She swung out again and managed to connect her fist against his cheek.

He swore and secured her wrists, then started laughing as he stared at her.

"My, my, Miss. Stuart, it is a pleasure to see you this way!"

She was barely clad, she realized. Her chemise was dusty and pulled high, leaving her midriff bare. And her cotton petticoat was rucked up against her knees; her legs were bare 183 beneath it. As he stared at her she felt sick.

She could see his intentions in his eyes, and she wanted to die. Not long ago Jamie had whispered on the breeze that he thought he was falling in love with her. And not long ago, he had taught her what it was to feel feminine beyond belief, to know the beauty of a mutual yearning, a soaring pa.s.sion, all the sweet and fascinating things that should be shared between a man and a woman. Not long ago. And now this horrible man with blood on his hands was looking at her and laughing.

"I always did want to get to know you better, Tess!" he a.s.sured her.

He lowered himself against her. She twisted wildly, hating the feel of his greased flesh, despising him. He tried to find her lips. She twisted and thrashed and screamed, and still she felt him touching her.

"That's all right!" he hissed against her cheek.

"It's all right.

You'll come to like it soon enough. I'm real good. I'm real, real good.

I'll have you screaming in a way you just ain't imagined yet, honey. And later on, you'll be grateful.

"Cause you're going to Nalte, one of the chiefs of the Mescalero Apache.

He's wanted a blond woman like you for a long time. They say he tried a few raids to acquire one, but he kept coming up with brunettes. Our Comanchero friends promised him a beautiful young blond white woman.

Nalte is tough, Miss. Stuart. You'll be real glad that I initiated you into this ..."

He tried to secure both her wrists with one hand while he spoke. Tess fought him like a wildcat, delaying his purpose but losing her strength quickly.

Nalte? An Apache? Then the Comancheros were the delivery men. Von Heusen was dealing with the Comancheros, and the Comancheros were dealing with the Apache. She would be safe from the Comancheros. Because she was meant for the Apache!

But she wasn't safe from David. She sobbed as she fought to free her wrists. She threw his weight from her hips, but he seemed to enjoy feeling her move against him. She twisted and sank her teeth into his fingers.

He shouted out in pain and sat hard on her, plunging his fingers into his mouth and stating at her murderously. Then his palm connected sharply with her cheek, and the world seemed to spin. His hands were upon her, upon her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, tugging at her petticoats.

"No!" she screamed in desperation and horror. But there was no one to help her out here. Jamie was by the river, dead. The vultures might well find his body before anyone else could.

David's hands were upon her, and he was tugging on her clothes. He was about to violate the only beauty she had ever really dared to reach out and hold.

"Get off her!" someone suddenly roared. And David was plucked away from her.

Tess crawled quickly backward on her elbows. Her heart soared as she saw that David and Jeremiah were involved in a fistfight with one another.

David was swinging and screaming at the same time.

"What the h.e.l.l's the matter with you, Jeremiah? You can have your d.a.m.ned turn when I'm done" -- "No! Von Heusen said no! He promised the chief an in- noeent woman " -- "What do you think she was doing by the river with Slater?"

"I don't know anything! I saw the girl washing her face, and I saw Slater going for a swim. That's all I saw. Von Heusen promised the Comancheros an innocent. And he made us swear not to touch her. I'm not getting my b.a.l.l.s shot off for your entertainment, and that's a d.a.m.ned fact."

"I give the orders here" -- "Von Heusen gives the orders here!"

Tess realized that she was just staring at them. They were fighting like madmen and not paying the least bit of at ten- 185 finn to her, and she was just staring at them. She rolled over and stumbled to her feet. It was time to start running again, before David convinced Jeremiah that she was no innocent and that no one would ever know if the two of them used her, too.

She hadn't gone three steps before fingers laced into her hair, dragging her back. She gasped and sobbed, swinging and flailing out, but she was so exhausted, and in so much pain, that she knew that no matter what her will, she could not fight much longer.

