Savage Beloved

But that didn’t seem logical, for if that was possible, wouldn’t they have fled this evil man, themselves, at their first opportunity?

She flinched when he suddenly threw the blanket aside, revealing Candy to his many wives and children. They stood all around the wagon, their eyes widening when they saw her lying there, gagged and tied.

He jumped into the wagon and forced Candy to her feet. He removed the gag from her mouth, and then the ropes at her ankles and wrists.

“This is my new wife,” he announced, chuckling. “And she’ll be giving you children a brother or sister.”

Again Candy felt as though she might vomit.

Instead she stood stiffly as everyone looked her over carefully. Her breath was stolen away when he lifted her into his arms and half threw her over the side of the wagon, where she fell clumsily to the ground at the feet of the other wives.

She didn’t look up at them, just waited for what would happen next.

“Get up!” the man shouted. “We’ve a piece to travel today to get you far from those Injuns. I haven’t found my Sara, but you’ll do instead.”

Yes, Candy thought, this was the very man Hawk Woman had fled from. The banished Mormon.

Candy moved slowly to her feet, and as she did, she noticed one woman standing back from the others, a scarf over her head and partially over her face.

When the man went to the woman and yanked her roughly toward one of the wagons, cursing her as he ordered her onto it, the woman’s scarf fell from her face.

Candy almost fainted when she saw who it was.

Her very own mother!

Candy saw a soft pleading in Agnes Creighton’s eyes, and she understood. Her mother didn’t want Candy to let the man know they were related.

She wasn’t sure why, but she did as her mother wanted.

Candy watched angrily as he slapped her mother. “You’ll learn to be more obedient,” he growled. “Get on that wagon!”

Candy watched as the other women, except for one, who by her superior attitude seemed to be this man’s partner, climbed frantically on board. The children scampered to get on the other wagon.

“Now it’s your turn,” the man said, placing a rough hand at Candy’s wrist and shoving her. “Get in that wagon with the women, damn you.”

Candy hurried aboard and sat down beside her mother.

As the man took the reins of the wagon filled with the women, his female partner took the reins of the wagon full of children.

Candy dared to slide a hand over to her mother’s and gripped it reassuringly.

The man looked over his shoulder at Candy. “By the way, my name’s Albert,” he said, winking at her. “Albert Cohen. What’s yours?”

Candy was certain about who she was with now and truly dreaded the days that stretched out before her.

“Your name?” Albert insisted, frowning at Candy. She remembered proudly the Indian name that Two Eagles had given to her. She smiled smugly at Albert. “Painted Wings,” she said, seeing his look of disgust and not noticing how her mother had gasped at hearing it.

Candy laughed to herself, realizing that her decision to use her Indian name was the best thing she could have done under the circumstances.

She hated causing her mother to look at her in dismay, but she loved Albert’s reaction to the knowledge that she saw herself as more Indian now than white.

He turned away from her and snapped the reins against the horses’ backs, then looked at Candy again. “I’m going to work the Injun outta you,” he snarled. “In many ways!”

Candy no longer felt as smug.

Suddenly she was terribly, terribly afraid, both for herself . . . and her mother.

Chapter Thirty-five