Savage Spirit (4 page)

She had not yet learned to trust Indians since she had arrived in the Arizona Territory, but Alicia listened guardedly to what Cloud Eagle said. She did know that the Coyotero Apache were peace-loving Indians.

Even still, she was afraid to trust him. Of late there had been many raids and abductions along the California Road.   Although she had been told that Indian renegades and outlaws were responsible, she could not allow herself to let her guard down and trust anyone completely. Especially an Indian.

Knowing that a show of courage was essential under these circumstances, she tried to hide the fear and apprehension that she could not shake. And although her leg and her head were throbbing fiercely, she scooted to a sitting position and sent Cloud Eagle a defiant stare.

She found that this tactic unnerved her more than him. His handsomeness was uniquely disarming. She had seen many Indians in this area, but never had she seen this man, nor anyone as handsome. He was over six feet tall, sinewy and muscular. His hair was long and flowing and black. His cheekbones were high, his features sternly chiseled, firm but not hard.

He was scarcely dressed, his breechclout covering his loins, but nothing more. His only other attire was moccasins.

Cloud Eagle was puzzled by her lingering silence. He bent to one knee before her. "Do I not speak your language well enough?" he said, his eyes devouring the loveliness of her face and the red brilliance of her hair. "Is this why you do not answer Cloud Eagle?"

"Surprisingly, you do speak English well enough to be understood," Alicia said, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "So you should understand me when I tell you that I want my mail sack returned. Give it to me this instant. Do you hear?"

"I know of no mail sack," Cloud Eagle said, raising an eyebrow.

"You expect me to believe that?" Alicia asked,   her voice shrill. "The last thing I remember before being shot were renegade Indians on all sides of me." She swallowed hard. "I am foolish for trying to reason with you. You are probably the one who shot me."

"You do not listen to what I have said," Cloud Eagle growled, impatience showing in the stiffness of his words. "I have said that I am not the enemy. I did not take anything from you. I did not shoot you. My arrival frightened off those who are truly responsible."

"You are quite skilled at lying, aren't you?" Alicia said, glaring at him. "Or should I say quite
practiced
."

This sent a flood of rage throughout Cloud Eagle. His jaw clenched. Yet he kept his anger at bay. "Cloud Eagle never speaks anything but the truth," he said tightly. "The Apache hold it a high virtue always to speak the truth. The Apache adheres more strictly to his social code than the white man does to his. The Apache code of morals is deep-rooted and binding."

Knowing that she had angered, even insulted Cloud Eagle, Alicia's eyes wavered. She felt fear worming its way inside her heart again. She must find a way to escape the wrath of this Indian.

She searched with her eyes for her horse. It was nowhere to be seen. It had more than likely run off during the ambush. Then she recalled Cloud Eagle commanding his companion to go and search for it.

"Come," Cloud Eagle said, placing a gentle hand on Alicia's elbow. "I will take you to my stronghold. Your wound will be seen to."

Alicia jerked her elbow away. "I'm not going anywhere with you," she said, although she was   quite aware of Cloud Eagle's gentleness toward her, and puzzled by it. She tried to rise to her feet, to search for her horse. ''And I most certainly don't need your help."

Cloud Eagle stepped away from her and gave her the chance to do as she pleased. He knew that she would not get far. He smiled wryly when her legs buckled beneath her and she was once again on the ground.

Disgruntled and in pain, Alicia turned slow eyes up to Cloud Eagle. She became angry all over again when she saw the smug look on his face. "All right," she snapped at him. "I'm
not
able to help myself. You don't have to enjoy my misery so much."

Cloud Eagle bent to one knee again. He placed a gentle hand on her cheek. "This Apache does not enjoy your misery," he said. "But it is good to know that you have no choice but to accept my offer of help."

Alicia slapped his hand away, but not before she realized that his mere touch made her heart thud strangely. She had never experienced such feelings with a man. And fearing these feelings, as well as the man, she reached for her pistol.

Cloud Eagle covered her firearm with his massive hand much more quickly than Alicia could blink her eyes.

She guardedly watched him as he gave her a heated glance, looked down at her pistol, and looked at her again.

