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"The tracks of the trapper's horses led in this direction earlier," Red Raven shouted back. "But I lost them at the river! We can only hope now that we are still following them."
"I cannot believe that the same man can take two of the women I love away from me!" Shane said, his eyes haunted. "Why did he choose Cedar Maid for a bride? Why?"
"As the story was repeated to me by one of my
cousins, who sat around the fire with Gray Falcon while the bride price was being paid, the trapper said that he had heard about how beautiful this woman was who had just moved to the land of many lakes from Canada," Red Raven said. "He came. He paid well. Not only did you lose Cedar Maid, Shane, but I also. She was to be my bride!"
"Gray Falcon will pay for this," Shane grumbled, doubling a fist at his side. "It is only in spite that he sent Cedar Maid away. He wanted nothing in his village to remind him of me! Because of his jealousy and spite, Cedar Maid must now suffer!"
"Shane, Gray Falcon has won in the battle of the heart," Red Raven said. "Not only Cedar Maid is suffering, but also you and I!"
Hate welled inside Shane for Gray Falcon. He nodded. "Yes, that is so, Red Raven," he mumbled. "That is so." He thrust his heels into the flanks of his horse and urged it into a harder gallop.
Tired and hungry, her body feeling as though it were glued to the horse's back, Melanie continued her journey with watchful eyes. She sighed heavily, her hair lifting wildly from her shoulders as the wind whipped it about. "When will they ever stop?" she whispered, her lips parched with her need of water. "Do they have any idea at all where they are going, or is it all a guessing game? If they do catch up with the trapper, what then? Will I witness a side of Shane that I do not even want to know exists? Will he viciously kill the man?" She swallowed hard. "Lord, will he even scalp him?"
Weary, and too full of questions that she feared the answers to, Melanie chose to drop back away from the two determined riders and return to her farm. This was not a mission that she should be a part of, after all. She could not bear to think that Shane could have a savage side. It would tear at her heart to see him be anything but gentle and compassionate.
"I don't know what I was thinking by following him," Melanie said, drawing her reins tautly and stopping her horse. "It was foolish!"
Needing a moment to rest before traveling back, Melanie dismounted. Watching Shane ride farther and farther away from her, she felt empty and frightened. Perhaps this would be the last time she would ever see him.
Turning her eyes away and stifling a sob in the depths of her throat, Melanie took her horse's reins and led her steed to a great nestling of oak trees. After securing the reins on a tree limb, she stretched her tired and aching bones.
Just as she started to sit down on the ground for a much needed rest, however, she stopped short and took an unsteady step backward. Just ahead was something that did not look right. It was a pile of leaves that looked as though it had been put there purposely. And the form it took was that of a human body!
Paling, Melanie stared at the mound of leaves for a moment longer, then, scarcely breathing, she knelt to the ground and began brushing leaves aside.
When suddenly a face showed up at her through
the opening, Melanie jolted with fright back to her feet. And as she looked down at the lifeless dark eyes staring blankly up at her, she began to scream.
Over and over again she screamed.
The screams reached through the forest. When Shane heard them, chills raced up and down his spine. He stared at Red Raven for a moment, then both wheeled their horses around and began riding back in the direction from which they had just come. Everything was silent now, even the warbling of the birds in the trees.
After a moment of quick travel, Shane blinked his eyes, hardly believing what he was seeing. It was Melanie. But what was she doing there?
His jaw firmed angrily as he realized that she must have been following him. But what had happened to cause her so much distress? Where was her horse? Had it thrown her?
Puzzled, he watched Melanie running through the forest in his direction. Her eyes were wild. Tears streaked down her face.
"Shane!" Melanie cried, waving her hands desperately. "I'm so glad you heard my screams. Oh, Shane, it's so horrible! Someonesomeone is dead back there. Someone has been buried beneath a layer of leaves. Oh, Shane, I saw the person's face! It was . . . a woman!"
Shane drew his stallion to a shuddering halt beside Melanie. He was filled with many questionswhy she was there, why she had followed him!
Yet, nothing but what she had said was important. Who was buried beneath the leaves? A woman?
No! It could not be! Not Cedar Maid!
The trapper had paid well for her. Why would he take her as a bride, then kill her?
Reaching down, Shane swept Melanie up on his horse with him. Securing her on his lap and locking an arm around her waist, he rode onward. "How much farther?" he asked. He was so filled with fear of what he was soon going to find, his voice sounded strangled.
"I couldn't have run far," Melanie said, sobbing. The beautiful face of the woman, an Indian maiden, haunted her now, and probably would for the rest of her life.
Her heart faltered as she looked quickly up at Shane. She had failed to tell him that the woman was an Indian. He was looking for an Indian woman.
Oh, no, it couldn't be! It just couldn't be!
