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As far as she was concerned, her life was over. She was the same as dead, for everything within her told her that life was no longer worth living.
All the same, she tensed when Blue Thunder stepped closer to her.
He reached out and spread her blood-stiffened hair to study her wound. His shaman would make it well, and then Blue Thunder would set the woman free, so she could find her way back to her own world.
There were forts close by his village. He would take her near one, then set her free to go the rest of the way on her own.
After she was healed by the shaman and cared for by Blue Thunder’s people, surely she would not go to the fort and complain about him. He was the one who had saved her.
Surely she knew this, even though she was looking at him as though he were one of those whom had killed and raped.
He would give her time enough to know the truth about him and his people before setting her free. She would in time realize that he had saved her from a fate worse than death.
“Hakamya-upo. In my language I tell you to come with me,” Blue Thunder explained in English, placing a gentle hand at Shirleen’s elbow. He understood when she yanked herself away from him, her eyes filled with a sudden loathing.
“Come with me,” Blue Thunder insisted, stepping toward her as she backed farther away from him. “I mean you no harm. I am a friend. I have rescued you from the renegades. I will take you to my village and see that your wound is cared for. I will give you clean clothes. I will give you food. I will also give you a lodge of your own until the time comes for you to go on your way again.”
“I want freedom now,” Shirleen blurted out. “I . . . do . . . not want to go with you. Not anywhere.”
“If you do not come with me, other renegades will find you. You would not even want to think what your fate would be then,” Blue Thunder said softly.
“You are only trying to frighten me,” Shirleen accused, her voice breaking.
“Yes, I am, especially if that is the only way I can get you to go with me,” Blue Thunder said. “You are with friends. You will not be harmed while you are in my company.”
“And I am to believe that?” Shirleen said, laughing sarcastically.
“In time you will see the truth of what I say,” Blue Thunder replied, reaching out and taking her gently by the hand. “Now come. It is time to start back toward my home.”
Recalling how viciously the renegades had killed and raped her friends, and noticing that this warrior’s words were spoken kindly and sincerely, Shirleen knew that for now she had no better choice than to go with him.
She shyly nodded.
After she was placed on a horse, she slowly looked around her. The Indians had gathered the stolen horses together, as well as those with the bags of clothes on them.
She made it a point not to gaze at the fallen, bloody renegades, although she was glad they were dead.
All she wanted for now was to get away from this horrible place and find some sort of sanity in what remained of her life.
It all seemed like a bad dream she might never awaken from!
Chapter Seven
Act well at the moment,
And you have performed
A good action to all eternity.
—Lovater
Shirleen could hardly believe her good fortune. She was riding one of the horses that the Comanche had stolen from her friends. The familiarity of the steed was especially welcome since everything else was vastly different from the life she’d known before.
She had been told by the chief of these Indians that she was no longer a captive, but someone who had been rescued.
She would believe it only when she was truly released to try to put her life back together.
She knew her life would never be the same. Her daughter was gone, and Shirleen had been left with the hideous memory of the deaths of her special friends.
