Chapter 1

Ohio River Country, 1703

A few pale stars hung suspended in the eastern sky as the girl crept silently from the wigwam and passed through the sleeping camp. She murmured softly to a tethered pony and received a gentle nicker in reply. She paused for a moment to stroke the animal's sleek, arched neck before moving on. Rustling sounds filled her ears, the stirrings of people not yet ready to greet the day. She smiled as the whimpers of a newborn came from her brother's lodge, then a sudden silence as, no doubt, the babe was soothed by a drowsy mother's full breast.

Already streaks of rose were beginning to illuminate the horizon. The girl quickened her steps. This was a special time of day, one she cherished, a time to be one with the inner voices of her heart and to communicate with all the living beings of the earth.

Star Blanket knelt on the bank of the creek and cupped her hands to drink of the cool, fresh water. The stones under her feet still held the night's chill, and she shivered, her brief deerskin skirt and sleeveless vest providing little warmth. Summer seemed late in coming this year. It was June, yet the wild strawberries were slow to ripen.

Swiftly, Star Blanket slipped out of her clothing and kicked aside her moccasins. She unbound her single, heavy braid, letting the dark hair fall in waves about her tanned shoulders. Then, with a running leap, she dove into the deep pool beneath the overhanging trees. She gasped at the shock of the cold water, unable to contain a small cry of surprise. Determinedly, she took handfuls of sand from the creek bottom and scrubbed her body until it tingled; then, having waded to the bank, she reached for a birch-bark container, intending to wash her hair with the herbs inside.

She paused, suddenly struck by the silence. She should be hearing bird calls, but instead not even a leaf or tree branch moved. A trickle of apprehension sobered her mood, and she climbed out of the water and dressed quickly.

Where was the village sentry? Cupping her hands, the young woman emitted the shrill, unique pitty-pit-pit of a nighthawk. She listened. There was no answer. She called a second time, and abruptly the silence of the morning was broken by the roar of a musket.

Before her eyes, the Indian camp dissolved into a nightmare filled with smoke and screams and blood. Dozens of bearded men charged out of the forest, their long guns spitting fire and death. The Shawnee scrambled from their wigwams, most with empty hands, to face cold steel and shot.

The children! Wrenched from her shock by a child's wail of terror, Star Blanket ran toward the village. A woman in front of her fell, pierced by a musket ball. Star Blanket leaped over the body and dashed toward her mother's wigwam. She saw her brother, naked, with only a skinning knife as a weapon, launch himself at a giant white man as his wife ran in the opposite direction, the baby in her arms.

"Star Blanket!" The woman's face twisted in pain as she thrust the screaming infant into her arms, then dropped to her knees. An English trade hatchet quivered in her back. "Take the baby," she cried. "Run!"

A musket backfired not a dozen paces away, the explosion shattering the face and chest of the white man who pulled the trigger. Blood spattered Star Blanket's cheek.

"Go!" her sister-in-law screamed.

A rough hand closed on her shoulder, spinning her around. For a heartbeat, she stared into the face of death. A bloody knife slashed down toward her throat. Instinctively she ducked, brought a knee up into the man's groin, and dodged away, running for her life. A musket ball passed so closely by her head that she heard the whine of its trajectory.

Clutching the child to her breast, she ran like a startled doe, splashing through the shallow creek and plunging into the thickest part of the forest. Branches raked her face and bare breasts, ripping at her unbound hair. Gasping for breath, her heart pounding, she dropped to the ground beneath the shelter of an overhanging pine bough. "Shhh," she warned, pinching the baby's nose between her fingers to stop his crying. The sound of shots coming from behind her and boots crashing through the trees told her she was not far enough away for safety. Star Blanket breathed deeply, trying to control her trembling, trying to erase the smell of blood from her nostrils.

The baby stared up at her from slanted black eyes. I have to think of him, she told herself. The dead are beyond help. A whimper caught her attention, and she pushed aside the boughs. There, only a few feet away, crouched a boy—Amatha. He was no more than eleven summers, and his eyes were glazed with fear. Blood trickled from his hair.

