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Marla shrugged. “No one knows,” she said. “She just up and disappeared. But aren’t I pretty enough for you? Much older, yet I’m good—”
Lone Wing didn’t stay to hear anything else. He swung around and ran from the alley, not stopping until he reached his pony.
Panting, he slumped to the ground, his head hanging.
“Where is she?” he whispered, near tears.
He could only conclude that Reginald Vineyard had done something horrible to her.
What if he’d found out about her being visited by a young Indian brave? Would he have killed her for that reason alone?
Could something else have happened to her? The lady had said she’d disappeared.
A sick feeling swept through him as he mounted his pony. He sank his heels into its flanks, riding hard until he finally reached his village.
He could not get to his uncle’s lodge quickly enough, even though he knew he would be scolded for going into Tombstone again to see the lovely woman.
“Thunder Horse!” he cried outside Thunder Horse’s tepee. “Chieftain uncle?”
Thunder Horse opened his entrance flap and gazed down at his nephew. “What is it?” he asked, holding the flap aside so that Lone Wing could enter.
Lone Wing stepped past him. He stopped and looked from Jessie to Thunder Horse as she came to stand beside his uncle.
Then Lone Wing gazed intently into his uncle’s eyes.
“She is gone,” he said, his voice breaking.
“Who is gone?” Thunder Horse asked.
Lone Wing lowered his eyes as he drew up the courage to tell his uncle he had ignored Thunder Horse’s warning.
“Lee-Lee,” he blurted out. “I went to see her again. She is gone. The woman who is now in her crib said that Lee-Lee had disappeared.”
Panic entered Jessie’s heart, for she could only imagine the worst—that Reginald had done something to Jade’s daughter.
And then . . . what . . . of Jade?
“Thunder Horse, I’m afraid for not only Lee-Lee, but also—” Jessie said, but stopped when Sweet Willow ran into the tepee.
“You must come quickly,” she said, gazing into Thunder Horse’s eyes through streaming tears. “Our father. He . . . is . . . dying.”
Thunder Horse gasped, then brushed past Sweet Willow and Lone Wing and left the tepee.
“How long . . . ?” Jessie murmured, already feeling Thunder Horse’s pain inside her own heart. She knew the anguish of losing someone you loved. She had lost everyone she loved, her whole family. Reginald was her only living relative, and he was no longer anything to her.
She would never claim him again as her cousin!
“Soon,” Sweet Willow said, taking Lone Wing into her arms and hugging him as he began sobbing.
They forgot everything and everyone but their imminent loss. Even sweet and beautiful Lee-Lee. . . .
Chapter Twenty-five
Enraged that the Sioux seemed to have the upper hand, and that Jessie had hidden from him in their village, Reginald had made a rash decision. He needed help, and he knew just the man to provide it: an outlaw friend of his.
Reginald was approaching his hideout even now in his horse and buggy. He was driving through winding trees, where there was just barely enough room for the conveyance to pass.
He had seen a lookout, watching for intruders, and was glad that the man had recognized him and let him pass. If he was a stranger, he knew that he wouldn’t still be alive.