"You do not need a man's weapon," he said. "I am a man. I will protect you."

"And who is going to protect me from
you?
" Alicia hissed out. She eyed the pistol, though she knew that she could not reach it. "If you hadn't   stopped me, I would have"

"And could you have really shot me?" he said, interrupting her. He leaned closer. "If I gave it back to you, would you shoot me?"

With his face so close that she could feel the warmth of his breath on her lips, Alicia felt herself weaken with a desire she had never known before. Here she was, face to face with the man who might have shot her, and she felt like an awkward schoolgirl dreamily awaiting her first kiss.

"To gain my freedom?" she stammered. "Yes, I would shoot you if I had the chance. I would shoot anyone who was a threat to me. That's why I carry a weapon."

"It did not protect you when you were ambushed," Cloud Eagle said, slowly running his forefinger across the angle of her cheek and down and around her chin.

Finding it hard to battle the feelings that he was arousing in her, Alicia closed her eyes and swallowed hard. There was only one way to stop this. And she must, or perhaps lose her reason, which was already slipping away under the attention of this handsome Apache warrior.

"Get your rotten, filthy hands off me," she blurted out, flinging her head up to watch his reaction.

Cloud Eagle flinched as though someone had thrown cold water on his face. Yet he did not allow his feelings to show beyond that.

He eased away from Alicia, his gaze holding hers steadily. "Your insults are not from the heart," he said, placing one of his hands over his own heart. "It is in your voice. It is in the way your eyes waver when you look into mine. Your insults are all pretense."   "That isn't so," Alicia said, her voice weakening beneath his steady stare.

"My little
ish-kay-nay
says what she does not mean in order to look courageous and brave in this Apache's eyes," Cloud Eagle said, smiling at her. "And it is understood why you feel as though you must do this. I am but a stranger to you now. But tomorrow? You will then know me well enough to realize that I am a valuable friend."

"
Ish-kay-nay?
" Alicia said guardedly. "What does that mean?"

"The Apache word means 'boy,'" Cloud Eagle said, his lips drawing into a slow smile. "You have earned this nickname because you dress as a boy and behave as a boy and can probably do most things boys do."

Alicia lifted her chin defiantly. "You are wrong," she defended. "I am dressed as a
man
, not a boy. I need to disguise myself against men such as you who take advantage of women."

She paused.

When she noticed that nothing she said seemed to affect him, she went further to prove to him that she was not just any female who was at the mercy of a man.

"I am proud of my ability to shoot, ride, and rope as well as any man," she bragged. "And don't you forget it."

She paused again, then said, "
And
I don't appreciate your Apache nickname. My name is Alicia. Alicia Cline."

Her breath was taken away when Cloud Eagle swept her into his arms and carried her toward his horse. She wanted to struggle when he placed her on his strawberry roan, on a splendid   leopard-skin saddle, but the renewed pain in her leg momentarily stole her resistance away.

Just as Cloud Eagle swung himself into the saddle behind Alicia, Red Crow rode up with her horse trailing from a rope behind him.

Seeing her horse reawakened the fight in Alicia. She shoved at Cloud Eagle's chest and tried to pry his arm from around her waist.

She fought against her captivity, and also the melting sensation caused by the closeness of Cloud Eagle's body. These strange feelings were new to her, and most frightening.

"Let me down," she cried. "At least allow me to travel on my own horse."

"You will be more comfortable on my steed," Cloud Eagle said, his arm tightening around her waist. "Your leg will pain you less if you are not in charge of a horse."

"My leg would not pain me at all if you had not shot me," Alicia shouted back.

"I have said that I am not responsible for your injury, and I will say it no more," Cloud Eagle said flatly. He sank his heels into the flanks of his horse and snapped the reins. His roan rode off at a soft trot, Red Crow following him.

"I am responsible for stopping the blood flow from your wound," he said to Alicia. "Had I not, you would not be lucid enough to spar with this Apache chief."

Alicia glanced down at the cloth that was tied around her leg as a tourniquet. Her heart skipped a beat when she recognized that it was an Indian headband. While she had argued with Cloud Eagle, she had not noticed.

