“But I would rather die than know I had caused the death of another innocent person.”

He continued laying wood for the fire. “You think the soldier I killed was innocent,” he said flatly.

“In a way, he was,” she replied. “But I know that if you had not silenced him, I would be dead now.”

“Then what I did was right.”

Skylar didn’t know how to debate the moral implications, and she didn’t want to. It had been done, and there was no way to turn back time. “What you did saved my life, and I am grateful.”

“It is not your gratitude I want,” he snapped.

“Then what do you want?” When he remained silent, a vision of him as he had stood naked at the pool flashed into Skylar’s mind. “You have given up everything for me, but I do not understand why. You made it clear long ago that I am not fit to be the woman of an Apache warrior.”

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Sun Hawk paused in his work. “That is true.”

Skylar swallowed hard and summoned all her courage. “Then why did you come to me at the pool?”

He looked at her then, and the veil of coldness fell away from his eyes. The tender expression that remained told Skylar everything she needed to know.

She reached out and gently touched his face. “If you had ever spoken of love, I might understand better why you risked so much for me,” she said gently.

“Do you need me to speak of it?” he asked hoarsely, moved by her touch and the soft lights in her eyes.

Skylar nodded. “Yes. I do.”

Abruptly Sun Hawk pulled away and stood. Irritation replaced tenderness in his eyes. “My wife has been dead a long time, but I did not imagine that when it came time to select another one, my heart would choose someone like you.”

Skylar wondered if that was as close to an avowal of love as she would ever get from him. He loved her, but clearly he didn’t want to. “Are you asking me to be your wife?”

He drew his shoulders back proudly. She had humiliated him once with her rejection at the pool. He didn’t want to give her the chance to do it again by speaking foolish lovers’ words to her. “We have both killed white soldiers,”

he said flatly. “Neither of us can go back to our people and live as before. It makes sense that we should live together because we have no one else now.”

He was offering her a marriage of convenience? The very idea was ludicrous, since nothing about their situation was even remotely convenient.

Obviously he had not considered the possibility that her white family might be able to clear her of the charges, but there was no reason why he should give the possibility any credence. His treatment at the hands of white men had been vastly different from hers.

Would he take her to Rancho Verde if she asked him to?

Possibly. But Skylar couldn’t bring herself to ask it. Instead, she told him,

“I will think on what you have said because you have saved my life and taken care of me.”

“As I told you, I do not want your gratitude,” Sun Hawk said angrily. “Do not come to me as a wife because you owe me a debt.”

“Then do not come to me as a husband because it is a practical thing to do,” she flung back. “If you want someone to cook for you and see to your needs, you have only to ask and I will care for you as a sister would care for a brother.”

“I do not want a sister, I want a wife!”

“And I am the only woman available? That is not enough for me, Sun Hawk.” Skylar came to her feet and placed one fist against her breast. “What I 161

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feel in my heart for you is more powerful than anything I have ever known, but I will not be your wife unless I know your heart feels the same.”

Torn between salvaging his pride and the joy her confession brought him, he studied her angry face. “Why do you think I saved your life?” he asked, gentling his voice.

“I have asked you before to tell me, and you would not.”

“If your heart is as strong as you say, it should tell you the reason.”

Skylar did know. She had known it, most likely, from the moment he had given her the knife almost a week ago. “I need to hear the words from you.”

He hesitated a moment. “I love you. Why else would I give up everything to keep from losing you?” he asked quietly.

There. He had said it and there was no turning back. Skylar felt no elation, no flush of longing, only a strange sense of inevitability. All she was certain of was her own love for him and his for her. She had to stay with him now, to go where he went, give up her dreams of being reunited with her family, and spend whatever was left of her life as his wife.

“Very well.” She nodded slowly and turned away.

Sun Hawk took a single step after her. “Where are you going?”

“To get the food. A wife’s first duty is to cook for her husband.”

