Slocum and the Spirit Bear (9781101618790) (11 page)

Ed sighed and removed his hat so he could run his hand over the top of his head. “Why doesn't that surprise me?”

Slocum looked over Hevo's shoulder at the man who stood behind him. “Do you remember how it felt? What things looked like?”

“Light hurt my eyes,” Josiah said. “I fell over a few times. Didn't see no spirit animals, though.”

Hevo chuckled. “Then perhaps you didn't have enough.”

“My point is that those men who came up from the ground didn't attack us right away,” Slocum said in a rushed tone. “At least, not to hurt us. They rubbed something on our faces. Probably trying to get it into our nose or mouth or eyes. After that, I was light-headed. Everything seemed hazy or bright or . . . just wrong. Things sounded strange. Don't you recall that, Ed?”

“I suppose I do,” he said. “It was like a bad dream. Everything I saw was peculiar. Like there was always a light shining behind it. I even swore I saw some of them Dirt Swimmers coming apart at the seams.”

“Whatever that slop was that they got on us,” Slocum continued, “I think you got more of it in your eyes than I did. You were always rubbing at them and it looked like they were watering. After a while, I must have rubbed some into my eyes as well because I felt that same thing.” Turning around, Slocum called out to Theresa. She came over wearing a nervous smile.

“Do you recall when I came back to the wagons after Ed and I were attacked?” Slocum asked.

Theresa crossed her arms and scowled at Hevo. “Is he one of the ones that attacked you?”

“No.”

“Then what's he doing here?”

“It's all right. He's—”

“And why isn't he tied up?” she snapped.

“He's not going anywhere,” Slocum assured her. “I just wanted to ask you a question.”

“We've got plenty of questions. Like why we're taking prisoners and what we're going to do with him and what might happen if some others like him come around looking to cut him loose?”

“You and the cook come up with all that?” Josiah scoffed.

“No,” she said sternly. “Franco barely pokes his nose out of his wagon unless it's to do his job. If you would have cared to take a moment to try and talk to him, you would have seen he's terrified.”

“Terrified of what?”

“Stuffing everything you own into a wagon and dragging it through hostile and dangerous territory is bad enough. His wife was killed when those robbers attacked us, and when those same robbers set a torch to our wagons, most of the goods we lost belonged to him. All he's got left is his pots and pans. He can barely sleep.”

Josiah impatiently waved his hand as if he were shooing away a fly. “Fine, fine. We all have our hardships. If he's so concerned about what we're doing, he can come over here and say it to our faces.”

“It's me and Vera that have the concerns,” Theresa said. “And we'd like to know what it is you all are talking about. Our lives are at stake, too, you know. Ours,” she added in a harsh whisper, “and the lives of those precious young ones over there.”

“She is a smart woman,” Hevo said.

Slocum nodded and stepped up close enough to her so that he was the only thing she could see. “Yes, and she makes some good points. Maybe this moment isn't exactly the best one to keep making them.”

“What did you want to ask me?”

“I wanted to know about the stuff that was on my face when Ed and I came back from being attacked.”

Perplexed by the question, she told him, “I thought it was just blood and dirt. Smelled funny, though.”

“After you cleaned it off of me, did you feel strange?”

At first, she looked ready to dismiss the question entirely. Then, she stopped and rubbed her fingers together as if the strange-smelling substance were still smeared on her hand. “Come to think of it, I did. I was light-headed for a while and my head hurt.”

“Did you see any strange things?” Ed asked. “Did light hurt your eyes?”

“Not as such, but I remember thinking something was wrong with my ears. At the time, I just thought I was tired and rattled after all that commotion.”

“She only got a little bit of it on her hands when she cleaned me up,” Slocum said to the others gathered around him. “But even then, she felt some of the effects. There's your demon. It's like I was saying before, whoever attacked us was just a man leading a bunch of other men.” Motioning toward Hevo, he added, “Surely he's known of hunters who could crawl on the ground and cover themselves with leaves and dirt so they blend in. Combine a few tricks like that with this stuff that made us see and hear things and you've got something that looks like a spirit.”

