the delights he planned for them to share soon.

Nearby, Mark Randall raised his hand, preparing to signal his men to move up into position. They could hear the sound of someone chopping wood as they approached the house stealthily, and while the possibility that an Indian brave would be doing such a chore struck him as ridiculous, the newly promoted captain was nonetheless primed to discover just who was. This farmhouse was the last along the Cottonwood River, and if they did not find Erica here, Mark had no idea where else to look. At his command, from either end of the house armed troopers moved out swiftly to encircle Erica and her husband. Their rifles aimed for Viper's heart, they instantly blocked any escape the brave might try and make.

'Throw down the axe," Mark called out loudly, so excited by the unexf)ectedly delightful sight of the woman he adored that he could not possibly speak below a shout. That she was dressed in a buckskin dress and moccasins, with gruesome necklaces of strange claws around her neck, shocked him, but he was thankful she had obviously been treated far better than the pitiful captives he had met at Camp Release. "Get up. Erica, and come here to me." Having once glanced in her direction, Mark kept his Colt revolver trained on Viper. "I said, drop the axe," he called out again, infuriated that the brave had not immediately followed his order.

"Mark? Is that you?" His hat partially shaded his face, but she recognized his voice instantly. Erica could scarcely believe her eyes, she was so startled by the sudden appearance of her former fiance and a dozen armed soldiers. "Tell your men to drop their rifles instead," she directed as she leaped to her feet and sent the tomcat

scurrying. "This man is my husband, and you've no reason to threaten to shoot him."

Since he was the only husband Mark intended Erica to have, he dismissed her claim as some absurd delusion resulting from the ordeal of her captivity. "Whatever desperate game you've been forced to play, it's over. Erica. This man is under arrest. I've promised to bring him in alive to stand trial for his part in the uprising, but if he doesn't drop that axe this minute, I will forget that pledge and take his body back instead."

While Erica's manner of dress had shocked him, Mark was totally unprepared to accept this man as one called Viper. His imagination had painted a far different picture of the savage, whom he had expected to be repulsive in the extreme. This Indian, however, was powerfully built, if lean, with features so finely chiseled that not even his unruly mane of coal-black hair marred the elegance of his appearance. That his eyes were a light, pale gray was also astonishing, but their unusual color did not hide the arrogance of his glance. Not about to allow that unspoken challenge to go unanswered, Mark called again to Erica.

"Come here to me so his blood does not splatter all over you when I shoot him. Even if he does not speak English, he must understand what it is I told him to do."

While she thought Mark was merely bluffing, when Viper kept a firm grip on the axe handle Erica did not allow the men's idiotic standoff to continue. She rushed to Viper's side and wrenched the axe from his hand. Carrying it over to Mark, she dropped it at his feet. "There, you have the blasted axe. Now stop bullying my husband. He's committed no crime and there's no need to take him anywhere for trial. Tell your men to drop their rifles. Put your pistol away, too, and I'll be happy to introduce you."

Mark took his eyes off Viper only briefly to glance down at the woman he loved. Her hair was loose, the blond curls tumbling down over her shoulders, and he thought she looked ridiculous in buckskins adorned with pnmitive jewelry when a woman of her fair beauty belonged in fine silks and satins worn with precious jewels. "I thought you might need clothes, so I've brought some for you. I'll unpack them while you bathe." He then turned to the man standing at his right.

"Sergeant, take the Indian's knife, tie him up, and keep him under guard. We'll leave for Camp Release at dawn, and I don't want to have to waste any more time looking for him."

"Markl" Erica couldn't abide the high-handed manner in which he was treating them. Gesturing toward Vif>er, she attempted again to explain their true situation. "Have you suddenly gone deaf? This man is my husband. I will not allow you to tie him up. You have no right to do that. He's not done anything wrong." Before Mark could catch her, she dashed back to Viper's side and wrapped her arms around his waist. "You'll have to tie us up together, because I won't let you treat him like a criminal when he's done nothing wrong,"

Mark gestured with his Colt, bringing the ring of troopers m a step closer. "If he's innocent, then he'll have no reason to fear a trial. Step aside or I will tie you up, too, but not with him. Now movel"

In response. Viper slipped his arm around Erica's waist and pulled her closer to his side. The insolence of that gesture was more than Mark could bear, and with a nod to the man directly behind Viper, he issued a terse order. "Knock him out."

Erica screamed as the butt of the soldier's rifle slammed into the back of Viper's head. With her standing in his arms, the Indian had had no chance to dodge that vicious blow, and he fell forward into the dust, unconscious.

The horrified blonde knelt by her husband's side, her tears falling uF)on his cheek as she felt for the pulse in his throat. Reassured he had not been killed, she began to scream hysterically at Mark. "How dare you treat him so? How dare you? He has done nothing to deserve such a beating."

"I want him securely tied," Mark repeated to the sergeant. He then shoved his revolver into his holster, went to Erica's side, and yanked her to her feet. When she struggled to break free, he swung her up into his arms, and as his troops cheered, he carried her into the small house and tossed her down upon the feather bed. Before she could spring to her feet, he slung his hat aside and fell across her. Grabbing her wrists, he effectively subdued her efforts to flee before he spoke.

"You needn't tell me what's happened to you. It's more than plain, but it's over. Do you understand me? It's over. That savage will be put on trial, and you will go home with me to Wilmington. This is all my fault, not yours, so I'm not blaming you. Now if you will promise to stop fighting me, I'll let you go."

Seething with rage. Erica barely heard Mark's words. "Let me go, you bastard!" she screamed. He was much too heavy to dislodge from the bed, far too strong for her to escape, but she did her damnedest to do it. "Get off mel" she shrieked.

"Did you ever say that to your redskinned lover?" Already knowing the answer, Mark lowered his mouth to hers, stifling her stream of insults with the hungry kisses he had waited far too long to give. When Erica did not respond, but instead stiffened rebelliously, he gave up the effort to turn her anger to passion, but he did not release her, nor move away.

"This husband of yours, where did you marry him?" Mark asked accusingly.

Jolted to reality by the full import of that question, Erica turned her head away as she stubbornly refused to answer. In my heart, she whispered silently to herself, in my very soul, but not in any ceremony Mark would recognize or understand. Hot tears of despair poured down her cheeks as she thought how cruelly he had treated the man she loved. "I am sorry. I know this must be an awful shock for you, but Viper truly is my husband."

Seeing her apology was sincere, Mark sat up and pulled the weeping blonde into his arms. While he had searched for her, he had repeatedly promised himself that he would not blame her or lose his temper with her, no matter what she had been forced to endure, but he had failed miserably in that vow. He patted her back and hugged her tightly as he pressed his lips to her temple. Her fair skin was now lightly tanned and wet from her tears, but as delightfully soft as he had remembered it to be. "The brave kidnapped you from New Ulm, Erica. There were witnesses, your cousin, for one. I've spoken to him, and he told me Vipjer carried you off kicking and screaming. That was no elopement, but a brazen abduction."

Unable to deny the apparent truth of his words, Erica

snuggled down in Mark's arms, hoping with all her heart she could make him understand what had really happened. "Gunter is all right, then? What about my aunt and uncle?"