Arizona Gold by Patricia Hagan

wondered what the future held. She was in the hands of savages, who would kill without batting an eye. She would have to be very careful, toe the line, and try to do everything she was told. It was the only way she would survive—that and not let them discover she was a woman.
    She wiped at her forehead with the back of her hand. It was very hot, and she was sweating.
    Pale Sky noticed and said, “I know it is warm, but we cannot make the cooking fires outside. The smoke might lead the pony soldiers to our camp.”
    Maybe that’s the key to being rescued , Kitty wryly thought— setting the camp on fire.
    “You are fortunate my son took you.”
    Kitty shot her an incredulous look. “You think I should be grateful I was captured?”
    “My son told me when he stopped Coyotay from killing you, Coyotay then wanted to make you his slave. My son saved you from a fate worse than death.”
    Kitty snorted. “Whitebear could have just left me where I was. Then I’d be real grateful.”
    Pale Sky frowned. “Eat. You have much work to do this night. My son learned from his father to like baths and you must bring water from the creek to heat over the fire to fill his tub in his tepee.”
    Whitebear had called it a tent. His mother called it a tepee. Kitty did not know what it was, nor did she care. All she was concerned with was having to lug big buckets of water and trying not to be around Whitebear when he was naked.
    “Hold out your wrists.”
    Pale Sky towered over her with a small pot smelling of pine and clover. Smoothing its contents over the chafed skin, she said, “Your wounds are not bad. My son was gentle when he tied you.”
    Kitty felt like saying she would hate to see what he was like when he tied rough . Then she chided herself, because he could have made her suffer a lot more than she had. She would just have to keep reminding herself that things could be a lot worse. It was best not to antagonize anyone.
    “Thank you,” she murmured when Pale Sky finished smoothing on the ointment. “I appreciate your kindness.”
    Suddenly Pale Sky dropped to squat before her, gazing intensely upon her face. “Continue to be obedient, Billy Mingo. I do not want to see you mistreated. I saw what being taken from the white man’s world did to my husband. I do not wish you to suffer the same way. Perhaps in time, I can persuade my son to set you free. Until then, I pray you do not make trouble for yourself.”
    Kitty was curious about a lot of things, like who was Whitebear’s father and where was he? But she dared not ask about that just yet. Instead she decided to try and learn the real reason the stagecoach had been attacked. “Whitebear was looking for a white woman,” she said. “Did he intend to make a slave of her, too?”
    Pale Sky’s expression turned to one of surprise. “He told you this—that he was searching for a woman?”
    “Yes. Her name was”—Kitty pretended to flounder to remember—“Kitty Parrish.”
    Pale Sky stood. “It is none of your concern.”
    Not much it isn’t , Kitty thought, her anger smoldering over what Opal Grimes had done.
    Pale Sky handed her two buckets carved from logs and threaded with rope for carrying. “I will take my son his food while you make ready his tub.”
    Kitty took the buckets. “He said he would have lots of visitors tonight.”
    Again, Pale Sky was astounded. “He told you about the girls? It seems my son tells you much, and you are a stranger as well as a slave.”
    “He only told me because I said I didn’t want to sleep inside with him, and he said he didn’t want me to, anyway, because he would have enough company.”
    Pale Sky nodded. “Adeeta will more than likely be the only one. She wishes to marry him, so she makes sure to visit him first, then sleeps the night so that Meena, the other maiden who also wants him, cannot go to him later.”
    It sounded terribly primitive to Kitty, and she figured her shock must have shown on her face, for Pale