Westward Moon
Authors: Linda Bridey
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L
INDA
B
RIDEY
Mail Order Bride: Westward Moon
Montana Mail Order Brides: Book 10
Dedication
To YOU, The reader.
Thank you for your support.
Thank you for your emails.
Thank you for your reviews.
Thank you for reading and joining me on this road.
Contents
The late November wind whipped through the camp bringing a hint of snow with it. The tipi shook a little as the strong gusts pushed against it as though trying to knock it over. The two occupants inside it knew that the tipi was secure and didn’t worry about the wind much. A fire burned in the small fire pit, spreading warmth within the tipi.
Panther watched as his wife prepared their supper. Her delicate features were calm. She was a beautiful woman. Her high cheekbones and full mouth were extremely pleasing to the eye. As he looked on her, Panther knew how entrancing her big, dark eyes were. It was one of the things that had attracted him to her the most.
She stood around five feet, seven inches tall, he judged. Her figure was slender but deceptive because she was very strong. After tucking some hair that was in her way behind her ear, she put some roots, potatoes, and buffalo meat into a cooking skin and set it over the fire to start to cook.
Sparrow was a dutiful wife, Panther thought, but he knew that on her part, there was no love. She performed her chores efficiently and kept their tipi clean and in good order. People wanted to buy the moccasins she made because they were so beautiful. Sparrow was talented with bead and quill work and highly sought after for her services.
Panther was proud of his wife but regretful that she didn’t feel for him what he did for her. There was no passion. She did not flirt with him as other wives did their husbands. She performed her wifely duties adequately, but Panther knew that she didn’t really want him. There were times when he burned with jealousy because he knew who she did want.
Often he would find her staring up at the sky, and he just knew she was thinking about
him
. When he’d made the arrangements with her father for her hand in marriage, Sparrow had pleaded with Two Dogs to not force her to marry someone she didn’t love. Two Dogs had not listened to her. It was advantageous for the two families to unite and the ceremony had taken place.
Sparrow had cried before the ceremony every time she was in private. In front of everyone, she was stoic but unenthusiastic. She simply went through the motions, but there was no joy in her heart. And so it had been for three years. Panther had taken a second wife who was attracted to him and was much more pleasing to him when it came to passion.
Spotted Rabbit had born him a son of whom he was very proud. The toddler was a delight and Sparrow helped take care of him with pleasure. She however had not given Panther any children and unbeknownst to anyone, Sparrow intended to keep it that way. There were secret teas and potions that women could use to prevent pregnancy and Sparrow took hers every day when she was alone. If Panther ever found out that she was denying him of children, he could become angry and Sparrow didn’t want to have to deal with that.
There was only one man she wanted to have children with and she was biding her time until she could join him. Her plan was coming together, but as of yet, the opportunity to execute it hadn’t come along. Sparrow was patient, however. As supper cooked, Sparrow went to gather more firewood for the coming night.
She wrapped her buffalo hide shawl around her and looked up at the moon. What was her handsome deputy doing right at that moment? Was he married now as well? Had he moved on or was he waiting for her? Did he still love her? Was he looking up at the moon and wishing they were together the way she was?
Tears fell from her eyes as she picked up smaller branches to use as kindling. Her husband wasn’t an understanding man about many things. Sparrow knew she was a disappointment to him and she did it on purpose. She didn’t want him touching her or joining her in her sleeping pallet, but there was no avoiding it. It was part of her responsibilities. She didn’t enjoy it and didn’t pretend to.
Sparrow put the first bundle of wood outside the tipi and went back for more. As she entered the woods, memories of the passionate kisses she’d shared with Jack hit her and she yearned to feel his arms around her again. She wanted to look into his beautiful blue eyes and trace his strong jaw with her fingertips.
She sat down on a log and gave in to her sorrow for a little while. Then she grew very cold and reluctantly picked up her second armload of wood and went back to their tipi. Sparrow made sure that there were no tears on her face. Appearing calm around Panther was best and kept her out of trouble sometimes.
Entering the tipi, Sparrow checked on the soup and found that it was coming along. Panther was working on repairing some arrows that had been broken during a raid that he and several others had carried out on a band of Cheyenne warriors the week before. It had gone well and they had scored some more weapons and several horses.
Panther was a good provider and a smart brave. He was also handsome and could be funny when he wanted to be. When he first started courting her, he had showed that side of him quite a bit, but once they were married and Panther realized just how badly Sparrow hadn’t wanted to marry him, he didn’t try to amuse her nearly as much.
