Frances rolled her eyes. “I can write what I wish.” She narrowed her eyes with a slight gleam. “But, after being alone for a few weeks with the Captain, I bet you can tell me what a kiss is like. It’s the one thing I have to guess about when I write.”

  Eva gasped and covered her mouth before thinking.

  “I knew it! He kissed you! Tell me about it. I must know. Research.” She dashed for her trunk and flung it open, gathering pencil and paper.

  “Hold your voice down! Why don’t you go ask Ruby, Jennie, or Hattie? They are all married and much more well-versed on kissing than I’ll ever be.”

  “Oh now, that’s just sad. Don’t you think you’ll ever see your captain again?” She twirled, her skirts filling the small space, and flopped backward on the bed. “Oh captain, my captain!” She dissolved into a fit of giggles.

  Eva touched the edge of her drawing and a tear fell off her chin to mar the corner. “No, Frances. I don’t,” she whispered.

  Chapter 20

  Ruby had been right, of course, about speaking to Beau. Eva had been thinking about the apology and just what she’d say for an entire day. Knowing that Beau deserved an apology and admitting it to him humbly were two different things. Eva took a deep breath and strode out to the barn where Beau would be working, hopefully alone. Though he was roughly Hugh’s age, taking on the responsibility of all the Arnsby girls had aged him in the last few years, adding silver streaks to the black hair at his temples. He sat on a three-legged stool in the back of the barn, balancing papers on his lap, pencil in hand.

  He glanced up and stopped his figuring. His eyes were hard, almost as black as gun-metal in the dim shadows of the barn.

  “Beau.” She stopped in front of him, praying for the right words. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you I was working alone with Mr. Roth. He seemed so bookish and harmless…” She sighed. That wasn’t a good enough excuse for taking away his right to protect her. A right he’d never asked for but taken on gladly. “I know you care, and that you worry. I thought…that if I told you, you wouldn’t let me stay. Working in that library was the most important thing I’ll ever do. Don’t you see?”

  He didn’t answer. Instead he set the papers to the side and leaned over, his fingers of his left hand, meeting those of his right. His head was bent. Her stomach clenched as she waited for him to respond. He had to, somehow. She couldn’t just walk away now.

  “Those are fine excuses, Eva. But the fact is, that’s all they are. You lied by omission, and that lie cost you. You could’ve been spared whatever it was you and Captain Roth shared during your time in Lead. I had the information you needed. You kept saying you knew Mr. Roth was dealing false with you, but that didn’t concern you sufficiently to tell me about it. You haven’t lived long enough to make a discerning decision like that. I was here to help you, and very willing.”

  She opened her mouth to protest. He couldn’t know that they’d shared anything.

  He held up his hand and the set of his jaw silenced her. “Don’t treat me like a fool, Eva. I saw how you reacted when he showed up in front of your boarding house. I spoke to him after you went back inside. There was something between you two.”

  Fury flashed red before her eyes. “It doesn’t matter now. Does it? It was all a lie. He wasn’t interested in me. He thought I knew something. He used my emotions. I’ve paid for my transgressions. I’ll never be the same.”

  “No, you won’t. You’ll be less trusting now, and while that’s good it’s also sad. I’m not angry with you, just with what you did—”

  She had to get away, couldn’t listen to another word. She had to get back out to the serenity of the hillside, in her glade, but how? Stealing Beau’s pants would be discovered immediately, and she couldn’t afford to replace them again. There had to be a way, as long as she was patient.

  Lei, Ferguson’s housekeeper, had turned into her biggest ally. She had no issue helping Eva sew pants. She even knew how to do it. Lei had found some sturdy canvas and they hid for short hours in the back of the ranch house kitchen working on a pair of work trousers for Eva. She’d have to wear one of her own shirts, but the waiting was becoming unbearable. She needed to get out in the open, to follow her rabbits and visit the eagle.

