To Tame A Rebel (13 page)
Authors: Georgina Gentry
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They got a patrol of soldiers and rode out to the Creek camp. Harvey was stunned by the sight that greeted them: a few abandoned tents and saddles, tools, and other heavy things. “Damn, they've pulled out.” He could imagine all the business he would lose now with the Creek tribe gone.
“Well,” the captain said, “there's no sign Mrs. Dumont was here, but the major will be upset that the Indians have left. We can't let them reach the Yankees, where the able-bodied warriors can join up with them.”
Harvey didn't give much of a damn what happened to the Indians or even to the war. He dismounted and studied the ground. “Here's buggy tracks. I reckon she's been here.”
The captain dismounted, too, and began to look about. Caught in a bush, a scrap of black fabric fluttered like a tiny flag. “Oh, my God, could this be . . . ?”
Harvey grabbed the scrap and stared at it. “Mother of God,” he gasped, “it's part of her dress. They've got her! The savages have got Twilight!”
Chapter 8
Yellow Jacket picked his way along the trail, his big body blocking the cold wind for Twilight. With his buffalo robe wrapped around her and her face against his muscular back, she was warm enough. Once he reached down and patted her hand almost gently, and she jerked away as if touched by a hot coal. When they rejoined the hundreds of weary Indians walking north and Yellow Jacket put her back up on the seat of her buggy and filled it with exhausted children, she gave them her buffalo robe to share among them.
Yellow Jacket frowned at her. “You need that yourself.”
“You think I'm going to let children freeze to death, never mind what color they are?”
He almost seemed to smile. “Here, take my blanket.” He tossed it into the buggy. “Now stay with the group, Mrs. Dumont. I've got too much to do to chase you down again.”
“When Captain Wellsley catches up with us, I'll see that you pay for kidnapping me.”
His bronze face turned stony cold. “You'd better hope he doesn't come. The captain knows nothing about fighting Indians; he'll get himself killed trying to play the gallant Southern gentleman.” With that, he turned and galloped up the line.
Twilight concentrated on driving her buggy across the frozen ground as the Creeks moved north. As the hours passed, the children said nothing, only looking at her with big, sad eyes. They looked hungry and afraid, but no one cried. In spite of her own fears, her heart bled for the children. She began to sing a soothing lullaby as she drove, and when she looked back, most of them were asleep.
Yellow Jacket rode up just then. “Well, you seem to have a way with children.”
She shrugged. “All children are alike, no matter what color they are. This is criminal, to be dragging all these helpless people for hundreds of miles. If you'd just surrender, the Confederates would feed you.”
“Would they, or would they wipe us out?” The big Indian frowned. “Better we should die trying to make it to Kansas and freedom than to be captives of the rebels.”
A very pregnant woman leading two young children stumbled past the buggy. Twilight recognized the little girls as the ones from the store, Smoke's children. She waved her hand. “Come ride with me; I can make room in my buggy.”
The woman stopped, staring at Twilight with evident distrust, then looked to Yellow Jacket. He spoke to the woman in Muskogee and she smiled hesitantly, came over, boosted the children up into the buggy, and got in herself. Twilight smiled at her, but to Yellow Jacket she said, “This woman may be giving birth at any time. She deserves better than this.”
“Tell that to your rebels who are trying to stop us from making it to freedom,” Yellow Jacket snapped. “The woman understands what she's facing. If her time comes, you'll deliver the baby.”
Twilight was aghast. “Out here in the cold with no doctor to help me? I can'tâ”
“You'll have to,” Yellow Jacket said. “I haven't time to worry about one unfortunate woman. We're nearing the river the whites call the Arkansas, and scouts have just brought word that Colonel Cooper's troops are behind us. If we get caught up against the river before we can cross, our people will be slaughtered.” He nudged his pinto horse and galloped away.
She was about to be caught in a bloody battle. Cannon fire wouldn't know friend from foe, and she'd be in as much danger from the Confederates as from the Union side. Smiling at the tired Indian woman, Twilight clucked to her horse, and they started north again.