However, he paid quite a bit of attention to Spotted Rabbit and their son. He wanted Sparrow but her lackluster response to him kept him from bothering very much with her. This suited Sparrow just fine.
She knew that Panther was watching her closely and she carefully kept her face blank so he couldn’t guess what she was thinking about. Sparrow kept her eyes averted as she cooked and acted as if the chore required all of her attention.
Panther surprised her by saying, “You will never love me, will you?”
Sparrow knew better than to lie. Her body language would give her away. “I’m sorry, but, no. I do not love you.”
Panther nodded. “I knew it. At least you are honest. It’s him, isn’t it? The white boy.”
Sparrow looked at him in surprise. She didn’t know that anyone knew about Jack.
“You weren’t as careful as you thought you were. I saw you with him several times. You still pine for your white man. It’s disgusting that you would rather be touched by him than me!”
He suddenly lashed out and slapped her across the face. Sparrow cried out and sat back on her haunches from the force of the blow.
Sparrow held her hands to her aching cheeks and said, “I want you out of my tipi immediately! You had no right to treat me like that. Get out! We are divorced!”
Panther let out a cruel laugh. “Do you really think you can divorce me?”
“That is the law of the people,” Sparrow said. Her dark eyes held hate and contempt for Panther.
“I do not think your father will permit a divorce to happen. Since he is chief, it would look very bad for him to have a divorced daughter,” Panther said.
Sparrow rose and said, “We’ll see about that.”
Panther watched her with a smug expression as she left the tipi
Sparrow was crushed by her father’s words. He backed up everything Panther said. “How can you disregard our laws that way? I have the right to divorce him at any time. Did you not hear me say that he hit me?”
Her father said, “Sometimes our tempers get the best of us. I do not understand why you would prefer a white man over a brave such as Panther. That was the problem with Black Fox and all of the others. They are too lenient about allowing whites into their midst and it has caused them great trouble. We will not allow that. You are not divorced from him.”
“I can’t live with him, Father. He struck me and he’ll do it again! Don’t you care? You say you love me, but yet you are willing to keep me with a man who abuses me. That is not love,” Sparrow said and left her father’s tipi.
Panther laughed as she returned and set about finishing supper in silence. When it was done, she took her own portion but did not serve Panther. He looked at her with an angry expression on his face.
“Get your own,” she said tersely. “And do not think of hurting me again because I’ll kill you.”
Panther regarded her seriously. The hatred in her dark eyes told him that she meant every word she said.
Sparrow ate her food even though she really didn’t want it. She was trapped and her husband would be out to hurt her any time he could. Sparrow knew that she was going to have to be on her toes at all times.
Jack hadn’t been home very long when he heard a horse trot up to his house. He now lived in his Uncle Marcus and Aunt Claire’s house. He’d spent a lot of time in the house growing up and when he’d moved in three years ago, it had instantly felt like home. Looking out the window, he recognized Hank, his Uncle Seth’s horse.
Seth put Hank in the small barn in back of the house and came up on the porch. He didn’t bother knocking. Jack smiled at his uncle as he entered the kitchen. He noticed that Seth limped a little and felt bad that Seth’s bad leg bothered him so much during the cold weather months.
“Hi. What are you doing here?” Jack said.
Seth sat down at the kitchen table, wincing as he did so. “Damn leg. I brought you a letter. Booker put it in with ours. I don’t think he gets it that you have your own place. I don’t know why. You’ve lived here long enough.”
He handed the letter to Jack who put it aside.
“You’re not gonna read it now?” Seth said. His curiosity about everything, especially mail, was legendary around town.
Jack smiled as he got a fire going in the cook stove and gathered some things together in order to make supper. Even though he lived alone, Jack liked to cook for himself. “You stayin’ to supper?”
Seth considered it. “Nah. I already ate. Well, maybe. What are you making?”
“Scrambled eggs and bacon. It’s quick. It was a hell of a day today,” Jack said.
Seth chuckled. “What was going on?”
Jack put his hands out to the cook stove that was now getting hot. The heat felt good on his cold fingers. He got up and went into the small parlor to start a fire in the fireplace there. He could talk to Seth from there because the house was small enough that his voice would carry to the kitchen.
“Well, we had a kid who was pickpocketing people. We caught him. There was a fight in the square and we had to break that up. Mitch had a meeting with Joe about some stuff so that left me and Rick to take care of all this stuff.”
