Only 04 - Only Love

cupboard.”
    Dumbfounded, Cherokee watched while Shannon suited actions to words.
    “That’s fresh venison,” Cherokee said finally.
    “Yes.”
    “Well I’ll be go-to-hell. You got yourself a deer!”
    Shannon said nothing.
    “Now, you just take back them bags of flour and sugar,” Cherokee said quickly. “I got plenty to last me till I scratch out more gold or trade some herbs down to Holler Creek.”
    Shannon ignored her.
    “Apples!” Cherokee said reverently. “Do I smell apples?”
    “You sure do. I put half of an apple pie on the back of your stove to warm.”
    “Bread. Pie. I will be go-to-hell! You done went back and claimed all your supplies!”
    Shannon made a sound that could have meant anything.
    “That was a damn fool thing to do,” Cherokee said. “Two of them Culpeppers didn’t have no more than their pride hurt in the fight with Whip. They could have caught you.”
    “They didn’t.”
    “Still, they—”
    “I didn’t go back to Holler Creek,” Shannon interrupted.
    Cherokee was silent. Abruptly her seamed face split into a wide, gap-toothed grin.
    “It was Whip, by God,” she crowed. “He’s courting you!”
    Shannon started to deny it, then decided not to. Cherokee wouldn’t refuse to share in the unexpected bounty of courting gifts from Whip.
    But Cherokee might refuse to share in the spoils of attempted seduction.
    “Maybe,” Shannon said. “Maybe not.”
    “’Course he is. Where’s your mind, gal? He’s got an eye for you. Or did you wear that frippery for him already?”
    “I’m married, remember? That’s what everyone is supposed to think, and don’t you forget it.”
    “Huh. Wearing a ring didn’t make no marriage. Anyways, you’re widowed.”
    “Get off your ankle,” was all Shannon said. “I’ll bring in enough water and wood for several days, because I might not be able to get back beforethen.”
    “Going somewheres?”
    “Hunting,” Shannon said succinctly.
    Cherokee looked puzzled. Then she laughed her husky, chuckling laugh.
    “You gonna run him a right smart chase, ain’t you, gal?”
    Shannon’s smile was as hard as the blade of the hunting knife she had sheathed at her waist.
    “I’m going to run that old boy’s tail right into the ground,” she drawled, imitating Cherokee’s accent.
    Cherokee’s laughter redoubled until she was breathless.
    “You just keep on thinking that,” Cherokee said finally. “You just go ahead, right up to the moment Whip grabs you and drags you in front of a preacher.”
    Shannon’s smile slipped. Whip didn’t have marriage in mind, and she knew it very well.
    But Cherokee didn’t need to know. She looked so delighted that Shannon’s future was solved.
    “You stay off that ankle, now,” Shannon cautioned. “If I catch you up and around, I’ll make you do your own chores.”
    Still chuckling, Cherokee limped to the rumpled bed and stretched out.
    As soon as Shannon stepped out of the cabin, she knew that Whip was somewhere close by, watchingher. Yet Prettyface gave no sign. He lay at ease in the sun in front of the cabin, letting the wind ruffle his thick salt-and-pepper fur.
    While Shannon drew water and carried wood, she kept glancing downwind, the one place where Whip could hide from Prettyface’s keen senses.
    She never spotted Whip.
    But she heard something that could have been the wind keening through distant rocks…or the sound of a man making the mountain silence tremble with the soft wailing of panpipes.
    After she left Cherokee, through the long, futile hours of hunting, Shannon looked for Whip. She knew he was there, for the prickling at her nape told her that she was being watched. If that weren’t enough, the cry of the primitive flute came to her at odd times, a mere echo of sound that made Prettyface cock his head and listen, but not snarl. The disembodied music carried no threat for the dog.
    Yet for all Shannon’s watchfulness and Prettyface’s acute senses, she never caught a glimpse of the man whose presence haunted her as surely as his music haunted the mountain silence.
    The next day she followed a game trail, walked between two boulders—and found three grouse neatly dressed out and tied by their feet, dangling from a tree branch.
    Frantically Shannon spun around, looking everywhere at once. There was nothing to see but trees and rock, sunshine and pure white clouds. She looked at the ground, but saw no tracks, no disturbance of twigs or leaves or dirt.
    Nor had