Wild Desire (25 page)

“Runner, please . . .” Stephanie said, extending begging hands toward him. “Adam lied. Why can't you see that? He lied purposely to wrench us apart. And it worked. He wanted you to hate me. It's obvious that you do.”

Tears fell from her eyes. “I shall always love you,” she said. He stood glaring at her as though she were nothing more than the lowliest of animals.

“Get on your horse and ride from my village,” Runner said between clenched teeth. “Never come again. And if Adam shows his face here again—”

“Stop! Stop!” Stephanie suddenly screamed. “I'll leave. Just please quit being so angry. While you are this angry, you aren't able to think clearly. You are wrong to hate me. After you sort through your feelings, and measure Adam's words within your heart, you will know that you have been wrong to turn me away.”

She wiped tears from her eyes with the back of a hand. “I'll be waiting, darling,” she murmured. “No matter how long it takes, I'll be waiting for you.”

She turned quickly on her heel, went to her horse, and eased herself into the saddle. Without looking back, she rode from the village.

A bitterness rose into her mouth when she thought of Adam and what he had caused. She was not one who hated so easily, but at that moment, she hated her brother with a loathing that burned deep into the core of her being. Somehow, he had to pay for what he had done.

And she would find a way.

Chapter 28

Stephanie awakened with a start as her railroad car rocked on the tracks, shaking her awake. Rising to one elbow, she quickly realized that the trembling car had not been the cause of her awakening. It had been a loud blast that had preceded it. Even now she was hearing a low rumbling series of explosions.

“What on earth?” she whispered, rushing from her bed. When she got to the window, she could see a great reflection of fire in the sky not all that far away. “An explosion. Something has exploded.”

Mentally tracing the direction of the fire, and what lay in its wake, and quickly realizing that the railroad made a turn into Gallup at that exact spot, she stifled a gasp behind her hand.

The private spur. Someone had dynamited the private spur.

Or worse yet, it could be just beyond the private spur, where trains carrying passengers traveled. At present, the end of the regular line was Gallup.

A pounding on her door drew Stephanie's eyes away from the fire. Knowing that Adam had probably also been awakened by the blast, and was there to make sure that she knew what had happened, she stiffened. No matter the cause for him to come to her private car this time of day, when dawn was just breaking over the horizon, he had some nerve. Because of him she may have lost the only man that she could ever love. And she had told him that she never wanted to see him again.

Sighing heavily, knowing that he would knock until he dropped if she didn't go to the door, she swung it open. “Adam, I heard the explosion and saw the fire and I am leaving soon to see what caused it, and to see if anyone was hurt,” she said in a deliberate rush of words to be rid of him. “And I do plan to take my camera and equipment—that is, what is left of it, no thanks to you. My extra camera will have to do. Now leave me be, Adam. I don't need you to escort me to the fire.”

With that, and before she gave him a chance to say anything to her, she slammed the door in his face. She knew that she had covered all that he would be asking about, so didn't expect he would be troubling her again this morning. She had seen a sheepishness in his eyes and knew that he understood her feelings. She would never allow his boyish innocence to work with her again. She had learned long ago that it was all pretense and used only to cater to his own whims, not hers.

Although she was still numb from the long ride from Canyon de Chelley, and from Runner's continued rejection of her, Stephanie quickly dressed in a fresh skirt and blouse and yanked on her boots. She took only a few strokes through her hair with her brush, then slapped the holstered derringer around her waist. Where there was an explosion, danger could be lurking. These sorts of explosions set off at railroads were usually deliberate.

A thought came to her that made a shudder course through her veins. “The Navaho hate the railroad,” she said, stopping in midstep as she walked toward her darkroom. She paled. “Lord, don't let it be Sage or any of his people. Haven't they had enough to contend with without the law breathing down their necks?”

Shaking off the dread, she hurried and packed up her supplies, grabbed up her one last tripod, and stepped outside into a beautiful dawn. Only one thing scarred the loveliness of the morning: the stench that came with the black smoke from the train proved to Stephanie the extent of the fire.

“It might be a whole train,” she whispered as she secured her supplies on the back of her pack mule. Having been too tired to remove the saddle from her horse the previous evening, it was readily available for her. She ignored Adam as he arrived in a mad run from his private car, slipping his shirt on as he rushed toward her.

