The Officer and the Traveler (25 page)

When the horn blew that marked the end of working hours, Gray dropped his brush back into the bucket and did his best to show some sort of interest in helping clean up. He caught Jacobs’ eye and just as quickly, the man averted his gaze. Was that a sign of guilt?

Gray pushed away the thought. He had to take this one step at a time. So far he’d discovered nothing that would help him. General Bridges could be here any day to start this trial. He needed to start finding real clues, not speculation.

Gray headed over to the Lewises’ to meet Michaela. She seemed to be enjoying herself out here, if her beaming smiles were any indication. He still didn’t know what to talk to her about while in their room, but she didn’t act to concerned with it.

They exchanged their usual pleasantries on their walk home, halted when they crested the top of the stairs only to see General Davis standing in front of their room, leaning against the door.

“
I hope you don’t mind that I’ve decided to join you for dinner.”
 

Gray resisted the urge to groan.

“
It won’t be ready for a while, Pa.”
 

“
That’s all right, we can eat pie while it cooks.”
 

This time Gray did groan.

Michaela sent him a sympathetic smile. “I’ll make another tomorrow.”

Gray unlocked the door and waited outside while his father-in-law made his way into their home. Before Michaela could join him, Gray caught her hand to stay her. “Do you think he’d be satisfied with a serving of nuts and jerky?”

“
No. But he doesn’t like my stew. Would you like for me to fix that?”
 

“
What’s there not to like?” he asked, stunned. “Never mind. Yes. Make that.”
 

Inside, Michaela went about chopping vegetables and humming while she cooked.

General Davis frowned at her, but didn’t say anything. Smart man.

Gray made himself comfortable atop their bed like he always did while Michaela prepared their dinner.

“
Any progress in your investigation?” General Davis asked, lowering himself into a wooden chair.
 

“
A little. It’s been slow.”
 

General Davis nodded. “Same here. Since I don’t know many of the officers here I’m afraid to ask the wrong person the wrong question.” He stretched his legs out in front of him. “It sure does feel good to be back at a fort again.”

Gray’s stomach churned. What exactly had he meant by that? “May’s a wonderful month to be here. Next month it’ll start getting hot. By July you’ll long for a drink of water that doesn’t come out of the well boiling, and by August you’ll think you’re teetering on the edge of Hell.”

“
Boy, if you think to scare me off, that isn’t working.”
 

Michaela’s soft laughter stole his attention and he sent her a hopeful smile. Well, if he couldn’t scare the man off permanently with his talk of weather to come, perhaps Michaela could scare him off at least tonight.

Which she did.

Just as she’d said, General Davis didn’t seem to enjoy her stew. It was odd really, but her father more or less picked at it for a few minutes before excusing himself.

“
I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it myself,” Gray commented after the door had closed behind her father.
 

“
I told you he didn’t like it. You should know by now that as a daughter of his, I’m never wrong,” she said with a wink.
 

He bent forward at the waist as far as his broken ribs (and half-bowl of stew) would allow in a mock bow. “I shall never doubt you again.”

She dabbed her lips with her napkin. “Good. See that you don’t.”

***

The next day Gray’s quest to unearth any new information regarding the supposed rape of Soft Dove was fruitless. As was the day after that. Both days he’d tried to talk to some of Lansky’s men to see if they’d let something slip. Anything would be helpful if it led him to a man who might even have an idea of who was responsible. Neither day had he gotten a chance to directly talk to Jacobs. He’d decided it might be best to talk to a few of his equals first to see what they might know. Not that it mattered a whole lot. They knew nothing and Jacobs seemed to be nowhere to be found as of late.

Unfortunately, his frustration of coming up with no leads was starting to get the better of him.

“
Is something bothering you, Gray?”
 

Gray jumped at the sound of Michaela’s words. “No.”

“
I don’t believe you.”
 

He gave her a lopsided shrug. “Then don’t.”

“
Perhaps if you tell me, I can help you think it through.” Her voice was so soft and quiet he almost gave into her.
 

“
It’s not for you to worry about.”
 

“
You’re still trying to chase down some elusive clue about who’s responsible for what happened to Soft Dove, aren’t you?” Michaela said easily, not bothering to look up from where she was preparing their dinner.
 

He couldn’t deny it. “Yes. But there doesn’t seem to be one.”

“
Maybe because you’re looking for the wrong thing.”
 

He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“
Oh, and what do you think?”
 

“
I don’t know,” he said with a groan.
 

“
All right.” She carried the skillet over to the fire. “Why don’t we start from the top?”
 

“
Michaela, we don’t need to do this.”
 

“
Why, because you’d rather reason it out in your head while I pretend to sweep and find things to straighten that aren’t askew?”
 

He blinked at her. Was it possible she had been upset by his lack of chatting with her while she cooked? “Why don’t we talk about how your day was with your sister,” he hedged.

She pulled a face. “How about we not.”

“
Do you not like seeing her every day?”
 

“
No, I don’t mind.” A slow smiled spread her lips. “Whenever she starts plaguing me with questions about the two of us, I start asking her questions about her relationship with Jack just loud enough for my father to hear.”
 

He released a sharp bark of laughter.

“
Now,” she continued. “Let’s discuss what you know and see if we can find a solution together.”
 

“
Michaela, you—”
 

“
I’m waiting,” she cut in with a sing-song tone.
 