“That . . . stuff . . .” Hevo explained, “is called Dreaming Dust. Spirit Bear is a powerful medicine man.”

Looking at Hevo with renewed interest, Tom said, “You mentioned before that he was hunting you, too.”

“I did,” Hevo replied with a nod.

“Is that why you came back here? Because you think we'll help you track this medicine man down before he gets to you?”

Hevo slowly looked around at the people huddled in the shadows with him. “I came back because Spirit Bear needs to be tracked down . . . before he gets
all
of us.”

11

There was more that needed to be said, but that night quickly proved to be the wrong time to say it. The children got restless after wolfing down their meals, and it became next to impossible to contain them. But the young ones weren't Slocum's only concern. The more that was said about Spirit Bear, the twitchier Josiah, Tom, and Ed became. Since all three of them were armed and looking for something to shoot, Slocum felt it best to disperse for the night, have something to eat, and get some rest. There was always plenty of time for worrying later.

When Hevo attempted to loosen the reins that had been put on the horse so it could be tied to a wagon, Josiah thumbed back both hammers of his shotgun. “Just what the hell do you think you're doin'?” he growled.

Without paying attention to the shotgun, Hevo replied, “This horse goes with me.”

“Not no more it don't.”

“If you are horse thieves, perhaps I was mistaken in thinking you deserved to be saved.”

“From where I stand, you're the one that looks like he needs savin'. Leave that horse be or I'll burn you down.”

“There a problem here?”

Josiah turned, visibly shocked that Ed was the one questioning him at the moment. “Yeah, there's a problem. This Injun is taking that horse.”

“It's his horse. Let him have it.”

“And if he don't come back?”

“I would think you'd prefer it that way.”

“All right then,” Josiah said. “What if he does come back? Are we taking this redskin all the way to the Rockies?”

“Just let him take his horse. It's late and I'm too tired to argue about it.” With that, Ed passed between the two men, shoving aside Josiah's shotgun as he went.

Josiah made it clear he was watching Hevo closely and continued to do so even after the Indian had climbed onto his horse's back and ridden away.

Slocum watched him leave. He leaned against Theresa's wagon as Ed walked by. “You think there's gonna be a problem there?” he asked.

Without breaking his stride, Ed told him, “We got plenty of problems, John. You don't like it? You can ride away, too.” He took another half-dozen steps before stopping and turning back around.

“I know,” Slocum said before the other man could say another word. “It's late. We're all tired. I didn't take offense.”

“Thank you, John. It's been a long day.”

“Yeah. It has. And some of us still have guard duty.”

Ed paused. “I could—”

“No,” Slocum cut in. “You won't be any good to anyone until you get some sleep. I don't mind taking first watch.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“You're a good man, John. We all owe you a lot.”

“Keep that in mind when it comes time to divvy up those mining shares,” Slocum said.

“I'll do that, friend.”

Plenty of men called others their friend. Sometimes it was a way to get on someone's good side. Other times it was because he'd just forgotten that man's name. When Ed spoke that word, Slocum knew he meant it. That went a hell of a lot longer toward making him feel he was doing the right thing by putting his neck on the line for these folks and seeing them through this strange slice of hell they'd found out in the middle of the prairie.

Slocum took his bedroll for warmth, a cup of lukewarm coffee to keep his eyes open, and a rifle to fire at anything or anyone trying to get too close to the wagons. He picked a spot with something solid to his back, stretched his legs out, and pulled a cheap cigar from his breast pocket. The cigar remained unlit for several hours until he finally rewarded himself by striking a match and touching it to the tip of the cigar.

