Wild Desire

“Sally will be very disappointed in Adam once she discovers the truth about him,” Stephanie said. She turned with a start when she heard the approach of a horse.

She shielded her eyes with a hand. “Who is that, Leonida?” she murmured. “It’s a young woman. She’s riding alone. And she’s arriving quickly, as though she has cause to be upset.”

Leonida also shielded her eyes from the bright rays of the sun. She gasped and blanched. “Lord,” she said, her voice drawn. “It’s Sky Dancer.” She swallowed hard as fear gripped at her heart. “But where is Thunder Hawk?”

A warning shot through Stephanie. She recalled Adam trying to cast the full blame on Thunder Hawk. The last she had heard, the sheriff had scoffed at believing that Thunder Hawk would do such a thing. But what if the sheriff had thought further about it and, wanting someone, anyone, to blame, had decided to come after Thunder Hawk?

The thought sickened her.

Sky Dancer’s horse slid into a trembling halt. Sage and Runner hurried over from the corral and helped her from the saddle.

“My brother, Sky Dancer,” Runner asked, “why is he not with you? Why are you not in school with him? And why do you carry such worry in your eyes?”

Sky Dancer began crying. She nervously clasped and unclasped her hands behind her. “The white lawmen came and arrested Thunder Hawk while we were on our way to school,” she said, looking frantically at Runner and then to Sage. “They said that he blew up a train.” Her voice grew in pitch. “What train? We knew of no train! We were in your hogan all night.”

She turned to Sage and clutched his arm. “Go to the fort and tell them that Thunder Hawk is not guilty of the crime!” she cried. “I fear for him. You know that the white men will treat him cruelly. Please go for him. They would not listen to me when I told them that he was with me all night.”

Stephanie looked guardedly from Sage to Runner. She could see that they were both livid with anger. She feared this sort of anger. If they rode into Fort Defiance, demanding the release of Thunder Hawk, they might even be arrested themselves. And not only for causing a disturbance by trying to set Thunder Hawk free, but for being accessories to the crime themselves.

“We will go for Thunder Hawk now,” Sage said, swinging himself into his saddle. “Come, Runner. Let us round up many of our braves. The white pony soldiers will see our power in the number of our arrival. They will set my son free, or else.”

Stephanie stepped between Sage and Runner’s horses. “No, you mustn’t do this,” she cried, “I know that you want to get Thunder Hawk out of jail. But please, don’t do it in this way. Your anger is too great now to talk with the authorities. And you know that you don’t want an out-and-out war with the soldiers. Let me go and speak for you. I will make all wrongs right.”

“I am not a child who turns his eyes away from responsibilities,” Sage grumbled. “My son is my responsibility. I will go for him. Now.”

Stephanie went as far as to grab Sage’s reins away from him. She lifted her chin boldly and received his glare without so much as budging. “Listen to me, Sage,” she said. “After thinking through all of this more carefully, I feel it is best that I go to the fort alone. If you are with me when I go and denounce my brother, they will not believe me. They will think that I have been coerced by you to do this. I must not look at all like I am aligned with the Navaho in order for them to believe me. I want them to see me as a sister who cannot hide the ugly secrets of her brother from the authorities.”

Sage gave Stephanie another lingering stare, then he looked over at Runner and nodded.

Together they dismounted and went and put their heads together to discuss the problem at hand.

Stephanie scarcely breathed as she awaited their decision. Ever so gently, she dropped Sage’s reins. She had spoke her mind. If he didn’t agree, there was nothing else she could do but to wait and see if a war broke out between the Navaho and the soldiers at Fort Defiance.

Thinking about Adam, and his responsibility for all of this, made an ache circle Stephanie’s heart, and made her ashamed of ever having been a part of Adam’s dreams.

They had turned into nightmares. Ugly, black nightmares.

Leonida patted Stephanie on the arm. “What you just offered to do for our people is admirable,” she murmured. “Especially for my son. I doubt Thunder Hawk could last long behind bars. It was hard enough for him to sit confined at a desk in a schoolroom. To be incarcerated for even one night would be devastating for my son.”

Sky Dancer went to Leonida and threw herself into her arms, sobbing. “Someone has got to do something soon,” she cried, clinging. “Poor Thunder Hawk. My poor husband.”

Leonida could see the puzzlement in Stephanie’s eyes when she heard Sky Dancer refer to Thunder Hawk as her husband.

“Stephanie, Thunder Hawk has taken a wife,” she said softly. “This is my darling daughter-in-law, Sky Dancer.”

Stephanie’s lips parted, but before she could respond, Sage and Runner came back to them, their eyes grim.

Runner turned to Stephanie. “Go. Speak the truth to the white pony soldiers,” he said. “Father and I will follow soon after to make sure that what you have said has been believed, and to give Thunder Hawk a safe escort back to our village.”

Stephanie smiled up at him. “Thank you for giving me this chance,” she said. She gave him a hug, looked from one to the other, then mounted her horse and rode away.

When Sage and Runner mounted their horses and rode off in another direction, Leonida’s eyebrows rose. She was not certain of the plans that had been made

between father and son, but she did suspect that they would not be going to the fort any time soon. There was surely something else that needed tending first.

But what? she wondered to herself.

Chapter 30