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.”“Ishani!” Alice cried, amazed at the woman’s cunning and willingness to help her.“It will work.Of course.How can I ever thank you?”A slow, secretive smile curved Ishani’s full lips.“I need no thanks.I wish to bring happiness to our guest.”Ishani slipped out of the tent, leaving Alice much relieved and wondering if perhaps she had misjudged the Indian maid.Ishani was well pleased with herself.Her heart had ached from the first moment that she heard the rumors of the baron’s scheme.He meant to make the Englishwoman pay for all the trouble she had caused.To Ishani’s way of thinking, a public whipping would have been more fitting punishment than bringing Gunn here, than forcing his wife to accept his love.Gunn was too good for this pale-haired woman.He needed a lover who would do anything to make him happy.He needed Ishani!She did not go to the baron as she had told Alice she would.Instead, Ishani went to the river to bathe and prepare herself for Gunn.She wanted to tell her husband of her great plan—he would be pleased by her cunning.But she dared not breathe a word of this to anyone for fear the baron would find out and put an end to the scheme.How silly and naive the Englishwoman was to hand over her man so easily.Ishani planned carefully what she would tell Gunn—that Alice had paid her to do this loving duty, a duty any woman should accept gratefully and happily, but one that Gunn’s wife wished to put aside for all time.“She refused to return to you,” Ishani said, practicing her lines over the bubbling song of the river, “and when the baron ordered her to your tent, she sought me out.She cares nothing for you, Gunn.She was never right for you.Come, put your mouth on mine.”Ishani smiled at her reflection in the smooth surface of the pool.Only one person would she tell of the Englishwoman’s escape attempt tonight—Scarappi.At last he, too, would have his revenge, and she would be free of his threats forever.Castin and Mathilde sat alone together in their lodge, talking quietly after Gunn’s arrival.“I only hope my plan works,” he told his wife.“I’ve reached my wits’ end with that woman.”“You should not be so hard on Alice, Jean Vincent.She is not a bad person.She misunderstands our customs sometimes.I felt so sorry for her when she came to me for help.She is so afraid, so disheartened.”“Well, she deserves to be both.It’s high time she swallowed some of her own medicine.She’ll go running back to where she belongs once this is over.I swear, I still think I should have brought some fat old sagamore here to bed her instead of her own husband.That would have taught her a lesson she’d not soon forget.”“Jean Vincent, shame on you! You know her ways would not permit that.It is bad enough that you have allowed her to think that is what will be.”A rap at the lodge door interrupted the pair.Nowando showed Scarappi into the room.The fierce-looking brave eyed Mathilde with more interest than the baron found to his liking.“If you will excuse us, my dear,” he said to her, sending his wife out of Scarappi’s line of vision.Then he turned to the man.“What is it you want?”Scarappi smiled slowly.“It is not what I want, but what you have planned, Baron.A plot is afoot against your scheme.”“Speak up, man,” the baron prompted.“What plot? What are you talking about?”“It concerns Gunn’s woman and another.They defy you even now.”“Explain yourself this minute.”Scarappi, who had already been approached by Ishani, told his own version of what the women had planned.He might have gone along with the plot, but why should he settle for the Englishwoman only when he might have Ishani as well? By telling the baron that Ishani was planning to help Gunn’s woman escape her duties so that Ishani could have him all to herself, he hoped to engineer just such a feat.“You’ve done well to tell me all this,” Castin said when Scarappi finished.“Of course, you’ll be rewarded for your loyalty.Name your prize.”Scarappi smiled and the tattoos on his face looked like great, black seams.“Ishani,” he said simply.“She was meant to be mine from birth.Wannoak has not got her with child yet.I would have you take her from him and give her to me.”The baron scowled, not pleased.Gunn had long ago told him of this man’s cruelty to Ishani and her terrible fear of him.She deserved punishment for her scheming, but giving her to Scarappi would be a life sentence.“I will think on it, Scarappi.You may go now.”Gunn’s excitement rose as he waited in his tent at the baron’s insistence.“You will be with your wife, but only after we have feasted and talked,” the Frenchman had said.Even now he could smell meat roasting on spits and hear the shouts and singing of a celebration in the making, but he needed no feasts nor frills as long as he got Alice back.Finally, deciding he had waited long enough, Gunn threw back the tent flap to go in search of her.The baron was standing just outside, about to enter.“Welcome again, my brother,” the baron said.“Take me to Alice,” was Gunn’s anxious reply.“All in good time, my friend.First, we will eat, drink, and smoke the pipe.”Twilight was graying the forest as the men reached the center of the village.Gunn glanced about, but saw no sign of his wife.He asked for her again, but the baron ignored his question and led him to a couch of furs placed near the fires.The evening dragged on and on for Gunn as food was passed, wine was drunk, and the long-stemmed clay pipes were handed around.The baron talked of crops, game, fishing, war and peace, but not a word did he say about Alice.Gunn could take it no longer.“Where is my wife?” he demanded.“Dammit, Castin, I haven’t waited all this time and ridden all this way just to be entertained.”“Ah, but you will be, my friend.I insist.Even now she is waiting for you in her tent.But first, a bit of dancing.Afterward you’ll be needing a woman for the night.”“I have a woman—my wife!”The baron ignored him and silence fell all around as the erotic throb of drums filled the forest.An ancient ritual dance began.“The Maize Dance,” the baron whispered to Gunn, “to ensure the fertility of our crops.”Maidens, dressed only in drapes of woven cornhusks and corn silks, flowed through the camp on bare feet.They were pursued by frenzied young bucks, wearing breechclouts, adorned with cobs of maize.The maidens led their lads a merry chase around the fire and in and out of the forest.The drums throbbed louder, and the maidens danced faster—running and leaping, trying to escape.Even Alice, sitting alone in her tent, could see the dancers, though she couldn’t see the guest of honor before the blazing bonfire.She watched, mesmerized by the whirling, glistening bodies.Alice’s brow beaded with perspiration and her heart throbbed, echoing the frantic beat of the drums.She ached for a man, for her husband.How she wished she’d been more reasonable.Now she had no choice but to wait for Ishani, then slip away into the night.She had no idea how she’d find her way back to the fort.She only knew she must [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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