Deborah Camp (43 page)

“It’s good you made peace with the Gros Ventre,” Floating Flower said, interrupting Copper’s thoughts.

“I never tried to make them enemies. Feet Like Wind is wild with revenge. My husband killed his father and he decided I must pay. I’m glad Seven Scalps possesses wisdom or I’d be dead now and my baby would be an orphan.”

“Seven Scalps has seen enough war. My band of the people has grown small from many lost battles.”

Copper tried to block out the horror she’d endured at Gros Ventre hands, but flashes of it seeped through—of being roped and dragged behind Feet Like Wind’s horse, or being tied to the cross-stake while the braves pranced around her and burned her with fire sticks. Her medicine had weakened and her spirit had flagged. She had flirted with death and had almost reached the point of succumbing. Valor closed her fingers around one of Copper’s and squeezed. The horrors faded and Copper raised the clutching fist to her lips.

“She has your strength,” Floating Flower said, looking at Valor. “She has wise eyes, that one.”

“You know, Floating Flower, I think the Gros Ventre would take you in, if you wanted to go back. They are in a generous mood.”

Floating Flower shook her head. “No. I stay
here.” She smiled across at Copper. “I’m Harlon’s wife now. We read from his religion book and he pronounced it so.”

Copper knew a stab of envy. She kissed Valor’s forehead, reminding herself that not so long ago this baby was all she wanted, all she needed to complete her life and ensure her happiness.

“You made good match,” Floating Flower said, still smiling. “Maybe you should make good match for you now.”

Copper knew what she was hinting at, but she shrugged aside the encouragement. She wouldn’t try to hold a man who wanted to be free because Copper knew firsthand the misery of imprisonment.

“It is hard to understand what moves through our lives and why. You were given to a great medicine man, but he didn’t do right by you. I was traded to Pierre and he saw in me a pack mule. I ask myself many times, ‘What wrong did I do for this? Why was this the road I was told to follow?’ ” She shrugged and put aside her sewing to flex her tired hands. “When Pierre make trouble for you, I don’t understand. Then you help me after he’s gone, and I wonder why it is you who is sent to show me a new pathway. You take in a white man and use your medicine on him to make him well. And he teaches you to smile again and to open your heart. Time clears the paths and we begin to see. We begin to understand what moves through our lives and why.”

Copper regarded the woman for a few moments. “You see more than most, Floating Flower.”

“Sometimes you have to step back to get a good look.” She met Copper’s gaze and understanding passed from one woman to the other. “You stand too close to something and it looks bigger and badder than it really is.”

“The whites have a saying, ‘You can’t see the forest for the trees.’ ”

Floating Flower smiled. “And the Gros Ventre say, ‘You shouldn’t look for yesterday in a sunrise.’ ”

Copper sighed. “I want Tucker to stay with me.”

“Then tell him.”

“No. If I tell him, he’ll stay with me just because I want it. I want him to stay because
he
wants it.”

“You split hairs.”

“It has to be his decision,” Copper whispered. “I don’t want him honor bound. I want him heart bound.”

The cabin had never looked so good to either of them. When it came into view, Tucker gave a hoot and Hauler brayed in response. After dropping off Copper and Valor at the cabin door, Tucker took the horses and dogs to the stables to feed and water them. Hauler butted him playfully and heehawed and kicked up his heels even when Ranger clacked his evil teeth at him.

“Hauler, you missed the adventure,” Tucker told the mule as he generously dumped feed into the trough.

The water buckets and trough were dry, so he led the animals to the stream for long, lusty drinks. The horses and mule sent sprays up that changed into miniature rainbows when the sunlight hit them. The dogs bounded back and forth through the stream, leaping and barking in wild abandon. It seemed that they all sensed spring in the air and a season of renewal. The dark, gray dangerous days of winter were behind them and sunshine and flowers lay ahead.

Or did they?

Tucker sat on the bank while the animals continued to enjoy the first, full sunny day of spring. Only dots of clouds hung high in the sky. Birds swooped, eagles soared, bugs crawled on tender shoots, and all through the mountain caves grizzly bears swept aside the cobwebs of hibernation.
Where did he fit into all of it? Tucker wondered. Did he have a place in these mountains? Had he earned his niche in this vast country?

