Cheyenne Captive (eBook)

Georgina Gentry (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
299 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
978-0-00-111107-3 (ISBN)

Infos

SCANDALOUS THOUGHTS When Headstrong, golden-haired Summer ran away from home, all she could think of was leaving her strict father behind. But after a vengeance-seeking Indian attacked her stage threatening her with a fate worse, than death, the tempestuous girl yearned for her parents' overbearing rules....until the savage's cruel grip changed to a tantalizing touch! His sensuous caress banished all ties to the past, the exciting things he did with his lips made her yearn for an unknown fulfillment. From that moment the spirited innocent knew that her future was bound to his - and she'd cherish whatever relationship the uncivilized brave decided to have with her. FORBIDDEN DESIRES From the years he was forced to live in Texas, the handsome half-breed Iron Knife knew how deceptive palefaces could be. Surely this creamy-skinned, blue-eyed beauty was no different. But even as he tried to brutally punish her for her heritage, he was ensnared by the hip-length strands of wheat-hued tresses, enchanted by the firm curves of her nubile white body. Before the ruthless warrior could control himself, he was whispering of love, swearing there'd be no others. He could never marry this ignoble slave, but he'd sooner slay her than ever give up his bewitching....CHEYENNE CAPTIVE.

Textauszug

Chapter One

September, 1858

 

Summer Priscilla Van Schuyler had never given a thought to the possibility of being raped and murdered by a band of renegade-Indians. With all her other problems, Indians were the last thing on her mind as she fled down the dark street to board the 3:30 A.M. stage out of Fort Smith.

The bearded driver eyed her with suspicion as he took her small bag. “You all alone, miss?”

“Well, yes.” She avoided his dark eyes with her pale blue ones. “I have a job to get to in San Francisco,” she lied lamely. That city seemed like a safe destination because of its distance. All she’d managed to grab was one small bag, forgetting even her corset in her headlong flight from the hotel.

The driver said nothing more as he loaded her bag and helped her into the coach, but she felt his eyes taking in the cheap red dress that clung revealingly to her tiny waist and full bosom. Her face flamed as she settled herself. She was glad now she had traded clothes with the dance-hall girl. Her own blue silk, Parisian-made gown would have brought her too much notice and too many questions. Wealthy girls of good family did not travel alone.

Overhead, she heard the driver climb up beside the guard and crack his whip. Summer heaved a sigh of relief as the Butterfield Overland lurched away. With any luck, she would be miles away before her maid awakened back at the hotel.

There was only one other passenger, a fat man snoring loudly, his doughy hands clasped across his plaid vest. He reeked of cheap, barbershop hair tonic. Finally, Summer dozed off, too, as the stage swayed rhythmically and the hours passed as they headed southwest across the corner of the Indian Territory.

She was startled awake by the sudden speed of the coach and the driver’s shout, “Indians! Indians!”

The guard leaned down to shout in the window, his gray hair blowing in the wind. “We’re being attacked! Cheyennes!”

Summer crashed to the floor as the coach raced forward, the driver cracking his whip to urge the snorting horses on. Choking on the swirling dust, she leaned out the window to peer behind the stage. The east gave an agonizingly slow and bloody birth to dawn, barely outlining a half dozen whooping Indians on paint ponies a few hundred yards behind.

The fat little man stared out his window. “It’s Cheyennes, by God! And they’re gainin’ on us!”

She clamped her soft hands over her mouth for a moment, willing herself not to panic. Torn between excitement and terror, she watched sweat bead on the man’s upper lip, his hands tremble as he dug in his valise.

“Lucky I still got my old Colt dragoon from my army days!” He cocked the big pistol and commenced firing out the window.

Summer vowed she would not give way to hysteria as she gripped the seat with white knuckles. The roar of the pistol and the guns above her set her ears ringing, and the interior reeked with the smell of gunpowder and the fat man’s sweat.

The coach bounced wildly, and she felt her hairpins loosen in the chignon of long blond locks that now cascaded down her slender neck.

A scream of agony, and the guard fell from the top of the stage, falling past her window and into the dust of the road behind them.

Summer never knew what happened next—maybe they hit a rock in the road, or maybe an arrow brought down one of the team horses, but the coach lurched abruptly. Everything was topsy-turvy, turning over and over in a swirl of cheap red satin and white crinoline petticoats. She lay where she fell a long moment, uncomprehending, the horsehair cushion harsh against her creamy cheek.

Dazed, she crawled across the plaid vest of the hapless fat man. His dead eyes stared in a last, surprised look at the doorpost, which had given him a fatal blow across the forehead. Blood ran scarlet down the pasty skin.

The coach wheels still whirled and creaked as she crawled out of the wreckage into the September chill. The stage horses, broken free, stood trembling and lathered under a nearby blackjack oak. Shouts and hoofbeats warned her the savages were almost upon her.