Jack was referring to the deputy that Mitch had hired a couple of years ago. Rick Westlake was an odd duck in a lot of ways. He was quiet but was capable of explosive anger. He had a unique perspective on crime and his problem solving skills were unusual. When he was working out a problem, he would put his feet up on his desk and close his eyes. It looked like he was sleeping, but he was fully awake. He called it meditating and many times he came up with a plan that worked even though it seemed ridiculous. Mitch was also impressed with his good hunches about certain situations.
Seth said, “Sounds like a busy day.”
“That was only the beginning,” Jack said as he came back into the kitchen.
It was warming up nicely in the room and Jack removed his coat.
“Are you stayin’ or not?” he asked his uncle.
“Yeah, why not?” Seth said.
Jack smiled. He’d known Seth wouldn’t refuse food. He never did. Like himself, Seth was a bottomless pit and required large quantities of food to keep him full. Soon Jack was sitting a steaming plate in front of Seth.
Seth rubbed his hands together and said, “Looks great, like always.” He dug into the food and was silent while he ate.
Jack fixed his own food and sat down. “Is Mikey behaving himself?”
Seth grunted. “Depends on what you mean. I’m not sure where he gets his rebellious streak from. Unless it’s Tessa. She did run away from home to come here, after all.”
Jack smiled. “Yeah. I’d call that rebellious. Pa’s about ready to kill him, I think. I’ve tried to talk to Mikey and it doesn’t seem to do much good. He’s fifteen. Maybe it’s a phase and it’ll pass.”
Seth nodded and said, “I sure hope so. It’s like pulling teeth to get him to do his chores. He’s old enough to help out now. You always did. You may not have always liked it, but you didn’t complain much.”
“What was the point of complaining? It needed done. Might as well do it and get it over with,” Jack said.
“Too bad Mikey doesn’t feel that way,” Seth said. “Oh, and he doesn’t want to be called ‘Mikey’ anymore. Just ‘Mike’. I guess since he’s getting older, he doesn’t want the nickname used,” Seth said.
Jack shook his head. “He’ll always be ‘Mikey’. He might as well face it.”
“Tell him that. No. On second thought, don’t. It’ll throw him into one of his moods and I can’t stand that,” Seth said. “One of these days I’m gonna thump him good. I think that’s what he needs.”
“Make sure Mama isn’t around or there’ll be hell to pay,” Jack said. “You know how protective of him she is.”
“Yeah, I know,” Seth said. “I don’t know what happened to him. He was always such a sweet, responsible kid up until a couple of years ago.”
“I’ve no idea,” Jack said as he finished his food. “I have some pumpkin pie left. You want some?”
“Yeah. I never turn down pie,” Seth said.
The two men ate their dessert and shortly afterwards, Seth took his leave.
Once Seth was gone, Jack took the letter into the toasty parlor and sat on the sofa. He propped his feet up on the coffee table in front of it. Jack noted that the letter came from Nebraska. He didn’t know anyone in Nebraska. He opened the letter and unfolded it.
Dear Mr. Samuels,
You don’t know me, but I know someone very dear to you. She is in a very serious situation and needs help. She and I have become friends over the past few years and I am afraid for her safety. We have come up with a plan that we believe is viable, but we’ll need your help to carry it out.
Your little bird has been plotting this for some time, but until now has not had the means to act upon the plan. I know you know of whom I am speaking. I do not say her name because it could be dangerous in case this letter is intercepted. I hope and pray it reaches you. Please write back if you are willing to help and if you understand what I am saying.
Respectfully,
Sasha McCall
By the time he was halfway through the letter, Jack was on his feet. This Sasha could only be referring to one person; his beautiful Lakota maiden, Sparrow. Of course she was now married, but Jack tried to put that out of his mind. She needed his help and he was going to give it.
His heart pounded in his chest as he thought about reuniting with Sparrow. He didn’t know what kind of danger she was in, but it was apparent that the situation was urgent. Jack got out paper and pencil and began writing.
Dear Ms. McCall,
I understand who we are speaking about and I will be happy to help. Please tell my little bird to sit tight and that help will be on the way. Can you please provide me more information and where we need to meet up so I can come there? Please keep her as safe as you can until I can get there.
Sincerely,
Jack Samuels
All through that week, Jack could hardly concentrate at work. When he was cooking for his family, he burned food because all he could think of was Sparrow. He’d never stopped loving her. The pain of losing her had gotten easier to bear, but it was always with him. Many times Jack had wished that he could get over her and move on with his life. Though he’d tried to go out on a few dates, he’d felt nothing for the women and he knew it was no use to try again until he was really ready.
