Frontier courtship by Valerie Hansen

Author:Valerie Hansen [Valerie Hansen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Histoire, Religion
ISBN: 9780373827848
Published: 2008-03-11T04:00:00+00:00

At dusk, Connell waited patiently outside the door to Irene’s teepee. A blanket was draped across his shoulders in spite of the continuing heat.

To his consternation, he wasn’t her only suitor. A muscular brave who looked to be about twenty-five, had come to stand beside him. The enmity in the Indian’s eyes was as sharp as an arrow point and as menacing as the fangs of a prairie rattlesnake.

Connell’s only advantage was that he had arrived before the brave and was therefore closest to the teepee door. If Irene stuck to Cheyenne custom, she would speak to him first, perhaps ignoring the other man entirely. In that case, Connell knew he’d best not turn his back on his rival unless he wanted his hair parted with a war club.

He could hear Irene inside the lodge. She was talking to the old medicine man in a mixture of Cheyenne and Arapaho. Pleased at the sound of her familiar voice, Connell listened. It seemed strange to hear her speaking languages other than English, but he was proud that she’d become so accomplished. Some prisoners never even tried to understand their captors, let alone learned from them.

Neither man moved a muscle when the old Arapaho appeared at the teepee door, paused to tell Irene he was going off for a quiet smoke, then limped away.

Tense, Connell waited for her to come out. Seconds seemed to tick by very slowly. Like a pocket watch in need of winding, he reflected. His heart swelled with gratitude that Irene had had her amazing watch with her when she’d been kidnapped, and that she’d had the intelligence to use it to such good advantage.

He could only think of one other woman who would have done as well, and that woman was Faith Beal. Except that Faith would probably have talked too much or acted stubborn and gotten herself into a worse pickle, Connell thought, smiling to himself. She was quite a woman. Unique. With a heart as big as the prairie and courage that would put many a man to shame.

His musings came full circle and his gut gave a twist. Irene was his betrothed, not Faith. Irene should be first in his heart even if they were both merely honoring an old promise rather than being madly in love, so why did he keep thinking of Faith with so much affection? And why had no other woman ever stirred such fervor within him? Not even Little Rabbit Woman.

As if summoned by his turbulent thoughts, Irene Wellman left the confines of her lodge to face her suitors.

Connell lifted the front edge of his blanket. So did the brave standing close by.

She hesitated, looking from man to man, and raised her hand toward Connell, palm out, as if urging patience. To his total astonishment, she then stepped into the arms of the Cheyenne brave!

Connell froze. Had his worst fears been confirmed? Was he going to have to resort to the same kind of warlike tactics that had put

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