Free Wild Splendor by Cassie Edwards Page B

equally.”
    She didn’t have to be told again. Her stomach ached so terribly, she opened the pouch and broke the long strip of jerked deer meat in two and handed half to Sage. Between bites of tasteless deer meat and dried, wild seeds, she enjoyed the sweetness of the fat fruit of the yucca.
    Sage ate along with her, his mind on what lay ahead. “It is important to reach my stronghold before word has spread too far of what my warriors and I have done,” he said suddenly. “Once we are there, no one can find Sage and his people, or his captives. It is well hidden from the soldiers. Only a few neighboring Indians with whom the Navaho trade even know where it is located.”
    â€œIt will take you quite a long time to get there if you continue forcing the women and children to travel on foot,” Leonida said guardedly. “Especially if they have to travel the narrow paths of the mountainsides.”
    As she took her last bite of food, she gave Sage a half glance, hoping that what she had said had planted an idea in his head. The government had always given the officers’ families more than adequate housing, clothing, and food to satisfy them. This had made them weak.
    â€œYou are right,” Sage said, nodding. “The captives will now all travel on horseback with my warriors.”
    Leonida was stunned that he had agreed to her suggestion. A warm feeling swam through her: Sage was changing back into the gentle, caring person that she had known at first. It would be so easy to forget everything but the good about him.
    â€œOnce we are safely at my stronghold I will send a scout to Fort Defiance with word of the ambush and my intentions,” Sage said, gently taking the empty pouch from Leonida and folding it in fourths.
    â€œWhat are your intentions?” she asked. “How long do you plan to hold everyone captive?”
    She paled when he did not answer.

Chapter 9
    The clearest spring, the shadiest grove;—
Tell me, my heart, if this be love?
    â€”G EORGE L YTTELTON
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    The long ride, the hot sun and scorching wind, weighed on Leonida. Combined with the lack of sleep, the discomfort made her limbs sluggish and her eyes heavy. Her head bobbed as she forced herself not to lean back and rest against Sage’s powerful chest. It was enough that she had to ride with him at all, constantly battling her feelings for him, let alone having to ride on into the long night without any sleep or rest from the grueling journey on horseback. She had long since forgotten the others, who were as fatigued as she, for it was taking all of her own willpower and concentration not to give in to her exhaustion.
    The morning sun had been welcomed, for she hoped it would reveal that they were approaching Sage’s stronghold. Yet Leonida saw that they were still traveling a small footpath at the side of a mountain, this only occasionally leveling out into a valley wide and green with grass.
    With a heavy sigh, Leonida looked around, trying to focus her attention on her surroundings to keep herself awake. They were riding down a slope of bald rock into another valley. Here and there were fragments of petrified trees. They were of all colors. Some were dull, others reflected like marble, their many shades made more brilliant by the clear sunlight.
    They followed a winding path under firs, and then they rode into another narrow canyon. Leonida was relieved to get a reprieve from the sun in this strip of mid-morning shade, the air cool and pleasant on her face and arms.
    For warmth through the long, cold night of travel on horseback, Leonida had worn a poncho, a shoulder blanket with a hole in the center for the head. She had ignored Sage when he had first offered it to her, but it had not taken much shivering for her to agree to wear his generous offering. Yet she had shoved his arm away as he had tried to draw her back against him, to share his body warmth with her.
    She had known the