are separate things. They raid for foodstuffs and other things they

need, they do not raid to kill. When they make war, they do so to kill.

But they do not kill children, and they do not slaughter animals

needlessly. He says there is enough trouble between the 245 whites and

the Indians. He doesn't usually have much use for the Comanche himself,

and the tribes have warred for generations, but he cannot see the

Comanche blamed for a white man's sins."

"You had quite a long talk with him," Jamie commented.

"Jealous?" she asked sweetly.

He grunted.

She braced her hands upon his chest, staring deeply into his eyes.

"I

like him, Jamie."

Jamie laced his fingers behind his head as he watched her eyes.

"Want to stay with him?" he asked.

Words, gentle words, self-betraying words, hovered on Tess's lips. I

like Nalte, but I love you, she almost said. But she could not dispel

the memory of Eliza hanging on to him, trying to force him to love her

in return. She would never do that, she swore. It was dangerous to fall

in love with Jamie Slater.

If nothing else, Tess wanted her dignity left to her.

She forced a smile to her lips and asked lightly, "Trying to get rid of

me?"

"You are a hell of a lot of trouble," he told her frankly. "Yes, but

you've already come this far."

"So I have."

"And I really am worth it."

"Are you?" His eyebrows shot up.

She nodded. Then she moved very low against him again. She let her hair

float over his chest as she lowered her lips to his slick bronze flesh.

She shimmied her body against him as she inched lower down the length of

his body, her thighs locked around him, moving sinuously against him.

She felt the quick rasp of his breath, and she let her lips linger upon

the spot where she could hear the frantic beating of his heart.

Then she moved lower and lower, daring to touch him instinctively,

exploring what was intensely male about him with little subtlety and

tremendous fascination. Her body undulated upon his. She discovered her

own prowess and power, and drove him nearly to madness. All that he had

demanded of her she took in return. He shuddered violently beneath her

touch, his fingers digging into the earth when she caressed him as

boldly with her lips and tongue as he had done to her. He shouted out

hoarsely, and she was soon pinned to the earth as he took her almost

savagely, with a driving, explicit hunger that seemed to rend the very

heavens.

And when the stars had exploded to dance within the night sky and go

still again, he whispered tenderly against her ear, "My love, you are

worth it indeed."

They stayed by the water a little while longer. Whatever came in the

future, Tess knew that she would dream of this place as long as she

lived.

She began to shiver, and he covered her in the doeskin dress once again,

and then he suggested that they return to the tepee in the village.

They slept that night alone together in the teix~ where she had been

taken earlier that day. They slept, having shed their clothing once

again, wound into one another's arms within the warm shelter of an

Apache blanket.

When morning came, they were still together.

During the next few days, they were Nalte's honored guests. They

attended the ceremonies for his sister, Little Flower, and Tess was

amazed to find that she had discovered a strange peace here, living with

the Apache. Nalte spent time with the two of them. Sometimes he ignored

Tess and engaged in long conversations with Jamie in his Apache tongue.

But sometimes he spoke in English, including Tess. Once, when they were

alone, Jamie having gone to join a bunting party, Nalte took it upon

himself to teach her something about the Apache ways.

He explained to her about the Gan," or Mountain Spirit Dancers. In their

masks, they impersonated the Mountains Spirits. They evoked the power of

the supernaturals to cure illness, drive away evil and bring good

fortune. They assembled in a cave, and under the guidance of a special

Gan shaman, they donned their sacred costumes. They held great power,

and therefore they were obliged to honor severe restrictions.

They were not to recognize friends once they were in their attire, nor

were they to dance incorrectly or to tamper with the sacred costume or

clothing once it had been left within a secret cache. To disobey any of

the restrictions could bring calamity down upon the dancer or his family

or tribe. To disobey could bring about sickness, madness, even death.

"We are a people of ritual," he told her.

"We celebrate the Holiness Rite and the Ceremonial Relay. For the

Holiness Rite the shaman must go through arduous procedures, imitating

the bear and the snake, and curing the people of the powerful bear and

snake sicknesses.

The Ceremonial Relay tells us of our food supply--game and the harvest

of nature. Runners symbolize the sun and the animals, and the moon and

the plants. If the sun runners win, game will be in plenty for us. If

the moon runners win, then we will feast on the harvest of the plants."

"You live a good life here," Tess said.

"I live a good life, yes, but I fear the day when white men come to take

it from me."

"But surely, here" -- "They will come, the white men will come. War will

tear apart the mountains, and blood will stain the rivers. It is

inevitable.

But when the time comes, I will remember you, and Slater, and I will

know that all whites are not the same. Yes, it is good here. Now. And

you, I think that you are at She smiled at him.

"I do not believe it, but yes, I am at peace here."

Nalte stared at the fire that burned in the center of the village.

"You might have been happy had you stayed," he said quietly.

"And maybe not. Our women are the gatherers. The first green vegetables

are the yucca, and the women collect them. Then they must collect the me

seal stalks and roast them and grind them into paste. We eat the mescal

as paste, and as the cakes you have been given with your meals. It is a

hard life."

"A ranch is a hard life. And so is a newspaper," Tess said softly.

She looked at him quickly.

"A newspaper" -- "I know what a newspaper is. I lived in a town for many

years when I was a child. I was captured with a war party and taken in

by a minister's wife. I learned a lot about your society. A newspaper is

a powerful weapon."

"It isn't a weapon at all," Tess protested. "More powerful than a gun.

Be careful with it," Nalte warned her. Then he asked her if she was

Jamie's wife. She flushed as she told him that she was not.

"But you are his woman," Nalte told her.

"It--it isn't the same thing," she said.

The Indian was lowering his head, smiling, and she remembered belatedly

that he had chosen to let her go because of Jamie.

"When an Apache marries, he goes to his wife's family. If she lives in a

distant territory, then the man leaves and joins her family. Within it

he may rise to be the leader, then he may become the leader of many

families, and ultimately a great chief. But always, when it is possible,

he joins his wife's family. He works for his wife's parents and elders,

and he is known by them as 'he who carries burdens for me."

He speaks for her, and the man and the woman exchange gifts. A separate

dwelling is made for the couple. She is his wife.

"But I tell you, Sun-Colored Woman, that it is the same among the Apache

and the whites. When a man loves a woman, when he claims her for his

own, when he is willing to give his life and his pride and his honor for

her, that is when she is truly his wife, in his eyes and in the eyes of

the 249 great spirits, be they our gods or the one great God of the

whites." He touched her cheek almost tenderly, then left her. She

thought about his words for a long time to come, and she wondered if

Jamie did love her. Did he love her enough to stay with her, or would he

tire of her, as he had tired of Eliza?

She had made love with him always of her own volition. She had wanted

him as she had never known want before.

But sometimes she wished that she had never given in to the temptation,

for she felt that she had tasted forbidden fruit.

She had found it very sweet, but she would perish when she could taste

it no longer. ~ Nights were theirs. She never spoke, but came to him

with her skin warmed by the fire, her body bathed by the stream, her

hair soft and fragrant from the sun. She lay down be- side him, and she

loved him, and she tried not to think of the future.

On the fourth night of Little Flower's puberty rite, when the maiden had

become a woman, Jamie was silent, holding her gently, staying

motionless.

Tess knew that he didn't sleep, and she shifted against him, asking him

what was wrong.

"We're free to go home tomorrow," she whispered to him.

"Yes, or the next day," be said absently.

"Nalte has been involved with his sister and us. He may be busy with

tribal business tomorrow."