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sensed his enormous size as he lifted her. Like a gentle giant, he carried her from the cave out into the brilliant sunshine. The dog, revealed to be a brown and white beagle, trotted beside them as he bore her toward the small group seated in the rippling grass and fern near the spring.
    "Waupee!” he beckoned.
    Colin turned his head and sprang to his feet. “Muga? Good heavens. What's happened?"
    Emma clambered up. “Are you all right, dearest?"
    Any response Charity intended strangled in her throat.
    Colin's brow furrowed. Taking her from her rescuer, he said, “ Megwich , Muga. Posetha,” he added, with a distracted nod at the second brave who'd accompanied them from the cave. He laid Charity on the navy blanket spread under a red maple tree. “I thought you were with my brother, Miss Edmondson."
    "He thought I was with you, but Chaka—” Tears overwhelmed Charity and it was all she could do not to sob.
    Colin dropped his anxious gaze to her disordered bodice and turned explosively to the two warriors. The confusing sounds of Shawnee broke forth while Emma tied the neckline of her shift and redid the lacing at her chest with fingers that shook nearly as much as Charity's. Then she adjusted the bodice, ordered her petticoats, and rewrapped her cloak.
    "They're not certain what Chaka did,” Colin said, kneeling beside Charity. “But have their suspicions.” He took her chilled hand in his warm fingers. “I hate to press you, dear heart, but must ask, did he violate you?"
    She felt violated to her depths. “What do you mean?"
    Colin's eyes softened. “Poor girl. So like my sister Rachel."
    Emma nodded as though she knew the connection, and Colin continued. “It strikes me as especially vile when such innocence is robbed. Did Chaka harm you, Miss Edmondson, other than groping you disgracefully? Please tell me."
    "He terrified me. But no, he did not cause me pain."
    Breath rushed from Emma. “Thank God."
    Dismay overshadowed Charity's sense of relief. “He's not finished with me yet."
    Colin's brows arched sharply. “What do you mean?"
    "Chaka said, unless he's too drunk to know what he said."
    Colin gritted his teeth in an effort to contain the rage she sensed boiling just beneath the surface. “Whether he was or wasn't, rest assured his attentions to you are at an end."
    She clung to Colin's nearly fierce assertion and to his hand. “What does he want from me, Mister Dickson?"
    "Something precious he has no right to. I'll let Emma explain, or your husband when the time comes."
    Charity felt left on the perimeter of some vital secret with no hope of Emma enlightening her. Something else Colin had said caught her attention. “How am I like your sister?"
    He lowered questioning eyes to Emma. She gave a nod. He exchanged glances with the two warriors and they took James in hand, disappearing into the trees. Colin had the air of a man revisiting a place he'd far rather leave behind.
    "Rachel was your age when a man took cruel advantage of her. The difference between you is that you got away before it was too late."
    Charity pitied this unknown girl. “What happened?"
    "Rachel was one of the young ladies preyed upon by Lawrence Montgomery, an arrogant dandy. His father, Lord Montgomery, is a thoroughly unprincipled man and Lawrence was no better. I was out and our father in bed recovering from illness when Lawrence paid Rachel a call and persuaded her to go for a drive in his carriage—his closed carriage. The driver was instructed to ignore female cries from within. I expect you have some idea now of what followed."
    Charity shrank from the repugnant image he painted.
    Colin fingered his dagger. “After I'd seen to Rachel, I sought Lawrence out. He trusted his reputation as a swordsman would dissuade me from challenging him. He thought wrong."
    "Did you run Mister Montgomery through?"
    "Not entirely, but the wound I gave him in my fury was mortal. He died soon after, never to torment a woman