Silent John had used the same logs to hang game on while he sliced it up to be dried.
«Silent John?» Shannon whispered.
Suddenly Prettyface whipped around and looked back up the steep rise that they had just descended. His ruff stood on end.
Shannon turned and looked, too. There, silhouetted against the crimson and orange of sunset, was a man on horseback. The breadth of his shoulders was unmistakable to Shannon, as was the shape coiled around his right shoulder.
Whip.
He tipped his hat to her, then reined his big gray horse around. Moments later he vanished down the far side of the rise.
Though Shannon waited for a long time, breath held, Whip didn’t reappear.
Finally Prettyface yawned, prodded Shannon with his nose and looked longingly toward the cabin.
«All right, boy. Guess Whip knows better than to come back now that we’re onto him.»
As she spoke the words, Shannon told herself that she wasn’t disappointed that Whip had gone.
But she knew that she was lying.
Shannon also told herself that she would leave Whip’s gift to rot where it hung.
But she knew that was also a lie. She was too hungry, and the little bit of flour she had brought back from Holler Creek would be gone all too soon.
Half grateful, half angry, thoroughly unsettled, Shannon went to the cabin. She pulled Cherokee’s gift from her jacket pocket. The chemise gleamed through an opening in the tissue.
Hegets one look at you in that little bit of satin and lace and he’ll forget all about hitting the trail alone. You’ll be married before you can say aye, yes, or maybe.
A curious, tingling sensation went through Shannon at the thought of wearing the chemise, feeling its cool softness against her breasts.
«Would I look pretty enough to hold him?» Shannon whispered. «And would he be gentle with me?»
There was no answer but the echoing silence of the cabin. Quickly Shannon put away the gift and went about dealing with another gift — Whip’s buck.
Soon the first real meal Shannon had sat down to in months was steaming in front of her. Despite her hunger, she ate carefully, savoring every delicious bite.
The deer was only the beginning of Whip’s gifts.
When Shannon woke up the next morning, she found two burlap bags hanging from a tree limb near the creek. The first bag was full of dried apples, sugar, cinnamon, and lard. The second bag held the supplies she had left behind in Holler Creek, and more besides.
Shannon resisted the temptation for several hours. Then she decided that she could make better use of the supplies than whatever varmint managed to climb the tree and get the bags for itself.
Decision made, Shannon wasted no time in getting an apple pie baking. And biscuits. And bread.
When Shannon went to Cherokee’s cabin to share Whip’s bounty, she sensed that she was being followed. It was like a prickling just under the nape of her neck, a shivery animal awareness that she wasn’t alone.
Yet every time Shannon whirled around, hoping to catch a glimpse of Whip, there was nothing behind her but rocks and trees and a wild highmountain sky.
Nor did Prettyface ever scent Whip the entire way to Cherokee’s cabin.
«Come in, gal,» Cherokee said, opening the door.
«Thank you.»
Shannon wriggled out of the awkward backpack she had made from strips of leather and an ancient saddlebag.
«How is your ankle?»
«Fine as frog’s hair.»
Shannon looked at Cherokee and knew her ankle wasn’t fine.
«That’s good,» Shannon said. «Here, I brought you some food to pay back what you gave me this winter.»
«Now lookee here. It weren’t no loan, so it don’t need no repaying.»
«I’ll hang the venison back in the corner,» Shannon said, ignoring the old woman’s protests. «The rest I’ll put where it belongs in your dry goods 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. Iwillbe 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, watching her. 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.