Sweet Savage Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

chins matched perfectly. It was eerie. “This resemblance is fascinating. I would like to meet your daughter. Perhaps she could pose for a new portrait after I complete my repair work on this one. I would guess it’s around… twenty years old?” he hinted as he critically eyed the aging portrait.
    Nathan nodded. Despite his reluctance, he had to think, to remember those painful times. “I’m afraid thatisn’t possible, Mister Mallory. Eleven years ago, Marissa was murdered by Kiowa Indians. The red bastards attacked her stagecoach and slaughtered everyone on it but my seven-year-old granddaughter. They kidnapped her. For years I searched for Rana and offered large rewards for her return. Nothing. I couldn’t bear the thought of her being enslaved and abused by those murdering savages, so it seemed easier to accept her as dead, like her mother. She was eighteen this March, if she’s still alive.” Nathan’s eyes were glued to the canvases. “After years of torment and doubt, have I found my little Rana? Look at her. She’s the spittin’ image of my Marissa. It has to be my granddaughter. But how did the Sioux get her away from those Kiowas? Their territories are far apart and they’re fierce enemies. How could a white captive become a Sioux chief’s daughter? How can she look so dadburn happy?”
    Mallory turned and glanced at the distressed man. “It seems I’ve brought the image of a ghost to your home, sir. I’m truly sorry.” After looking at the portraits and at Nathan again, he shook his head and refuted his words. “Not a ghost, but wonderful news of your missing granddaughter. She has your eyes, sir. How marvelous to create such a happy event. You must be ecstatic to discover she is safe and happy.”
    “Hell, no!” Nathan shouted. “The only thing that will please me is to get her back home where she belongs. And, by God, I will.”
    “But what can you do to recover her, Mister Crandall? Even if you can prove she’s your granddaughter, Chief Soaring Hawk wouldn’t turn his daughter over to a white man. Most of those Sioux despise white men. You can’t blame them, with whites and soldiers taking their lands, killing off hundreds of them, and herding the survivors onto reservations like cattle. Those treaties are worthless to both sides. I had a terrible time getting into theircamps and getting permission to paint some of them. Conflicts are brewing all over that territory; that’s why I had to get out so fast. Settlers are pouring in, and the Indians don’t like it. If this girl is your granddaughter, perhaps she doesn’t even recall her childhood. Eleven years is a long time away from family and civilization. Chief Soaring Hawk and his son, Lone Wolf, seemed crazy about her. Besides, those Indians are nomads. How would you locate her and steal her? I was told the Sioux are the largest and mightiest Indian nation in the West. It could cause a war.”
    “I’ll get her back the same way those Indians snatched Rana from her home and family—by force! She’s my granddaughter; she belongs here with me. Travis will help me get Rana back,” Nathan declared confidently, nodding toward the young man who had been his ranch foreman and like a son to him for seven years.
    Travis Kincade had gone unnoticed during the conversation between Nathan Crandall and Thomas Mallory. He had been sitting in a large chair in the rear of the room and had listened intently as his friend and boss had questioned the artist about the intoxicating girl in his paintings, a woman whose expression and pose blended perfectly with the wildness and striking beauty of the landscape behind her.
    “What do you think, Travis? Is this my Rana?” Nathan asked, even though he knew without a doubt that she was Marissa’s child. He was charged with a variety of uncontrollable emotions as he looked into the face that mirrored his lost child’s features.
    Travis joined the men before the fireplace. Seeing the girl’s clothing