The Endless Sky (Cheyenne Series) (55 page)

      
“The White Eye soldier will kill her if we do not save her,” Plenty Horses stated flatly and Blue Eagle chorused his agreement.

      
“Perhaps.” Chase sighed. “But I can't ask you to risk your lives for one woman when the rest of our band will need you. You must go search out Stands Tall on the reservation at Fort Fetterman. If our people have not already been sent there, they soon will be. The soldiers at the fort will see only two more starving Indians gone tame in return for rations. You two and my uncle can help what is left of our people slip away and join Little Wolf in the Tongue River basin. He has promised me he would help us.”

      
“What will you do?” Plenty Horses asked shrewdly. “Once you asked me to safeguard your wife if you were dead. What if the Blue Coats kill you?”

      
“I will do what must be done for my wife. Your first duty is to the People. Go with my blessings, my brothers. Perhaps one day we will meet again.”

      
“If not here, then on the Hanging Road to the Sky,” Blue Eagle replied gravely.

      
Chase watched his friends ride away, then turned his attention back to the cluster of buildings situated on the bend of the river. Stephanie waited down there—in fear of her life? Or in hopes of seeing him ride into Hugh Phillips's death trap?

Chapter Twenty-Five

      
After nearly two nerve-wracking weeks of being isolated and guarded as if she were a dangerous convict or a lunatic, Stephanie was happy to smell fresh air and feel the sun on her face once more. She breathed deeply, grateful the nausea that had been plaguing her upon arising for over a month had at last abated. She had no idea why Hugh had invited her to ride with him today, but suspected that he and Burke were plotting something together. She was amazed he had not killed her yet.

      
Stephanie had made several abortive attempts to escape, but the more she tried to slip past her guards, the more certain everyone on the post became that she was deranged and intended to harm herself. Visitors and guards alike looked on her with pitying eyes. She knew they whispered about her and “poor Major Phillips” when they left the commandant's quarters. However did the loyal husband endure the tragedy of his wife being dishonored by savages?

      
How neatly her death would solve Hugh's problem and complete his revenge. Chase had been lynched in Rawlins and his warriors executed by a firing squad on the parade grounds. As the shots rang out that awful morning, she had squeezed her hands over her ears. At dinner the same evening, Hugh and Burke had eaten with relish as they discussed the executions, forcing her to sit at the table with them and endure the verbal torture. She could not swallow a bite as she thought of her friend Kit Fox, now widowed. If Blue Eagle and Plenty Horses had survived the battle at the stronghold, then both had surely died before that firing squad.

      
Stephanie longed to talk with someone who understood how she felt and accepted her in spite of the heinous sin of loving a half-breed renegade. The only one who would understand was Hannah, but Hugh had forbidden the Quaker to visit his wife. As the lieutenant escorted her to the main corral, her eyes swept furtively across the parade grounds searching for her friend's thin, gray-clad figure outside the infirmary. She knew Hannah would have tried to help the remaining people from Chase's band while they were held at the fort, but the survivors had now been sent to the military reservation at Fort Fetterman.

      
Stephanie prayed her family and friends among the Cheyenne had been spared. Would she ever learn their fate? She reached up and felt the small beaded pouch between her breasts, her keepsake from Chase, a legacy for the grandchild of Freedom Woman and Vanishing Grass.

      
Then she saw Hannah across the parade grounds, a tiny figure carrying a bundle of bed linens that seemed almost as big as she. The wind would carry away her words if she dared to call out a greeting—or an entreaty for help. Even if Hannah heard her plea, disobeying Hugh's orders would only result in her being evicted from the post. Hannah did too much good here for Stephanie to jeopardize the Quaker's work for her own selfish needs.

      
“Come on, Mrs. Phillips. You don't want to keep your husband waiting,” the cherub-faced young officer said with false heartiness. The lieutenant obviously found escorting the major's tarnished wife a trying duty.

      
He's afraid I'm going to run screaming across the parade ground, rip off my clothes and climb the flag pole
, she thought dismally, but said nothing.