Scowling, he lifted his hands behind his head and intertwined his fingers to make a headrest. “According to General Ridgely, Soft Dove was raped.” He grimaced as he said the word aloud. He’d thought it often enough, but to say it, and to his wife, no less.

“
But you don’t believe she was.”
 

He closed his eyes and released a breath. “I don’t know.” He dropped his hands from behind his head and idly rubbed the scratchy bristles that covered his chin. “I don’t think she’d have been willing and with how many strong men there are around here, I think it’s possible she could have been overpowered.”

“
But?”
 

“
Well, it definitely wasn’t the night General Ridgely is claiming it was. When Soaring Eagle and Soft Dove came to make their claim, I still had a bruise on my face from when Jack’s fist collided with my face the night we went onto Cherokee land. If she’d been forced, she’d have still had the bruises, too.”
 

“
But her skin is darker than yours,” Michaela pointed out.
 

“
That’s true, but that also means if she had bruised, her bruise would have been darker originally, making it still somewhat visible a week later. I didn’t see any.”
 

“
Where all did you see?” The blush that stole over her face made him smile.
 

“
Not that I was looking too intently, but I saw enough of her to know there weren’t any,” he said evasively. He wasn’t the smartest man around, but he couldn’t imagine anything good could come from admitting he’d been given a glimpse of almost every inch of Soft Dove’s skin.
 

“
Well, if you weren’t looking too intently, then how can you be sure?”
 

He grimaced. “I just am.”

“
How?”
 

He threw his hands into the air. “I don’t know. When I first saw her sitting there I assumed she’d conceived—”

“
What makes you think that?”
 

“
She was quiet and avoiding contact with her father with her hands folded over her abdomen in a way that would suggest she was protecting her child.”
 

***

Michaela’s heart slammed in her chest. Hard. Gray may never fully understand what he’d just revealed about himself. Nor did she fully understand his earlier confession about being the son of a prostitute. In a world where she’d witnessed beggars rise up to importance and an entire man’s legacy crumble in a moment, she’d never harbored resentment or condemnation toward Gray for his mother’s profession. But just now, she finally understood the harder life that he’d seen.

“
You know these to be symptoms from your days...”
 

He nodded once. That was all the confirmation it took for her to want to run to him and wrap him in her arms. She doubted he’d appreciate that, however.

“
How far along do you suppose she is?”
 

“
That I don’t know.” He twisted his lips, pursing them a fraction. “At least six weeks or they wouldn’t have known to come here about it yet, but no more than three, possibly four months, or her
stomach would have started to grow round.”
 

What an eloquent description. She shook off the thought. “You think her pregnancy has prompted their visit.”

“
Yes. She’s unmarried. I don’t imagine her tribe would be very forgiving if she’d taken a lover before she married.”
 

“
Do you think that’s possible?”
 

“
That she took a lover?”
 

She nodded.

“
I’ve thought about it and I think it makes a lot of sense in one regard.” He leaned forward and turned the pillow vertical behind his back. “If she’s taken a lover from her tribe then discovered she was pregnant, she might be trying to protect both of them by blaming it on someone here.”
 

“
You don’t think he’d just marry her to spare her the shame?”
 

“
He might not have been in a position to make her his wife.”
 

“
Can’t they have multiple wives?”
 

Gray lifted his hands into the air. “I don’t know.” He crossed his ankles and tapped the edges of his boots together. “He might be a coward and not want to admit to what he’s done. Or he might not have her father’s permission. Or it might bring less shame on her if she pretends it was a rape, then they marry and there’s no speculation on why their firstborn came so early.”

Michaela’s blood turned to ice. She’d heard of something similar once. A friend had claimed rape as a means to explain to her intended that she was no longer chaste. She hadn’t been forced, though. She’d been more than willing and when her husband finally learned the truth of it, she’d suffered dearly. Perhaps that’s what would happen here. Soft Dove or her lover could be killed if someone suspected their child was the product of an illicit love affair.

“
But,” Gray continued. “There is also the repercussions of how this would hurt their entire tribe if such a lie about one of the men here were to ever come to light. Our relationship with their tribe has been stable so far, but if it made its way back to the capitol that one of our men was falsely accused of such a crime, stripped of his position and punished for it, the federal government might push them off their land or wage war in retaliation. Tensions out here can run high and I don’t think they’d want to risk that.”
 

“
Which leads us back to the culprit being one of the men here.”
 

Gray nodded.

“
You don’t think it’s possible that—”
 

“
No.”
 

Michaela frowned. “You didn’t even let me finish.”

“
I didn’t need to. I already knew what you were going to say.”
 

“
What?”
 

He grinned. “Something foolish.”

She reached for a towel from off the table and tossed it at him.

“
You were going to suggest that she could have been conducting an affair with one of the men here.”
 

“
That would explain no bruises.”
 

“
I never said she didn’t have any,” he pointed out. “I just said they weren’t present the night her father brought her here.”
 

“
So you’re saying it’s possible she was forced, but not the night they’re saying it happened?”
 

“
That’s what I don’t know. Their English isn’t very good and I’m not familiar with their calendar, if they even keep one beyond the position of the moon. I think General Ridgely came to the assumption of when it happened because it was a convenient date to select given that Jack and I did leave here that night to go to find one of the members of their tribe.”