Read Tender savage for Free Online Page B

plenty like him who continue to roam around ignoring the fact this is no longer Sious territory, but few of them are mixed bloods like him."
    "Mixed bloods?" Erica wasn't certain what that term meant.
    "He's part white. Didn't you notice his eyes?"
    Erica wasn't sure whether or not she should admit that she had, but she did. "His eyes were gray, but he certainly looks all Indian to me."
    "I'm sure he considers himself all Indian too, but those light eyes give away his mixed heritage. What did he say to you as he was leaving?"
    Now that Karl had finally asked the question she had been dreading. Erica blushed shyly and made up an answer she hoped he would believe. "He just thanked me for helping him get the shells and said I was pretty."
    "You see what I mean?" Karl responded angrily. "No white man would dare talk to you that boldly."
    Since her uncle had believed her lie. Erica relaxed

    slightly. "Weil, perhaps Indian girls expect compliments like that and he thought I'd be flattered. Now, since the store is full of customers, I think we better not neglect them any longer or they might take their business elsewhere."
    That his attractive niece had proven to be such a practical young woman pleased Karl immensely, and with a hearty chuckle he followed her back out into the store where he found business as brisk as she had described it.
    Erica thou^t she had met the Indian each afternoon sometime between the hours of one and two. She didn't foresee any trouble meeting him that day until her uncle invited the most persistent of her unwanted suitors, a young farmer by the name of Ernst Schramberger, to come home with them for the midday meal. Ernst was a tall, heavy-set man with blue-gray eyes and light brown hair that had begun to turn gray at the temples. Each time he smiled at her his desire was so undisguised that Erica felt as though she were actually being crushed in the bear hugs he was clearly quite anxious to give her. She would then have to lay her fork aside and take several deep breaths to reassure herself her imagination was playing tricks upon her, but she had seldom endured a more uncomfortable meal. It was not that the man was homely, nor was his personality unpleasant, but she simply did not find him appealing, ana she couldn't wait for him to go so she could be on her way. When he finally left with her uncle, she helped her aunt clean up the kitchen, then slipped out the back door with her usual excuse that she wished to go out for a walk.
    Since it had been past two-thirty when she had left home, Erica hoped the Indian had not been serious when he had warned her not to be late. She was already late, but she had taken only half a dozen running steps from the house when Gunter fell in by her side. First Ernst and now Gunter, she moaned inwardly. Was there going to be no way for her to enter the forest without being seen?
    "I thought it a good afternoon for a walk. Where are you bound?" she asked brightly, praying her cousin was on the way to his parents' store.
    Gunter shrugged. "I thought I would gather some wood

    to make more carvings."
    Her heart filling with dread. Erica was certain he was bent ujx^n taking the same path she had hoped to travel without being followed. "Shouldn't you bring along a rope to bind it, or perhaps a basket to carry it?"
    Embarrassed to admit he had not thought that far, Gunter had known only that his charming cousin sometimes went for walks and had wanted to ^o along with her. He tried to hide his oversight by agreemg with her. "Yes, of course, I meant to stop by the store to get a sack."
    "Good, then maybe you'll be able to gather enough wood to make something for me." Erica was delighted to find he would have to make a stop at the store, but her compliments on his work were sincere for she thought it showed promise. "I thought the mule you did yesterday turned out very nicely."
    Gunter could not help but laugh, since she knew he had hoped to carve a horse. "I think I'd be smart not