Through the Fire (The Native American Warrior Series) (17 page)

He held out a piece of venison to her on the tip of his knife. “Thank you.” Taking the warm smoky meat, she bit into it hungrily.

She looked around the camp for Shoka
—nowhere in sight. Lieutenant McClure lay sprawled a short distance away from them in a grassy crevice between the stones. Poor man. “How did you fare on the trail yesterday, Lieutenant?”

He nodded his darkly bruised face at Meshewa.
“Tolerably, with that one’s help.”

She squeezed her young friend
’s arm beneath his blue sleeve. “You are kind to aid him. Again, thank you.”

“
Megwich
, Becca. Speak this in Shawnee.”

“
Megwich
. Where is Shoka?”

He pointed ahead through the trees and down the sloping trail. Thick branches obscured most of the small group of warriors gathered around someone. She could just make out Shoka
’s tall figure. “What’s happening?”

“
Wabete and Shoka took a youth captive.”

“
When?”

Meshewa looked at her as though she had missed the obvious.
“While they hunt. Before the sun,” he added. “You sleep hard, Becca.”

She nodded with an irrepressible small smile and tried unsuccessfully to get a better look at the captive. At least they didn
’t seem to be doling out any punishment to him. “What do you know of the youth?”

“
Shoka says he strayed from the fort, hunting.”

Her heart quickened.
“Fort Warden?”

“
Yes.” Meshewa spoke guardedly.

Hope swelled in her.
“He may know of my uncle. Even have word of Kate,” she said, and leapt up.

Meshewa pulled her back down.
“Black Knife speaks with him now.”

A shadow engulfed her at the name.
“Black Knife? God help him.”

“
He does not harm all captives.”

“
If he questions this youth as he did Lieutenant McClure, there will be little left. Where is
Capitaine
Renault? He wouldn’t be so heavy-handed.”

“
The
capitaine
and his party are gone on. We will meet them later. Wait here.” Meshewa was firm.

She sat with the patience of one perched on an anthill, straining for sight of the unfortunate captive. Meshewa pointed to the remains of her breakfast fallen onto one of the stones ringing the fire. She forced down several bites, stopping at the sharp cry from below.

“Black Knife will kill him!”

“
Is only one cry, Becca. The boy has much fear.”

“
With good reason. I must speak with him while he’s able to answer.”

“
This is not for you to do.”

Lieutenant McClure coughed and cleared the rattle from his throat.
“Do not invite the chief’s wrath, Mrs. Elliot.”

“
Shoka may be able to persuade him to let me speak.”

Meshewa
’s stern eyes twinned Shoka’s at his most severe. “You show no respect. Wait for Shoka.”

“
It may be too late by then.”

She scrambled to her feet. Meshewa jumped up after her and seized her arms.
“I cannot let you go.”

Not willing to await his permission, she thrust an elbow up under his jaw, stamped on his foot, and spiraled away.

He sprang at her with the agility of a bobcat and caught her from behind. She thrashed in his hold. “Turn me loose!”

“
Mrs. Elliot, for Christ’s sake. Settle down,” Lieutenant McClure admonished, his voice weak.

She ignored him and fought again to wrench herself from Meshewa, screeching as her blanket came away in his hands. Torn between trying to snatch it back and covering herself, she chose the latter, crossing both arms over her breasts.
“Give it to me.”

His astonished eyes mirrored the amazement in Lieutenant McClure
’s gape. Then Meshewa grinned. “I think you will stay if I keep your cover.”

She couldn
’t even make a grab for it. “Please.”

“
Promise to wait for Shoka.”

As much as she wanted her blanket it rankled her to strike this bargain. She whirled away, conscious of the delighted warriors on every side.

“Becca! Your back.”

“
Damn.” Her wind-tossed hair had betrayed her secret.

“
Who did this to you?”

Shame and impotent fury coursed through her.
“My father. Now the whole bloody camp knows.”

Meshewa lightly touched her shoulder.
“All see he treated you very bad. Also see your beauty.”

Her voice quavered.
“Wretched man. I hate him.”

“
Hate is like poison. It will harm also you.”

“
I don’t care. I’d shoot him if I could. No. That’s too easy. Black Knife should get hold of him.”

“
Shhhh…” Meshewa wrapped the blanket back around her.

“
I can’t help it. You would want him dead too.”

“
I do. But wishing this does little good.”

“
It’s the closest I’ll ever get.” She stumbled down the path a short distance away from the others and sought refuge behind the boughs of a hemlock. Only then did she allow the last of her composure to crumble and the tears flow.

Meshewa came up on cat
’s feet behind her. “I wanted only to keep you from Black Knife’s anger, not cause you pain.”

She fought to speak past the strangling sobs in her throat.
“Papa bound my wrists then he got the strap. I couldn’t escape. Do you know what it’s like to be caught and there’s nothing you can do?”

Meshewa closed sympathetic arms around her. She didn
’t stop to consider whether or not he should be holding her and nestled into the hollow of his shoulder.

“
Not as you, yet I know,” he said. “My heart is full for you, and you belong to Shoka. I can do nothing.”

