Read Online Defiant by Patricia; Potter - Free Book Online Page B

for the stranger to acknowledge his presence. “Jake likes you,” Jeff said. “He doesn’t like all that many people. He’s part wolf, you know. I think he believes you belong to him, since he saved you, like the Chinese people do.” Nervousness made the words all run together. It was exciting to have a man to talk to, especially one he had helped save. “Ma told me about the Chinese. She read it someplace. She’s always reading when she can.”
    The stranger looked confused by the rapid flow of words, but one side of his mouth turned up slightly, and Jeff felt his chest expand with pleasure. He remembered the man’s original question. “My pa was a Ranger, one of the best there was. So was Ty.” Suddenly his pride seeped away, gone in that sense of loss he’d had since Ty died.
    â€œWho’s Ty?” the stranger asked.
    â€œHe was courting my ma. He was killed last year. He left this ranch to us. I miss him real bad, just like my pa. I’m going to be a Ranger too someday, just like them. Ma doesn’t want me to, but—”
    â€œBut Mr. Foster needs some rest.”
    Jeff turned around sheepishly at the sound of his mother’s voice. “But Ma, he asked about—”
    â€œI know,” she said. “I heard.” She was still wearing her coat, which was dripping water. She took off the floppy hat, and her hair fell down her back. She used one arm to wipe rain from her face; the other carried a braided bridle and a saddlebag. A strong stench accompanied her into the room.
    Jeff’s gaze fastened on the bridle, then he looked back at the patient. “I’ve never seen a bridle like that.”
    The stranger’s eyes had moved to meet his mother’s. Jeff felt an odd presence in the room, like electric tension in the air before a storm. The stranger wasn’t smiling, nor was his mother.
    â€œMy wife made it,” he said simply, his eyes glinting with challenge. Then he turned away, facing the wall, closing off Jeff and his mother as readily as if he’d slammed a door in their faces.
    Jeff looked up at his mother. She was biting her lip as she sometimes did when she was uncertain about something. But then she put her arm around him and guided him out of the room, gently closing the door behind her.

5
    Hours later, Wade was still thinking that he owed the woman thanks, but he couldn’t force the words from his mouth. There had been disapproval in her eyes as well as questions as she’d fingered the bridle. What would she think if she knew he’d had an Indian wife? That might cause her to throw him out when murder hadn’t.
    But then why should he blame her? Almost everyone in Colorado despised Indians. Hell, it was probably everyone, what with all the newspapers screaming about atrocities and moving all Utes to Utah where nothing but starvation awaited them.
    He sickened whenever he thought about it. The Denver papers had been particularly virulent, accusing the Utes of everything from burning down forests to massacres that never happened. Wade had heard all the charges from miners and hunters traveling through Ute territory. Justification for stealing more land.
    And the Utes, hoping for peace under Chief Ouray despite broken government promises and treaties, had steadfastly tried to appease the whites by giving up more and more land. The whites always wanted more, though, particularly the minerals in the Utes’ shining mountains. And then they took other things that didn’t belong to them, like Ute women.
    Even his son had been considered less than human because of his Indian blood. So easy to kill. Nits make lice. That’s the way many soldiers put it.
    Wade couldn’t withhold a groan. Drew had been the one good thing in his life, the only thing that had made any sense in the past seventeen years.
    He had cared for Chivita. She’d been gentle and kind, and she had given him a son,