Read Online Winter's Touch by Janis Reams Hudson - Free Book Online Page B

snapped the arrow off as close to his body as possible. The arrow jerked and sent searing pain through his side. Before he could think about how bad this was going to hurt, he forced himself to step away from the tree.
    It was just a big splinter, he told himself. Nothing more.
    During the few seconds it took him to ease himself forward and off the shaft, his stomach rolled, his vision blurred, and cold sweat broke out across his face and down his back. Then, with a final hiss of pain, he was free.
    He stood still a moment and took stock. There was pain, but not a great deal. Nothing that would slow him down. There was blood, but again, not much. Not enough to worry about.
    Not so with the woman at his feet. Innes had her on her side and had pulled her doeskin blouse up so he could inspect her wounds. Both were bleeding.
    Knowing his gray flannel under shirt would keep him warm enough, and not really caring if it didn’t, Carson tore off his shirt and handed it to Innes, who ripped it into strips. They made thick pads and pressed them against her wounds hard enough to make her moan even though she was still unconscious. In the moonlight her flesh was paler than his. That such beauty could be so terribly abused appalled him and offended his senses.
    “Dammit,” Carson swore while slipping her knife down inside his boot. “Why did she do a fool thing like that? She doesn’t even know me. She saved my life and I don’t even know her name.”
    “Her name be Winter Fawn,” Innes supplied.
    “She’s your daughter, I take it.”
    “Aye. Me firstborn, she be. The very image of her mother, God rest her soul.”
    “I’ve got a feeling God’s gonna rest all our souls if we don’t stop this bleeding and get out of here.”
    They packed more pads against her entrance and exit wounds and used the last of Carson’s shirt to wrap around her waist to hold the pads in place as tightly as possible.
    Innes knew Winter Fawn would be well taken care of by her grandmother, yet he hesitated to carry her to the tepee. Once he left camp it would be obvious to all that he had helped Carson escape. Because Innes was about to disappear with the captive, her uncle and grandfather would no longer honor his instructions that they not give her in marriage without his consent. Two Feathers would see her wed to Crooked Oak before her wound was even healed.
    Oh, yes, Innes had heard the talk. Crooked Oak wanted her. But Innes could not stand the thought of his bonnie lass tied for life to that bloody bastard who could think of nothing but war and killing, who took such pleasure in both.
    Carson did not know why Innes hesitated, nor did he care. Something compelled him to reach for her and lift her in his arms, ignoring the pain of his own wound. She had saved his life. He still couldn’t get over it.
    As Carson took her from his arms without a word, Innes considered it a sign that she was not to be left behind. So be it.
    Two Feathers was troubled by Crooked Oak’s vow to kill the white man while everyone slept. Such an act seemed dishonorable to him. Where was the glory in killing a man tied to a tree? Killing him when no one would see?
    If Crooked Oak was planning to torture and scalp the captive, that was one thing. Having him tied to the tree then made sense. But that was not what Crooked Oak planned. Torture resulted in screaming, and Crooked Oak did not want to wake the camp. He simply wanted the white man dead by his own hand. He did not care if no one knew he had done it.
    Two Feather probably should not care. Crooked Oak was his friend and a strong warrior. They thought alike on the subject of whites and war: they each wanted to use the latter to rid the earth of the former.
    But they had given their word before the entire camp that the man would not be harmed during the night. That is what troubled Two Feathers. For not only did such a vow mean that he could not harm the man himself, it also obligated Two Feathers, and every man in