  It took days to finally complete them in secret, but they’d finished the pants. Lei wished her well and Eva brought them out to the back of their small house to wash them. For a family that had so much laundry, there was still the worry someone would see the pants out on the line and wonder whom they belonged to, for other than Beau and Joseph, it was a family of girls.

  She scrubbed all the other clothes first until the lye burned her hands, and then Eva dunked her new trousers into the water and scrubbed the fabric clean. As she pegged them to the line, the skin on the back of her neck prickled. Beau had offered to teach all the girls to shoot as Ruby did, but not a one of them had been interested at the time. A sick feeling now in the pit of her stomach had her wishing she could go back and change her mind. A chill skidded up her back that had nothing to do with the early November wind. Eva hugged her arms close around her and stood on her toes to peer over the clothesline and around her, but she could find nothing out of place nor anything strange about what she saw. Still, she’d tell Beau about it.

  Eva collected her basket and brought it back into the house. The strange feeling left as she closed the door behind her, and she sighed at the release of the tension.

  “Eva, what’s the matter? You look like you’ve gotten quite the surprise.” Ruby stood at the stove as Joseph played with a small wooden horse at her feet.

  “It was very strange. I was out doing the wash and felt like someone was watching me. I couldn’t see anyone, but I couldn’t shake the feeling, either.”

  Ruby dried off her hands. “Aiden and Hugh are both down the range checking on strays. If it had been them coming back, they would’ve called out to you and waved to let you know.”

  “I didn’t go anywhere near the pastures, just in the back yard to do the wash by the line.”

  “I best go tell Beau. He’d want to let Ferguson know, and he may even want to go check it out. We haven’t had any trouble since Aiden was shot, but you just never know. Watch Joseph for me?”

  Eva nodded and moved her little nephew to the floor in the sitting room. He was a happy boy and the change in scenery, even so slight, made him squeal in delight. Eva’s heart did a little flip as she saw a shadow by the kitchen window. She strode toward it and stopped when she realized it was one of the hands striding behind the house to toss some waste water.

  She’d made shadows into monsters. Who would be out wandering around the ranch? It made no sense. Her hands needed something to do, so she whisked Joseph off the floor and set him on her hip. What a wonderful child he was, and how she wished to someday have one of her own.

  A knock on the front door made her jump. She rushed to open it. If Ferguson were here, he’d want to know where to find Ruby and Beau. She opened the door, but no one was there. On the step lay a dried lavender giliweed flower.

  The brave ducked behind a copse of birch trees and disappeared momentarily. George checked his compass again. Fool take it, they were headed right for the Ferguson ranch. He’d thought about that ranch and the woman who lived there pert-near every waking moment. She sometimes came into his dreams since he’d last seen her in Lead almost three weeks ago. He’d stayed away while work had kept him busy catching up with all the rangers. He’d told every one of them what had happened with General Talbot and how Talbot hadn’t trusted him and threatened to go after Eva himself. Not a single ranger had chosen to join the army after that, leastwise not under General Talbot.

  He’d gone rogue now, or at least that’s what any record of his activities would say. There was no cover of the rangers anymore, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t keep an eye on them and let someone in charge know if anything came up. The brave he was following was up to something. He moved in shadows, wanting to remain hidden. He’d catch glimpses of the man as he followed him through the trees, never close enough to be seen or caught. That’s how he’d end up dead and his remains never found.

  The brave climbed a tree and looked out over the hill. At the back of Eva’s house sat a woman doing wash. He couldn’t tell which sister it was, hunched over the wash basin. With the blonde hair, it could be Jennie, Hattie, or Eva. She rose and pressed her fist into her back and his heart catapulted into his throat. He’d never forget that familiar motion. It was Eva, and the brave took notice of her, too. He made quick work of climbing down the tree and moving quickly under cover, closer and closer.

  Eva stopped and searched, shading her eyes and scanning the forest. George ducked behind a tree to avoid being seen. As much as he wanted her to see the man sneaking up on her, he didn’t want her to think it was him.

