The Darkest Heart (49 page)

“Do it anyway,” Bradley said. “Thank you, Sergeant.”

He rode into the stronghold at twilight, with a searching gaze. Of course she didn’t know he was returning tonight. It was not like the arrival of a war party, the news of which flew through the camp, although certainly the sentries at the stronghold’s entrance would be relaying news of his return privately to Cochise. He urged the black into a lope. His heart was thudding in excitement. He couldn’t wait to see her face when he told her it was over—that they were leaving and would be building a new life together in Texas. He was sure Candice would love Texas.

He dismounted at the
gohwah
to find Datiye coming up to him, smiling, taking his horse from him. As she led the black away, giving him a warm look, he got a glimpse of his son. Shoshi was awake, his eyes bright, at a new stage where he was starting to absorb all the stimuli around him. He seemed to smile at his father. Savage a felt a pang of regret to be leaving him behind.

“Candie,” Jack called, stepping into their g
ohwah
. He stepped back out, then walked over to Datiye. “How’s my boy?” he said crooningly, lifting him out of the cradleboard. Shoshi squirmed, fists flying against his father’s face. “He’s bigger already,” Jack said, startled.

“He will be big and brave, like his father,” Datiye said, her eyes intent on his face. “You must be hungry.”

“Starved. Where’s Candice?”

“I do not know,” Datiye said. “I have not seen her for days.”

Savage straightened, a sudden sense of warning shooting through him. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Sometimes we go days without seeing each other,” Datiye replied evenly. “You know that.”

His jaw clenched. That was impossible, not unless Candice was furious over something and was going out of her way to avoid Datiye. “I’m going to go find her,” he said. “I’ll eat when we get back.”

“I found this yesterday,” Datiye said, her face impassive,
holding out a piece of buckskin, a square scrap. “It has white man’s writing on it, I think.”

He took it and saw that it did indeed have writing on it, scrawled in charcoal. He went to the fire and squatted down by the light. His heart stopped.

“Jack, I’ve taken Christina and left you. By the time you get this I will be en route East. Don’t bother coming after me. It’s over. You can’t give Christina and me what we need … C.”

He sat there staring at the crude, cruel note, feeling as if his heart had been ripped out of his body. She had left him—run away. Taken Christina. He couldn’t believe it.

He stood. “When the hell did you find this?”

Datiye flinched. “Yesterday.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

Datiye thought. “Not today, maybe not yesterday. But definitely the night before.”

He stared at her, suddenly alert to some nuance in her tone. “What are you hiding from me? Did you know she was leaving me?”

She hesitated. “No.”

“You knew!” He was sure of it then, saw the lie in her eyes. He grabbed her, raising his hand, about to backhand her with all the pain and rage he was feeling. She didn’t flinch. He caught himself just in time and dropped his hand, clenching his fist tightly. “Tell me everything, Datiye, now. If you don’t—I will beat it out of you.”

“She wanted to go,” Datiye suddenly cried. “After she saved Shoshi, I could not refuse her help when she asked me for it—especially when she asked in the Apache way. How could I refuse?”

“Damn you,” Jack snarled. He paced rigidly. “When? When did she leave?”

“Before dawn, the morning after you left,” Datiye said.

“Four days,” he gritted. “She’s had four days headstart!” He wanted to kill her. “If anything’s happened to her …”

“It is her right to divorce you,” Datiye said defensively.

“Just like it’s my right to divorce you!” Jack said harshly. He was too angry to care. She had betrayed him, and helped Candice to leave, possibly jeopardizing her and Christina’s
life. He would never forgive her; even now he could barely look at her.

“Please,” she said softly. “I could not refuse her.”

“You owed me more than you owed her,” Jack said coldly. “I am going to find her, Datiye, and when I do, Candice and I will be leaving—forever.”

“No,” she said.

“Be glad I leave our son with you. Because it’s almost in my heart to deny you even him.”

Datiye blinked back tears. “She is not worth your love.”

“Maybe not, and you’re probably right—but she has it anyway.” He went and resaddled the black. He had to leave that night. Had she really gone East? With what money? No! By now she would be at the High C. He hoped. And if she wasn’t at the High C, she was in trouble—maybe dead.

Don’t think of that!

He remembered with utter clarity how he had found her almost a year ago, lying more dead than alive in the desert. And then she hadn’t had an infant with her. He tried to shut out the horrible image. The fool! If he found her he’d beat the hell out of her!

You can’t give us what we need
.

He inhaled sharply. God, she had left him. She had made a choice and left him. How could she have done it? Couldn’t she have trusted him? Loved him enough to trust him?
She didn’t love him
.

It didn’t matter. She was a fool to think he’d let her go, no matter what her feelings were. Not now. He was too selfish to live without her, even if she hated him. He would get her back. And this time he would win her heart if it took the rest of his life.

“Are you coming back?” Datiye asked fearfully.

“I will come back, to say good-bye to Shoshi,” Jack told her grimly.

“My brother leaves again so soon?” Cochise asked, stepping out of the shadows.

He stared harshly. “It is done. Morris is dead. Now I must go after my wife.” He almost spat out the last word.

“I know,” Cochise said seriously.

Jack stared. “You know she is gone?”

“I found out a short time ago that she is at Fort Buchanan.”

“What?” He was stunned.

“A scout returned with the news he read in a sign. My scouts at the fort recognized Sun Daughter immediately. How could they not?”

“Yes, how could they not?” Jack gritted under his breath. Why was she at the fort? She couldn’t … she wouldn’t.… “What happened?”

“The soldiers found her riding west. They do not let her go.”

“She is a prisoner?”

