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“You are thinking again of your son?” Brave Wolf said, sitting up, himself. He reached for her, placed his hands at her waist, then lifted her onto his lap, facing him. “Tomorrow comes soon, my woman. I know what tomorrow brings. We must be separated for a while, and I understand why. Your son. You must then focus only on him.”
“Yes, on finding him,” she said. She swallowed hard. Her eyes wavered. “What if he isn’t . . . ?”
She couldn’t say it.
She just couldn’t think it.
She must find her son, or a piece of her heart would be gone forever.
“Do not think about the bad when reality may eventually be all good,” he encouraged. He drew her into his arms. “My woman, as the pony soldiers are searching, so will my warriors be out looking again. Everything within my power will be done.”
“Yes, I must think all things positive,” Mary Beth said, smiling weakly up at him.
Then she cuddled close to him again. “Just hold me,” she murmured. “Please . . . just . . . hold me.”
“Then you must sleep, for tomorrow is almost upon us,” he said softly. “You must get what rest you can.”
“I shall hate leaving you,” she said, her voice breaking. “After having found you, and loving you so much, being parted from you for even one day will be hard.”
“Days pass quickly,” Brave Wolf said. “Sometimes it seems that I only blink my eyes and it is another tomorrow.”
“Yes, I have felt that way, myself,” she said, laughing softly.
Then she eased from him and stretched out on the pelts. She reached her arms out for him. “But this is now, and we are together,” she murmured. “It will be wonderful snuggling against you as I sleep.”
He smiled, then moved down next to her.
He reached out for her and drew her close, their bodies melding together as though they were one.
“Istima, sleep, my pretty one, my woman,” he said, then brushed soft kisses across her brow.
She smiled as her eyes slowly closed.
Chapter Sixteen
Let those love now
Who never loved before;
Let those who always loved
Now love the more.
—Thomas Parnell
It had taken a good part of the day to arrive at Fort Henry. The sun was lowering behind the distant mountains, but it was still light enough to see the huge fort that loomed ahead of her on the flat land surrounding it.
Mary Beth’s insides quavered as she stared at the fort. It was only a short distance away from where she sat on the lovely dark sorrel that Brave Wolf had given her.
She looked at Brave Wolf. “I don’t know why, but I am suddenly afraid to go on to the fort,” she murmured. “When the sentries first see me alone, they will wonder why. It is unusual for a woman to be alone in this wilderness.”
“I would accompany you there, but that would raise more suspicion than curiosity,” Brave Wolf explained. “It is best not to let them see you and me together. Go, my woman. I shall stay hidden here among the trees, watching you, until you are taken safely inside the fort’s walls. Only then will I feel that you can fend for yourself.”
Mary Beth laughed nervously. “My teeth are actually chattering,” she said. “I don’t know what I am expecting from them to make me so . . . so . . . afraid.”
“I should never have told you my opinion of Colonel Downing,” Brave Wolf said ruefully. “I am sure that is why you are apprehensive about going to his fort. It is not too late to change your mind. I can take you to Fort Hope.”
“No, I truly believe I have come to the right fort even though I do not look forward to meeting Colonel Downing,” Mary Beth murmured.
