Finally at the bottom of the cliff Dancing Cloud ran to the woman and knelt beside her. Now knowing for certain that this woman was not Lauralee, he breathed in a heavy, quavering breath of air. Her skin was copper and through the threads of red blood running through her hair he could see that it was coal black.
With trembling hands he smoothed her hair back from her face just as her eyelashes fluttered slightly open.
“Clint . . . and . . . woman,” Soft Wind said raspily. She looked wildly up at Dancing Cloud and lifted a shaky, weak hand, pointing in the direction of her cabin. “Cabin. Go. Help woman.”
Dancing Cloud’s eyebrows raised. This woman knew a man named Clint? Could it be Clint McCloud?
And she had spoken of a woman.
Was that woman Lauralee?
He turned his eyes where she was still pointing, then looked down at her again.
“You said the name Clint,” he said guardedly. “Is his last name McCloud?”
She slowly nodded, then slipped back into unconsciousness.
“Clint McCloud,” he ground out between gritted teeth. “He is here. He abducted Lauralee!”
He was torn with what to do. This woman was in no shape to be put on his horse and carried as he searched for the cabin where he might find Lauralee.
Yet he feared leaving her there, unprotected.
His mind was scrambled.
He wanted to do what was right for this woman.
Yet Lauralee’s life lay in the balance if he waited much longer!
Lifting Soft Wind into his arms be found a narrow path that led up the side of the cliff that he hadn’t known was there when he had come to her rescue. He held her close and climbed the steep path.
When he reached the top of the butte, he knew that he had no choice but to leave the woman and come back for her later. Hopefully he would have Lauralee with him. A travois could be made and the woman would be transported to his village. There she would be among people of her own skin coloring. She would be cared for.
Hopefully she would survive.
He gently laid Soft Wind beneath a tree, then went to his horse and took the blanket from his saddle. He spread this on the ground on a soft bed of leaves, then placed Soft Wind there and turned the corners of the blankets up over her.
Knowing that she had arrived there by foot meant that she had surely not traveled that far. He would go by foot in search of the cabin. His arrival would be less noticed that way. He would surprise Clint McCloud. He would rescue Lauralee.
Wonder of how Clint McCloud could be there, so close to Dancing Cloud’s mountain, and why this woman had apparently been with him, filled Dancing Cloud’s thoughts as he grabbed his rifle.
He glanced at the woman once again, worried about her welfare.
But knowing that Lauralee’s own welfare was in question, he ran through the tangled vines and thick brush, his eyes constantly searching for signs of a cabin.
* * *
Clint shoved Lauralee onto his bed and straddled her. He smiled smugly down at her as he untied her wrists, his wicked eyes telling her everything that she needed to know about what he had pl
anned for her next.
She had to get away.
She could not allow herself to die the same hideous death as her mother!
She had too much to live for now.
Her Cherokee chief.