Star Blanket motioned him to silence. "You must be a warrior," she whispered. "Take the little one. He is my brother's child. Guard him with your life and carry him safely to Stone Bull's village. Do you understand?"

The child nodded, holding out bloodstained hands to take the infant.

"Inu-msi-ila-fe-wanu will protect you if you do not lose courage. Fail me and I shall send demons to haunt you." She lay the baby in his arms. "His mother's sister lives there. She will care for him like her own." For an instant Star Blanket laid her hand against the boy's cheek. "Remember, you are Shawnee," she murmured. "Make no sound, no matter what you see or hear. And if you abandon the child, I will come back from my grave to seek revenge!"

Before she could lose her nerve, Star Blanket crept out from under the tree and inched her way through the brush. When she was a dozen yards from the hiding place, she leaped to her feet and began to run.

To her right she heard a shout and the snap of branches. She caught a glimpse of a white face.

"There goes one!" A musket cracked, and a piece of bark flew from a tree trunk overhead.

Star Blanket let out an ear-shattering scream. Her dark hair spread cut behind her like a silken wave as she sped down the faint deer trail. Like a pack of wolves the white men pursued her, howling in bloodlust, eager for the kill.

Their cries are no more than the wind, her soul whispered. She let the fear fall behind her as her moccasined feet flew across the hard-packed ground. The running became a glory, without beginning and without end.

Since childhood Star Blanket had prided herself on her ability to run swiftly and surely. The Shawnee honored those who showed great skill and stamina, and in races she had taken many prizes, including the tiny golden bells that hung in her ears. She had run against the young men as well as the women, but never had the potential prize been so great as now.

An Iroquois war party could run from the Great Lakes to the land of smoking mountains in five days' time... run without stopping to eat or sleep and yet fight when they arrived. If an Iroquois could do it, why not a Shawnee?

The pain in her side became an agony. She told herself that to feel pain one had to be alive, so pain was good. She concentrated on running, on placing each foot precisely where she wanted it; a slip now would bring about her death.

Ahead, the trees thinned, and the game trail led into a grassy meadow. The ground grew soft beneath her feet; her pace slowed despite her sudden burst of energy. She broke through the last of the hardwood trees searching frantically for cover. Sucking in great gulps of air, she dropped to her knees.

The whinny of a horse made her stagger to her feet. A memory teased her. Beyond the meadow—what lay beyond? Was there a sharp drop into a river? Ignoring the cramps in her legs, she forced her body to move faster.

She had crossed half the open space when two horsemen burst from among the trees. She turned to meet them, a Shawnee death chant on her lips, knowing she couldn't outrun the horses. She had lost the gamble. She would pay the price without tears.

With howls of delight, the militiamen lashed their mounts toward her, each eager to be the first. A red-bearded man pulled his tomahawk from his belt and swung it high.

Star Blanket stood frozen until she could feel the breath of the brown horse in her face, then she dodged swiftly aside. The blade went wide. With a curse, the man yanked hard on the reins, pulling the horse almost to his knees in the soft earth.

The second man dove out of his saddle and lunged for her. A hand closed around her ankle, pulling her to the ground. In a heartbeat, she twisted free, scrambling up and darting behind the horse. The white man cursed and circled the animal. Star Blanket scooted under the horse's belly, seizing the mane and throwing one leg over his back.

The horse, terrified by the strange-smelling creature clinging to his back, reared up, raking the sky with his forelegs. One hoof struck the man, instantly crushing the fragile bone above his right eye. The man fell like an empty sack, his life's blood draining out on the green grass.

Star Blanket struggled for control of the animal, leaning forward on the tossing neck and reaching for the elusive leather rein. The act saved her life as the red-beard's laughter turned to cries of rage. His musket ball grazed the back of her neck, like the sting of an angry wasp.

Then the hard butt of his musket slammed into her shoulder, knocking her from the horse and tossing her, breathless, onto the trampled grass.

With a whoop of triumph, the man threw himself down beside her, grabbed a handful of her dark hair, and yanked her head back. Instantly, the steel blade of his tomahawk plunged toward her head. The last thing Star Blanket saw was his horrible bearded face and a ribbon of blue sky framing his raccoon cap. Then there was only blackness....

