Savage Tempest Read Online Free

was enough furniture for her to get by for the short time she planned to live there.
    Even a kerosene lamp, half filled with kerosene, had been left in the cabin, and also books, yellowed, with some pages missing.
    She had gone to the closest town and bought enough supplies to last many months, and a wagon with which to transport them. She had even bought seed to plant a garden. Then she had left civilization behind.
    â€œAnd here I am, in Nebraska, and definitely pregnant,” she whispered to herself.
    She had counted herself to be twelve weeks along and was now beginning to show, but only barely. Someone who knew pregnancy well would recognize that she was with child.
    But no one else could tell, not yet anyhow.Though soon they would be able to. That was why she was staying hidden now, with enough food and supplies to last until after the child was born.
    She had finally made a decision about the child. After the baby was born, she would take it to the nearest church and leave it on a pew at the front of the church so that the minister would quickly see the tiny bundle wrapped in a blanket.
    She could not, would not, raise this child.
    Angry that she had had the nightmare again, Joylynn went outside in the moonlight to get a breath of fresh air, and to check on her chestnut stallion, which she had named Swiftie.
    She had built a small corral not far from the cabin for her beloved steed. If not for her horse, she would be all alone in the world.
    Yes, they were best friends. She was glad that the evil man hadn’t taken Swiftie that day, for without her stallion, she was not sure she could have survived this life of isolation and loneliness.
    Tears shone in her eyes as Joylynn stroked the stallion’s sleek mane. When a loon cried its eerie call somewhere close by the creek, the sound made Joylynn’s loneliness twofold. In her mind’s eye she saw her father, his rusty-red hair blowing in the breeze as he rode his white mare alongside Joylynn after giving her the beloved chestnut stallion.
    Those days were oh, so long gone. She wondered what the future now held for her. In her eyes it looked nothing but bleak. . . .

C HAPTER T HREE
    The moon was high and bright in the sky as High Hawk and his warriors rode toward home, with several head of horses secured behind them.
    High Hawk felt he had stolen enough horses for the night, at least enough to appease his father. Once again, he had raided the Sioux, proving his cunning at stealing horses from the enemy.
    To his people, captured horses were the legitimate spoils of war. The wealth of the Pawnee was in their horses.
    He smiled at how easy it had been to take the animals. At least a hundred powerful steeds had been grazing on land a short distance from the Sioux village.
    It had been as easy as a falcon sweeping from the sky to capture a snake within its talons.
    High Hawk had been careful, though, not to steal too many steeds. It would not do for theSioux to notice the theft and go on the warpath to look for the horse raiders.
    Now that they were far enough away from the the Sioux village, High Hawk wanted to wash the war paint from his body before venturing toward home. Up ahead, he saw the shine of water.
    â€œWe will stop and wash up in the river,” he said, bringing his horse to a stop.
    The warriors dismounted, then led their steeds and the stolen horses to the stream, where they could drink while High Hawk and his warriors washed themselves clean of the paint.
    When that was done, High Hawk spotted a bluff not far away. It would give him the opportunity to survey the land below. He would look as far as the eye and the moon would allow. If all still seemed well, and he saw no one following them, he and his men would continue their journey home.
    â€œI will go and see if anyone follows us,” he said, grabbing his rifle from the gunboot at the side of his horse. “You stay. Watch the horses.”
    His warriors nodded.
    High Hawk hurried up