  He chanced a look around the tree and she’d disappeared, but so had the brave. He gulped down a lungful of air and rested his hand on his Colt. If that man hurt Eva, he’d pay in spades. Passing information was one thing. Touching her was a far greater sin. He ducked closer to the house and watched as the man crept around to the front of the house. A ranch hand headed right toward him from his right. He couldn’t move, or he’d be spotted.

  Ruby dashed toward the barn from the front of the house. He’d seen her for but an instant. The laborer got closer, close enough that he couldn’t risk running. He was maybe thirty yards away and closing. The man tossed a bucket of water over the fence-line and turned back. The brave melded himself against the back corner of the house, becoming almost invisible, and the ranch hand, though he walked right by him, didn’t see.

  George bit back a curse as Eva ran from the front of the house to the back along the opposite side as the brave, carrying an infant on her hip. The sight yanked on his heart. He couldn’t let anything happen to Eva, but with a child, this brave could unknowingly start a war! The Sioux man was now trapped. He just didn’t know it. George stayed hidden. His eyes wanted to drink in Eva with her windswept hair. She held something small and purple in her hand as the small boy reached for it and she searched the tree line, wiping a tear from her cheek.

  The brave glanced around and made a dash for the trees. If George had ever thought Eva was guilty of collusion, how she looked just then would’ve dispelled that notion. She screamed as the Indian shifted direction and disappeared in moments. Eva’s legs gave way under her and he raced toward her as fast as his feet could fly.

  Nothing mattered except making sure Eva was all right. He knelt beside her and lifted the child from her arms, settling him on the ground. She’d landed with the babe on her stomach. He gently lay her head in his lap. His fingers quivered as he brushed the tangled locks from her face.

  “Eva, do you hear me?”

  “George?” Her eyes fluttered open. “I was hoping it was you, but…” She reached up and grabbed her throat. “It wasn’t you, though. I saw…” Her eyes narrowed and she sat up like a shot. “Get off our land, Captain.” She got up as gracefully as her full skirt would allow and reached for the boy on the grass, planting him back on her hip as he squirmed.

  “Eva, I mean you no harm. I was following that Indian to see what he was doing.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Were you? Or did you chase him here to make it look like I was meeting with him?” She threw the dried flower at his chest. “You failed. If anyone asks me, I’ll never admit I saw him here. If you can lie to me, then I’ll lie to keep you away from me.” She whipped around and stomped back to the house.

  The flower lay at his feet and he picked it up. It was a dried giliweed, just as he’d told the general the Indians were looking for. It was time to take this to one of his friends on the inside. Red Eagle was always a last resort, but he would know what was going on.

  Chapter 21

  Red Eagle sat in front of his teepee, his son beside him. Though it was cold, neither seemed to notice the wind as it plowed down the hills into their village. It wasn’t safe for George to enter and speak. He’d have to wait until Red Eagle came to him. In the ten years he’d followed this band, he’d never had to report them. That could all change if that brave was with them. They were a quiet group, small, and set apart from some of the main Sioux tribes. Most of them knew him by sight, but he was still an outsider. An outsider who worked for the army who kept them from the lands they had known long before white men ever showed up.

  He waited by the edge of the camp until it was dark and small fires lit areas around the large twelve-foot-tall teepees. Red Eagle’s wife took their son in to bed and the man strode out right to where George lay waiting. He marveled at how the man could know he was there, exactly where he lay. It didn’t even matter that he’d been hiding.

  “Why have you come, Roth? We haven’t seen you in many months and now that the chief’s son improves, you come back? You could have used that time to garner favor with Sitting Bear. I heard you were seen near the city of cut stone.”

  “I was in Lead. But I didn’t recognize the man who met me there.”

  “Neither did he recognize you. If not for your long hair, I would’ve thought he spoke of someone else. Most men like you wear short hair on your head and long hair above your mouth.”

