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Sage was unaware of the silence that had fallen around him, and that his people were staring and edging closer, puzzled over a father who was enraged with a daughter everyone knew he cherished.
Inside the hogan, Adam and Pure Blossom fell away from each other, eyes wide, hearts pounding.
“My father,” Pure Blossom said, drawing a blanket quickly around her nudity. “And he is angry.” Her eyes wavered. “He must know you are here.” She swallowed hard. “But how?”
When Sage shouted her name again, she turned from Adam, whose face was ashen. Frightened, guilty, and meek, clutching to her blanket for dear life, she stepped outside and gazed up at her father.
His daughter’s behavior told Sage all that he needed to know. He dismounted and brushed past her, entering her hogan. Rage filled him when he found Adam scampering into his breeches, his eyes wild and frightened.
Sage grabbed Adam by the throat and half lifted him from the floor. “I could kill you with my bare hands,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “And I will if you ever approach my daughter again.” He felt sick to see the rumpled blankets on his daughter’s bed.
With a force that sent Adam flying across the hogan, Sage hit Adam, then stamped toward the door. He feared the anger seething inside him, knowing that if he stayed another moment with Adam, he would kill him.
He turned and gave Adam one last warning look. “Don’t ever get near my daughter again and never come near my village,” he said tightly. “You have shamefully used my daughter for your own greedy, white man’s gain.”
Adam reached a hand out to Sage. “No,” he cried. “That’s not the way it is at all. I love your daughter.”
This made Sage even angrier. He took a step toward Adam, but was stopped when Pure Blossom came into the hogan and stood between them.
“Father, please don’t,” she cried. “Please!”
Adam took the opportunity to escape. He grabbed up the rest of his clothes and ran outside, not surprised to find his horse tied to Sage’s—the source of the discovery of their liaison.
His fingers trembling, he thrust his clothes into the saddlebag. Clothed only in his breeches, he swung himself into the saddle. Humiliated and angry, he spun his horse around and rode away, people scattering to make room for him.
Sage turned to Pure Blossom. There was much that he wanted to say to her, although his warnings had come too late. But he knew that she had been humiliated enough today. He gently took her into his arms and hugged her.
Pure Blossom sobbed as she clung to him, yet she could not find it inside her heart to tell him that she was sorry. She wasn’t. Adam had awakened her to feelings that she perhaps would have never known. She would cherish them. She would cherish and relive those moments with him until the day she died.
“Adam is hogay-gahn, bad,” Sage said, his voice drawn. “You are good. You are not meant to be together.”
He eased away from her and gave her a lingering look, then left.
Pure Blossom threw herself onto her bed and cried, hugging the blankets upon which she had made love.
“Adam,” she sobbed. “My Adam.”
Chapter 14
If thou lovest me too much,
’Twill not prove as true a touch;
Love me little more than such.
For I fear the end.
—ANONYMOUS
Stephanie and Runner rode along an old oxcart trail, the pack mule trailing behind them. Stephanie looked over at Runner. “I truly appreciate you being here with me.”
She waited for him to respond, growing more tense when he didn’t. He continued looking straight ahead, as though she weren’t there.
“Runner, please tell me what’s the matter,” she said. “Back at the train, everything was so beautiful between us until I mentioned Adam. I didn’t know that your feelings about him ran this deeply.”
“Adam is a stranger to me now,” Runner said, giving Stephanie a scowl. “Many years have passed since we shared a friendship. Those years changed Adam into someone with whom I could not be a friend.”
“But, darling, you knew that before we made love,” Stephanie said. She shifted her horse’s reins from one hand to the other. “Why did the mention of his name have to ruin what we share? Although Adam is my brother, he and I do not always agree on everything. I never allow his opinions to overshadow mine.”
