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Could it possibly be Shane's enemy, Chief Gray Falcon?
Scarcely breathing, Melanie awaited her fate, for she could not move with the Indian pressing so hard down upon her.
Chapter Twenty-three
It pained her where the Indian held Melanie's wrist clamped to the bed. His body, stretched atop hers, was beginning to feel like lead. His breath was hot on her face, as though tongues of flames darted out at her from a fireplace. His hand, now held tightly against her mouth, kept her from crying out. Why was he keeping her immobile for so long? The passing moments felt like hours!
She wanted to cry out, to alert the servants!
Her eyes widened. The servants! That's why the Indian was not taking her away just yet. He was waiting for the house to become quiet, for all of the servants to go to bed, so that he could steal her away without anyone's seeing or hearing him. No one had heard the earlier struggle, for the Indian had been swift and silent.
Breathing hard, Melanie's gaze went to the window. If the Indian waited long enough, Terrance would arrive back home!
But her hopes quickly waned, for she could be almost sure of Terrance's condition when he did return. He would be stinking drunk and would not notice anything awrynot until morning, and that would be too late!
Suddenly the Indian was all movement. He had acquired a buckskin gag from somewhere and secured it around Melanie's mouth. Then he was grabbing her up into his arms!
Melanie fought the Indian as he held her tightly within his steel grip. She pummeled her fists against his bare chest. She kicked. She tried to cry out through the foul-tasting fabric tied around her mouth. When she tried to reach for it, he knocked her hand away.
Then, just as the Indian began walking hastily toward the door, Melanie made a lunge and grabbed at a bead necklace that hung around his neck and tore it away from his body. Beads sprayed in all directionstoo many to stop and try to gather them up!
Melanie smiled smugly up at the Indian as he uttered several Chippewa phrases barely beneath his breath. When Terrance discovered her gone, he would at least know an Indian had done the ghastly deed. And when Terrance went to Shane and told him of the abduction, Shane would guess which Indian was responsible. Shane would rescue her! She knew that he would!
She winced with pain as the Indian's lean,
strong fingers dug into her body and carried her from her room. The light from the wall sconces in the corridor was dim, but the candles reflected enough golden light to enable Melanie to finally get a look at her captor as he stole quietly toward the staircase.
She looked first at his face.
Painted with frightening black zigzag lines across his nose and cheeks, the face beneath the paint was of a dark copper tone. His cheekbones were high and sculpted, his eyes were midnight black. His black, coarse hair was drawn back from his brow with a beaded headband.
Pressed hard against his bare chest, Melanie could manage only a slight movement to her head downward to see what he wore. Her eyes widened over her gag. He wore only a scant loincloth! Beneath the soft fabric she could see the identifiable outline of his manhood.
Knowing now how quickly he could rape her once he had her out in the wilderness, Melanie again began desperately fighting him. But it was all in vain. He did not seem even aware of her fists pounding against his bare flesh, or of her wildly kicking legs. He had come to abduct her, and it seemed that nothing was going to stop him!
The house was left behind and Melanie watched with wild eyes as the Indian ran with her through the dark until just ahead, a pearl-white horse shone in the darkness like a great white ghost. Melanie groaned as the Indian sat her roughly onto a saddle of blankets, then mounted behind
her and held onto her as he rode away, toward the butte in the distance.
Melanie cast a pleading stare over her shoulder at Shane's house that sat dark in the distance. Was he home yet? Was he sleeping soundly on his pallet of furs in his bedroom? Oh, if only he were! If only she were there with him! If what was happening to her were only a nightmare and she would awaken soon in her lover's arms!
The campfire was burning low. Cards lay upturned on the ground beside the empty silver flask. Shane was snuggled between blankets, sleep having finally claimed him. Suddenly his body twitched and he moaned aloud. In a dream, he was hearing Melanie crying out to him. He could see her outstretched arms, beckoning to him. She wore a sheer, white garment that billowed around her as she moved farther away from Shane, looking as though she were being carried by the wind.
Shane broke out in a cold sweat as, in his dream, he tried to run after Melanie to save her, but found it impossible to run. His legs seemed frozen to the ground. He screamed her name. Over and over again he screamed her name.
''Melanie!" Shane cried, this time out loud, awakening himself from the fretful nightmare. His heart was thundering inside him. He jerked himself up into a sitting position, his eyes wild as he looked frantically around him. The dream had seemed so real! It was as though Melanie had been there, crying out for him!
Shane inhaled a nervous breath, then sighed. He raked his fingers through his golden hair, straightening it back from his eyes. He looked up into the heavens that were just lightening with the promise of a new day.
"I must return home," he said, rising quickly to his feet. "But I must go to Melanie first. Perhaps my dream was an omen! What if something has happened to her?"
He grabbed his cards and silver flask up from the ground and thrust them inside his saddle bag along with his blankets. As he secured these to his horse, his thoughts went to Trapper Dan. In time, he would finally avenge his mother's and Cedar Maid's deaths.
But for now, Melanie was his main concern.
Mounting his horse, Shane bent low over its mane and rode away at a brisk gallop.
Terrance awakened with a throbbing headache. Groaning, he lifted one leg from his bed, and then the other. He hadn't thought to close his drapes after arriving home after midnight, and the sun now poured in through the windows, making Terrance teeter with the shock of the brightness entering his bloodshot eyes.