"Stop it! Stop it! Come on, Miss. Stuart, calm down, and make the night easier on all of us! I won't touch you, and he won't touch you, you understand? Just calm down." It was Jeremiah who held her. He was as young as David, she decided. He had lanky blond hair and colorless blue eyes, but they didn't yet hold that absolute cold, cruel streak that touched David's.

He almost smiled.

"I'm going to get you something to wear. Then I'm going to tie you up. I have to. But I'll get you water, too, and something to eat. We're not going to touch you."

"Speak for yourself!" David snarled from a few steps away.

"We're not going to touch her?" Jeremiah snapped. "We're going to turn her over to the Comancheres, just like we promised yon Heusen."

Tess didn't know who would win out. Jeremiah kept a firm grip upon her arm and pulled her along. She saw that there was a third horse on the trail, and that a number of rolled packs were tied on the animal's back.

Jeremiah kept one hand and one eye on her as he tugged at the bundles to free them.

When they fell to the ground, he pulled her down with him to dig into one.

"Here," he said roughly.

"Take this. And get into it. But if you try anything funny, I'll turn my back and close my ears and David can do whatever the h.e.l.l he wants.

Understand?"

She understood. She hadn't the strength to fight them. She needed some sleep. She needed a little time to think and plan.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed the clothing Jeremiah handed her. Apache, she thought.

There were fine, soft trousers and a traditional blouse of buckskin with beadwork and tin cone pendants. She slipped into the bushes with the garments.

"You stay where I can hear you!" Jeremiah called. "I'm here!" she replied.

The buckskin garments concealed much more than the tattered remnants of her clothes had. She couldn't believe she could be grateful to Jeremiah for anything, but she was glad of the clothing. If--not if, when! --she found her opportunity to escape, she would be much better able to weather the elements.

"You still there?" Jeremiah demanded.

Tess tossed her torn undergarments into the bushes and stepped 'out in the Apache attire.

"She should have had a skirt. No warrior trousers," David commented.

"She couldn't ride in a skirt," Jeremiah retorted. Tess stood quietly.

Jeremiah was the one to work on, she thought. He seemed to have a few human qualities left. She lowered her eyes and stood still.

"Miss. Stuart, you come over here and let me tie your hands," he said.

She didn't move.

"Please ..." she murmured softly. "Well ..." Jeremiah began.

"Well, nothing! She's taking you strictly for a fool, that's what she's doing!" David strode over angrily and s.n.a.t.c.hed the rope from Jeremiah's hands. He walked roughly toward Tess. Seeing his face, she almost panicked.

She almost ran.

"Try it. I'd love it if you did!" he told her, his eyes narrowing. He meant it. He liked the chase, he liked the fight and he even liked the smell of blood.

She held out her hands mutely. David looped the rope around them tightly, tugging hard on the knot. Then he caught her arm and dragged her past the horses to the center of the little clearing where they had paused. He shoved her down to her knees and warned her, "Sit! Just sit?

He looked over to Jeremiah.

"There's a creek down past the scrub bush over there. Nothing much. But you can go get rid of that paint. Then I'll decide if I trust you to keep an eye on her so I can do the same!"

Jeremiah hesitated.

"Don't you go getting' no ideas, now, David Birch."

"I ain't going to get any ideas! I want to get this blasted paint off, and that's all!"

Jeremiah walked to the bundles and picked up a satchel of clothing.

He stared at David, then walked toward the brush.

Tess kept her eyes on David. He smiled as he watched her in turn.

"You think you're going to get around Jeremiah, don't you? Well, you're not going to. I'm going to see to that.

You're going to reach old Chief Nalte, and then you won't have to worry about writing those rabble-rousing pieces in that newspaper of yours anymore, ever again.

You'll have lots of other things to think about." He cackled with laughter.

"Lots and lots of other things. Like raising a whole little troop of papooses, yeah." ,. Tess edge~l-around in the dirt, turning her back on him.