In her dreams the blackness would grow deeper and then recede. Sometimes pain invaded her nothingness, but usually there was only the blackness: it was so much easier to float, carried by the tide of a dream river, safe from fear and sorrow, free from all the cares of life.

Yet something within her breast would not be stilled. A flicker of resistance ate at her passivity. The resistance hardened and strengthened until it would not be denied. The girl forced herself up from unconsciousness through clouds of pain and fear. Gradually her brain acknowledged signals... sounds and smells. A hint of light passed through the barrier of her thick, dark lashes.

Cunning bade her wait; she did not yield to the urge to open her eyes. Instead, she lay unmoving, listening, trying to identify the sounds around her.

The breathing of animals... horses. A sensation of movement. The creak of leather. Men's voices. The tongue... not French, English. English-manake. She was a prisoner of those who had brought death to her village!

Memories spilled over; all her control could not stop a tear from running down her cheek. So many dead... so many. Fire and shot and death brought by cold steel. Why had she not died with them? Wishemenetoo! Why? Why have you punished me by letting me live when all I love have crossed over?

The pain in her heart gave way to the pain in her flesh. Star Blanket's head pounded; every bone in her body ached. Her chest and belly hurt with every step of the horse across which she had been flung. Her arms... she could barely feel them; her fingers were numb. Her hands were tied behind her back, and she lay over the horse so that her face slapped against his belly as he walked.

Her despair passed with the fading of the day. At dusk, the English-manake reined in their horses and prepared to make camp for the night. Star Blanket waited, her eyes closed, her breathing faint and steady. She lived! When she learned why they hadn't killed her in the meadow, she would plan her escape. Wishemenetoo, the Great Spirit, would give her the cunning and courage needed to make the best of every opportunity. She began imperceptively twisting her wrists to free herself.

Rough hands pulled her from the horse and tossed her to the ground. Her head slammed against something hard. To her shame, a soft moan escaped her lips. She lay limp and unmoving.

"See! I told you," a voice said overhead. "I told ye she were alive."

The accents were strange, but Star Blanket knew the words. Her father had spoken English with her so that she would not forget. And once she had been the voice for her mother in trading with a Frenchman from the north country. His English had been funny too, but she had always had an ear for the tongues of other people.

Then another, deeper voice said, "Should of kilt her with the rest!"

"She be white, James. You can see by the skin. Them's no Injun features."

"Born white, maybe. But livin' with them like that, who knows how long, she's tarred with the same brush. She ain't fit to live with decent white folks. Them squaws is dirty! Like rabbits, all of them. Legs like she's got, she's warmed some buck's blanket. Live with them, die with them, I say!"

"After all them bucks, maybe she'd be grateful for a white man. What do you say, Harlan? I know your old woman ain't got tits like these!"

Coarse laughter filled her ears, and Star Blanket bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted the salt of her own blood. She would die before she lay beneath their stinking bodies! They called her people dirty. Phahh! These white dogs carried a stink like carrion on their unwashed flesh.

A hand gripped her ankle. "Come on, sweet thing. Open your eyes. Harlan's got something for you."

Star Blanket came alive in a churning tempest of fury. The bonds on her wrists that she had worked loose flew off, and she launched herself at her tormentor with a cry of pure rage.

The unexpected attack caught the bearded white man off guard, and he fell over backward with the girl on top of him. She struck his chin with her head and her nails reached for his eyes. A knee caught him in the groin even as his friends attempted to rescue him from her savage assault.

Hands grabbed at her as she cursed the man with every profanity she had ever heard in English or French. The words were interspersed with Shawnee, Fox, and Chippewa invocations, which, although not true curses, left no doubt of her feelings.

The man staggered to his feet, blood streaming from a dozen scratches on his face, and came toward her, his fists raised. Star Blanket struggled to break loose from the two white men who held her.

Suddenly a pistol shot sounded behind them. The laughter and yelling ceased abruptly as a big man shouldered his way through the crowd. "I waste no more pistol balls," he threatened, glaring at the men. "What goes here?" He held a flintlock pistol in each hand, one still smoking. "Well?" he demanded. His broad forehead was lined, his once yellow hair faded to near gray, yet there was no doubt of his authority; his tone and bearing told Star Blanket that this man was a war chief.

