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Chase Benteen Calder”

“Aren’t you … getting a little nervous?” Every ti a man like Benteen, Sue Ellen felt little shivers of alarm He was so male He wouldn’t have been her choice at all She would have picked someone quieter, more reserved It was almost scandalous the way Benteen looked at Lorna soht … and all”

Lorna glanced away to avoidher friend’s curiously intent look A quick warmth burned her cheeks “Yes … a little,” she admitted

It was so she tried not to think about because it seeination dwell on it tooshe had seen or learned in her young life had taught her to regard passion as a virtue It was practically the cohts stray in that direction was considered shocking

“Do you suppose … I mean, I’ve heard … it’s very painful for a wolanced apprehensively toward the back roo tea “It … sounds degrading to let a s to your body, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe it won’t be so bad” Lorna felt hot and trehtened kind of way

“I guess you eventually get used to it,” Sue Ellen offered as consolation “I’ve even heard that you can get to where you can pretend it isn’t happening You can think about soether”

“Really,” LornaIt ca out for h”

“Oh, Lorna” Sue Ellen’s chin quivered when she gazed sad-eyed at her friend “I wish you weren’t going away I don’t want you to leave”

“Don’t start crying, Sue Ellen, or I will,” Lorna warned

“But you’re going so far away,” her friend protested “Maybe we’ll never see each other again”

“Yes, ill,” she insisted with a deterularly”

“If I were you, I’d be scared of living way up there in that Indian country” Sue Ellen shook her head, silently e

“Benteen will be with me,” Lorna asserted

“But he’ll be away so after the cattle What if the Indians coht capture you and take you prisoner” Her alarination “I’ve heard stories about what those savages do to white wo her commit all sorts of vile, unspeakable acts”