He propped his elbows on his knees and watched the dogs chase each other through the stream while he chased his own hopes and dreams. The peace forged with the Gros Ventre had eased his guilt about bringing trouble to Copper. He had proven something to himself; that he could meet the challenges of this country and win. He had struggled with doubts before. It had been so long since he’d fought on his own without benefit of a company of men to back him up or even go before him. He wasn’t a loner, never had been, and that’s why he had found success in the military. But when his back had been against the wall he’d come through for himself and Copper. He was proud of himself and confident that he could hold his own against all comers. He’d fought wolves, grizzly bears, Indians, and even the lovestruck Micah McCall, and he’d come out the winner every time.

What he thought of himself, however, wasn’t the issue. What did Copper think? Was he the man she wanted beside her or did she still intend on taking him to the nearest outpost and leaving him there?

Ranger brought his head up and nickered at the same time Patrol and Sentry scampered from the stream, their ears pricked, their noses twitching. Visitors. Tucker grabbed the rifle and got to his feet. He motioned for the dogs to herd the horses and mule back to the cabin while he ran ahead.

He darted behind a thick oak when he saw the Indian silhouetted amid the shadows of the aspens. Sunlight speared the Indian’s face, revealing the stony visage of Feet Like Wind.

“Now what?” Tucker muttered, creeping forward. He doubted if he’d ever completely trust Feet Like Wind. What was he doing? He neither
moved forward nor backward. Astride a magnificent white and brown pinto, the brave wore no war paint, but seemed to be dressed in his best buckskins. Yellow and black beads decorated his shirt and ran in streams down the sides of his trousers. Black feathers were braided into his hair and four eagle feathers stuck up from the crown of his head. The horse stamped, but its rider didn’t move an eyelash.

Movement off to the side drew Tucker’s attention. Copper stepped outside. Weaponless, she held Valor to her breast, but had covered the nursing baby’s head with a small, light blanket for modesty’s sake. Feet Like Wind raised one hand in a silent greeting. Copper returned the gesture. Tucker straightened from his crouch and walked into the sunlight as the Indian urged his flashy pinto closer to the cabin. He reined the horse to a prancing stop. Tucker jogged to Copper’s side. Feet Like Wind’s black gaze touched on the rifle. His rifle was holstered, so Tucker rested his own against the outside of the cabin.

“Our peace has brought great good fortune to my people,” Feet Like Wind announced, his voice deep, his diction clipped. “The buffalo came to the river basin the next day. We had asked the spirits to send them, but none had come. Then we forged our peace and the good fortune you promised came to be.” He gave a quick nod. “So I bring something to show our thanks.” He lifted two wolfskins and two heavy blankets folded in front of him.

Copper nudged Tucker and he stepped forward to accept the gifts from Feet Like Wind. The blankets were of fine quality, Tucker noted. Hudson Bay striped ones. The wolfskins were tanned smooth, one brown and one silvery gray.

“You like coffee?” Copper asked, and Feet Like Wind’s dashing smile confirmed it. “Climb down
and sit. I have made coffee. You’ll have a cup with us.” She went into the cabin to fetch it.

Tucker sat on a tree stump and Feet Like Wind sat cross-legged opposite him. Neither attempted conversation, polite or otherwise. They eyed each other warily and mistrust hung heavy in the air. It was all Tucker could do not to cuss a blue streak and tell the Indian what hardships he’d like to rain on him. Copper had certainly suffered because of this one Indian, and Tucker didn’t think he’d ever forgive Feet Like Wind for being so insanely barbaric. Feet Like Wind seemed relieved when Copper returned without Valor and with three tin cups and the coffee pot. She served the guest first, then Tucker and herself. Feet Like Wind sniffed the brew and smiled.

“Better than whiskey,” she said, bobbing the cup. Feet Like Wind tasted the brew and smacked his lips. “Good and strong. Whites make it better than the French traders. Their coffee is like mud and too sweet.”

“I could spare some beans if you want them.”

Tucker glanced questioningly at Copper. How could she be so cordial to a man who had dragged her behind his horse through a stream and over snowy, rock-littered ground?

Feet Like Wind declined with a shake of his head. Eagle feathers stirred in his hair, lifted by a breeze.

“How many buffalo did you take?” Copper asked.

