Swift Horse

“I had planned to kill you immediately so that it would look like you and the cowkeeper killed each other, but I have other plans for you now,” One Eye said, grabbing her by an arm and shoving her from the room.

When she looked over her shoulder at Alan Burton, who now lay in a pool of his own blood, Marsha became ill at her stomach. Then the true fear grabbed at her insides as One Eye led her out into the darkness of night and made her walk some distance before reaching a horse that he had left hidden amidst a thick forest of trees. He shoved her onto the horse and glared up at her, then mounted behind her. One Eye had recently bought the horse so he would have a steed that the Wind Clan would not recognize and trace back to him.

They rode through a tall stand of grass in hopes that his tracks would get lost in them, for he expected Swift Horse to be close behind. Once Marsha’s absence was discovered at the village, Swift Horse would stop at nothing to find her.

That was the reason One Eye had not killed her immediately as he had originally planned. He wanted Swift Horse to search for her, knowing he would never find her. He would come acr

oss bones sometime in the future, and wonder if they might be the remains of the woman he loved.

He threw his head back in a fit of laughter, sending chills up and down Marsha’s spine. She had thought she was in the company of a madman while she was with Alan Burton. His insanity was nothing compared to One Eye’s!

Then a thought came to her. As she had given Alan Burton a last look, she only now remembered having seen him move just slightly. Could he still be alive? Could he tell everyone what she had been saying all along—that One Eye was the true culprit?

She prayed to herself that she was right, that he did have some life left in him. Strangely enough, that man, the cowkeeper—who had abducted her, whom she abhorred—was possibly now her only hope!

Chapter 23

Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O, no! It is an ever-fixed mark....

—William Shakespeare

Just as Swift Horse had expected, the tracks led to the cowkeeper’s ranch house. He stayed in the shadows of the trees, his gaze sweeping the area.

Seeing lamplight in several of Alan’s windows made Swift Horse know that from this point on, he must be more careful, especially if he was going to catch the evil man in the act of keeping Swift Horse’s woman hostage.

Swift Horse couldn’t believe that the cowkeeper could be so daft as to steal a woman right beneath Swift Horse’s nose and think he would get away with it! Tonight the man would know just how wrong he was. He would also know the wrath of a Creek chief who had been wronged now in the worst way possible, by his taking the chief’s woman as his captive!

He dismounted, tethered his reins to a low tree limb, then yanked his knife from the sheath at his right side. His eyes narrowed angrily, he moved stealthily and quickly through the darkness until he reached the house. Swift Horse hugged the wall of the ranch house with his back as he inched closer to a window with lamplight spilling from it.

His heart thumping wildly in hopes of having his woman with him again in only a matter of moments, Swift Horse stepped around so that he could see through the window.

Not seeing anything amiss in this room, and not seeing any signs of the cowkeeper, Swift Horse moved quickly to the door, quietly opened it, then stepped inside.

Silence met him there.

He stayed there for a moment longer, his eyes scanning the room again, and then gazed at doors, two of which led into two different directions from the room.

He chose one of them and hurried to it, stopping and staring when he saw another door at the end of this room that stood open, a huge piece of furniture having been shoved aside.

Puzzled now by what he had found, and sensing something was very wrong, Swift Horse inched across the room. When he reached the open door, he stopped and gazed intently into the storage room.

He took a quick step back when he saw someone just inside the door, sprawled on the floor on his stomach, blood on his back.

“Cowkeeper,” Swift Horse said, then hurried into the dark room and knelt down on a knee beside Alan Burton. He placed a finger to the man’s throat and felt a faint pulse beat. Just as he drew his finger away, he saw the cowkeeper’s eyes flutter slowly open.

“One . . . Eye . . . Marsha,” he managed to say in a strangled sort of whisper as he looked wild-eyed at Swift Horse.

“What?” Swift Horse gasped, his eyebrows forking. “You said one eye, and then Marsha. Do you mean that the one-eyed man was here? He did this to you? He took my woman?”

Alan gave him a strange sort of stare, then his body lurched, his arms tightened at his sides, and he gasped out his last breath of life.

“Cowkeeper,” Swift Horse said, turning him on his back. “Cowkeeper!”