“I don’t know,” Cochise replied.

If they knew who she was, if they knew of her relationship to him … Jack’s heart was thundering.

“She has betrayed you, her husband,” Cochise said. “Will she betray me, and my people?”

“She knows nothing,” Jack said tersely.

Would she betray them? She had already betrayed him. Pain seared him. He should have known. How could he have trusted her? How could he have been fooled into thinking she could adapt to her abduction, especially with Datiye here? Had the entire past seven months been a masquerade, leading up to this—her betrayal?

No!

But he was sick with uncertainty. He swung into the saddle.

“You should let her go,” Cochise said. “No woman is worth betrayal.”

“I can’t,” he said.

Candice knew he was lying.

She stared out of the window of the major’s quarters. The day had dragged endlessly. It was sometime past noon, and there was nothing for her to do in the fort except to take care of Christina and read the major’s books. He had joined her again for lunch, and as he had been the night before at supper, he was a perfect gentlemen, except when his eyes drifted downward to her bosom. Not once had he brought up Cochise, Jack, or the wars. In fact, they had talked of everything but those three topics, and Candice had the distinct impression he was luring her into a feeling of complacency before springing the jaws of a deadly trap. But why? Exactly what cud he want? Did he really think she had information? Did he see through her façade? Did he know she loved Jack, not hated him?

She was sure he had lied when he told her there were no men available for a proper escort home. It was true that there did not seem to be very many men within the fort, but there were at least a dozen. Where were the others? Out on patrol? Maybe he meant that there were no trustworthy ones, or no officers available. She didn’t think so. She had a bad feeling, a feeling of dread. He was toying with her the way a cat does with a mouse. She wished he would ask her what he wanted to know and get it over with.

Had Jack returned to the Apache camp yet and found her gone?

Unconsciously she clapped a hand over her bosom as if to ease the ache there. A knock sounded on her door, and Candice went to open it. Corporal Tarnower smiled at her. “Missus Kincaid. The major has requested your presence, if you’re not too busy.”

She almost laughed, but instead smiled sweetly. “Certainly.” She picked up Christina, who had just been fed and put down. The baby whimpered in her sleep and then was still. Candice followed the corporal across the dry, dusty parade ground and to the adjutant’s office. She was glad the waiting was over.

The major smiled warmly, too warmly. “Please, Candice, do sit down.”

Candice sat, her daughter in her arms.

“Why don’t you let Corporal Tarnower look after the baby for a few moments? She seems quite soundly asleep.”

Reluctantly Candice agreed, handing Christina to a surprisingly eager Tarnower, who exited. She turned her full attention on Major Bradley.

“Tell me about your captivity, Candice,” the major said, sitting casually on the edge of his desk.

“What would you like to know?”

“How did you spend your days?”

Making love with Jack, she thought wickedly, but refrained from saying so. “I helped with the preparing of food. We were always drying all sorts of roots and stems and berries for storage. I would say preparing, cooking, and storing food takes up eighty percent of an Apache woman’s time.”

He started asking her specific questions about the items she had prepared, and Candice was sure he was not interested in Apache culture. However, she answered as best she could.

“An abundant land for those who know what to look for,” he said later, casually. “Gathering must have been tiring work.”

“Yes … I mean, I suppose so, I wouldn’t know, though,” Candice said, wondering if he’d caught her mistake. She had almost agreed that gathering was hard work—which was an admission that she’d been out of the stronghold.

He studied her, then smiled.

“Tell me about Cochise.”

“I saw him only from a distance, a few times.”

Again he tried to trap her. This time Candice refused to be lulled into confidence, and successfully avoided a comment designed to lead her into an admission of having conversed with the Chiricahua chief. Bradley swiftly moved on, without a pause. He asked questions about the morale of the Apaches, and Candice was relieved to be able to answer honestly that it seemed fine.

“Will Jack Savage come after you again?”

She started, then a glimmer of comprehension dawned. He was using her as bait! Jack would come after her, she knew it, deep inside, and maybe she had expected that all along.
Maybe she had hoped her leaving would jolt him to his senses and he would choose her over the Apaches. Yes, she had known he would follow her, just as Bradley somehow knew, and that’s why he was keeping her there—it was a trap! “I doubt it,” she said unevenly, beginning to perspire.

“Sometimes you lie very well, and sometimes not so well, as now.”

She sucked in her breath. “A rude remark.”

“A dozen expressions crossed your face, including comprehension and fear. For whom are you afraid, Candice? I doubt it’s for yourself or your child—or are you afraid of him? Savage?”

“Yes,” she cried, jumping at that explanation.

“Or are you afraid
for
him?”

“I hate him,” she cried. “I live for the day that bastard is hanged!”

He smiled. “Then you have no objection to remaining as my guest a few more days?”

She swallowed. “None.” Could she sneak away at night? And how would Jack even know she was there?

This time Bradley did not change the topic. He wanted to know how many war parties she had seen ride out, how many were in the parties, how many braves were in the tribe. Candice lied constantly. She refused to give an accurate picture of the Chiricahua strength. She found herself underestimating their numbers when pressed beyond an initial “I don’t know.” She could barely believe what she was doing: lying to the United States Army. They were in a war. She was, with her lies, aiding the enemy. But she couldn’t tell him the truth! And thank God she didn’t know where the stronghold was.

Of course they came back to that topic Almost an hour and a half must have passed. Candice was too tense to worry about Christina, although the child was always in the back of her mind. In a little while she would be hungry. How long was this going to go on?

“You rode into the stronghold in the light of day after Savage abducted you.”

“Yes.”

“Surely you can estimate how far south from the pass the entrance was.”