“Wait up, sis,” Adam shouted as Stephanie wheeled her horse around and started riding away. “Damn it, Stephanie, now is not the time to stay angry at me. We need to investigate this together!”

He stumbled into his own saddle and was soon riding at Stephanie's side. “Sis, I'm sorry for what I did,” he said. “But I did it for you. You deserve someone better than Runner. Back home, in Wichita, you can have your choice of men. Men of
means
, Stephanie. Not a man who'll be playing Indian for the rest of his life.”

Up to this point, Stephanie had stubbornly ignored him. But his last statement burned into her very soul.

She turned angry eyes toward Adam. But still she didn't say anything to him. He deserved nothing from her. His apologies meant nothing to her now. The only way they might would be if he would go and tell Runner that he had lied.

But she knew Adam well enough to realize that he would never humble himself in such a manner. He had only apologized to
her
because of what he wanted from her. He would never give up on her, it seemed.

She sank her heels into the flanks of her horse and rode on away from Adam, her thoughts centered now only on the devastation that lay ahead of her. She was close enough to be able to see that a whole train had been involved in the explosion. The train was still ablaze, pressed together like logs on a fire.

One thing that made her sigh with relief was that the train had been placed at the end of the line, just outside of Gallup, until its usual run the next day. This time of morning, not even an engineer would have been in the train. At least whoever had placed what surely had been dynamite beneath it had made sure to spare human lives.

Again her thoughts flashed to Sage, and the rage he felt toward railroads. She shook her head, to clear it of such thoughts. She did not want to think that Sage was responsible.

Another thought dug deeply into her heart:
Runner
.

He could be a good candidate for this if a judge had anything to say about it after an investigation. If it became common knowledge about Runner's hatred of Adam, and why, he could be accused of having a good reason for blowing up the train.

“Oh, no,” she whispered, as she thought of something else. “There were many witnesses at the ‘Big Tent' who saw Runner mixed up in a brawl. That could be held against him.”

Not wanting to think about Runner in this manner, not wanting to give herself cause to think it might have been his own vengeful act this morning, she centered her thoughts on taking photographs of the wreckage to take back to Wichita. She would guard them with her life, so that no judge or sheriff could get hold of them. She would take her photographs and hurry back to the train. She would develop, then hide them.

Adam drew a tight rein alongside her. They dismounted at the same time. And although Stephanie didn't want him anywhere near her, she said nothing when he set the tripod up for her, then stood back as she attached her camera to it and began taking photographs.

She tried to ignore the throngs of people who were rushing from Gallup on foot, and on horseback, to see the wrecked train. She could feel them gathering around her and Adam, and behind them.

Through the black billows of smoke, she could see them on the other side of the train.

She would take only a couple more pictures, then she would flee with them to the privacy of her car.

“It took many sticks of dynamite to do this much damage,” Adam said, his voice loud enough to carry far through the milling crowd. He looked around himself and smiled smugly, glad for the audience.

He clasped his hands behind him as he again studied the wreckage from this distance. “I wonder how the damn Indians got their hands on dynamite?” he asked in a half shout.

He looked guardedly over at Stephanie as she cast him an angry stare, glad when she returned to taking pictures.

“Of course they were stolen from the storage shed where the work gangs leave their equipment every night,” he said much more loudly when he realized that several people had edged closer, not only to watch Stephanie, but to listen to what he was saying, as he skillfully planted the blame on someone other than himself and his cohorts.

He kneaded his chin. “I wonder which Indian did it?” he said, seeing the sheriff elbowing his way through the crowd toward him. “Was it Runner? Sage? Naw. I'm sure it was Sage's rebellious son, Thunder Hawk. This could make him look like some sort of damn hero to his people. It could place another feather in his hat.”

Stephanie had heard enough. She turned to Adam. “Will you shut up?” she said, her eyes flaring angrily. “How can you hate the Navaho so much? Until we came to Arizona, you spoke kindly of them. Runner was your dearest friend. Now you condemn him? You condemn his brother?”

When she caught sight of the sheriff coming closer, her insides froze. Then she placed a hand on Adam's arm. “Help me load up my supplies,” she whispered harshly. “Adam, hurry. Help me. I don't want the sheriff confiscating my plates.”

