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He gazed at her hair, then looked into her eyes again. “Yep, she had the same golden hair, but she wore hers long.” He laughed once more. “What happened to yours? Did the savages try to scalp you?”
His words seemed to swirl around inside Candy’s head as her fear built. He seemed wicked through and through.
And what had he said about a woman who had escaped him? Could that be Hawk Woman, who would be Sara Thaxton to him?
But if this man was Albert Cohen, where were his wives, for Hawk Woman had said he had many?
Of course, she thought quickly to herself, he wouldn’t have brought his wives with him when he came for food with the children, realizing their presence would bring undue attention to him. It just wasn’t natural to have so many wives, and he surely kept his polygamous marriages to himself whenever possible.
“Got you wondering about me, don’t I?” the man said, laughing boisterously. “Well, let me tell you something, pretty lady. You ain’t who I thought you were, but you’ll do just fine anyhow. You’ll be a sweet, lovely lady to add to my family of wives and children. You’re even prettier than the one who got away. And tiny. I like ’em tiny. They make the prettiest kids.”
Sickened by his bragging about his vile deeds, Candy felt she might vomit.
She swallowed hard to keep the bile down. But it was difficult.
She knew that if Two Eagles didn’t find her soon, she could be many miles away and out of reach by the time he came after her.
“Yep, I’m taking you to join my other wives,” he said, letting go of her wrists so that he could get a handkerchief from his rear pants pocket.
He laughed when Candy began clawing at his face, her fingers unable to make contact with his flesh because of the thick beard.
Soon he had gagged her with the red handkerchief, its stiffness making Candy realize that he had used this thing to blow his nose.
He yanked her up from the ground and thrust his face into hers. “If you try anything like that again, trying to claw my face with those long fingernails of yours, you’ll regret it,” he growled out. “Now just accept your new lot in life. You are going to join my other wives. You are going to bear me many children.”
He gripped her by an arm and began half dragging her away from where her basket and digging knife lay beneath the tree. The plucked roses looked up like small smiling faces as they lay amid the bright green of the herbs.
“Why were you with the savages, dressed like a squaw?” he asked, knowing that she couldn’t answer him with the handkerchief tied around her mouth. “You must’ve cooperated with them, or else why would you be allowed to leave the village and go alone into the forest?”
He snickered into her face. “You’ve bedded up with one of ’em, ain’t you?” he said. Then his eyes widened. “It must’ve been the chief, for it was the chief’s tepee that you hurried into to hide from me.”
Candy glared at him. He looked proud as punch over his discovery.
She felt sick to her stomach to know that if Two Eagles didn’t return home soon, she might be sharing a bed tonight with this filthy man.
They walked onward now in silence. Candy was yanked forward time and again when she tried to hesitate.
And then she saw a wagon up ahead and a team of two horses. No one else was there.
“It won’t be long now,” the man said as he pushed Candy toward the wagon, then lifted her and threw her into it as though she were no more than a sack of potatoes.
He climbed in after her and tied both her wrists and ankles.
“There, that ought to hold you,” he said, then shoved her down flat onto the floor of the wagon. “But I’ve got to keep you hidden.” He yanked up a couple of blankets and covered her with both of them. “That oughta do it.”
Candy shivered with fear even though she was hot beneath the blankets. Her captor sat down, snapped the reins against the horses’ backs, and took off.
She realized that he had not gone far before he stopped, yet it was far enough that no one from the village would easily find her.
She felt as though her life had come to an end, for there was no way that Two Eagles would know where she was, unless the wagon had left good tracks along the ground.
Yet Two Eagles would not know where to begin looking for her. He had no idea she was going to go into the forest today.
She stiffened and listened when she heard many voi
ces, mainly of women. They were asking the man what was beneath the blankets.
Candy hoped they would feel sorry for her when they saw that she had been abducted and would find a way to free her.