Nothing moved out there for several hours. When he did catch some motion from the corner of his eye, it was only Tom McCauley coming to spell him. The big man had hiked his suspenders over his shoulders and hadn't bothered tucking his shirt into his pants. “Go on,” he said. “I'm sure Theresa will be waiting for you.”

“You think so?”

“Come on, John. It ain't like you two were foolin' anyone. Do you think it was just dumb luck that nobody came to disturb you two when you were . . . alone? Especially with all the curious little ones we got in this caravan.”

“Actually,” Slocum replied, “I thought it was
extraordinary
luck.” He stood up and tipped his hat. “Much obliged.”

Tom nodded and settled with a labored wheeze into the spot where Slocum had been sitting. “About what I said before . . . in regards to what you and that Indian had to say . . . sorry if I spoke harshly.”

“I don't recall you being harsh, Tom.” The truth of the matter was that Slocum hardly thought Tom McCauley was capable of being harsh at all.

“Mostly, I wanted you to know that I'm behind Ed and I'm behind you. Josiah is, too. He may say otherwise, but his heart's in the right place.”

“Did you know him since before these wagons set out?”

“We were partners for six years at a little shipping company in Virginia,” Tom said. “Tact never was his strong suit, but he's a good man to have at your side when things get rough. When them robbers set the wagons ablaze before you signed on, Josiah pulled my little Elsie out of the wagon we eventually lost.”

“I'll keep that in mind, Tom. You gonna be all right out here?”

“Always am.”

Slocum left Tom behind and didn't have to ponder his words about Josiah for very long. Despite the older man's unvarnished exterior, his intentions had never been in question. Slocum wasn't exactly the sort to give every man the benefit of the doubt or assume a fellow had a heart of gold. He wouldn't have even taken that point of view strictly because someone like Tom had vouched for him. Instead, he judged a man based on what he saw and what he heard. So far, Josiah had been a cautious fellow wrapped up in a lot of mean talk. If he ever became worse than that, Slocum knew he could put him down without much trouble. He shook his head wearily as he approached the back of Theresa's wagon.

She pulled aside the tarp and looked outside just as he was about to climb inside. “What's on your mind?” she asked.

“I feel like a tired old man with a heart of stone.”

She climbed the rest of the way down, smiling warmly at him. “You don't seem like an old man to me,” she whispered. When she leaned forward to get even closer to him, it was as if the gentle winds blowing across the plains had bent her body like a reed. Soft hair drifted against Slocum's face and warm breath touched his ear as a gentle hand reached between his legs. “And I don't think it's your heart that's made of stone.”

“I'd say stone is a bit of a stretch there,” he told her.

Taking Slocum by the hand, she led him toward a shadowy patch of tall grass about thirty yards away from the wagons. It wasn't until she was pulling him down with her to the ground that he spotted the little lean-to that had been set up in the small clearing. It was just a folded bed sheet supported by two stakes to form an angled canopy that nearly came up to Slocum's knees.

It was cold out there, but he felt plenty warm once he was lying in the grass beneath that crude shelter with Theresa wrapped around him. “Looks like you were busy while I was on first watch,” he said.

“And shame on you for not seeing me when I snuck out here to set this up.”

He started to respond to that, but was silenced by a fingertip placed squarely upon his lips. After that, there was no need for words. He wrapped his arms around her and she draped a leg over him. They lay side by side, kissing each other deeply and savoring a stretch of time where there was nothing else in the world to worry about.

The only howl he heard was that of the ever-present wind. Slocum had grown so accustomed to hearing it after spending so much time in the flat lands of Nebraska that he almost didn't hear it anymore. Beneath the rustle of cold, dry grass brushing against itself was the sound of Theresa pulling open Slocum's belt. Before long, he felt her hand slip into his jeans so she could stroke his penis as it became erect. It didn't take long before he was hard and ready for her.

