"You mean Rosario." Rennie said.

"Yes, I've heard the same thing. I really don't understand it, but it seems the Apache are not so easily categorized as one nation. The Tonto are part of the Western Apache and they've no particular liking for the Chiricahua." She looked to her father.

"Perhaps if you were to hire him, offer a reward above what you've already promised for Mary's return he would cover the ground again."

Jay Mac paused in his pacing and considered Rennie's suggestion.

"General Gardner just might release him to me," he said, thinking aloud. He glanced at Jarret.

"I'd like it better if you accompanied him. Mary would be less frightened if you were there when she's found."

"You're putting a lot of faith in Rosario," Jarret said.

"I don't particularly trust him I think his interest lies more in bringing down Ryder McKay than in returning Mary safely.

Remember, most of the people here believe Mary helped McKay escape.

For that alone, Rosario may not care what happens to her."

Rennie took up her sister's cause.

"Mary had nothing to do with the escape."

"I didn't say she did," Jarret responded.

"Only that-" Moira's hands curved around her teacup. She looked across the table at Rennie and Jarret, then stole a glance at her husband.

She could tell he was thinking the same as she.

"Don't be too quick to defend your sister." she said quietly. The words were even more painful to say aloud than they had been to think.

"You didn't see her with him today."

"That ridiculous ceremony," Jay Mac muttered. Moira ignored her husband's comment.

"I don't think she would have returned with us if she had been given the chance." Rennie's eyes flew to her father's. He was not objecting to what Moira was saying. That alone was telling.

"You mean she wanted to stay with him? How can that he?"

"Oh, she didn't want to be parted from us," Moira said.

"At least not so soon. It was clear that she was surprised to see us and that being separated was an agony for her, but your father and I had opportunity to see her before she saw us." Moira's green eyes were awash with tears. She steadied herself to go on.

"And she was... radiant." Jay Mac's eyes closed. He rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. In his mind's eye he could see his Mary Francis clearly, shimmering in her beaded dress, the colors of the sunset glancing off her hair. Her hand hadn't been captured by Ryder's at that point. She had held his of her own accord.

"Papa?" Rennie asked.

"Is this right? Do you think Mary's with him because she wants to be?"

Jay Mac came to stand behind Moira. He placed his hands on her shoulders.

"I don't know anymore," he said heavily.

"It makes it all the more imperative that we find her first.

General Gardner's reduced the size of the search parties, but he hasn't given up. Sooner or later McKay's luck will run out. I think one of us should be there when that happens." In unison Jay Mac, Moira, and Rennie looked to Jarret Sullivan. Mary eased herself into the icy spring. The cold raised goose-flesh on her arms, and she sucked in her breath. There was really never any getting used to it. She quickly soaped her hair, working up a lather, then rinsed. Droplets of water were flung in an arc around her as she shook her head.

"You're like a puppy." Mary's head snapped up and her eyes opened.

Ryder was looming above her on the stone edge of the spring. He was perfectly, splendidly naked.

The smile on his face was a trifle indulgent and a lot more wicked.

"I had a puppy once, you know." He hunkered on the lip of the well.

"We left Copper behind in Cincinnati."

"Copper?" she asked on a thread of sound. Really, that wicked smile did strange things to her stomach.

"An Irish Setter?"

"A bulldog," he said matter-of-factly.

"Molly named him." He was grinning openly now, laughing at her. He raised his hands, half in surrender, half for protection as Mary showered him with water.

"I didn't say you reminded me of that puppy!" Mary wasn't placated.

She scooped another handful of water into her cupped hands and let it fly.

There was nothing for it but that Ryder should join her in the spring.

He jumped in, sending a geyser of water into the air.

When he surfaced Mary was pressed to one edge of the spring hiding her face behind her hands and laughing helplessly. Pinning her to the edge Ryder placed an arm on either side of her. He bent his head so his forehead touched hers and growled lowly at the back of his throat. Mary stopped laughing. That husky growl could start the butterflies in her stomach as easily as his wicked smile. She cast him a wary glance through her splayed fingers. His eyes were boring into hers, not frosty now, but a slightly darker gray, more like molten silver than melting snow. She found she was wrong about the water. One could do better than get used to it. One could learn to ignore it entirely.

As Ryder's mouth closed over hers it was what she was able to do.

In his arms she felt weightless. He lifted her with ease, bringing her body flush to his. Her breasts were crushed against his slick skin, and her legs wrapped naturally around his flanks.

They exchanged excited, hungry kisses. He touched her temple with his mouth, her closed eyes, and cheeks. His teeth caught her earlobe and he tickled the hollow behind her ear with his tongue.

She liked the texture of his skin beneath her lips, the sweet and salty taste of him when she pressed her mouth to the taut line of his jaw and the plane of his shoulder. His hands roamed freely, exploring the shape of her head, her face, her slender neck. His palms and fingers moved with a certain exactness, as if he would be held responsible for recreating each angle and contour. He learned the slant of her shoulders and the gentle curve of her spine. Her narrow waist fit neatly between his hands while her bottom filled them. Her long legs fascinated him, curved as they were around his body, melding her to him even before they were joined. Mary let her fingers trip along the length of his back. His muscles bunched when she touched his shoulders. His ridged abdomen was flat against hers, and his arms held her in a secure embrace. She laid a line of kisses along his collarbone and pressed her cheek against his skin. He was stirring between her thighs, and she learned that the shape of her own body could be defined by the fit of him against her. Ryder's fingers slipped between their bodies. His knuckles brushed her breasts and his thumb passed back and forth over her raised nipples. A flush of desire crept under Mary's skin, suffusing it with color. Her pelvis cradled him tightly and she undulated against him slowly as he drew on all her senses.

His hand went lower, this time to the juncture of her thighs, and he pressed his palm against her mound sending a shudder through her. Her fingertips whitened on his flesh as his fingers stroked and probed.

Tongues of flame licked her skin. She jerked against him as his fingers dipped and entered. He murmured against her ear. The words were unintelligible but the tone was gentling soothing, and in the end he seemed to have possession of her will.

Mary's body obeyed his commands. The intimate press of his fingers made her limbs grow taut and her slender frame arch. She threw her head back and rivulets of water slid past her temples and her shoulders. She felt his eyes on her, gauging her restless response, ready to push it to another level. And when he did, Mary's fingers unfolded as pleasure engulfed her. Her mouth opened but she made no cry. Her entire body went rigid, still. The tightness lasted only a moment before she collapsed against him, sinking into the curve of his embrace.

He stroked her damp hair as her heartbeat slowed. Between her legs he was still stiff and hard. This time his satisfaction had not been physical. Mary's eyes were closed. A little ashamed of the selfish pleasure she had enjoyed, she couldn't look at Ryder. She could feel him against her, his arousal pulsing. She would have taken him into her, had wanted to, but he had denied himself.

"Why did you do that?" she asked softly. Even in his embrace the water was chilly now. She shivered lightly. Ryder set Mary down carefully and raised her chin with his forefinger.

"You're not ready to take me again. Not so soon." His thumb traced the edge of her damp lower lip.