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“I am not injured, only she is,” Strong Wolf said, placing her on his horse, swinging himself in the saddle behind her. “But it is only a flesh wound. She will soon awaken.”
“Then what, my brother?” Proud Heart asked warily. “What will you do with her then? Take her with us? Or return her to her lying brother?”
“I am not certain just yet what I should do with her,” Strong Wolf said, his insides torn with needs and wants. “Go on to the village without me. The deed is done here. The dam is no more.”
“You could have been killed because of that woman,” Proud Heart mumbled out as he gazed with contempt at Hannah.
“But my lungs still draw breath into them, do they not?” Strong Wolf said, glowering at Proud Heart. “My brother, do not allow this woman to come between us. I shall do what I must. It is truly no concern of yours.”
“Anything or anyone who enters your life is my concern because my friendship to you is forever,” Proud Heart said, then turned and rode away.
Strong Wolf watched Proud Heart until he could see him no more, then rode in the opposite direction.
Hannah slowly awakened. She was first aware of the horse’s movements, then opened her eyes and saw that she was not in control of the horse. She was on someone else’s steed, being held there by someone’s muscled arm.
She turned with a start as she gazed with wide and questioning eyes at Strong Wolf.
Strong Wolf’s eyes locked with hers, then he drew tight rein and stopped his horse.
“What happened?” Hannah asked, reaching a hand to her throbbing brow. She didn’t remember how she had gotten on Strong Wolf’s horse with him. The last few minutes seemed altogether blocked from her memory.
“Strong Wolf, why am I with you?” she asked, stunned by so many things. Why was she there? How had she gotten injured? Why was Strong Wolf so . . . so . . . strangely quiet and withdrawn?
When h
e helped her from the horse, still he said nothing.
Hannah tried to steady herself, to stand alone, but her knees buckled beneath her.
She was surprised when Strong Wolf offered no help and allowed her to fall to the ground. When she gazed up at him, she froze inside, for he no longer seemed friendly. Instead she felt that by the way he was glaring at her so contemptuously, it was as though she were his ardent enemy!
“Strong Wolf?” she said, reaching a trembling hand toward him. “Please . . . ?”
But . . . still . . . he ignored her!
Chapter 7
Her hair that lay along her back
Was yellow like ripe corn.
—DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
As Strong Wolf continued to glare at her, Hannah slowly pushed herself up from the ground.
After she was back on her feet she started to back away from him, their eyes still locked in silent battle.
When he reached out and grabbed her by a wrist, stopping her, Hannah gasped and paled. “Please tell me what’s wrong,” she said, her voice tremulous. “Why are you treating me like this?”
In small flashes her memory was returning. She recalled why she had left the ranch; to see if the dam had been destroyed. She recalled now having seen the dynamite planted in strategic places in the dam, and then . . .
“Your brother deceived me,” Strong Wolf finally said, interrupting Hannah’s train of thought; her remembrances of what had brought her to this moment in life.
“My brother deceived you?” Hannah said, her eyebrows forking. “How?”
She reached her free hand to her brow, where she felt a slight swelling of the skin. It was just now beginning to throb.
The blast!