Looking around for the stage driver, she found him, three arrows sticking at odd angles from his back.

She promised herself that she wouldn’t cry and she wouldn’t faint as tears threatened to overflow her big eyes. With teeth clenched to stop her lips from trembling, she crawled back into the overturned stage, wrenching the pistol from the dead man’s fingers. Fear tasted like bitter metal to her mouth, and she gagged on the sweetish smell of blood. Oh, how she wished now that proper young society ladies were taught to shoot instead of-waltzing and speaking French.

Hiding behind the wrecked door, she watched the Cheyennes joking and laughing as they fanned out and crawled toward the stage to finish off any survivors. If she could only hold them off for a little while, the stage would be overdue at the next stop, and a search party might be sent out. And back at Fort Smith, Mrs. O’Malley had surely recovered from the sherry and would send help for her missing charge. But the maid didn’t know she was on this stage, wouldn’t know where to look, Summer remembered with a sinking heart. Anyway, she couldn’t hold the savages off ten minutes, she realized, checking the Colt’s chambers. She only had one shot left.

Frantically, she dug into the dead man’s valise, hoping to find more ammunition. There was none. Should she use the last bullet on herself? She recalled the story in the Boston Journal, hinting at the terrible things Indians did to white women.

No, she decided, lifting her chin in that stubborn way of hers, she was going to get one more of those murdering savages and the devil take the hindmost!

Overhead, the sky clouded and a drop of rain plunked on the coach. Encouraged by the lack of movement from the wreckage, the Indians stood and moved toward her. Why, they’re drunk! she realized, trying to cock the pistol at the nearest swaying figure.

She steadied the barrel against the window edge to stop her own trembling and pulled the trigger. The recoil threw her across the floor, and her ears rang. But over the roar, she heard the unmistakable howl of a wounded man, and peeked to see a dirty, pock-marked savage clutching his arm and dodging behind a boulder.

Darn! She had only creased him. Why was it acceptable for a proper Boston girl to learn to ride but not to shoot? Regretfully, she reached up to touch the tiny miniature of her mother hanging from a fine gold neck, chain. She had been too sentimental last night to part with it when she had sold her other jewelry to pay her passage. Well, she’d see those bloodthirsty savages didn’t get it! Summer jerked at it, breaking the delicate chain as she did so, tucking it carefully under one of the seat cushions.

Then, resolutely, she gripped the big Colt by its barrel, wondering just how much damage she could do with a gun butt before it was twisted from her hands and her skull cleaved by a tomahawk. She intended to go down fighting. Not for her the weepy hysterics and the begging for mercy! Some of the bluest blood in Massachusetts might flow in her veins, but somewhere in her past was a tempestuous vixen, coming through now, ready to claw and fight.

She could hear the braves rustling in the weeds just a few feet away. She held her breath, waiting, not wanting to give away her position, but knowing they must hear her heart hammering.

Any minute now, they would realize that her gun was empty when no more shots were forthcoming. Summer wondered for a split second if it would hurt as she died, and almost regretted that she had not obeyed her father.

The pock-marked one she had creased with her last bullet was at the end of the coach now. He was close enough for her to see the red paint smeared on his dirty face. She waited, gripping the pistol barrel with clammy fingers.

And then he exploded up out of the grass, jerked open the door and grappled with Summer.

“How dare you!” she screamed in fury. “How dare you attack a Van Schuyler! I’m not afraid! Do you hear? Not afraid!”

He seemed momentarily stunned both by her furious anger and her attack as she beat him about the face with the gun butt. Then she screamed in pain as his knife flashed, slashing her arm, and she dropped the gun.

Dizzy, she staggered as she fought him and smelled the rancid stink of him. His hands were like iron bands on her small wrists as she struggled, and then his arms went around her narrow waist, lifting her clear of the wreckage and carrying her out on the open prairie.

“You pay, white whore!” he said in broken English. “You pay now for everything!”

“Let go of me!” she shrieked, struggling. “Let go of me!”

But his brute strength overpowered her, and he dragged her out on the grass. The others ran out of the brush, dancing about, laughing and pointing at her. It must be high humor, she thought, to have been held at bay by a mere slip of a girl with an empty gun.

“You pay now, white woman!” her captor said again. “You pay for making Angry Wolf look the fool to his men! Tonight your mane of gold hair hangs from my lodge pole!”

Weakly, Summer struggled as he pulled her closer to him. The others yelped and danced about, helping themselves to trinkets, money from the strongbox, the coach horses. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a knife flash over the fallen driver and willed herself not to faint as the culprit waved the scalp for the approval of the others. Then, satisfied with their loot, the pack gathered around Angry...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.11.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-10: 0-00-111107-8 / 0001111078
• ISBN-13: 978-0-00-111107-3 / 9780001111073