All day they traveled, the walking Indians moving slowly, driving goats and cattle ahead of them. With the hundreds of people and all the wagons and confusion, they seemed to be making little headway, but the people stubbornly kept their faces turned into the north wind and kept trudging. Twilight shivered in spite of herself and cursed Yellow Jacket silently as she drove the buggy.
Late in the afternoon, Twilight noticed that the pregnant woman was in evident distress. She reined in as Yellow Jacket rode past.
“Why are you stopping?” he thundered. “If we can't get across the river before dark, the rebels may catch up to us. We'll be slaughtered if they trap us against the river.”
“I think she's going into labor,” Twilight snapped. “Where's Smoke?”
Yellow Jacket cursed under his breath. “What a time to have this happen. We may just have to leave her to do the best she can.”
“No!” Twilight said. “That's inhumane; I won't do it.”
“You've got more spirit than I gave you credit for.” Yellow Jacket smiled, almost in admiration. “But there's a platoon of Texas troops with those other rebels, and they'd kill anyone they see, whether it's a woman or not.”
“I'll just have to take that chance.” She climbed down off the buggy. “Where's their father?”
He gestured with his head. “Smoke? Behind us, making ready to give his life to keep those rebels from overrunning us. I'm going to join him.”
“Can you get someone to take care of the children so I can help her?”
Yellow Jacket sighed and yelled, gesturing to an old woman who came, took the children out of the buggy, and hustled them away. The pregnant woman called out something after them.
“What does she say?” Twilight asked.
Yellow Jacket shook his head. “She's telling the old one to get the children across the river and don't look back.”
Her bravery overwhelmed Twilight. “Tell her we'll stop here and I'll help deliver her baby. Then you can go on.”
Yellow Jacket spoke to the woman, who nodded and then looked at Twilight and said something.
“What did she say?” Twilight took her hand and helped her from the buggy.
“She says even though you are white, you are very brave and have a good heart.”
Twilight didn't feel very brave. She and this woman in labor were about to be left behind and might soon be overrun by Confederate troops who would shoot first and ask questions later. Already, Twilight heard distant gunfire echoing through the cold, barren hills. She led the woman over to a hollow out of the wind, then went back to the buggy for her medical bag. She looked up at Yellow Jacket sitting his horse. “I said you could go on. I'll manage somehow.”
“Mrs. Dumont,” Yellow Jacket said, “I don't think you understand. Between those undisciplined Texas troops and the rebel Indians, you're in danger yourself, especially after it turns dark.”
Twilight looked up at the sky. It was late afternoon now. “I'm not going to abandon her. I'll manage somehow.”
Yellow Jacket cursed, then dismounted. “I'll stay, too, then.”
She frowned at him. “Are you afraid of losing your hostage?”
He hesitated. “Yes,” he said, “that's it. Now, stop talking and tell me how I can help.”
She hoped the relief she felt didn't show on her face. She wouldn't want the big savage to know how pleased she was not to be left alone out here on this cold, hostile prairie. “Help me set up a shelter of some kind out of blankets and start us a small fire.”
“The smell of smoke will be picked up by those rebel scouts.”
“Are you afraid?” she challenged.
His face was as hard as his voice. “If you were a man, I'd kill you for that insult.”
“Then help me.”
The woman, sitting against the trunk of a small scrub oak tree, groaned softly, and Twilight took her medical bag and strode over to her. Behind her, she heard Yellow Jacket dismount and lead the horses over to the hollow. “Maybe here in this brush, the rebels won't spot us.”
She looked up at him. “If they capture us, won't they execute you?”
He smiled without mirth. “Only if I'm lucky. Some of those rebel Creeks led by the half-breed McIntosh clan would rather torture me.”
Twilight blinked. “And you're still staying?”
He nodded. “I don't want you to fall into their hands,” he said. “They'll do worse than kill enemy women.”
Twilight had a sudden startling vision of mass rape and saw the fear in the other woman's eyes. Evidently she spoke enough English to understand what danger they all faced.
