The Wildest Heart

He took my silence for consent, and his voice seemed to rustle in the stillness. “Your father and I spoke of peace. It surprises you? The Apache are few, and every day there are more of the white-eyes who come to settle on our old hunting grounds. In a rage against this our young men raid and kill, but for every white man we kill, two or three more come, and more soldiers with more guns. I am an old man and I see what must happen in the end. If we cannot make peace with the white man, the day of the Apache is ended. And so your father, my brother, and I would speak of such things. He made many writings in books, which he said he would leave for you. He knew that his days were not long, but when his daughter came she would turn all the old wrongs and the old hates into right. You did not read his books?”

I thought I could feel Lucas Cord’s scornful gaze upon me as I shook my head. “I started to read them. But before I came here, I had a letter from him requesting that I read them in order, from the beginning. I started to read, but I became lazy in the hot sun. And then so many things happened that I did not have time.”

“You had time to spend with Shannon—and that nephew of his.”

I refused to look towards Lucas.

“Todd Shannon was my father’s partner. I was going to marry him.”

The shaman’s face was bland. “Shannon is an old man filled with hate. Your father saw this. Understand me, he did not hate his partner. He hoped that you would be allowed to live in peace. But he knew this man. For you he had other plans. A scheme to end old hatreds and end old injustice. It is a pity you did not read what he wrote.”

“Everyone keeps telling me that! But…”

“Be patient, daughter, as your father was. I am shaman of my tribe. But your father was wiser even than I. He saw ahead. And he was a man who placed truth and justice above all else.” His look was benign; I thought he was being patient with me, and it only made me impatient.

“Everyone talks to me in riddles! I am told of my father’s wishes, but no one will tell me what they were.”

“You are a woman with the strong, quick mind of a man. But nevertheless you must learn to wait, to listen.” His head nodded again, and I noticed the swaying movement of his gaunt body.

“Your father once loved my own daughter. Perhaps he always did. My daughter turned from her people and sought the white man’s ways. I let her go. She had the mind of a warrior—stubborn, independent, seeking. She too hates. And that is why your father knew that the only way to end the hate was the old way. It is our custom, and your custom. Your father’s father was a chief. Your father married to please him. Was this not true? He expected you to think the same way. His wish was that you would marry one of my daughter’s sons.”

“Not him!” I could not help the exclamation that burst from my lips.

“Don’t have to worry about that! I like to do my own huntin’ for my own kind of game.”

“Are you sure you do not mean prey?”

The old man’s voice was calm.

“So you will not have each other. And Julio has a wife already. That leaves Ramon. He is not Apache in his thoughts. But he is educated, and a gentleman. He will fit well into the white man’s world. And yet he is my grandson too. He has seen you and spoken to you. He understands his duty, just as you must understand yours.”

“No!” I sat upright. I could not let this farce continue a moment longer. “This is—it’s not possible! You tell me I am supposed to marry a man I do not know? Because of some old feud that was started before I was born?”

“When you have had time to consider everything, and to know Ramon, you will not think such a marriage impossible. I have seen that you do not find it difficult to adapt yourself to a way of life that is different from yours, and in this case I think you will begin to understand why it is necessary. Is it not the custom in the country where you were born, too, that such alliances are made between families? The marriage between your father and your mother—was it not made for such reasons?”

“That may be so, but look what happened! They did not love each other. My father…”

“Your father was a wise man, and you are his daughter. You are here because he sent for you.”

“To be married off to a stranger? To become a pawn?”

“You are a strong-willed woman. My daughter was such a one too. If she had married as I had wished her to—if I had not been weak with her because she had her mother’s eyes… well, it is done, and past. But I will keep the word I gave to my brother.” His eyes looked into mine, stilling the angry protests that leaped to my tongue. “You look defiant, my daughter. You will not be forced into such a marriage, or any marriage, you understand? But you must be given the time and the opportunity to k

now the man your father chose for you—perhaps to know both sides of a story. Go now, and think of what I have said to you.”

I would have said more, cried out my angry protests, but I felt Lucas Cord’s fingers close around my arm, bruising my flesh as he pulled me to my feet.

The old man looked at us through hooded, sleepy eyes. “She is your sister; you her brother. See that you respect and protect her. We will speak again before you leave for the valley.”

I found myself outside, scarcely able to believe what I had just been told. Impossible!

I must have said aloud, “I won’t!” for Lucas shook my arm, and I looked up to find him glowering down at me.

“You start hollerin’ and makin’ a scene an’ I swear I’m goin’ to beat you, sister or not!”

I gasped with frustration, and his lips twisted. “Better go back to your meek and mild act—it suited you a lot better. If you were my woman I’d cut your tongue out!”

I gathered my wits together and stood still, forcing myself to smile into his angry face. “But I am not. Perhaps you had best start remembering that fact.”