“Already have, dove,” he informed her contemptuously. “Already have.” His tongue snaked out suddenly, flicking the back of Elizabeth’s neck through her hair, and she surged forward as far from him as was possible, cringing against the revolting feel of it.
Colyer chuckled nastily. “Hafta wonder, dove... if you lay as good as you taste.”
* * *
With a senseof foreboding wringing his gut, Cutter vaulted onto the railcar in which Elizabeth and Katie had boarded. In his recklessness, he cleared the steps completely. Racing blindly, he tore open the door and hurried down the aisle, ignoring the stares and curses flung at him for inspecting each and every occupied seat like a man possessed.
She wasn’t there. Christ, she wasn’t there—she wasn’t anywhere!
“Elizabeth! Katie?” He grabbed a small child who dashed out into the aisle and into the seat directly across, where a woman was drowsing, her face to the window. Blond was all Cutter saw in that instant. The woman in the seat was blond. And the child was dark-haired, but the little girl he swung about to face him definitely wasn’t Katie, and she started to squeal in fright.
The blond woman sat up in her seat with a start and began to shriek at him. She lunged forward, her eyes wide with terror, and seized the child from him, clutching her protectively.
Cutter didn’t linger to soothe her.
“Did you see that?” the woman shrieked at his back. “He tried to steal my baby!”
“I think he’s insane!” yelled another.
Cutter’s brows knit as he deliberated his next move. Christ Almighty, he felt insane! The train jerked forward in that moment, taking the decision from his hands. His gut twisted. Having no choice but to examine each and every railcar, he bolted toward the back of the train at a dead run, ignoring the pain that burned through his left leg.
* * *
After two exhaustinghours of riding before Colyer in the saddle, every muscle in Elizabeth’s body screamed from the awkwardness of straining forward.
From the snatches of conversation she’d overheard, she’d been able to conclude that it was Cutter they were after, and not Katie or herself. They clearly despised him; Jack Colyer, for some injury done to his person. What, she didn’t know, but she was sure she’d find out soon enough. Magnus’ reasons were less a mystery. The simple fact that Cutter inhaled the same air he did seemed to provoke him. Every other word out of his mouth was either “breed” or “half-breed”—or some other less-than-flattering epithet.
Of the three, O’Neill seemed to be the least embittered. He said nothing as they rode, but the care he gave Katie spoke volumes. In him, Elizabeth sensed their greatest chance for escape. But she didn’t dare meet his gaze for long to confirm it. Nor did she speak to him for fear of drawing attention to his regard for Katie. Because of his solicitousness, Katie’s fear seemed lessened considerably, and Elizabeth was thankful for that. Yet, in spite of it, Katie’s eyes seemed perpetually wide and on the verge of tears, and it tormented Elizabeth that she couldn’t reach out and take her niece into her arms, couldn’t comfort her. Her eyes glazed every time she happened to catch the stoic expression on Katie’s beautiful little face.
Still, seeing was better than not.
Every once in a while O’Neill would ride out of her field of vision, and Katie’s face would become nothing more than a shadowed blur. It was in those endless moments that Elizabeth’s heart cried out the most, for she wanted so desperately to know that Katie was holding up. Her ears strained to hear even the slightest whimper, but there never was any, and Elizabeth had to conclude finally that Katie had been right.
She never cried.
They didn’t stop until late afternoon, and then only to water the horses. Without explanation, Magnus shoved Elizabeth down onto a fallen log to wait. After a moment, a fitfully sleeping Katie was thrust into her arms.
Watching her abductors with a knot in her throat, Elizabeth sat, rocking Katie and feeling her anger mount with every blasphemy Magnus heaped upon Cutter’s head. But she said nothing, only listened, and tried desperately to keep her fragile control. For Katie’s sake, she suppressed her anger under the appearance of indifference. But had she been alone, she might have clawed Magnus’ eyes out for the insults he hurled at Cutter in his absence. How bold of him to insult a man who wasn’t even present to defend himself! The more she heard, the more difficult it became to keep silent in the face of his bigotry.
When Magnus insulted Cutter yet again, saying that he was no man, that he was an animal fit only to be skinned and worn like the buffalo his kind hunted, Elizabeth couldn’t keep herself from speaking up any longer—in spite of her resolve not to draw undue attention to themselves for Katie’s sake. She flashed Magnus a look of disdain and, as instructed, handed Katie back up into O’Neill’s arms before turning to face him again. Her legs wavered slightly.
“I don’t recall you being so vulgar and insulting to Cutter’s face,” she taunted in a low voice, taut with anger. “Perhaps you aren’t so much a man yourself, Mr. Sulzberger?”
Magnus only smiled, his eyes slitting cannily, and then he turned to address Colyer with a belligerent grin. The look they exchanged infuriated her. “She’ll ride with me now,” he said with relish, and then he turned back to leer at her.
Colyer sniggered. “ ‘Bout time you showed some emotion, dove. I was beginnin’ to worry I’d nabbed the wrong woman.”
Her gaze snapped back to Magnus as he spat a wad at her feet, but Elizabeth stood her ground, ignoring his crudeness.
Magnus nodded in agreement. “Ain’t seen no sign of that bastard trailing us either,” he added. “For a while I was thinking that worthless half-breed might not even care enough to come after her.” Excitement flared in his eyes as he turned to face her. He grinned. “Anyhow, you just set my mind at ease, darlin’. He’ll come. And when he does... I’m gonna take real pleasure in showing you, while he watches, just how much a man I can be. Now,” he barked, “you just get that pretty little butt of yours up into my saddle.”
His grin widened, his gaze roving up the length of her, lingering at her fully concealed breast, yet making Elizabeth feel stripped before him. She shuddered at his look.
“We’re gonna do some powerful riding, you and I,” Magnus vowed.
A frisson of panic rippled down Elizabeth’s spine and the color drained from her face as she recalled Cutter’s passionate plea—Ride me, Lizbeth, ride—the rawness of his voice. She closed her eyes momentarily, wishing to God that she’d had no notion what that word meant between men and women, but she did, and by the look on Magnus’ florid, self-satisfied face, he knew she understood, as well.
Cold fingers swept over her as he sniggered, and she swallowed convulsively, shuddering inwardly, her stomach turning with revulsion at the merest thought of his touching her. Averting her eyes, she glanced over her shoulder at Katie. She was still sleeping—thank God! She couldn’t bear for Katie to hear.
