“Ah, but then, I have been quite occupied, I admit,” Hawk said.
The captain laughed. “The Sioux men may be darned right in their attitudes toward women, Hawk. Those boys know that being too close to a lady can cloud the mind and steal the senses!”
“Indeed, I’m humiliated.”
“Hell, it proves you’re human.”
“Human!” Skylar managed to get in.
“Why thank you, Captain,” the Indian stated, another shift of his weight making her gasp for breath again. “Perhaps I do have a respectable excuse. This is Lady Douglas, Captain.”
All the while that he spoke, he stared down at her, still seeming to laugh down at her.
“Lady Douglas!” the captain said, gaping suddenly. “I didn’t know that?—”
“Yes!” Skylar managed to assert. They weren’t going to get the better of her this time. She was going to make them understand. A feeling of triumph rising within her, she stared at the Indian with victorious eyes as she cried out, “Yes! Yes, damn you all, I am Lady Douglas.” It was about time! She was going to make these men realize that she was desperate to be rescued, make them realize the situation. “Yes, my name is Skylar Douglas. Please, I?—”
“Oh, ma’am, we just didn’t know, hadn’t heard… Please, please forgive us! Hawk, it’s a matter of some importance, but I can find you within the next few days. I am sorry. We’re leaving.”
“Quite all right, my friend. Apology accepted. Of course, we would like to be alone again…”
The older cavalry officer pulled the younger man out, slamming the door hard.
“No!” Skylar shrieked. “No! We wouldn’t like to be alone! No! Wait!” She slammed her fists against the Indian and tried to kick, jab.
Bite.
She got her teeth into his shoulder. He didn’t blink an eye, but again, his fingers came threading into her hair. Pulling.
“Don’t bite!” he warned icily.
“Then let me up!”
To her astonishment, he moved aside. She leaped from the bed, heedless that the robe barely covered her. She raced after the soldiers.
She threw herself against the door, fumbling then to find the latch to draw it open. “Wait! Wait!” she cried out. “Please, you’re not listening to me. Won’t anybody help me! My God, I swear to you that I am Lady Douglas. Please—” She finished the plea with a shriek because she suddenly found herself wrenched back into the room, away from the door, by the English-speaking Sioux they’d called Hawk.
Spun around, she stared into his eyes again. She looked down. His long bronze fingers held her wrist.
No.
The cavalry had come.
Help had been here!
“Help” had watched her on the bed with this man…
She looked wildly back to the door. “You have to let me by! They have to help me. They’re the cavalry. You’re an Indian. My God, what’s going on with them? The entire world has gone insane!” She tried to shake free from his hold. She could not do so. She slammed her fists against his chest, half laughing, half crying. “Let me go! I’ve got to get to them. I’ve got to make them understand…”
She broke off, hearing the hoofbeats of the men’s horses fading away.
The cavalry had come.
And gone.
“Let me go. Please, let me go!”
“For what?”
