Hannah paused long enough to look over her shoulder a last time, to see if Strong Wolf was still watching her. Now so close to her brother’s house, surely Strong Wolf could see that she was safe enough to go on alone, without him watching her.
She sighed with relief when she discovered that he had rode away. She had worried about him lingering too long. Under the circumstances of what had happened, she didn’t want him to be anywhere near this place when she laid down the law about Tiny.
Tiny had to go!
She walked determinedly toward the house, but before she reached the front steps, several cowhands and her brother came out on the porch.
“Where the hell have you been?” Chuck asked, squinting hard in an attempt to see her. “I’ve been beside myself with worry, Hannah. And, Hannah, I didn’t hear you arrive home on a horse. Where is it? What happened? You’re a skilled rider. No horse would get the best of you, unless . . . unless.”
“Chuck, I’m all right,” Hannah said, interrupting him. “Please don’t be so upset. I can explain everything.”
She glared at the armed men, pistols heavy at their hips, then looked at Chuck again. “What are these men doing here so well equipped with firearms? What were you going to do, Chuck?” she said, her voice wary. “Send a posse out looking for me?”
“Hannah, what was I to think?” Chuck said, nervously raking the fingers of one hand through his hair. He leaned on his cane with the other hand. “You’ve been gone for hours.”
Quite aware of the eyes of the men on her every move, Hannah went up the steps. She could feel their eyes roving over her, and not because she was something pleasant to look at. She knew that she was disarrayed. Her hair was windblown. Her skirt was filthy from having been on the ground more than once on this turbulent day. Her blouse was ripped, and she knew that her face must be dirty. And not only that. She had a lump on her forehead the size of a goose egg.
“Chuck, you can send the men away,” she said, giving her brother a hug. “I’m home. I’m safe.” She leaned into his embrace when his free arm snaked around her waist.
She relished the warmth of her brother’s show of devoted love for a moment, then stepped away from him to glower at the men.
Chuck nodded at the men. “As you can see, my sister is all right,” he said thickly. “You can leave. But I would appreciate it if a couple of you would go searching for her horse. If it’s out there somewhere, disoriented, it could be bait for wolves or that pesky panther that’s been wandering much too close to my property.”
A sudden panic, a warning, leapt into Hannah’s heart. If the men went out now to look for her horse, they might come across Strong Wolf before he had the chance to get farther from her brother’s property. She had no idea what Tiny had told her brother about what had happened.
One thing for certain, no one could have missed hearing the loud blast made by the dynamite. Her brother had to know already that someone had destroyed the dam. He might think it was Tiny, or he might know that it wasn’t. If he didn’t understand the situation, he might think that Strong Wolf was guilty of some wrongdoing.
And he wasn’t. The property on which he had used the dynamite was his. And even though he had abducted her, he had set her free.
“Why, there it is,” one of the cowhands said, gesturing toward the lovely pinto horse as it came into sight in a slow trot.
Hannah couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the horse headed toward the corral, just in time to keep the men from looking for it.
“Before my eyes got this bad, I personally trained that pinto to return home, but I thought it had forgotten,” Chuck said. He smiled. “Now I have both my sister and my favorite horse back home.”
The men tipped their hats to Chuck and Hannah, then sauntered from the porch and went back to their usual chores.
Chuck reached his free hand out for Hannah. “Come, sis,” he said, sighing heavily. “Let’s go inside. Does a cup of coffee sound good to you?”
“That sounds good,” Hannah said, taking his hand, squeezing it affectionately.
They went inside the parlor.
“Sis, you have to know how worried I was when you didn’t return home,” Chuck said, his voice drawn. “Damn it all to hell. Not only have I been upset this entire afternoon over Tiny having not removed the dam, forcing Strong Wolf to destroy it with dynamite, I have been beside myself with worry about you.”
“So you do know that Tiny didn’t remove the dam,” Hannah said, trying to keep calm since her brother was too suddenly concerned over Strong Wolf.
“You know that Strong Wolf dynamited the dam,” Hannah said guardedly. “Is that what you are upset over? What’s wrong, Chuck? Tell me.”
“Yes, I sent some of my men out earlier to be sure Tiny had removed the dam. Seems he never did, but then we all heard an explosion. I was pretty sure I knew what had happened. Stro
ng Wolf took matters into his own hands and dynamited it.”
Chuck lowered his eyes. “Since you were gone so long I . . . I . . . thought that perhaps Strong Wolf had abducted you as revenge for the dam not having been destroyed,” he said.
Hannah paled. “You . . . thought . . . that . . . he abducted me?” she said, recalling in her mind’s eye that very abduction, and later when Strong Wolf said that she was free to go.
“What else was I to think?” Chuck said, lifting his eyes, squinting toward Hannah.