At that moment Sun Hawk could have argued with her, but he didn’t. She had agreed to be his wife. There would be time for proving his love later. For now he had to finish laying the fire so that his wife could cook for him.

Case rode into Fort Apache unable to imagine why General Crook had summoned him again so soon. Only yesterday Case and a cavalry detail led by the general had returned from a month-long campaign hunting down a band of Chiricahua who had left San Carlos and were attempting to join Geronimo. Luck had been with them and they had captured part of the band, but the others had escaped and were probably already in Mexico. Geronimo’s followers were growing in number, and Crook estimated the total number of braves, women, and children to be nearly a hundred by now.

That seemed like a small number in light of the superior forces Crook was amassing against Geronimo, but it was more than enough to wreak havoc and create panic among ranchers and townspeople throughout the southern half of the territory.

Unfortunately, Crook had been unable to move against Geronimo directly. Faced with administrative problems of pacifying the reservation Apaches and cutting through the red tape involved in persuading the Mexican government to allow his troops to cross the border, the general had been completely stymied.

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That was why Case was so puzzled about the reason Crook had sent for him. Even if authorization to move into Mexico had come, it would take at least a week to mount an expedition.

Quelling his curiosity, Case presented himself to the general’s aide and was ushered in immediately.

“Case, thank you for coming so quickly,” Crook said, inviting him to sit by pointing to a chair. “Please convey my apologies to Mrs. Longstreet for dragging you away from her so soon.”

“Libby understands.”

Crook smiled, betraying his fondness for Case’s wife. “I’m sure she does.

She’s quite a remarkable lady.”

“I agree, General,” Case replied solemnly. “But you did not ask me here to discuss my wife.”

“Quite right.” Crook’s smile was replaced by a frown as he looked down at the enormous stack of correspondence and dispatches that had been awaiting him on his return. “It seems there’s been some trouble with the Mescaleros who were being transferred to the Rio Alto.”

“How many refused to go?” Case asked, understanding the source of the irritation in Crook’s voice. The general had learned of the transfer yesterday almost the moment he arrived at the fort, and he had been furious.

Crowding the Mescaleros onto the Rio Alto was absurd, and Case had no doubt that the commander of the Department of the Border had already lodged a complaint.

Crook looked at the dispatch from Captain Haggarty. “Forty-two in all, including those who disappeared before the forced march began and those who have vanished during the march.”

This was bad news, but not unexpected. “They will join Geronimo.”

“Of course they will, but until I can get down into the Sierra Madre to root Gerry out, there’s nothing I can do but twiddle my thumbs and handle problems like this one.” He tapped Haggarty’s report. “It seems that one of the captain’s soldiers was knifed to death without provocation by a Mescalero woman named Skylark.”

It was clear from Crook’s tone that he didn’t believe the military version of the account. Case didn’t either. That was not what captured his interest, though. “That’s an odd name for an Apache. I’ve never heard anything like it before, even among the Mescaleros.”

“One story at a time. I’ll get to that one in a minute,” Crook grumbled, leaving Case mystified as to what he meant. “It seems that after the woman was caught and questioned, one of the braves helped her to escape, seriously wounding one of the guards.”

“Only one guard?” Case questioned lightly.

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Crook’s mouth twitched at the corners. “My sentiments exactly. The brave was obviously a prudent man whose only thought was to get the woman away from her captors. I know Captain Haggarty, and I shudder to think of the kind of treatment this Skylark would have received at his hands.”

“I know Haggarty, too,” Case replied. The captain was an arrogant imbe-cile with an ugly sadistic streak, but Crook didn’t need Case to tell him that.

“The brave probably saved the woman’s life.”

“Agreed. Certainly I can’t sanction what the brave did, but I can’t say I blame him, either. At any rate, a thorough search of the Caliente Mountains where the cavalry was camped yielded no trace of either of them, and Haggarty is requesting that I launch a full-scale expedition to track the couple down. In lieu of that, he asks for permission to do it himself once he gets the Mescaleros to Rio Alto.”