"Him!" She motioned her chin toward the bearded one. "He..." Her mind scrambled for the unfamiliar words.

The ice blue eyes turned on the man. "You know my orders." He raised the pistol until the barrel was level with the bearded man's forehead. "You challenging me, James Walker? We are Christian men, doin' God's work." His voice rose as he warmed to his message. "We have come into this wilderness to teach the red man a lesson, not to lie with his women! Not to sink to the level of beasts! And not to take advantage of this poor, unfortunate white girl. Have you no shame? Cover her nakedness!"

Flushing crimson, a man skinned off his smock and threw it toward her. "She kin have thet, Colonel. James didn't mean no harm. We was jest funnin'."

Star Blanket kicked the filthy garment away. "I do not need your skins! I need nothing of you! Let me go!" She turned her face toward the war chief. "You break the peace. You kill. You make war. If your God tells you to do this, he is as evil as you are."

"Silence, woman!" he thundered. "You can be forgiven much for your ignorance, but not for blasphemy. Cover your body from the eyes of my men, or I will not be responsible for their sins. You are white. You'll be taken back to the settlements, and someone will try to find out if you have any family left. Do you know your name?"

Her green eyes grew smoky with anger. "I am Alagwa Aquewa, Star Blanket, and I am Shawnee of the Wolf Clan. I am not white. And I will not go anywhere with you. Set me free or kill me."

The big man spat in the dust. "God help us, she is mad," he uttered quietly. "Tie her well and gag her again if she will not be still. Be she mad or not, we will do our duty." His fierce stare took in the watching men. "And I'll shoot any man who lays a lustful hand on her, so help me God."

* * *

Annapolis, Maryland August 1703

Sheffield Plantation

Thomas Bradford dropped into a chair and reread the thin, creased parchment for the third time. He swallowed hard and motioned to the serving girl. "Brandy!" he ordered.

She poured it and handed the goblet to him. Trembling, he took the glass and downed the amber liquid in a single gulp.

"Are you all right, sir?" the girl asked hesitantly. "Is it bad news? Should I fetch Master Adam?" The old master looked pale. With his bad heart, anything could happen. Suppose he keeled over right in front of her? Saints preserve us! Molly bit her lower lip nervously. "Do you want me to find Master Adam?" she repeated. "He's in the office. I seen him there just a few minutes ago."

"Yes... yes. Get Adam."

Molly ducked a hasty curtsy and dashed from the room. Master Adam would know what to do.

Thomas was just helping himself to a second glass of brandy when the younger man burst into the room.

"Sir! Are you all right? Molly said..." Adam put an arm around his stepfather and helped him back into his chair, noting the tears in the faded green eyes and the crumpled letter in his hand.

"I'm all right," Thomas said hoarsely. "They've found my Rebecca. After all these years." His voice cracked, and he wiped his eyes with the back of a gnarled hand. "Listen to me, sniveling like a kitchen wench! Damn it, boy, they've found her. Alive and well... my little Rebecca." He pushed the parchment into Adam's hands. "Read it yourself. This just came by rider from Annapolis."

As Adam read, suspicion drained from his square face and was replaced by unaffected joy. "It sounds like your granddaughter," he agreed, running a hand carelessly through his hair. Contrary to the custom of the time, when even servants wore wigs, Adam was content with his own plain brown locks pulled back into a club at the back of his neck and secured with a leather thong. The simple style of dark hair framing his face was as unpretentious as his high, wide forehead and sympathetic brown eyes, which missed nothing.

He was a big man, tall and broad of shoulder, with massive arms and hands. His clothes were as plain as his face, well made but of simple lines, without frills or artifice. Yet he moved easily, with none of the awkwardness of many large men. And the plain face softened with compassion as he turned toward the old man.

"She's the right age," Adam said, "and the scar would seem to indicate—"

"The Bradford eyes!" Thomas said triumphantly. "My son had them and both of the children. Green as the ocean off the cliffs of Dover. Bradford eyes! It's my Rebecca, I tell you. I knew she wasn't dead! Damn it to hell! I told them. I told them all. She's alive, Adam." He slammed his fist against the desk, sending a candlestick spinning.

