The child bounded onto the bed, landing on all fours, her round face wreathed in a smile. What is your name? Hunter translated, tousling the imp’s hair as he hunkered beside the bed. Loh-rhett-ah, eh?...
The Comanche rode in a wide circle around the frightened, riderless horses and tossed Amy into the arms of a fellow Indian who waited in the ranks. The little girl’s indignant screeching filled the ai...
That night after supper, Loretta sat by the fire, using an overturned bucket as a stool, a mug of gritty coffee cupped in her palms, her gaze fixed sightlessly on the shifting flames. The other women...
Suddenly it struck her as hysterically funny. She had been captured by savages and dragged halfway across Texas. Never once, not even when he had just cause, had Hunter hit her with enough force to hu...
Strong is right?Well, yes, I suppose you could say that.You say a woman cannot be bought. I say she can. I am strong. I am right.Just when she started to relax around him, he jerked the rug from under...
Still trailing Amy, Loretta spotted Hunter the moment his horse drew out in front of the others. Heaving for air, she stumbled to a stop and glanced over her shoulder. Hunter, broad back to the wagons...
Speaking of pits in plum pudding, do you remember your sister’s first attempt? Your grandfather broke off his only remaining tooth trying to eat it.And swallowed tooth, pit and all, so he wouldn’t emb...
Smiling, he plucked a blade of grass and feathered it along her arm, reaching up under her loose sleeve. Next he directed his attention to her leg, tracing a circle around the top of her moccasin, gra...
She turned her face to touch her lips to his neck. Make a memory with me, Hunter, she whispered huskily. One more beautiful memory.
She saw Hunter reaching toward her out of the corner of her eye. She looked at him as he lowered his medallion necklace over her head. The flat stone was still warm from where it had rested against hi...
She has touched me. My hatred for her has gone the way of the wind. She saved my life. He quickly related the tale about the rattlesnake and how she had broken her silence to warn him. You would prefe...
She blinked and forced herself to focus on him. Laughter twinkled in his eyes. She realized that since he had decided not to kill her, he was, for some reason she couldn’t imagine, playing a hideous g...
She and Hunter were enemies; that she understood. He hated her. She understood that even better. But deadly enemy or not, hated or not, Loretta never would have laughed at him if their roles had been...
Sensing reprieve, grasping for it with eager disbelief, she lifted her lashes in confusion to see the same emotion reflected in his cobalt eyes.He began to tremble, as if the lance weighed a thousand...
Pray your words, old man.The priest licked his lips and glanced fearfully at the crowd of savages around them. Perhaps it was the stark contrast of black robes against pallid flesh, but Loretta though...
Peace filled Hunter. With so many Great Ones, both his and hers, surely they would be blessed. Relaxing his body, he surrendered himself to fate. The Great Ones would guide them. Loretta’s God would l...
Oh, Hunter, I’m sorry, she said on the crest of a sob. I didn’t mean to hurt you like this. I didn’t mean to hurt you.You rip my heart out and it should not hurt? His teeth closed on her earlobe, nipp...
My song says I will one day leave my people. I am Comanche. Without them, I will be as nothing, Blue Eyes.Loretta stared sightlessly into the shifting shadows, watching the play of firelight. It’s onl...
My cousin, Red Buffalo, has said false words to you? If this is so, you will tell me.As if you don’t what he told me!You made a lie of your promise and tried to flee, is what I know! You came at me...
My chief wife will be a woman of my own blood. He felt her stiffen and, seeking to mollify her, added, You can be second wife, eh? Or third?To his surprise she bolted upright, shaking again, this time...