Disgruntled, Adam assisted her. Just as she rode away, she felt a sick feeling rushing through her, for she was still close enough to hear Adam condemn Thunder Hawk. She was relieved when the sheriff just as quickly said he needed more proof, for she knew that Adam had none.

Inhaling a deep breath, she rode in a hard gallop away from the wreckage. She had gotten enough photographs of the wreckage, and knew that the Santa Fe would be grateful to have them, since they would soon begin their own investigation.

Yet she felt nothing but empty inside. The feeling of triumph, of importance, was no longer there. She felt as though everything important to her had been stripped from her life.

Without Runner, nothing else mattered.

 

 

Thunder Hawk sat back and watched Sky Dancer serving the morning meal to his mother and father, smiling proudly up at her as she handed him a platter of fried mush. Before he had even been awake she had been up, grinding meal and placing coffee on the stove for breakfast. She had said that it was not only to surprise him, to show herself worthy of being called wife, but also to surprise his parents by having them share the first breakfast of her and Thunder Hawk's marriage with them, by a way of thanking them for the generous gift of their hogan for the wedding night.

Runner and Pure Blossom had also been invited. Pure Blossom was not feeling well, so had declined the generous offer. Runner also declined.

“You truly didn't have to do this,” Leonida said, smiling over at Sky Dancer as the young woman sat down beside Thunder Hawk on a plush, white sheepskin that had been spread before the fireplace. “Sky Dancer, to have prepared so much food you surely had to be up before dawn.”

“It was most enjoyable preparing a surprise for my new in-laws,” Sky Dancer said, beaming.

“It was sweet,” Leonida said. “Thank you, darling.”

“Sky Dancer, the food is
very
good,” Thunder Hawk said, taking a large bite of sage cheese that had been melted, cut, and toasted to resemble fallen leaves. “Your mother taught you well the skills of cooking.”

“
Uke-he
, thank you, husband,” Sky Dancer said, bashfully lowering her eyes. Not yet feeling comfortable in her new surroundings, especially in Sage's company, she only toyed with the food on her plate. She hoped that once she and Thunder Hawk got settled in their own hogan, and enough days had passed for Sage to think over his son's choice of women for a wife, he would learn to accept her. She had done nothing to earn his solemn silence.

Feeling Sky Dancer's uneasiness, Thunder Hawk cast his father a troubled half glance. He frowned when he saw that Sage was still as solemn now as he had been yesterday after hearing about Thunder Hawk's marriage to Sky Dancer. His father's acceptance was far more important than his mother's.

“Sage?” Leonida said, reaching a hand to her husband's arm. “Darling? Don't you think the food was well prepared? Isn't Thunder Hawk lucky to have married someone with such skills in cooking? You know how he loves to eat.”

Sage took another bite of bread, then set his plate aside on the sheepskin beside him. He looked over at Thunder Hawk. He had waited long enough to remind him what must be done this morning, and every morning, until his education was finished.

“Thunder Hawk, you must leave for school soon this morning,” Sage finally said. “Three days have passed since you were there. You will have to work twice as hard now to catch up on what you did not learn those days you were gone to win yourself a wife.”

Leonida flinched and almost dropped her spoon when Thunder Hawk rose quickly to his feet, his plate tumbling from his lap and landing in a splat on the sheepskin. “School?” he said, gazing disbelievingly down at his father. “I did not plan to go to school today, or ever again. My duty now is to my wife. Not to books!”

Sage rose slowly to his feet, then stood over Thunder Hawk and placed his hands to his son's shoulders. “My son, your wife has nothing to do with this,” he said. “It was your father's decision long ago that you would continue your schooling to the end. I do not waver in my decision
now
.”

“I am married now,” Thunder Hawk said, trying not to overstep that boundary of obedience. “I am a
man
.” He gave a visible shudder. “Only children attend school.”

“Yes, you are a man,” Sage said softly. “But you will be a better man once you have finished your education.” He eased his hands from Thunder Hawk's shoulders and gestured toward the door. “If you leave now, you will have time to reach the school before the last bell rings.”

Thunder Hawk's eyes widened. He knew that any further argument would get him nowhere, and he did not want to look any more foolish in front of his wife than he already did. It was incredible to him that his ploy had not worked, that having a wife meant nothing at all to his father.