I know it has been months. I won't tell you my reasons behind it all. I'm sorry it's a bit short but I knew this was way too long overdue.

Enjoy! Ideas welcome.

Chapter twenty-nine:

If Sam would have looked behind her she would have seen a lone Indian on a horse following slowly behind.

Kit silently kept behind her. He didn't want her to know but he was making sure Linc Slocum wasn't going to try something rash. He knew the kind of man Slocum was.

Sam was nervous about going home. What was she going to say to Wyatt and Gram? She couldn't outright say she had been with a family of Indians all this time. And what of the gunshot wound? That would be interesting…and frightening.

She inwardly gulped and gripped The Phantom's mane tighter.

What was she getting into? She almost made herself turn right around and go back to the Indian village but then realized she couldn't. It was no more than a skeleton now. It would furthermore be selfish of her to try to go back. She had to help Mustang Eyes even if afterward her Pa locked her away for the rest of her life.

She stopped when she was in front of the long pathway to her ranch. She decided then that there was nothing to tell except the truth. She couldn't lie. Even if her Pa ended up hating her all her life for loving an 'injun'.

Sam dismounted from The Phantom and slapped the stallion smartly on his rump. The mustang made a gallop back toward his home.

She took an intake of breath and began walking down the drive, very aware of what she was wearing. She looked Shoshone through and through if it wasn't for her red hair and pale skin.

Her side was beginning to hurt rather severe and she knew she needed to let her Gram look at it and maybe even see the doc in town.

"Sam? Samantha!" calls were sounded from different sides of the yard.

No turning back now. She told herself as she walked toward her Pa and Gram. They both were looking as if they saw a ghost.

The cowhands took close to the barn but could still get a good view of their boss' daughter dressed up like an Indian squall. Jason was the only one that didn't have his mouth open in shock.

"Where have you been and what in God's green earth are you wearing girl?" Wyatt Forster was turning five shades of unbecoming red. It was all Sam could do not to back away and flee. She knew she was in it deep.

Sam opened her mouth and then shut it. She touched her side. "First I think I need to be tended to.

They looked puzzled at first until she drew her hand back showing spots of blood on her hand.

Gram gasped and ushered her daughter in the room. "How did this happen?"

"I was accidentally shot," Sam said truthfully, not saying who exactly shot her. She prayed in her head her Gram wouldn't ask.

Gram sucked in a breath. "How did this happen?" Sam could tell she was trying to be calm.

"I saved a man and in the process I got shot." She relaxed knowing Gram wasn't going to ask who.

Gram was quiet for the rest of the time it took for dressing Sam's wound. She knew it wasn't over yet and could only hope she could escape tonight and try to visit Jake at Fort Mackall.

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