He wanted to look over his shoulder to see what was delaying Three Bears.
Surely he saw the rifle aimed directly at High Hawk’s belly!
Then a thought came to him that made his heart sink. If Three Bears had been discovered lurking in the forest by the woman’s husband, the man would have silenced Three Bears quietly, perhaps with a knife.
Suddenly a gun blast rang out, silencing the loon’s cry, and causing the stallion behind High Hawk to buck with fright.
CHAPTER FOUR
Joylynn screamed, and pain rushed from her fingers up the full length of her arms at the impact of the bullet hitting her rifle. The gun had been knocked from her hands.
Her heart thudded hard in her chest as she rubbed her hands together. Her eyes never left the Indian who still stood before her . . . until another Indian stepped out from the cover of the trees, the moon’s brightness showing smoke spiraling from the barrel of his rifle.
She was now at the mercy of two Indians, not one. What if there were many more lurking amid the shadows of the trees, waiting to take their turn with her?
Oh, surely her cabin was surrounded by them.
She knew now that she should have stayed inside. She would have had a better chance of surviving. Inside, she could have picked off the Indians one at a time.
As it was, she was at their mercy. She realized that her knees were trembling so much, she wasn’t sure how much longer they would hold her up.
All of those months she had worked for the pony express, she had not had one incident with Indians.
Now, when she was trying to live a peaceful, isolated life, she was surrounded by them.
High Hawk stepped closer to Joylynn. Up this close, with the lamplight coming through the door of the cabin, and the full moon above bathing her in bright light, he saw much defiance and courage in her eyes. There was a unique beauty about this woman; her every facial feature was beautifully, perfectly sculpted.
As they stood there facing one another, challenging each other with their eyes, High Hawk remembered his ahte’s words: “Abduct a white woman and steal more horses. Then you will have passed the final test . . . you will have proven yourself truly worthy of being chief after your ahte.”
High Hawk also remembered his ahte saying, “This woman I speak of will be directly in your path on a night of the full moon.”
Surely destiny had placed her in his path tonight.
Surely destiny had brought them together for a purpose.
He grabbed Joylynn by one wrist. “Go into your lodge,” he commanded. “I will accompany you there.”
Terror struck at Joylynn’s heart.
Was she going to be the victim of a second rape?
Could life be that cruel?
“No,” Joylynn spat out, trying hard to keep her voice from trembling. She was desperately afraid of what lay ahead of her in the next moments. Stubbornly she stood her ground. “I absolutely refuse to do anything you tell me to do. I won’t . . . go inside my cabin with . . . with . . . the likes of you . . . you . . . savage.”
High Hawk was stung that she should call him a savage. No other word was hated as much as that word . . . savage . . . by people of red skin. It was a word too loosely thrown around by white people, a word that was ugly and despised by those who were wrongly labeled with it.
Yet he could not help being impressed by her courage as she stood up to a red man.
Ho, he admired her, but he would not allow her to realize it.
Continuing to hold her wrist tightly, he forced her inside the cabin.
Once there, High Hawk quickly scanned everything, his eyebrows rising when he saw no sign of a man’s presence.
He gazed directly into her eyes again. “Do you live alone?” he asked, for he had to be certain about whether or not a man might show up at any moment.
Joylynn was afraid to speak, afraid to keep silent.