“Twenty-five. We could have felled more, but it’s all we needed. The winter ends and so ends the cold and the hunger. Game returns. We break camp tomorrow and go to our summering place on the shores of the great river called the Missouri.”

“Tucker says that now that the war is over between the white people, more of them will come here to make new homes,” Copper said.

This brought a frown to Feet Like Wind’s face. His black eyes found Tucker. “They will foul the land.”

Tucker shrugged. “They’ll come. I know they’ll come.”

“They will find another war to fight here. The People will battle them to keep them off our hunting grounds.” He made a sweeping gesture. “We have cut the land into portions and there is none left over for any white people. They have enough land already. I was told they have twice the land near the great waters.”

“The oceans,” Copper added for Tucker’s edification, then to Feet Like Wind she said, “I don’t think many will survive here.”

“He has,” Feet Like Wind said, jabbing the air to indicate Tucker.

Tucker smirked with pride and Copper gave him a special smile.

“He’s one in a hundred,” she said. “Maybe even one in a thousand.”

“And you gave him your medicine,” the Indian reminded her. “You won’t be giving your medicine to every white man.”

Copper nodded. “They’ll not last a winter.”

Feet Like Wind stared pointedly at Tucker. “You don’t like me.”

“That’s right,” Tucker agreed. “But I’m glad for the peace between us.”

“I don’t like you, but I’m glad for peace, and I honor your big medicine,” Feet Like Wind said.

“If you ever harm a hair on this woman’s head again I’ll pound you into dust with my big medicine.”

“Tucker, shhh!” Copper’s gaze flickered between Feet Like Wind and Tucker, and Tucker knew she was worried that he might damage the delicate peace.

Tucker shrugged off the warning. “Any man worth his salt wouldn’t be able to forget such a
wrong. If I hadn’t gotten there when I did, Feet Like Wind would have killed you.”

“But you did get there,” Copper said, trying to end the point.

Feet Like Wind’s mouth quirked with a suppressed grin. “You want to beat my woman? Will that not put us to rights?”

Cold anger thickened Tucker’s throat. “I don’t beat women or children. The only fights I fight are fair ones.”

Tension quivered in the air as the two men stared at each other.

“I’m glad you came to my home today,” Copper said when she could stand the silence no longer. “This is a good sign. I’m glad for the peace between us. We must all continue this peace.”

Feet Like Wind dropped his gaze from Tucker and stared into his coffee cup for a few seconds. When he lifted his gaze to Copper again, she saw that he’d fought his temper and won.

“You won’t move your lodge during the warm season?” he asked her.

“No. This is my home. I might go to the fort to trade if the hunting is good and I get many more skins than I need.”

Feet Like Wind drained the cup of coffee and set it before him.

“More?” Copper offered.

His eyes smiled, but he covered the cup with his big, bronze hand. “I refuse and it makes me stronger.” With a lithe movement he rose to his feet.

Tucker stood up from the stump and held out a hand to help Copper rise. He kept her hand in his. Feet Like Wind observed the intimacy between the two people and his eyes were sharp and wise. He turned abruptly and sprang onto his horse, then he raised a hand in farewell.

“I go.” He tipped back his head and shouted at the highest branches. “Hear this, mountains! Hear
this, rivers! Hear this, all creatures! Copper Headed Woman and Ghostwalker are friends of Feet Like Wind and of the Gros Ventre!” Then he reined around the proud pinto and moved away at a slow, sedate pace. Soon the branches and underbrush concealed him.

Tucker squeezed Copper’s hand. He sat on the stump again and picked up his coffee cup. When Copper started past him, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her down onto his lap.

“Never thought I’d see the day when that Indian would pay us a social call.”

“You convinced him that you are mightier than any weapon he has.”

“The firecrackers, you mean?”

She nodded, then laughed. “How did you think to do that?”

“I wish I could tell you that I had planned that grand rescue, but I hadn’t. Oh, I was going to get you away from the Gros Ventre if I could, but the firecrackers were an accident. I thought they were ammunition cartridges until I was right in the middle of the battle. I was wishing I could kick my butt black and blue for making such a stupid mistake, when it hit me that I might be able to scare them with the firecrackers. I only prayed they hadn’t seen them before and would be mystified.”

“They were scared out of their minds.” She stuck out her lower lip. “In fact, I think they are more frightened of Ghostwalker than they are of Copper Headed Woman now.”