So he was staying behind to protect them, even though he faced torture if captured by the enemy. Well, maybe it was because the woman was Smoke's wife and Smoke was his friend. Twilight's estimation of the man grew. As she spread blankets and helped the woman, Yellow Jacket built a small fire and set up a lean-to of blankets against the wind.
Twilight knelt by the woman and took her hand. To Yellow Jacket she said, “Do you have any water?”
“Not much.”
“Put some of it on to boil,” Twilight said.
The woman gasped and bit her lip until it bled.
Twilight said to Yellow Jacket, “Tell her it's okay to cry out.”
The woman seemed to understand some of what she said, because she shook her head and said something in their language to Yellow Jacket.
He nodded. “She says she must not cry out, it might alert the enemy if they have scouts out ahead of their troops.”
“Oh.” Twilight sighed. She was very much afraid with darkness only hours away and the Confederate troops advancing. The firing seemed louder now. She could still get in her buggy and get out of the conflict zone . . . but only if she abandoned this woman. The woman looked up at her with imploring dark eyes, and Twilight wiped the sweat off the woman's brow. “Tell her I'm staying; everything will be all right.”
Yellow Jacket nodded and told the woman, who relaxed and smiled. “She understands, but she thinks we should abandon her and go on. She doesn't see why all three of us should risk death or capture.”
The girl's bravery impressed Twilight. “You can go on if you want, but in good conscience, I can't leave her.”
“I know.” His voice was almost gentle. “You're a better person than I thought you were, Mrs. Dumont, unlike most of the whites I've known.”
“So when this crisis is over, you'll free me?”
Now he scowled. “So that's what this is about? I should have known. The bad news is, white girl, that even if I freed you now, you're liable to get accidentally shot trying to make it back to the other side. Front-line troops are nervous about strangers approaching at night.”
The woman groaned softly.
Twilight reached to mop the girl's forehead. To Yellow Jacket she said, “I can handle this if you'll stand guard.”
He nodded, hefted his rifle, and stood up. “I'll keep a lookout.”
“Let me know if the troops are getting close.”
He nodded and left the hollow.
The next couple of hours crawled past slowly. It would soon be dark, and the sound of gunfire seemed closer. Twilight was scared but tried not to show it to the straining girl. If only she could put her in the buggy and retreat to the Confederate side, there would be safety and a real doctor, but the girl was now in hard labor. “Push!” Twilight said, and made a sign.
Yellow Jacket suddenly appeared. “How much longer? I can see rebel scouts coming through the trees in the distance.”
“Any minute now,” Twilight answered. “Then we'll get in the buggy and move out.”
“I'm good with a rifle,” Yellow Jacket said. “I'll try to get up in a tree and buy us a little time.”
“Buy us as much time as you can,” Twilight said.
He left, and the girl began to push harder. After a moment, a small, dark head appeared. With Twilight assisting her, the girl gave birth to a baby girl. Twilight smiled and smacked its bottom so that it wailed, then wrapped the baby in her shawl. The little mother smiled, too.
Immediately, Yellow Jacket appeared. “Everything all right here?”
The woman said something to Yellow Jacket, and he grinned. “She wants to name the baby for you because you saved its life.”
Twilight blinked back tears and laid the baby in the crook of its mother's arm. “Tell her I would be greatly honored.”
Yellow Jacket spoke to the woman, then to Twilight. “Can we move on now?”
“In a minute,” Twilight said. “There's a little finishing up to do; then you can help me get them into the buggy.”
“I'll hold them off as long as I can, but hurry.”
Twilight did what she could with the little bit of water, then yelled for Yellow Jacket. “Can you get her into the buggy if I carry the baby?”
In answer he dismounted, swung the girl up into his arms, and headed for the buggy, with Twilight coming behind with the baby and her medical bag. “Let's get out of here.”
Yellow Jacket put the girl in the buggy, and Twilight handed her the baby and climbed up on the seat. Yellow Jacket mounted up, looked behind him. “Those rebs aren't half a mile away.”
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