He laughed all the harder, then he came forward and jerked her head back so her eyes watered as they met his.

"I'm going to enjoy knowing where you are. Just like I enjoyed hearing Slater's skull crush this morning. I really got a kick out of that."

She forced herself to smile.

"Maybe his skull didn't crush," she said very softly.

David gritted his teeth and yanked harder on her hair. "He's gone, lady.

Dead and gone. And you don't need to worry about that no more, either."

He walked away, leaving her in peace at last. In time, Jeremiah returned, and he became her silent guard.

She hadn't the energy to say anything to him. They sat in silence while the darkness fell upon them. When David re.

turned, the two men made a fire. There was cold chicken to eat and water from canteens, but they wouldn't untie Tess's hands, and the effort to eat suddenly seemed too great. She left the food, sipped some water and lay down in the dirt.

She tried to tell herself that Jamie was alive. Any minute now he would come rushing out from the bushes and kill the two men and take her away.

But he did not come. She closed her eyes in misery and tried to forget the nightmare visions of the day.

Jeremiah came over and tossed a blanket around her shoulders and shoved a pack beneath her head for a pillow.

"Don't think about going nowhere," he warned her. David obviously didn't think the warning was enough. He stood and walked to the piles by the packhorse and came back with a good length of rope. She tried to inch away from him, but he tied one end of the rope around her ankle.

Pinching her cheek, he spoke directly into her face.

"If you move, I'll feel it. If you run, I'll make you pay for it." He walked away with the other end of the rope in his hand.

It didn't really matter. If she had been threatened by evexy demon in h.e.l.l, she couldn't have run that night. She was too weary. Tears stung her eyes.

When she closed them, she saw Jamie again, fighting, then falling. And she heard his whisper.

I think I'm falling in love with you. It hurt to close her eyes; it hurt to open them. She prayed for sleep against the nightmare images. She tried to tell herself that he was still alive. But he would have come for her if he was alive. He would have come.

And if he was not alive, well, then, she didn't want to live, either.

Jamie was alive, if only just barely.

Jori found him around midnight, when the moon was full and high. The wagon had come home without Jamie or Tess, but very late. Jon had to try and track them from town in the darkness, and even when he had found signs that the wagon had stopped and the two of them had walked toward the river, it still took him time to find Jamie's still, crumpled body.

He drew off his buckskin jacket and wrapped it around his friend. He touched the wound at Jamie's temple where the blood had dried. Carefully moving his fingers over the skull, he decided that it was not cracked or crushed. He took his kerchief to the river and soaked it and brought it back to Jamie, cleansing the bloo~way. Jamie's body was icy cold.

He needed warmth, and quickly.

Jon rose carefully and lifted his friend's body into his arms. He called to his pinto and the animal obediently trotted over to him. Bracing Jamie's weight with his hand upon the pommel, he managed to somehow swing up with Jamie in his arms. Then he made a clucking sound and the animal took off at a smooth lope.

At the ranch, Dolly, Hank and Jane were waiting with anxious concern.

When Jori burst in with Jamie's half naked body, Jane gasped and turned white.

"Don't you dare faint on me, young lady!" Dolly ordered her.

"Bring him right to the sofa, Jori. Jane, you run upstairs and get blankets, lots of them. And you, Hank, I'm going to need a sewing kit for that wound.

Some water and ~ome alcohol to clean him up, and maybe a little for the lieutenant to sip. My, that's a mean and nasty bash!" Hank was on his way out. Jane was still staring in horror. "Move!" Dolly commanded her.

In a moment the young woman was back with blankets. Jon draped them around Jamie and rubbed his feet. Hank ~turned with water and a sewing kit, and Dolly began to clean the wound. A long gash ran into the left side of Jamie's temple.

"It's amazing he's still breathing!" Dolly murmured. "He's Missouri tough," Jon told her.

"He'll make it, you'll see."