Native Silver Read Free Page B

surprised her if she’d been paying more attention.
    “Who knows? Maybe we’re re-enacting history here.”
    “Oh?” She was edging her way towards the shore, wondering with half a mind how she could make a run for it with the least public display of skin, trying to keep track of what he was saying with the other half. “In what way?”
    He was leaning out over the water now, his chin in his hand. “Can’t you picture it?” he asked musing ly. “The lovely Indian maiden---” He cocked an eyebrow at her, the devilish gleam in his eyes hardly shuttered at all, “—that’s you—swimming in the waterfall, her inky-black hair spread out around her. She’s stolen away from her tribe to find a moment’s privacy, to think, to dream.”
    “To get clean,” Shawnee countered drily. She couldn’t tell for sure if he was teasing her, or if he really enjoyed gazing back into the past, but she wasn’t going to let him catch her flat-footed. “And my hair’s not inky.”
    He frowned his disapproval for her mundane view of history.  
    “She’s stolen time to dream,” he said firmly. “As she floats in the water, she hears the sound of hoof beats coming closer—closer.”
    “And she runs for her life,” Shawnee offered.
    David sighed with mock impatience. “She does nothing of the sort. She waits, alert, sensing some how that this visitor is going to be someone who will change her life.”
    He was surprising her with this turn for the romantic. She would never have guessed he had stories like this floating around in his head. She found herself fighting hard to hold back her curi osity.  
    “And the visitor?” she asked with attempted casualness.
    “The visitor is a tall, handsome caballero on a black stallion, newly arrived from Spain.”  
    She couldn’t resist a chuckle at that. “Gee, I couldn’t guess who this handsome guy might be.”
    David threw her a mock glare. “It’s me, of c ourse. Who else?” He narrowed his eyes, looking back in time. “He’s dressed in dark twill pants with silver buttons lining the seams. His white linen shirt is open at the neck, and a red sash is tied about his waist.”
    Shawnee smiled, remembering that she’d seen David dressed exactly that way in a Californio Days parade years before. He’d been riding a palomino, though. She’d thought at the time he was the handsomest man she’d ever seen, even if he was a Santiago.
    “And what happens when he arrives?” She was caught up in the story now, intrigued and moving towards the boulder he was reclining on rather than away, looking straight into David’s dark eyes, totally forgetting that the two of them were naked as the day they’d been born.
    “He reins in his horse, seeing the lovely girl in the water. For a long moment, they gaze at one another. The girl feels no fear. The caballero can hardly believe his eyes. Slowly, he slides down off the horse and walks towards the stream.”
    “And then?” Her voice sounded breathless, but she hardly noticed.
    “He’s been on a long voyage from Spain, and an even more tiring trip on horseback up from Mex ico. It’s been a long, long time since he’s seen a woman, especially one as beautiful as the girl he sees before him. For a moment, he thinks she must be a mirage. He goes down on one knee to take up a handful of water and drink, his eyes never leaving her.”
    Somehow Shawnee had come close enough so that David could easily reach out and take a strand of her wet hair in his fingers, but she had no inclination to stop him, or to move away again.
    His voice was so low now, it was almost a whis per. “She moves toward him in the stream, as though drawn by an irresistible force. He can see her naked body through the clear water, her rounded breasts, her white thighs. He can hardly breathe. Suddenly he needs her more than he needs the water to slake his thirst.”
    David’s eyes were dark, but it was a misty darkness that pulled her in and let her wander like