Chapter Eighty-Six
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 gohwah. 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.