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"I see your horse,"
Shane said, snapping the reins to urge his mount to go faster. "Did you find the body close by where your horse is reined?"
"Yes," Melanie said, turning cold inside at the thought of seeing the woman again. "Only a few footsteps away."
Shane drew rein beside Melanie's bay gelding. He helped her to the ground, then swung himself out of his saddle and followed her. When she pointed to the mound of leaves he hesitated, then went on to it. A dizziness swept through him when he found the beautiful doe eyes of Cedar Maid
looking up at him, yet not seeing him. In those death-locked eyes he could see pain. He could see despair.
Crazed, Shane fell to his knees and began scraping the rest of the leaves away. Soon Cedar Maid's body was fully uncovered. Melanie saw the bloody wrists and turned her eyes away, bitter bile rising into her throat. She choked back the urge to retch as she hung her head in her hands.
Red Raven moved to Shane's side. He knelt down to one knee beside him and gazed down at Cedar Maid, unable to hold back remorseful tears. Shane picked Cedar Maid up and moved her from the grave of leaves and took her to a more pleasant spot close beside a flowering lilac bush.
Melanie regained her composure. She went to Shane and knelt down beside him. ''This is Cedar Maid?" she asked, her voice breaking.
"Yes," Shane said, his voice filled with venom. "This is Cedar Maid." He lifted one of Cedar Maid's limp hands, studying her wrist. He could tell that the wounds on both of her wrists were self-inflicted. To keep from having to submit to the evil trapper, surely even before he had dishonored her, she had taken her own life!
"It is because of me that she is dead," Shane said, easing Cedar Maid's hand back to the ground. He reached trembling fingers to her eyes and gently closed her eyelids, then cradled her head against his chest. "I should have been there to protect her." He began to wail and chant, looking to the heavens.
Shaken, Melanie rose to her feet and stared
down at Shane, then at Red Raven. She felt out of place, as though an intruder, witnessing their terrible grief.
She looked at Shane again. His reaction to Cedar Maid's death was so intense. His reaction was that of a man in love.
Had he desired Cedar Maid but been denied the chance to marry her because he had been banished from the Chippewa village?
Had Melanie just been someone to comfort him in his loss, a handy substitute for the woman he could not have?
Turning her eyes away, Melanie cried softlynot only for herself, but also for Shane, and for the tragedy that had befallen this innocent woman.
So often she was discovering that not only was life hard, but so very, very cruel!
Red Raven dried his tears and placed a hand on Shane's shoulder. "It is best that we return Cedar Maid to my village," he said. "Then we must go and find the trapper. We must kill him, Shane."
Shane shook his head as he looked up at Red Raven. "The search for Trapper Dan will be futile," he said. "He knows the wrath of the Chippewa. He will not chance being caught after Cedar Maid is found dead. Did you not see the haste in which he left her? He did not even take the time to bury her except beneath a covering of leaves! He knew that quick escape was vital, or else he would have taken the time to bury her in the ground, to guarantee that no one would ever find her."
He looked down at Cedar Maid's lovely, quiet face. He rocked her within his arms. "And, no, she will not be taken back to Gray Falcon's village," he said softly. "She was sent away from the village against her wishes. She was disgraced in the eyes of all of her people by having to leave with the vile trapper. She would not want to be disgraced again by being returned to be stared upon with her death mask. No. She will be buried here. Where it is peaceful. Where she chose to die."
"Ay-uh, that is probably best," Red Raven said, nodding. "It is peaceful here and the fragrance from the flowers is sweet. Cedar Maid will enjoy it in death, as she would have in life."
"I always swore never to hate Gray Falcon because the old chief would not have approved of such ugly emotion," Shane said coldly. "But I was wrong. I do hate him. And I will avenge Cedar Maid's death!"
"Together we will avenge her death," Red Raven said, his eyes filled with sudden fire. "Whatever you say, I will do alongside you!"
"How many horses did Trapper Dan pay as bride price for Cedar Maid?" Shane asked, gazing down at her as she lay so limply in his arms. "Just how many pelts passed from Trapper Dan's hands into Gray Falcon's?"
"Five horses and at least ten very fine bear pelts," Red Raven said, moving to balance himself on his haunches beside Shane.
"Then tonight we shall go and steal this exact number of horses and pelts from Gray Falcon," Shane said. "He will lose everything that he found worthy of such a heartless trade. Tonight, Red Raven, if we ride hard, we can be there. As the moon rises high in the sky, it will cast our shadows along the ground as we take what should not be Gray Falcon's!"
Melanie had stood by, listening. Fear grabbed her at the pit of her stomach. If Shane did not return with her now to his new life, perhaps he would never return again!
"Shane," she said, kneeling down beside him. "Please don't do this. Let it be. If not, perhaps it won't only be Cedar Maid who dies needlessly. You could die, also."
She so badly wanted to replace Cedar Maid in his arms. She wanted to cling to him, whisper in his ear what they had found together!
Had it all been false? Would he ever turn to her again with tender, loving arms? Had his feelings for her all been pretense?
