“Has he really hurt you so badly?”
She flushed uncomfortably. “No, he scared me halfway to death at first, but he’s never hurt me, it’s just that…”
“This meal with Crazy Horse is important to him.”
“And I intend to be a proper wife.”
Sloan smiled. “It’s too bad the three of us aren’t full-blooded Sioux. I could steal you away, leaving several good ponies as payment.”
“It appears to me,” Skylar said shrewdly, “that you are quite busy enough without a wife.”
“What? Ah…Earth Woman.”
“Is that her name? How fitting.”
“Ouch. You do have claws.”
“Well, I thought…never mind.”
“Watch those thoughts. Sioux men and women are like other men and women. Within the framework of society, some are simply better people than others. But morality is high here?—”
“When a man isn’t wife-stealing.”
“Wife-stealing brings about a stigma.”
“Wife-beating.”
“Very few men beat their wives. And you tell me, are white men always kind and gentle with their wives?”
Her heart seemed to harden as she looked at him. She shook her head. “You’re right. White men can be monsters.” She inhaled. “Don’t you dare let him enjoy the day, Sloan. But you needn’t worry. I do intend to be the perfect wife.”
Sloan smiled. With a wave, he rode off to join his hunting party.
They rode for several hours on the trail of an elk herd. Hawk used the time to talk with Crazy Horse and his cousins, finding it important to keep communication between them as open and complete as possible. But after a while he found himself drawn back to Sloan, and they rode at the rear of the party.
“Tension in paradise?” Sloan drawled.
“You caused the tension this morning,” Hawk informed him.
Sloan raised a brow.
“She thought I was the man waiting for Earth Woman.”
“Why didn’t you just tell her the truth?”
“If she was going to be so quick to assume that I’d do such a thing, she didn’t deserve the truth.”
“Ah.”
“And I’ve never been able to get the truth out of her.”
“She lies?” Sloan queried, startled.
Hawk shook his head. “Not exactly. It’s just so damned frustrating not to know anything?—”
“She’s on the run,” Sloan said simply.
“You think she’s wanted by the law?” Hawk demanded incredulously.
