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“Listen to yourself,” the colonel said, his face an angry red. “Pact? Do you truly think I’d do that? George, you’re tired. I see it in your eyes. I hear it in your voice. You’re drained. We must return to the fort for now. You can get some badly needed rest, and then we’ll meet again and make plans. But as for now? We’re headed for home. Those I’ve sent to investigate will be enough for now.”
George felt a sudden tightening in his chest. He raised a hand and grabbed at his heart, his breathing coming suddenly in short, sharp rasps.
“George, are you all right?” the colonel asked, his eyes widening. “Is it your heart?”
“Seems so,” George gasped out, pale, his eyes showing his fear. “I guess I have no choice but to return to the fort. But, by God, as soon as I’m rested up, I’ll go myself to find the stronghold. To hell with you.”
He inhaled a deep breath, the pain cutting like a knife in his chest as he snapped the reins against the horse’s muscled body and rode away from the others.
Colonel Hawkins took off after him. As he pulled up on his right side, he saw a strange gray pallor on George’s face, and noticed perspiration on his brow.
“George, stop! Slow down,” he shouted. “You’ll not be worth anything to Shoshana dead. Think of Shoshana.”
“You go to hell,” George shouted back at him and rode away as fast as his wooden leg would allow.
The colonel refused to give up. He reached George’s side again. “Okay, George,” he shouted. “I give you my word that after we all rest for one night, we’ll set out again and we will search for the stronghold. But I must warn you, if you think the travel we’ve done so far is backbreaking, what lies ahead is twice as bad.” He gazed down at George’s wooden leg, then up at his face. “I’m not sure you can make it up the steeper passes of the mountain.”
George glared back at him. “For Shoshana, I’ll do anything,” he shouted. “Anything! I’ll prove to you that even though I have only one good leg, I can still keep up with the best of your able-bodied men!”
Somewhere behind them the screech of a panther split the still air, causing all of the horses to shudder and whinny.
George looked over his shoulder in the direction of the panther’s scream.
He went cold with fear as he wondered anew where Shoshana might be.
He gazed back at the horse that was being led behind one of the soldiers. George shuddered at the thought of what had happened to the man who rode that horse. “You bastard, you deserved this sort of death, but not my Shoshana,” he whispered to himself.
He looked ahead again, away from the horse. “Not . . . my . . . Shoshana . . .”
Chapter Twenty-two
Come, on wings of joy we’ll fly
To where my Bower hangs on high.
—William Blake
Shoshana’s heart was pounding, but not so much from fear of being alone as from the realization of what leaving Storm meant. It meant losing not only the only man she would ever love, but also her mother!
It tore at her heart to think that she had just found her mother and now had been forced to leave her.
Perhaps she had been wrong to flee from Storm. With him she had finally found what she wanted out of life, yet she just couldn’t accept the fact that Storm had forced something upon her that was wrong.
She should be able to come and go as she pleased. No man should be able to hand out orders to a woman in such a way, especially to a woman he had confessed to loving.
“Captive!” she whispered, tears filling her eyes. It was just not right for any man to deny a woman her freedom, no matter where that freedom might take her.
Her thoughts went to George Whaley. She could understand why Storm was so adamant about achieving vengeance against Whaley.
She understood this need, for deep down she had always had the same need but had not, until now, admitted it to herself. She had grown up loving this man as a father. She had never been able to really accept the enormity of what he had done.
But now she felt the need to punish him herself. She was just not sure what form her revenge should take.
A sudden noise at her left caused Shoshana’s horse to shy. She heard a rustling in the brush, and then the threatening scream of a panther.
“No! Not again!” Shoshana cried as she hung on to the reins while the horse reared and bolted.
The horse settled down somewhat, but seemed frozen now instead of running away to safety.