"It says here she's in Pennsylvania, about a day's ride west of Lancaster. A place called Logan's Crossing." Adam walked to the window to catch the light. "Not a very good speller, is he, this Colonel Steiner?"

Thomas's thin lips pursed as memories of those he had lost swept over him. "October seventh, sixteen ninety-two," he murmured. "Mary's brother took up land three days west of here. I told him it was foolhardy. Indian country. No place for a white man. And then nothing would do but that Robert take Mary and the children to visit her family. I begged them to leave the little ones here." He sighed deeply. "Rebecca was only eight years old, little Tom not quite five."

Adam patted his stepfather's shoulder. He'd heard it all a hundred times before. "Don't trouble yourself with it, sir."

Adam and his mother had been bondservants on Sheffield at the time of the massacre, but he remembered little Rebecca Bradford well. He'd taught her brother how to swim in the creek. The deaths had been a blow to servant and master alike.

"They never had a chance... murdered in cold blood, the women and children along with the men. No reason to it. Bloodthirsty savages." Thomas blinked back tears. "They found Mary's body beside Robert's and little Tom's. But no girl child. Without a body, how could they be sure she was dead? I knew she wasn't. I knew it all along." He chuckled. "People thought I was just a crazy old man. This should show them, eh, Adam?"

"Crazy like a fox, maybe," the younger man conceded. If this girl was Rebecca, it was nothing short of a miracle. There were frequently tales of white children who'd been captured and raised by the Indians, but after eleven years, he'd believed the girl long dead and in some lonely grave. And if this girl was Rebecca Bradford, she was the rightful heiress to Sheffield. Adam swallowed hard at the sudden realization.

From the time Thomas Bradford had married Adam's mother, Martha Rourke, six years earlier, he'd treated Adam like a son. They'd worked the plantation together, and Adam had come to respect and love his stepfather in a way he'd never been able to care for his own father. During the long years of hard work, in the sharing of responsibility and danger, Adam had begun to think of Sheffield as his own. Thomas had even written a will naming Adam his sole heir. Now all that was changed by the arrival of this letter from the Pennsylvania frontier.

Adam shrugged. All that he had, Thomas Bradford had given him. Thomas had taught him to run a plantation and given him a sense of self-respect. If fate had returned to Thomas the granddaughter everyone thought dead, he could only share in the old man's joy. "Do you want me to ride up to Pennsylvania and bring her home, sir?" he asked. "It might be better if someone from the family went. After what she's been through, there's no telling what kind of mental state she might be in. Likely she's terrified."

"I was thinking just that," Thomas agreed. "I'd go myself, but I know I couldn't ride two hours on a horse." He chuckled again. "Besides, there's the matter of the reward, two hundred pounds in gold. I think it would be safer with you than with an old man. I don't think there's anyone in Pennsylvania big enough to take it away from you."

"When do you want me to leave?"

"At daybreak tomorrow. Take three of the best riding horses. You'll make better time if you travel alone. Servants talk. You'll be safer with that much gold if you don't have to worry about a loose tongue."

Adam nodded. "You're right. If she's well enough to travel, we should be back in a few weeks. I hope she can ride; I wouldn't want to travel by wagon. The roads are almost nonexistent up there." He paused thoughtfully. "I suppose I should take dresses and such, but I'm at a loss as to where to start. If my mother was alive, she'd know."

"There are things of Mary's packed away in the attic. They'll do until Rebecca is safely home." The seamed fingers tightened around Adam's arm. "Be gentle with her, boy. She's been through so much. And tell her how much I love her."

"Don't worry, sir, we'll get on. When she was a child, Rebecca used to trail me about like a puppy. She'll be so happy at the thought of coming home, I doubt there will be any real problems. You can count on me."

Thomas released his grip. "I know I can. You're your mother's son, Adam." Faded green eyes locked with brown. "I know I promised you Sheffield if Rebecca was never found, but you'll not lose by this, I swear it."