“What happened to them?”
“They were taken to Fort Buchanan and later released. They returned on foot.”
Candice thought about a young mother and a boy walking all the way from Fort Buchanan to the Chiricahua Mountains. It was incredible. “Did they … hurt her?”
“You mean, did the soldiers rape her? If she’s told anyone what happened, she’s told Cochise. And he certainly wouldn’t spread that kind of news around.”
Jack put off bringing up the subject of Datiye. While Candice wasn’t exactly warm, she wasn’t cold or aloof, and she accepted his ardent attentions at night with the same need as his. He didn’t want to upset the precarious state of their relationship. It felt so good to be with her again. But … he wished they could have more. Maybe it would never be like that.
“Do you expect me to live as a squaw forever, Jack?” she asked on the third day, quietly.
“Of course not.”
“So you do see an end in sight. You don’t intend to die fighting with Cochise.”
“Wars always end, Candice,” he said heavily. What would happen? Cochise had vowed he would never stop fighting the whites over their betrayal, not until he was dead. What if a peace could be worked out? Cochise would never accept a reservation for his people. Even if by some miracle the government gave him Chiricahua territory, Jack couldn’t imagine him accepting a circumscribed area for the Apache. It would be the end of their freedom, and this Cochise would never agree to.
On the fourth morning, when they were breaking camp at the foot of the Dragoons, just fifty miles from Cochise’s eastern stronghold, Jack decided to tell her. He couldn’t put it off any longer. He wished he were still making love to her, as he had been doing a few moments ago. He dreaded this. He felt like a coward. He watched her rolling up the bedroll.
When she stood, he took it from her and threw it across his saddlebags, tying it in place. “Candice, Datiye is at Cochise’s camp.”
She looked at him blankly, then her eyes grew wide. “What?”
“Let me explain,” he said.
Her face had paled with a terrible anticipation.
“Her family is dead. There was no one to provide for her. And … she’s pregnant. So I brought her to the camp.”
Candice didn’t move, couldn’t move, for a long, stunned moment. “I take it you’re the father.” Her voice was curiously low and calm.
“Yes.”
She turned her back to him, shocked. It couldn’t be … this was a dream … he couldn’t do this to her.…
“Candice, there was one time—before we were ever together, after I went to the ranch to get back my horse. I was with her then, just that once.”
There could be no greater betrayal. Therewasno greater betrayal than this. Another woman, another child. His mistress. She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. All this time, while she was alone … thinking of him … missing him … waiting for him to come visit her.…
He was with Datiye. With his Apache mistress.
“Candice?” he said uncertainly. Her back was to him, held stiff, and the lack of fireworks truly frightened him.
She turned to face him, her face rigid with control, but he knew she was on the verge of tears, that her control was precarious. Her mouth was turned downward. “I will never forgive you,” she said evenly. “And I demand you take me home now.”
“Candice, I had to take her with me. Soon she’ll be too big to hunt for herself. For the baby’s sake,” he pleaded.
She looked at him with cold contempt. “Don’t hand me those lies. Datiye told me a long time ago that she was your mistress, and I should have believed her, not you. I truly detest you, Jack.” She couldn’t believe this was her—so calm, so controlled. She knew if she let go, she’d sob with all the intensity of a woman with a broken heart. Because that’s what he had done. Broken her heart.
“She’s not my mistress,” he said angrily. “Candice, believe me! Apache men don’t sleep with pregnant women, not from the moment they know the woman has conceived. It’s not done.”
She stared. “Is that so? You sleep with me. You seem to think you’re Apache—after all, you’re fighting with them. But tell me, if she’s not your mistress, then what happened? An immaculate conception?”
“It was that one time,” he said harshly.
She felt weak, dizzy, numb, faint. She turned away.
He watched helplessly, his eyes grim.
