Only 04 - Only Love

on my finger. After that, I was Mrs. Smith.”
    “That’s about how I had it figured,” Cherokee said matter-of-factly. “No gal like you takes up with a man like Silent John unless she’s desperate.”
    Shannon’s smile was bittersweet. “Compared to what I came from, Silent John and Echo Basin looked like paradise.”
    “I always felt that way, myself. Except I come here older than you, and alone, and I come as a man. My pa was a Mexican and my ma was a rawbonedTennessee whore, strong as a mule and durn near as stupid. I been hired out to do men’s work since I was ten, been paid like a gal, and treated like trash. After Ma died, I just took out and never looked back.”
    “Nor did you look for a man to marry,” Shannon pointed out.
    Cherokee shrugged. “Like I said, I was full tired of being some man’s slave.”
    “Yet you want me to go looking for a man.”
    “That’s different.”
    “Yes,” Shannon said dryly. “It’s my slavery, not yours.”
    Cherokee swore and smiled at the same time. “You’re always too quick for me. But then, anybody is, these days. I’m getting old. This blasted ankle ain’t healing worth a handful of spit. I’ll be lucky to hunt for myself this summer, much less for you.”
    “Then I’ll hunt for both of us.”
    “Gal, you’ve got sand enough for three men, but you’re mighty thin beer when it comes to hunting.”
    “I’ll get a lot better before the end of summer.”
    For a long moment Cherokee’s dark eyes searched Shannon’s face. Then Cherokee sighed and said no more on the subject of men and marriage and survival. She simply shook her head. There wasn’t enough time between now and winter’s famine for Shannon to learn how to hunt well enough to feed two people.
    But Shannon would have to discover that for herself, because she wasn’t listening to the older woman’s advice.
    Cherokee could only pray that Shannon wouldn’t learn too late, after the high pass overWhiskey Creek was closed by snow. Then every living thing left in Echo Basin would be locked in until the pass opened, or they died of starvation.
    Whichever came first.

4
    I T was sunset by the time Shannon wearily dragged herself to the top of the steep, rocky rise that overlooked her cabin. From where she stood the cabin was nearly invisible, shielded from the clearing by tall firs and half buried in the mountainside itself.
    Rarely had to clearing looked so good to Shannon. The hours since she had left Cherokee’s cabin had been spent hunting food. All Shannon had to show for her work was a tired body and a stomach that was growling loudly enough to draw curious looks from Prettyface.
    “Take it easy,” Shannon muttered. “I’m not going to catch you and skin you out for supper.”
    Prettyface waved his tail and licked his chops.
    “Don’t look at me,” she said tiredly, rubbing the dog’s head. “If you’re hungry, go catch something. And this time, make it big enough for both of us to eat, okay?”
    Because Shannon was alone, she made no attempt to hide her hunger and fatigue. Her posture and her tone of voice showed just how worn out she felt.
    Other than a few scraps of jerky just after shehad gotten up, there had been nothing to put in her stomach all day long. The jerky she had stuffed in her pocket that morning had ended up in Cherokee’s soup, along with whatever tender greens Shannon had found growing near the old woman’s cabin.
    It was a better dinner than Shannon would have for herself. She had been hunting ever since she left Cherokee’s cabin. But no matter how hard Shannon had tried, no matter how stealthily she had followed tracks, the deer always fled before she was close enough to risk shooting one of her few precious shells.
    Glumly Shannon started picking her way down the rise where the back wall of the cabin was the mountainside itself. Somewhere beneath her feet was the cave where a hot spring breathed warmth and moisture into the darkness, but no sign of that showed on the surface. Off to the left was a pile of jumbled rocks where Silent John had dug out a second, hidden exit to the cabin. Nothing of that showed on the surface, either.
    Prettyface trotted ahead of Shannon, sniffing the wind that swirled through the clearing. Suddenly the hound froze. His ears flattened to his skull and his lips lifted in a soundless snarl.
    Instantly Shannon put her back to a tree, raised the shotgun, and began searching the area ahead, her weariness