“
Do you care for me as much as this?” she choked out.

“
Do you not see? I prefer to fight with you than love another.”

Remorse stung her.
“I only fought you because I badly want to see the boy. I’m sorry.”

“
Meshewa!
Wa peh chali mi’tamsah
?”

Rebecca froze at the anger in Shoka
’s rebuke.

Meshewa dropped his arms from her and backed away.

She turned and met Shoka’s slitted eyes. “Meshewa was only giving me comfort.”

“
Why do you need such
comfort
?”

She glanced at Meshewa. He still said nothing.
“I wanted to come question your captive. Meshewa refused.”

“
You weep for this?”

“
There is more,” Meshewa confessed. “I saw her back. She remembers her father’s punishment.”

Shoka
’s hardened face bore an unsettling resemblance to his brother’s. “How did you see her back?”

“
Her blanket came away in my hands.”

“
You saw more than her back.”

“
Don’t blame him. It was my fault,” Rebecca insisted.

“
Melona wa callaweelo
, Meshewa,” Shoka said coldly.

She looked at him in confusion.
“What did you say?”

“
I told him we will speak.”

“
Only speak,” she entreated.

Shoka waved aside her objection and took her arm. She cast a backwards glance over her shoulder as he hauled her away and glimpsed a frightened face framed by long brown hair.

“Wait—I must speak with the boy.”

“
I questioned him. Kate is not at the fort.”

Disappointment cut through Rebecca.
“Then where is she?”

“
I do not know. It is best she’s not there,” Shoka said flatly. “Come with me now. I will tell you what I learned.”

Rebecca hurried beside his long strides without further protest, but their passage through camp did not go unobserved.

“
Paca tamsah
!” one man called.

She recognized the Shawnee for
“beautiful woman.”

Many of the men nodded.
“
Paca wiyo’tawai! Paca ullene!
” the speaker added while a few of his companions tittered.

She didn
’t need to understand their comments. Enough was clear in their banter to know it concerned her. “You’d think they’d never seen a white woman before.”

Shoka tensed.
“Few warriors see this much of a white woman unless they take her to wife.”

“
What did he say?”

“
Beautiful body, beautiful breasts. Did all look on you?”

She shrank at the thought.
“More than I realized.”

He whisked her down around the bend in the trail and back to their separate little camp. Her gown and shift still flapped in the tree.
“Why do you not wear your clothes?”

She walked to the blackened remains of their fire and huddled on the flat stone.
“They were wet.”

He followed and stopped in front of her.
“You are in the frontier now. You cannot always expect to wear dry cloth.”

She looked morosely at his moccasins.
“I fear I’m not well suited to the frontier.”

“
To what are you suited? A fine home with servants and an English lord who beats you?”

Sniffing, she shook her head.

“A homestead with a settler who treats you more gently?”

Gravity had displaced his reproach. She looked up at him in bewilderment.
“Why ask this? You know I love you.”

His eyes were black pools.
“A woman may love, yet choose another.”

She stood and reached her arms around his neck, pressing her cheek to his chest.
“Is this because of Meshewa?”

He held her to him.
“No.”

“
Who, then? Who do you fear I will choose over you?
”

“
Your people.”

She raised her eyes to his troubled gaze.
“When? How?”

“
This youth Wabete and I captured is your blood. Logan McCutcheon, son of Henry McCutcheon.”

“
Logan.” The name echoed forth from the past. She dimly recalled letters telling of his birth and childhood. “There is a younger sister as well.”

“
Henry McCutcheon shelters at Fort Warden. His wife died of sickness. One daughter, Tessa, remains.”

“
Yes, Tessa.” Shoka’s words sank in, weighting her with horrific thoughts of the impending assault. “I still have family. Have I learned of their existence only to lose them?”

“
Black Knife agreed to spare Henry McCutcheon and the sister Logan spoke of, if your uncle will surrender.”

“
You mean become captives, he and Tessa?”

“
We will treat your kin well.”

“
But I heard Logan cry out. Someone struck him.”

“
Black Knife only frightened him. Wabete wishes to adopt this boy in place of the son he lost.”

Oddly, Rebecca found she was beginning to trust Shoka
’s scarred brother. “What of Tessa and Uncle Henry? Do you think my uncle will agree to Black Knife’s terms?”

The set of Shoka
’s mouth was forbidding. “Perhaps. If you appeal to him.”

“
Me? How?”

“
Black Knife wishes you to approach the fort while we wait in the trees.”

“
Alone?”

“
To call out to your uncle and Captain Bancroft. Persuade them many lives will be spared if they surrender.”

“
Is this the truth?”

“
More will live than if the captain refuses.”

She weighed the reluctance in Shoka
’s eyes. “Be honest with me. Have you forgotten I can read faces, too?”

“
I did speak the truth. If Captain Bancroft surrenders, many young men and women will be taken captive, the children also, their lives spared.”

“
What about the rest of them?”

“
Older people refuse to learn our ways. They think only to escape. Nor can we take all the young, if there are many.”