Then something else came to her that he had just said. She turned and eyed him with wonder.   "Chief?" she said softly. "You are a chief?"

He nodded. "Chief Cloud Eagle," he said, giving her another smile that disarmed her.

Alicia felt herself falling more and more under the charm of this man and was well aware of the dangers. "That does not impress me at all," she said. "And as for your having placed your headband on my leg to stop the blood flow, I am sure it was done only for your own selfish purposes. Does it make you feel powerful to be in full control of my destiny?"

When he did not answer her, but gazed on past her as he pressed his roan into a harder gallop toward the distant mountains, she wondered just what sort of destiny he might have charted out for her.

She looked over her shoulder at her horse. If she could just find a way to escape! Thank God, her horse was there if she was given the chance.

When another pain shot through her leg, she closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. Even if she did manage to get on her horse, it would be almost unbearable to ride it while her leg was in this shape. She had to bide her time until she was better.

Then
she would show this Apache chief a thing or twothat nothing or no one could keep her down for long.

Not even him, or his ability to make her mindless by his mere presence!

Cloud Eagle relaxed his arm and held her softly against him. "Rest," he whispered in her ear. "Sleep and rest."

So bone-tired and weary, Alicia could not help but close her eyes.

As she snuggled against Cloud Eagle's broad   chest, she was very aware of the thumping of his heart. It matched the thunderous beating of her own.

He
was the cause of her anxious heartbeats. She wondered if she was the cause of
his?
She sighed and allowed herself to enjoy these strange, wondrous feelings, at least for now.

Once she escaped, she would forget that Chief Cloud Eagle had for a while made her feel like a woman.  

Alicia slept sporadically. When she was awake, she was always aware of Cloud Eagle's arm around her waist. She was getting used to the pain in her leg, but not to Cloud Eagle's presence. She knew that she should hate him, yet she found something about the way he held her comforting. She snuggled against his bare chest. She inhaled and enjoyed his manly scent.

She was jolted completely awake when Cloud Eagle drew his steed to a sudden halt. When she opened her eyes, her insides froze. She was no longer in the company of only two Apache warriors, but several. She looked guardedly from man to man, looking for one who might be familiar to her from the ambush.

And where were the white outlaws? Had they ridden on ahead with her mail sack? Was Cloud Eagle not in charge, after all?

Her gaze went to the many travois and she   raised an eyebrow. The Indians with the travois attached to their horses could definitely not have taken part in the ambush. The travois would have held them back. Perhaps those men with the travois had surely stayed behind while the others participated in the ambush.

Alicia stiffened as Cloud Eagle instructed the warriors to go on without him. Red Crow was included in that command, leaving Alicia and Cloud Eagle alone, except for the two pet coyotes.

Alicia panicked inside when her horse was taken from her sight by Red Crow. There went her only means of escape. Now what? she silently despaired.

Alicia turned angry, accusing eyes to Cloud Eagle. "Why did you send them away? Is my mail sack hidden among the pelts on one of those travois? Is that why? Or is the mail sack with the outlaws who rode with you during the ambush?" she demanded.

He looked past her. He nudged the flanks of his horse with his heels and sent it into a soft lope again across the moon-splashed land, his coyotes dutifully following.

"And why couldn't I have kept my horse with me?" Alicia continued relentlessly.

For the most part, Cloud Eagle ignored her references to her mail sack and also her lengthy, foolish questions. He realized that he was in the company of one stubborn woman.

"My warriors will return to the stronghold," he said blandly. "We will follow, but at a slower pace. It is best for you that you are not forced to be on a horse for much longer. We will make camp. There you will rest. There I will treat your wound."   He frowned at her. "And you have no need for your horse while you are with Cloud Eagle," he said. Alicia felt threatened more by the way his dark eyes mesmerized her than by the fact that she no longer had her horse nearby.

She turned her eyes quickly away, swallowed hard, and grew quiet.

They rode for a while longer, then stopped in a secluded place by a quiet, serene stream, where they were shielded by towering cliffs.