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She moved to her knees before him. She touched him gently on the cheek. “Please understand why I must do this,” she murmured. “I cannot just give up on David without trying every means to find him. I can go on to Fort Henry, where the wagon train was headed before the ambush. I can explain to the colonel there what happened, and how I have been with you . . . how you rescued me from the renegades, and that I did not come immediately to the fort because I thought your warriors would have a better chance of finding David than the cavalry. But now? I must give them a chance. I have no other choice.”
“This is what you truly feel you should do?” Brave Wolf asked.
“Yes,” Mary Beth said, swallowing hard. She lowered her hand to her side. “Please understand?”
“I do, but I strongly urge you to go to another fort—Fort Hope,” Brave Wolf said. “The colonel there is my friend. Let him do what can be done to find your son. The colonel at Fort Henry is my enemy.”
“Please understand why I feel that I must go to Fort Henry,” Mary Beth said. “That is where survivors of my wagon train would have gone, if there are survivors, because that fort was the wagon train’s destination.”
“Then go where you must,” Brave Wolf said tightly. “But I need to know that you will come back to me.”
He twined his arms around her waist and drew her next to him. Their eyes met and held.
“You were born to be my wife,” he said huskily. “I was born to be your husband. It is meant for us to grow old together . . . to have children of our own.”
“How could you think that I would not want the same as you?” she murmured. “I love you so much, Brave Wolf. I love you more than I ever knew was possible to love a man.”
“As do I love you,” he said, brushing soft kisses across her lips.
Then he held her face between his hands. “My woman, will you stay just one more night with me and my people?” he asked thickly. “Will you stay and be a part of a special celebration?”
“What sort of celebration?” Mary Beth asked, her eyes widening.
“It is a ceremony enjoyed by my people,” Brave Wolf said. “It is the time of the Bear Song Dance, held in the autumn when the ripe berries cause the bears to dance in the mountains. The women have gathered chokeberries to provide food for the dance.”
“I helped prepare food with chokeberries,” Mary Beth said softly.
“What was prepared was made specifically for tonight’s celebration,” Brave Wolf said, smiling at her. “Will you stay? I feel it is important that you experience these special moments with me and my people so that once you are away from me, you will not forget me.”
“I could never, ever forget you,” she said, snuggling close in his arms. “You know that I will return to you. I do want to marry you.”
“But still . . . will you stay one more night with me?” he persisted. “It is too close to dusk for you to leave. It is best to travel to Fort Henry in the daylight. A man with red skin arriving at a fort at night is taking a big risk, especially in the company of a white woman. The pony soldiers might think the wrong thing.”
She gazed up at him and nodded. “Yes, I guess they would,” she murmured. She smiled. “So, yes, I will stay.”
He held her close. His lips lowered to hers.
Mary Beth did not turn away from him this time. Their lips met in a sweet, tremulous kiss.
Mary Beth regretted now having ever denied herself the pleasure that came with his kiss and the warm sweetness of his arms. In his kiss and embrace, everything else disappeared from her mind!
There was only the two of them, their love breaking through all the barriers that had kept them apart.
When they stepped away from each other, Brave Wolf gently touched her cheek. “My body aches for more than a kiss,” he said huskily.
“Mine too,” Mary Beth said in a voice that did not sound like her own. “Tonight, Brave Wolf. After the celebration . . . tonight . . . ?”
He swept her into his arms again and kissed her. Their bodies strained hungrily together.
“Ah, yes, tonight . . .” he whispered against her parted lips.
Chapter Fourteen
Things are always at their
best in their beginning.
—Pascal
