"what difference will a day make?"

He shook his head, still staring toward the top of the tepee and the

poles that seemed to reach toward the stars.

"A

day will not make a difference. Nothing will a make a difference.

That's the point. When we go home, Tess, von Heusen is still going to be

there. And we still haven't any proof of what he is doing."

"But--but Jeremiah and David kidnapped me--and they left you for dead!"

Tess protested.

"Jeremiah and David are dead. They can't be brought to trial, and they

can't be forced to testify against von Heusen.

We're right back where we started. And I know you. You'll head right

back to that newspaper office of yours."

"Jamie, I have to!"

"You don't have to!" he told her savagely. "Jamie" -- "We're going back,

Tess, and we're going to fight yon Heusen. But we have to do it by my

rules."

"I don't" -- "That's right--you don't. You don't make a move without

someone by your side, do you understand me? Things are going to get

worse. Von Heusen may be thinking right now that you and I are gone. He

may even have had a few moments of divine pleasure, thinking that he'd

won at last. But Tess, by now he must have discovered that he can't get

his hands on that property, even if we're both believed to be dead and

gone. He's going to be furious when he finds it's willed to my

family--and he's going to be ready for a full- scale war. We've got to

pray that we're going to be ready for it."

"Can we be?" Tess whispered.

"Yes, we can," he said. But then he swung around on her, staring at her

fiercely, clutching her chin with a grip so tight that it was painful.

"But Tess, so help me God, you'll do it my way."

"Jamie" -- "You'll do it my way?"

"Fine! All right!" she snapped.

He dropped her jaw. Tears were stinging her eyes, and she quickly rolled

away from him, furious that no matter how close it seemed they became,

he still played the dictator. And left her frightened that she was

falling more and more deeply in love with a man who would wage war for

her, who would risk his life for her. And yet ride away in the end, when

it mattered the most.

He did not reach for her, and she did not come back to touch him that

night.

Her back was mid, and she drew the blanket more fully around her.

She shivered in the night. But the distance remained between them.

They spent one more day with the Apache, watching the sacred ritual when

a young boy departed with his first hunting party. The boy's first four

raids would be accompanied by ritual. This day he was instructed by the

war shaman and accepted by the adult members of the party. He was given

a drinking tube and a scratcher with lightning designs, and he was

bestowed with a war cap.

Jamie spoke to her while they stood watching. He pointed to the war cap

and told her, "It will not yet contain the spiritual power that belongs

to the men. He must complete his passage before the spirits will enter

into his cap." The men and women of the village were gathering around

the boy to throw pollen upon him as be departed with the warriors.

"It is a blessing," Jamie told her.

"And we are standing here, watching this, and these men and that boy

will go off and raid some white settlement and perhaps kill our own

kind," Tess murmured. Jamie glared at her.

"I'll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself. We're lucky to be

leaving here alive. And, Miss. Stuart, for your information, this party

is moving against the Comancheres. I don't believe you can feel too much

sympathy for that particular group."

She could not, but she didn't have a chance to tell him so. He turned

her around and propelled her toward the tepee they were sharing.

"Go in, be quiet. I'm going to ask Nalte if we might leave tomorrow."

She didn't hear, that afternoon, whether Nalte gave his permission.

She waited endlessly for Jamie to return, but he did not. When it was

dark one of the Apache women came to help her rekindle the fire and to

give her a plate of beef and yams and roe seal cakes. She ate

halfheartedly and waited, but Jamie still didn't return. Finally her

impatience brought her to the opening in the tent, and she looked out to

see Jamie and Nalte and the victorious raiding party sitting around the

central fire, laughing, talking, enjoying some newly arrived bottles of

whiskey, and apparently enjoying one another as if they were long lost

friends. In a fury she went to the fire and called Jamie's name sharply.

Every man there paused and stared at her, none of them more surprised or

annoyed than Jamie. Nalte shot him a quick glance and said something in

Apache. Jamie was quickly on his feet. He replied casually to the chief,

but two rugged strides brought him to Tess.

Before she could move or react he had butted her belly with his shoulder

and lifted her precariously. Her head dangled dangerously down his back.

She screamed out her protest, but Jamie ignored her and the Apache

laughed, enjoying the show.

Within seconds they were back in the tepee. She landed hard on one of

the blankets, desperately inhaling as he stared at her furiously. She

might have thought at first that he was drunk, but the sharp fire in his

eyes denied such a possibility. She accused him anyway before he could

yell at her.

"You're totally inebriated!"

"Inebriated--you mean drunk, don't you? I wish I were. Drunk enough to

give you what you need! And what you need is a good switch taken to your

hide."

"Oh!" She shimmied up to her knees.

"Don't you dare speak to me like that, Jamie Slater" -- "I don't think

I'm just going to speak!" he warned her, his lashes falling over his

eyes so that they were narrow and dangerous.

"I think I'm going to act" -- She was on her feet instantly, running for

the flap in the tent with a speed and agility as fleet as a doe's. But

at the flap she paused, realizing that she would be running into a group

of raucous Apaches.

She spun around, certain Jamie was almost upon her. But he was standing

back, watching her with supreme arrogance and amusement. He had known

she wouldn't run out of the tent.

She decided to take her chances with the Apache. She didn't make it.

Jamie had been still, but he came to motion in a flash. Just as she

reached for the rawhide flap, his arms swept around her calves, and she

came crashing down to the hard ground. She coughed and gagged and

struggled against his weight to turn around and face him. He straddled

her. Her sir~ple doeskin dress was wound high around her hips, and she

was naked beneath it. Jamie didn't seem to notice. He sat calmly upon

her, crossing his arms over his chest, aware that she wouldn't be going

anywhere at all.

He stared down at her.

"Undisciplined--brat!"

"Brat! I'm twenty-four years old" -- "An old maid! Maybe that's half the

problem."

She gasped, stunned by the remark, and started to struggle furiously

beneath him. Her fingers wound into fists but he was ready, leaning

forward to pin her wrists to the sides of her head.

"I told you--it's done my way. You may be Miss. Stuart, and you may be

the publisher of the Wiltshire Sun, and you may own one of the finest

ranches this side o the Mississippi, but you're with me now, and I

warned you, it's going to be done my way! Especially among the Apache!

You don't make a fool of a man in front of them!"

" But I just wanted to know what was going on!"

"I really should take a switch to you--but at some later date." The fury

suddenly faded from his voice. He released her wrists, his hands

massaging both tenderly and tempestuously through the splay of her hair.

"Tess, Tess, what are we doing? We're going back to Wiltshire, and all

hell will break loose when we get there. Let's not fight each other

now." ' She stared at his striking features, at the handsome and rugged

angles and planes of his face, at the passion in his silver eyes. She

trembled suddenly and wound her arms around him.

"Hold me!" she whispered.

And he did.

They shed their clothing, and she thought that he made love to her more

tenderly, more carefully, that night than he ever had before.

When the sun rose their naked bodies were entwined together in the soft

shadows. She didn't want to leave, she thought. She could live among the

Apache with Jamie forever.

But of course she couldn't. This was not her world, and she had vowed

that she would fight von Heusen. Neither she nor Jamie could walk away

now.

Jamie leaned over and kissed her lips, and she looked into his eyes.

"It's time," he told her.

He rose and dressed quickly, and she followed his example.

They did not leave with the dawn, for Nalte wanted another conference

with Jamie. His sister, Little Flower, came to Tess to say goodbye. Tess

had learned very little of the language, but she had been grateful for

Little Flower's shy kindness. It seemed that Nalte was bestowing gifts

on Tess-- she was given a new outfit in which to ride, in pale buckskin,