  The man had him there. He did stick out among the white population. Men wore their hair short, above the collar, with bushy mustaches. But not him. He couldn’t stand the feel of the growth above his lip, and wearing his hair longer seemed to help him fit in a little better as a ranger, so he hadn’t cut it. Still couldn’t bring himself to cut it, even weeks after the end of the rangers.

  “What ails the chief’s son?” He’d bet the giliweed did something these people knew about that others didn’t, and that was why they’d been watching Eva. Giliweed was Eva’s flame.

  “He couldn’t make water, was bloated like a fish. The plant is out of season and we’d used all that we’d saved to help him. It sometimes grows where the heat can’t get to it and the frost doesn’t reach it, like in the valleys of high mountains.”

  “You weren’t looking for Eva at all. You were looking for the flower she loves.”

  “Our people were drawn to the same meadows as the white woman. She even helped Gray Dawn find more.”

  “Will he heal?” If the chief’s son were in danger of dying, it could mean the whole village should be watched at least for a while. People, no matter where they came from, did regrettable things in grief.

  “Yes, he is well.”

  “You will stay away from the white woman now then?” His heart raced. He’d never given Red Eagle a direct order before, always asking questions or giving answers, but never telling him what to do. He had to at least try, for her sake.

  “Hawk’s Tail is interested in the woman. She amuses him.”

  “He can’t have her. She’s mine.” A show of strength would either be seen as worthy or cause a fight. He had no way of knowing which one.

  The man chuckled. The sound so strange from such a stoic man. “A woman isn’t worth fighting over, Roth.”

  “Perhaps for you. You have many beautiful women to pick from. This one is special to me.” If bravado wouldn’t work, flattery might. For Eva’s safety, he’d do what he could, including risking his tentative friendship with Red Eagle.

  “I will speak to Hawk’s Tail.”

  That was the best he would get out of the man. “Thank you. She was quite frightened by his presence today.”

  “And what will you do, Roth? If you see him again, looking after your woman? Is she worth starting a battle over? Is she worth the army following us? Is she worth your life?” His dark eyes, made darker by the setting sun behind him, pierced him like arrows.

  “No. She’s worth fighting a war and winning.”

  Red Eagle chuckled into the night once more as he turned from George. “You surprise me, Roth. Go to your woman and make her yours. We cannot take that which isn’t ours.” Red Eagle glanced at him over his shoulder and strode back into camp, leaving George to look at the stars and listen to the soft noises of the people as they prepared their watch.

  When the camp was silent, he rose off the ground and made his way back to where he’d tethered Argus. Red Eagle had made him think long and hard. What he said was true. No one could take from him what he’d claimed as his own. Not really. Was he willing to take that leap and make Eva his? Was it even an option? Even if she accepted him, Beau might not.

  He had to find a way to convince her to give him another chance, to make all the wrongs he’d done right. Those few stolen moments on the hillside over Lead still flamed his blood. The memory of her eyes when she’d found out who he really was haunted his dreams. There had to be a way to erase it all and start over.

  First, he had to see her. He had seen a pair of trousers on the clothesline that had to belong to someone other than Beau. No ranch hand was that small. It had to mean that Eva was out wandering the hillside again. If she was, and Hawk’s Tail was looking for her, it could be dangerous. He’d just have to find her first and tell her of the danger, convince her to be wary. Most of all, convince her that the right place for her was in his arms.

  He kicked himself for allowing her to get in his blood and wondered if she was suffering as he was. Or did her anger with him keep her from feeling the same stirring as he did whenever he thought on her name?

  He’d have to deal with his future soon. He’d never had a home, never needed one. Even if he continued to do as he had been doing, he’d need a place for his wife to lay her head at night that was a sight more comfortable than the crook of his arm. He might first have to talk to Beau, get permission to talk to her, and then find a nice, quiet place where she could yell at him and no one would hear. The image of his little rabbit yelling at him and pounding out her anger against his chest only made him want to see her more.

 

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