Everyone noticed his preoccupation and kept asking what was wrong, but he insisted that he was fine. He didn’t want to inform anyone of what was going on until he knew more about the situation. Then he would fill them in because he was figuring on needing help.
Jack kept checking the post office and the day the response came, he ripped open the envelope right there.
Dear Jack,
Thank you for your rapid response. Your little bird is married to a man who has treated her horribly and nothing is being done about it. I fear that unless she is extracted from the situation that she may be killed. Please meet us halfway in Riverton, Wyoming. We are planning on being there by the 15
th
of December. We will be staying in the hotel there. Please send an immediate response again as to whether you can meet us.
Respectfully,
Sasha
As Jack finished reading the missive, he knew it was time to involve his family and Mitch, Dawson’s sheriff and his boss. He hurried from the post office to tell Mitch about the situation.
That night, he gathered the adults in his family together. They looked at him expectantly and he tried to calm his nerves so that he made sense. “I’ve been contacted by a woman who knows Sparrow. Her name is Sasha and she says that Sparrow is in danger from her husband and needs help. She’s asking me to meet them in Wyoming, which is halfway from where they are in Nebraska.”
Everyone looked around at each other for several moments. His father, Dean, said, “Son, that’s a long way to travel in the winter. How do you know for sure that this is legitimate?”
Jack said, “Why would this woman contact me specifically unless it was legitimate? How would she know to contact me if Sparrow didn’t tell her where to write to?” His blue eyes met Dean’s. “I can’t take the chance that it’s not real. This is Sparrow we’re talking about. Wouldn’t you do the same thing if it was Mama in that situation?”
Dean’s gaze held sympathy. Jack had been in love with Sparrow for the past five years even though she’d been gone for the last three. There had been a split in the nearby Lakota tribe and Sparrow’s family had elected to go with the faction that had left. Jack hadn’t known until they were already gone and it was too late to go after her.
It probably wouldn’t have mattered if he had because only a handful of people in the tribe had known about his romance with the maiden. Her father hated white people, so he wouldn’t have allowed Jack and Sparrow to be together.
Jack’s family and close friends knew that Jack couldn’t get her out of his heart even though he’d tried. So it was no surprise that he would want to go after her.
Dean said, “I hear what you’re saying, Jack, but you’ve got to consider some things here. First, you’re going to battling the weather. Second, this could be some type of trap for whatever reason. Third, they’re gonna come after her and you’ll lead them right here. She’s married, Jack. She has a husband.”
“Yeah, a husband who physically abuses her!” Jack yelled. “I agree with what you’re sayin’, Pa, but I don’t have a choice here. If there’s the slimmest chance that I can get Sparrow back, I’m going to take it. Can I take one of the pack horses with me? I’ll need it for Sparrow to ride back on. A wagon is gonna be too slow, especially if we run into snow. I don’t know why her tribe is in Nebraska. It’s weird. I’d have thought they’d have been a little further south.”
Tessa said, “Jack, listen to your father. You can’t simply take off on a wild goose chase. It’s madness.”
Seth said, “I’d go if it were Maddie. I’d go with you, Jack, but I’m afraid I’d slow you down because of my leg.”
Jack’s Uncle Marcus said, “Why doesn’t she just divorce him? That’s her right as a Lakota woman. All she has to do is simply put his things outside their tipi and he has no choice but to leave her alone.”
“This Sasha woman says that nothing is being done about the situation, so I’d say that her tryin’ to divorce him isn’t workin’,” Jack said.
Marcus’ brow furrowed and he said, “That’s not good. If they’re disregarding that law, what else are they doing?”
“Who knows?” Jack responded.
Jack began sorting through the available people who might be able to go with him. His cousin, Luke, couldn’t because his wife, Jamie, was pregnant again. His Uncle Owl was in the same boat. Jack’s Aunt Hannah was close to giving birth to their first child.
Marcus had been doing the same thing and said, “Jack, I wouldn’t tell Black Fox about this until Sparrow is actually here. Once you meet up with her, you’ll be able to get the full story.”
Dean sent Marcus an angry look and said, “You guys are actually encouraging him to go?”
Marcus held Dean’s gaze and said, “Yes. Seth’s right; we’d all go if it were any one of our wives.”
Dean sighed. “Fine. If you’re dead set on going, I’m going with you, Jack.”