When Passion Calls

Chapter Fifteen

Her arms laden with packages, Melanie struggled through the throng of people rushing along the busy wood-planked walks. She had completed her business in St. Paul and was anxious to return home. The afternoon sun was lowering in the sky, casting the long shadows of the buildings along the rutted dirt streets. She wanted to be sure and be home when Shane arrived, for deep within her heart she had to believe that he would come home again.

She had to wonder if his mission had been successful. Would he be bringing home his spoils of war? If so, what would Josh's reaction be to the stolen horses?

So caught up in her thoughts was she that Melanie became careless and did not watch where

she was stepping. Suddenly she collided with someone, the impact knocking her packages from her arms, and her from her feet.

Tumbling to the sidewalk, she cried out with pain as her wrist twisted beneath her. Sitting clumsily on the sidewalk with passersby stopping to stare down at her, Melanie eased her hand from beneath her and tested her wrist to see if it was broken.

When she found that it was all right, she became aware of a hand being offered her.

She looked slowly up at the massive hulk of a man whom she had collided with. Now she understood why the impact had been so deadly! The man was huge. A scruffy beard covered his face and sweat-stained buckskins his fatty flesh. He looked like a wild mountain man.

A sense of loathing coursed through Melanie as she became aware of the foul stench emanating from him. He was not the sort a woman would want to come in close contact with either by day or night! All she wanted was to retrieve her packages and be on her way!

"Ma'am?" the man said in a thick, gravelly voice. "Let me help you up. It's my fault you're lyin' there in the first place 'cept seems you just came out of nowheres."

Melanie ignored his hand. "I'll be just fine, thank you," she said, easing back to her feet.

As she smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt, she looked shyly around her at the people continuing to gawk at her and the man.

Then suddenly she felt packages being thrust

into her arms. Lips parted, she watched the man picking up the packages and giving them to her until there were no more left on the sidewalk.

"There, that ought to do it," the man said, stepping closer to Melanie and smiling broadly down at her.

Melanie smiled awkwardly up at him, first noting his jagged yellow teeth.

Then something grabbed her at the pit of her stomach as she looked into his eyes. She blanched, feeling a strange dizziness overcoming her when she discovered that one of his eyes was blueand one was brown! This had to be the evil trapper that had caused Shane so much sorrow! It just wasn't that common for a man to have such peculiar eyes. And didn't he seem the sort that would have such little regard for human life? He had little enough for his own, it seemed, for no man had ever looked so unkempt or smelled so ungodly!

"Thank you," Melanie said weakly, backing away from him. "I appreciate . . . your kindness." She found those words hard to speak, for at this moment she was recalling Cedar Maid's dark eyes looking up at her from her grave of leaves.

But to protect herself from this man who might be offended by any show of repulsiveness toward him, Melanie had to put on a show of courtesy, then excuse herself and go on her way. She wanted desperately to go to the authorities and give them information about this man, but there was no proof. She would be wasting her time. And when she saw Shane could sheshould sheeven tell him? If he returned from his mission to the Indian village, wouldn't it be best to let all of this rest, so that he

could get on with the rest of his life instead of living in the past? If he knew that the trapper was anywhere near his farm, he would go and find him. He would kill him. Then it would be Shane hunted down by the authorities!

No. The main thing for her to do was to get away from this man and forget that she had seen him!

Scarcely breathing, her heart thundering within her chest, Melanie gave Trapper Dan another fleeting glance, then brushed on past him and hurried toward her waiting horse and buggy. She could feel his eyes following her. Oh, Lord, what if he came after her? What if he followed her? He and Shane might come face to face!

Her pulse racing, Melanie dropped her packages in the back of her buggy. Without looking at the man who still stood watching her, she climbed onto the perch and lifted the reins with her shaky hand. Flicking the rein, she guided her horse out into the traffic, cursing the crowded street. It was impeding her quick escape from the watchful eye of the trapper.

Then her attention was drawn elsewhere. Elbowing his way through the crowded sidewalk was Terrance! He was dressed in his finest frock coat. A diamond stickpin glittered in the folds of his cravat. A cigar hung loosely from the corner of his mouth.

Melanie watched Terrance disappear into a saloon, then her insides tightened when the trapper sauntered into the same barroom. She dreaded the thought of Terrance and the trapper sitting at the

same table, gambling, drinking, and sharing small talk. Terrance would have no idea the sort of man he was becoming friendly with.

Shaking her head, Melanie slapped her reins against her horse again and rode up one street and down the other, glad when the outskirts of the city were finally reached and she could send her horse along at a much brisker pace. She was anxious to get away from the city. Her only regret was that Terrance was still there. He never listened to anything anyone said anymoreespecially his sister! Yet his sister lived in fear that one day something horrible would happen to him. Nothing good could come of the path Terrance had chosen to take in his life. Nothing!

Attired in a brief loincloth, his copper skin gleaming in the fading sunlight, Chief Gray Falcon strode square-shouldered toward his wigwam. Blue Blossom followed behind him, her eyes cast downward. She felt deceitful for having told Gray Falcon that it was Shane and Red Raven who had stolen from him.

But she had no choice! Gray Falcon had threatened to banish her from the tribe, to wander alone through the wilderness if she did not tell everything that she had seen the previous night. The fact that she had not awakened him and told him then had angered him terribly! She did not know what to expect now. She only knew that she must obey or she would end up like Cedar Maidgone and forgotten!

Shy and petite, Blue Blossom trailed Gray Fal-