Silver Tears by Becky Lee Weyrich Page A

coming here and informing me she’s decided to be my woman. Well, it’s back home you go tomorrow, baby girl.”
    He reached out and brushed aside her hair with one finger. Her eyes flickered up. She stared up at him for a moment, then moved over to make room for him, her smile an invitation.
    “Ishani,” he whispered.
    Her arms came up to circle his neck before he could say another word.
    “Oh, Gunn, you come to me!” she cried excitedly.
    “No, Ishani. There’s no time,” he told her. “First, we must talk, then I have something important to do this morning. I need your help. There’s an Englishwoman at the fort. I mean to make her my wife.”
    Ishani’s eyes lost their glitter, but she brightened when Gunn went on.
    “She’s giving me a hard time. There’s another man involved, you see. I want to pay her back in kind. Are you willing to help me?”
    Ishani smiled and nodded eagerly. “Anything for you, Gunn.”
    Dressed and ready, Alice sat at the tiny window of her room watching the gate of the fort. He would come, he had to, she kept telling herself. But so far Christopher Gunn had not shown himself.
    Some of her self-assurance began to fade. She had planned so carefully what she would do, how she would accept his offer of marriage without seeming to throw herself at him. That was not her way, after all.
    “Where could he be?” Alice asked herself aloud, drumming her nails nervously on the windowsill.
    “Could be he set out trapping already, mum.”
    Alice gave Pegeen an annoyed glance. She hadn’t expected an answer to her question, and she had certainly not wanted that one.
    “He’ll come,” she assured herself as much as her serving girl.
    While Alice watched, the fort came alive. The guard changed with a great deal of pomp and ceremony. Fresh soldiers dressed in smart red coats replaced those who had stood watch on the walls all through the night. The blacksmith set about stoking his fires, then shoed his first horse of the day. The gates opened, allowing a detail of six men to leave the fort. By the carts they pulled, Alice guessed that they must be going to the forest to replenish the fuel supply. The one odd thing about the whole scene before her was the complete absence of women. How strange it seemed to see only men in a world all their own. More than one of them glanced toward Alice’s window as she sat watching.
    As the morning sun rose higher, Alice’s hopes waned. She stared down at her finery and sighed. Perhaps she’d misjudged Gunn. Had he been only teasing her yesterday? Had their shared kisses been no more to him than a bit of sport? No! She refused to believe that. He had moved her deeply. Surely he had felt something as well.
    A bugle call pierced the cold morning air, bringing Alice’s attention back to the parade ground. Holding her breath, she watched the heavy gates swing open. She rose slowly, her heart thundering in her breast as she saw him enter.
    Gunn was mounted on a great, black stallion—a fiery-eyed beast that she was certain no other human being could have ridden. He sat tall and straight on the bare back of his mount as the devil-horse stepped high and proud. The pair looked more centaur than horse and rider.
    “It’s himself,” Pegeen said in an awed whisper.
    “It is, indeed.” Alice rose, starting for the door. “I’ll go now and greet my intended.”
    Gunn scanned the yard for her the minute he entered. He knew she wouldn’t be there among all the men, but he guessed that she would come out when she saw the flurry of excitement his entrance created. He’d planned to create a scene for Alice’s benefit alone. It wasn’t often that he donned the special costume of an Abenaki warrior, a gift from Baron de Saint Castin on the day Gunn saved the Frenchman’s life and the two men had become blood brothers. Nor had he brought Ishani to the fort since she’d arrived, proclaiming herself “Gunn’s woman.” He hadn’t wanted to expose the girl to