She thought about brushing her hair, but lacked the energy to begin such an arduous task so late in the day. Had they been at home, the family would just be sitting down to supper, and that melancholy thought brought a mist of tears to her eyes. She missed everyone terribly, but did not want Hunter to find them any more than Belle did. When she finally lay down to sleep, she said a brief prayer for the continued strength and cunning to elude him. * * * In the following days, Hunter came tantalizingly close to catching Belle and Dominique, but they continued to elude him. They were traveling faster than he had anticipated, using streams to hide their trail and erasing all evidence of their campsite each morning. His first attempt to get ahead of them and block their way failed, and just when he was about to make another, he came dangerously close to riding into a British encampment. He left his stallion tethered to a low branch of a red cedar and crept close to make certain they hadn't caught the girls, but there was no sign of them.
