Sweet Savage Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

body. The fearless and cunning man had worked many jobs inside and outside of the law. Even when he had ridden as an Army scout andU.S. Marshal, he had owed loyalty to no man or force but himself. Travis had become a man of immense physical prowess. Confident and self-contained, he had always sought the danger, excitement, challenge, and intrigue of any new and stimulating adventure. Then Nathan had crossed Travis’s path.
    Travis was also recalling his first meeting with Nathan Crandall. It had been the second time the young man had almost lost his life. The first had been at the hands of Indians and, when Nathan found him, Travis had just experienced the treachery of a spiteful white vixen. Nathan had come across the critically injured youth near St. Louis, during a Rocking C cattle drive. The older man had personally doctored him back to health. Some of the most difficult challenges Travis had had to face had been controlling his restive spirit, learning to trust and love, and yielding to his new fate during his physical and emotional healing process. Nathan had brought him to this ranch to recuperate, but he had been persuaded to stay on as foreman. Over the years the two had formed a deep, strong bond of friendship, dependence and loyalty. Nathan had become like a father to him and had made vast changes in his character and his way of life. This ranch had become his home and part of his responsibility. He had found acceptance and respect here; he had found happiness and a sense of belonging; he had found himself, his place in life—things that had been stolen from him nine years ago…
    He had been born the mixed-blooded son of a Hunkpapa woman and a white man, and had been raised in the Lakota way. When he was eighteen and a seasoned warrior, a lethal and unjust travesty had destroyed all he had been and had known and loved. His mother’s people had accused him of being a traitor and had tried to slay him. Their treachery and betrayal had cut him deeply and painfully; it had sapped his belief in good andevil, and had shaken his faith in the Great Spirit. It was as if all he had done and had become had been in vain. If they could believe he was guilty of such wicked deeds and could order his torture and death, their past love and acceptance had been lies; his entire life had been a cruel lie. Because of one man’s and one woman’s greed and treachery, he had been forced to become a renegade.
    Even after all these years, reflecting on that betrayal sliced through his heart and soul like an enemy’s whitehot knife. By turning against him so bitterly, the Hunkpapas had robbed him of many precious things: his very existence, his honor, his trust, his hopes and dreams, his confidence. And, for awhile, they had stolen his heart and soul. They had made him become leery, resentful, hostile, hard. They had taken part of his selfesteem and, for the first time in his life, had made him feel worthless, scared, weak, helpless. For a man’s desperate lie and a woman’s selfishness, he had been sentenced to death by his own people and, fleeing that injustice, he had become an outcast, forever estranged from his Indian lands and ways.
    Two years after that tragic episode and just as he was beginning to feel and to care once more, an evil white woman had attempted to ensnare him, and, failing that, destroy him. His bitterness, mistrust, and cynicism had increased. To avoid being hurt or betrayed again, he had tried to resist any feelings or contacts that could lead to more anguish and rejection. Then Nathan Crandall had entered his life…
    Nathan had accepted him for himself and had proved there were people who were not selfish or traitorous. Despite what the Kiowa Indians had done to his daughter and granddaughter, Nathan had not resented him or held him accountable, though most whites hated all Indians and they persecuted all of them for the evils of a few. As for “half-breeds,” they were despised and scorned byboth sides.