      
Hugh waited at the corral with their horses. He smiled cordially. “Good morning, dear wife. I trust you're looking forward to our little outing?”

      
She was sick of oily civility. “Why do you want me to ride with you?” she asked flatly.

      
“I thought the fresh air and exercise would uplift your spirits. I've been most concerned about your despondency, Stephanie,” he replied.

      
“I know how concerned you are. Shall we ride?” The lieutenant saluted Hugh after assisting her to mount the cumbersome sidesaddle. Sergeant Bedekker was to accompany them at a discreet distance. As they trotted across the compound and left the fort, she gauged her horse's mettle. Did she stand a chance of outrunning them?

      
As if reading her mind, Hugh said, “I chose the mare because she's gentle, but I'm afraid she isn't very swift.” His smile would have frozen whiskey.

      
She eyed him warily. “Do you plan to have Bedekker kill me?” she asked at length. “Or are you reserving that pleasure for yourself?”

      
He laughed mirthlessly. ‘‘Careful, my dear. If the good sergeant were to hear you, he would attest that you've indeed lost your mind.”

      
“I doubt at this point you require the sergeant's testimony.” She looked ahead toward the North Platte, a bright serpentine ribbon undulating beneath the brilliant azure sky. Cottonwoods and willows lined the banks in dense stands, many with low-hanging branches. She'd ridden here often when Hugh was first stationed at the post. Perhaps she could arrange a little accident for him. He rode close to her side and she observed the stock of his Springfield sticking out of the scabbard on his saddle. She would need to seize it when he went down if she was going to have some defense against Bedekker when he came to his superior's rescue. To save her baby she'd kill both men in a heartbeat.

      
As she and Phillips approached the cover of the trees, Stephanie was not the only person sizing up the possibility of disposing of the cavalrymen. From his hidden position on the escarpment to the west, Chase observed the three riders through a pair of field glasses. For over a week he had been watching the route of the patrols and sentries, studying every detail inside the compound. Locating the commandant's quarters and offices had been simple. He figured Stephanie was inside the two-story frame house on the west side of the parade grounds, but she never ventured outdoors.

      
Chase had enlisted de Boef to ride to the fort with a load of pelts to sell at the trading post. The Frenchman had listened to the gossip about the major's lady, who was confined to her house after a ghastly ordeal at the hands of savages. Everyone tsked sadly about her captivity but secretly relished what they imagined to be the gruesome details.

      
Armed with the information from de Boef, Chase watched for his chance. He suspected the story of Stephanie's pregnancy had been deliberately spread among his people, and his friends' escape from the stockade had been no accident. Was the pregnancy real or only a ploy to lure him into their trap? Whatever the cost, he had to know.

      
Chase studied the striking looking couple as they approached the cover of the trees. First he would have to dispose of the sergeant. Remembering his zest for plying the whip, Chase's lips thinned in a ruthless smile. He slid back from the edge of the escarpment and walked over to where he'd hidden his mount.

      
Leaping onto the horse, he worked his way down the steep slope. Phillips and the sergeant were alone, of that he was certain. He'd been watching the fort from the ridge since moonrise last night. ‘‘Keep on going just the way you are, you damned butcher, and we'll see who traps who,” he murmured as Hugh and Stephanie skirted the trees at the riverbank.

      
Soon they passed into the cover of the trees where the sergeant would be obscured from the vision of the officer and his lady—if they chanced to look back. Slipping off his horse, Chase used the cover of the trees to race ahead of the sergeant. The soldier would have to die quickly and quietly. Knocking an arrow in the bow he carried, he aimed and let fly the deadly missile. A slight whirring noise was all Bedekker heard before he fell from the saddle with the arrow embedded in his throat.
So much for covering your back, Phillips
, Chase thought grimly as he slung the bow across his shoulder and began to stalk in earnest.

      
As soon as Stephanie saw the big willows she began to implement her plan. As far as she knew Hugh had never ridden beneath them so he wouldn't expect the low-hanging limb from one tree which was hidden by the densely leafed canopy of the tree in front of it. She would have to time this just right. It would be her last chance.

