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“No, for whatever scarred it in such a horrendous way,” Eagle Wolf answered, slowly nodding. “I pity the enemy, two-legged or four-legged, that is the reason for its restlessness. If the wolf did not have this need, it would have returned to others of its own kind.”
“I had always thought that wolves were quite fearful of humans,” Nicole said, now riding through tall, blowing, sandy-colored grass.
“Wolves normally are afraid of humans, and stay away from them, but from all that I see about this wolf, it is very different,” Eagle Wolf said, looking over his shoulder in the direction where he had last seen the wolf. “I do wonder sometimes why it seeks me out as it has more than once.”
“Because it sees you as a friend,” Nicole murmured. She smiled softly. “I believe I am seen as a friend, too, for the wolf has never threatened me.”
“Perhaps it senses your feelings toward me,” Eagle Wolf said, now guiding his steed into a forest of aspens.
“But how?” Nicole asked, following behind Eagle Wolf because there was no room to ride beside him.
“That is where mysticism comes into play,” Eagle Wolf said, smiling over his shoulder at her. “My woman, as you live among my people you will be exposed to many things that puzzle you, but always remember that there is a reason for everything and there is always something or someone to watch over you.”
“I feel it already,” Nicole said, returning his smile. “And I feel so blessed because of it…because of you.”
“I hunt tomorrow while you help in the garden. Soon there will be a wedding for my people to celebrate,” Eagle Wolf said. “Ours, my woman. Ours.”
That made Nicole feel a sense of happiness and peace that she had never known before, and it was all because of a man most whites would kill if they saw him riding alone in the forest.
That thought made her shudder with a strange, sudden fear that was new to her.
Chapter Thirty-one
The campfire was burning low as Sam Partain and his men got up to begin a new day of their search.
But things had changed. Several of the men who had ridden with him on his quest to find Nicole Tyler had left angrily in the night.
They had tried to talk Sam into forgetting this nonsense and letting the woman be. When he refused to listen to reason, they snuck away in the darkness.
Now there were only two men riding with Sam, their eyes set on the upper slopes of the mountain.
Searching farther and farther up the mountain had become Sam’s obsession. He would not let the fear of Navaho Injuns spook him out of getting his revenge.
But he had decided that if he hadn’t found Nicole in the next two days, he would finally give up on her and return with his friends to St. Louis. The nights had already proven that winter was not far away. The higher elevations of the mountain were already snow-shrouded.
“Sam, can’t you feel how cold it is this morning?” Ace asked as Sam kicked the last of the dirt on the campfire until all the glowing embers were covered. “Take a gander up yonder. Snow, Sam. There’s more snow on the peaks than yesterday. Don’t that give you a hint of what’s to come? Sam, two more days are two days too many for me. I don’t trust this mountain. It’s haunted by Injuns. Who’s to say when a hard snowfall will suddenly come and cover us like thick, white blankets, sent by the spirits of this damn mountain? Navaho spirits, Sam.”
“You believe in too much superstitious fluff,” Sam said, laughing contemptuously as he placed his blanket in his saddlebag. “Come on. Get in your saddle and let’s go. The sun will soon warm you through and through. You’ll forget the chill of the night. And as for snow? Good Lord, man, it’s too early in the season to think about it, much less cause me to give up my search for the Tyler woman.”
Ace gave Tom a harried look, hoping the other man would back him up. Maybe Tom could come up with some argument that would stop Sam from continuing this idiotic search for a woman who meant nothing at all to Tom, or Ace.
Tom just shrugged and mounted his horse, and Ace had no choice but to follow him.
They gave Sam a harried look, then rode farther up the mountain pass that they had found only yesterday. It was worn enough to tell them that it was used frequently, no doubt by the Navaho, who were the only ones who came this far up the mountain.
Sam supposed that knowledge should have sent him running for cover, but he was too intent on finding Nicole to care. Once he did, he would get out of this place as fast as his horse would carry him.
He wasn’t as dumb as his friends thought him to be. He knew that he was chancing everything in order to take his revenge.
“She’s got to be on this mountain,” Sam grumbled as he snapped his horse’s reins. “We’ve been all over lookin’ for her. No prints lead farther than this mountain. They’re hers, you know it. We followed them from where she was last. In that Mormon community. I might not be an Injun, but damn it, I’m skilled at trackin’ horses’ prints. And she just can’t have gotten far. We’ll find her today or my name ain’t Sam Partain.”
Suddenly Sam went quiet as he spied something that made him stare with disbelief.
The wolf!
It had to be the same wolf that he had left for dead some months ago after it had come up on him while he was alone at a river.
He was stunned that the wolf had lived after what Sam had done to it. Why, Sam had practically skinned it after stabbing the son of a gun in the side.