She was ready for him as well. Not only was she missing any undergarments beneath her skirt, but her pussy was slick with moisture. Slocum rubbed the wet lips between her legs until she pressed herself against him so he could feel every one of the shudders that passed through her body. Before she climaxed, Theresa tugged Slocum's jeans down and rolled him onto his back. She then crawled on top of him, straddling his hips and keeping her face within an inch of his so as not to knock over the lean-to.

They still didn't say a word to each other. Theresa merely looked down into his eyes while reaching down for his cock and guiding it to where it so desperately needed to be. Her eyes closed and a contented sigh escaped her lips as he entered her. Slocum ran his hands along her sides, feeling the slope of her breasts through the material of her blouse while pumping up into her. They swayed freely with the steady motion of his thrusts, and when he let up for a moment, she rocked back and forth to keep the momentum going.

His hands settled upon the generous contour of her backside. Giving in to his instinct and desires, he grabbed her tight to thrust vigorously into her once again. Her eyes snapped open and an excited breath caught in her throat. She dug her fingers into the ground and pressed her lips against his to keep from accidentally crying out.

After she'd caught her breath, Theresa propped herself up a bit so she could stare down into Slocum's eyes. She gripped him tight between her legs and moved her entire body in a slow, urgent rhythm. He could feel her hard nipples through the material of her blouse as her breasts brushed against his chest. Keeping his hands on her hips, he could feel every motion of her body as she rode him. The sound of her barely contained breaths mixed with the hushed nighttime noises all around.

Slocum closed his eyes and savored the way she felt. Her slick pussy lips eased up and down along the length of his shaft, making him harder. When his pole became more rigid inside her, she rode him even harder. He eased his hands up along her body until they were touching her breasts. As he massaged them, Theresa propped herself up a little more.

He opened his eyes to get a look at her. She still had hers closed with an expression of pure concentration. She reacted to every sensation he gave to her. And when he pulled open her blouse to fondle her bare breasts, she smiled and craned her head back until it touched the interior of the lean-to. Slocum thought about rolling Theresa over so he could climb on top of her, but she wasn't about to relinquish control. In fact, she placed her hands flat upon his chest and sat upright so she could pin him to the ground while grinding on top of him.

From this angle, Slocum was given a real good look at her swaying breasts. Her small nipples were fully erect and she sucked in a quick, excited breath when he teased them between his fingers. She settled down to take every inch of him inside. Slocum began pumping his hips to push even deeper, which caused her eyes to flutter open as if she'd been caught by surprise. Her breaths came in short bursts and she placed one hand on his stomach as if to steady herself. With her other hand, she held on to Slocum's arm in a grip that was strong enough to leave a bruise.

As Theresa shifted her hips to move his cock within her, Slocum moved his hips as well. The climax that swept through her sent a shudder beneath Theresa's skin that he could feel when he reached up to pull her down close. One hand was on the back of her head so her face was tight against his neck, and the other hand reached down to caress the smooth curve of her backside.

Theresa could barely move and she wasn't about to try. Her orgasm was just fading as Slocum exploded inside her. He pumped up into her again and again as his pleasure rolled through him in waves. When it subsided, all he could do was release his grip on her and allow his arms to fall to his sides.

She lay on top of him for a short while, occasionally shifting her weight to savor the feel of him still inside her. Eventually, she eased onto her side and lay beside him. Slocum thought he could fall asleep in that spot, but knew that wouldn't be easy to explain to any curious little faces that might find them. Just when he'd thought Theresa may have drifted into an exhausted slumber, he felt her hand slip between his legs.

“Might want to give me a minute or two,” he whispered.

“I just like to touch you.”

Her hand lingered where it was for a short while and then she helped him ease back into his jeans. It didn't take much for her to button her blouse and pull her skirt back in place. After that, they stayed under the lean-to and watched the sky.

They would have to get back to the wagons soon, for the sake of appearances as well as being safe from animals or whatever other dangers might prowl the prairie at night. For now, however, Slocum and Theresa enjoyed the quiet, cool darkness.