      
When they drew within a dozen yards of the willows, Stephanie leaned forward and kicked her mare into a gallop toward the curtain of leaves. When she reached the trees, she flattened herself against the mare's neck and wheeled her around after passing beneath a horizontal limb that was easily a foot in diameter. Hugh was right behind her, cursing as he yelled, ‘‘Don't be a fool, Stephanie. There's nowhere to run!”

      
He'd no more than uttered the words when his head slammed into the limb, knocking him from the saddle, unconscious. Stephanie lunged for the frightened horse's bridle as it shied. She screamed as a steely arm coiled suddenly around her from behind. Desperately she kicked and flailed until a familiar voice murmured in her ear, “Stop struggling, Stevie.”

      
Stephanie froze. “Oh my God! They told me you were dead,” she whispered, feeling him warm and solid against her. When he turned her to face him, for the first time in her life Stephanie almost fainted. Everything went black for an instant. She ached to hold him, to touch his beard-stubbled jaw. Tears swam in her eyes, blurring his face, but she could tell he was studying her, an intent and cold perusal. “What...how did you—”

      
“I escaped from the Rawlins jail after your major had his fun.”

      
Your major
. The words stung. “Chase, he forced me to watch them whip you. You can't think—can't believe…” With dawning horror she blinked back her tears and looked into his eyes.

      
He felt her shudder in revulsion, then go very still. “I don't know what to think, Stevie. We didn't exactly part on the best of terms. I no more than returned to the stronghold when Phillips and his butchers swept down on us, Custer style. No one's ever found that place. You were in town when they brought me in. I saw you and Phillips walk off arm in arm...then that night at the jail...what could I think?”

      
“You could have believed in me,” she replied intensely as a bit of the old spirit reanimated her. “I don't know how Hugh found you but I do know how he forced me to endure that night in the jail.”

      
“By threatening to kill you?”

      
Her eyes blazed like the sun now. “He planned to kill me no matter what I agreed to. I'm certain that's why he brought me out here today.”

      
He searched her face...and believed her. “I may be a fool...but I couldn't leave you without being certain you were safe.”

      
Stephanie could see the truth shining in his eyes and her heart surged with happiness. There was so much she longed to tell him and to ask him. “I love you more than life itself. Hugh threatened to kill our baby that night if I didn't do exactly what he said at the jail.”

      
“Then it's true,” he replied, cradling her in his arms. “Blue Eagle and Plenty Horses heard the soldiers—”

      
“They're alive, too?” she asked, incredulous with joy. “Hugh told me he'd executed all your warriors. And the children, Kit Fox, Red Bead and Stands Tall?”

      
His expression hardened thinking of the decimation of his band. “Red Bead is dead, killed by a Blue Coat. So is Elk Bull and the rest of my warriors. Stands Tall and Kit Fox got Smooth Stone, Tiny Dancer and most of the children to safety during the fighting, but Phillips rounded them all up afterward. They've been sent to the reservation at Fetterman. Blue Eagle and Plenty Horses went after them. With luck they may be able to slip away and reach Little Wolf's band. After that…”

      
“Oh, Chase, what can we do?” Her voice choked with tears. So many of her friends, her family, dead or living under terrible conditions that would break their spirit.

      
Chase raised his hand to wipe away her tears. “I don't know,” he replied disconsolately. She reached up and embraced him but he flinched when her fingers dug into his shoulders. At once she realized what she had done. “Your back—it must still be terribly painful. I'm sorry. Oh, Chase, how did you endure such—”

      
“He always was difficult to kill.” Burke Remington stepped from behind the trunk of a huge willow that had concealed him. “Throw your knife and pistol on the ground or I'll kill Mrs. Phillips,” he said as Chase attempted to shove Stephanie behind him, cursing his stupidity. He was certain Phillips and Burke had laid a trap but how had his uncle gotten here without his seeing him?