“And no one scalped you.”
She shook her head. “But I have seen…”
“What?”
She shrugged. “I have seen a number of white scalps tied to poles in front of tipis.”
“It might surprise you to discover that certain men in the cavalry collect Indian scalps.”
“No,” she informed him. “Very little surprises me anymore.”
He offered her a dry smile. “You do have your own home in the West now, you know. The tipi is yours. If we were to divorce one another, it would remain yours.”
“Does one easily obtain a divorce?”
“Very easily.”
“And not so among the whites!”
He shook his head, staring into her eyes, and wondering what thoughts really played within her mind. Tonight she seemed strangely vulnerable. Perhaps it was the golden flow of her blonde hair over the doeskin of the dress. Perhaps it was the shadowy light within the lodge. Perhaps it was even the fact that he had caught her asleep, that she hadn’t had time to gather all her defenses against him. He knew that he was going to touch her. Knew that he wanted her that night, that he would have her. And in the same breath of hunger, of rising passion, he knew that he wanted to hold her as well, throughout the night. Cherish her.
Protect her. From whatever it was that she had needed to escape. From the fears she would not admit. The past that had driven her here.
“No. Divorce is extremely difficult among whites.”
“Yet you are among the Sioux.”
He laughed softly. “Yes. A Sioux would never conceive of obtaining a wife unseen, that words on paper could make a woman a man’s wife.”
“The Sioux would surely Have a point,” Skylar murmured.
“Perhaps,” he murmured, amused. “But then, a Sioux can acquire a wife just as strangely.”
“How so?”
“If a man’s brother dies in battle, he is obligated to take on his brother’s wife. Or wives.”
“And if he already has a tipi full of his own?”
“The tipi gets fuller. Of course, both parties must find it a satisfactory agreement, and a wife may thank her brother-in-law, applaud his sense of responsibility, and choose to go along on her own. As sometimes happens.”
She was watching him very gravely.
He leaned down on the ground next to her, stretched out on his side, and propped himself up on an elbow. “Had you and your sister been Sioux, I’d be acquiring a second wife right now.” He wondered if she might betray a sliver of jealousy. Her silver-gray eyes continued to study him quite seriously without the least hint of inner turmoil.
“I did tell you that you might like Sabrina.”
“If you say so, I’m convinced that I will.”
“Are you considering more than one wife?” she asked politely.
“I didn’t want one, remember?”
“But now we are among the Sioux. Since you are burdened with one you don’t want, you might be considering taking on a second wife you do want.”
“And you would share the tipi?”
She smiled sweetly. “Never. I would be long gone, Lord Douglas.”
