Savage Arrow (11 page)

She was white, wasn’t she? And . . . hadn’t whites been inhumane in their treatment of most Indians?

“All I need is for someone to let me stay long enough so I can get my bearings,” she whispered to herself.

And then there were Jade and Lee-Lee. How could
she forget their plight? They were in danger as long as they were at the mercy of her cousin.

But she had to put her child ahead of everyone. She must do what was best for her baby!

“I have no money,” she whispered, rising from the chair to pace the room. With no money, she could not even travel back to Kansas City, where she did have friends who might help her in her time of trouble.

She didn’t dare steal from Reginald. He would be out for blood if she dared to take anything of his.

“I have no choice but to try to find Thunder Horse’s village,” she said aloud, stopping.

She looked with a start toward her closed door when she heard Reginald screaming and running down the corridor. He must have had another nightmare.

But Jade had said that she’d given Reginald a potion to make him sleep more soundly than usual.

Had it, instead, intensified his nightmares?

Cold shivers raced up and down her spine when she heard Reginald screeching and hollering, “Get that snake away from me! Please, oh, Lord, save me!”

Then suddenly everything was quiet again.

Jessie wondered whether he had returned to his room, and if so, would he go to sleep again tonight?

Had her opportunity to leave passed her by? Would she have to wait another long day before finally gaining her freedom?

She hurried to the door.

She winced with pain when she placed her sore hand on the knob, then opened it very slowly and
carefully just in case Reginald might still be in the corridor.

Just as she opened it, she gasped, for Reginald was on his knees only a few feet away.

His pajamas and face were wet with sweat. His eyes were glassy and wild as he looked over his shoulder and saw her standing there, her eyes wide as she stared back at him.

Jessie jumped when Reginald leaped to his feet and stepped directly in front of her.

“What are you staring at?” he stormed at her.

He grabbed her painfully by the shoulders and shook her. “Quit staring at me!” he shouted, spittle running from the corners of his mouth as he looked hysterically into her frightened eyes.

Afraid now of what he might do, for he seemed totally out of his mind, Jessie felt nauseousness sweep through her. Her shoulders hurt from his fingers digging into them as he held her in a tight grip.

“Oh, no,” she cried, knowing that there was no way to hold back the vomit. It spewed out, most of it landing on Reginald’s pajamas and his bare feet.

He yanked his hands away from her as he stared down at the mess all over the front of his pajamas. He shivered with disgust when he saw the vomit on his bare feet and felt the heat of it creeping between his toes.

He looked wildly at Jessie, then slapped her.

Jessie recoiled from the blow, and when Reginald seemed ready to hit her again, she took a shaky step away from him.

“Please don’t,” she cried as she wiped her mouth
clean of vomit with the back of her sleeve. She put her hand to her cheek. It was hot from the blow he had inflicted on her.

“I . . . I . . . am with child, Reginald,” she sobbed. “Please! You might harm my baby! Reggie, oh, please remember how close we were as children. Remember how we cared for one another when either of us fell, or got stung by a bee. Reggie, please, oh, please.”

He looked taken aback by her announcement. He stared at her, his gaze moving down to where her hands lay protectively over her belly.

Footsteps could be heard coming down the corridor, but he ignored Jade, even when she stopped only a few feet from him, her eyes wide, her whole body trembling. All his attention was focused on his cousin.

“Jessie, I don’t want a whining brat around my house,” he shouted. “Nor my expensive things. You are enough to deal with. I’ll take you to Doc Storm tomorrow. He’ll get rid of the baby. The baby’s father is dead anyway, so why have the child?”

Jessie felt the color leaving her face and an iciness she had never known before circling her heart.

Had she heard him say those terrible things?

Did he actually think she would allow anyone to abort this child?

“How could you say such things to me?” she asked, her voice quivering with emotion. “How could you think I would agree to such a thing as that? Reginald, what has happened to you? I . . . don’t . . . know you at all. You aren’t anything like the boy you were those years ago.”

“Just you shut up,” Reginald yelled, flailing his arms in the air. “You’ve come here and disrupted my life by telling me you’re with child, and you think I’ll allow it? No, Jessie. I won’t. You’ll go with me to the doctor tomorrow and do as I tell you.”

He shrugged. “Anyway, no one will believe you about having been married,” he snarled. “They’ll say that you’ve come this far to live with me only to hide from those you knew back where you came from . . . that you’d sinned and got pregnant out of wedlock and fled to hide the sin.”

Jessie’s mouth opened in a gasp; then she swallowed hard and fought back tears as she took another step away from her cousin. “Do you believe this, yourself?” she asked, a sob catching in her throat. “Don’t you really believe that I was married?”

“I’d not put anything past you, for you are nothing but a stranger to me now,” he said, shivering as he became suddenly aware again of the vomit on his pajamas and feet.

Then he looked up at Jessie again. “Those times when we were children are far in the past now,” he said coldly. “And, anyhow, you don’t know just how jealous I was of you then, because you were always healthy even though you were petite, and I was always sickly. I was poked fun at all the time because I had to wear thick-lensed glasses. I was called four-eyes. You were called beautiful.”

He snickered and stared down at her stomach. “I should let you get big in your pregnancy,” he said.
“You’d no longer be the belle of the ball . . . someone so pretty no other woman compared to you.”

He kneaded his chin as he looked her slowly up and down, then gazed again into her eyes. “But, no, that isn’t what’s best for me,” he said, dropping his hand to his side. “I need you to be tiny and beautiful. That brings attention to me. Yes, tomorrow I’ll take you and have you fixed. You’ll not be allowed to get big with child, not while you’re in my house, and probably never, for I’ve heard that once a woman has an abortion, it messes her up forever inside.”

He laughed. “That’s just fine with me.”

Unwilling to listen to another word, Jessie turned and rushed into her room. She closed the door between herself and Reginald as Jade stood and watched, horrified.

Again Jessie rubbed her lips, trying to erase the vile taste of vomit, then felt the heat of her face where Reginald’s hand had surely left an imprint from hitting her.

“Reggie, oh, Reggie,” she sobbed. “Why? Oh, why?”

Then she flinched when she heard someone being slapped out in the corridor.

She knew that Jade had just been struck.

Reginald was shouting at Jade, telling her to mind her own business and get back to her room or he’d make her wish she’d never been born.

Jessie hung her head and cried as she heard Jade’s sobs and the sound of running feet as she returned to her room.

Jessie knew that she must flee, and now, before daybreak, or her future would be altered forever.

She eyed the window. Yes, she would leave as soon as she thought Reginald was asleep.

If only she could take Jade with her. But Jessie had to consider Lee-Lee’s welfare. If Jade was missing, Reginald would take it out on Lee-Lee, and there was no way to help her escape the crib tonight.

Jessie’s own future was in question now, and her unborn child’s life lay in balance.

Everything she would do from this day forth would be for the welfare of her baby!

Jessie couldn’t believe it. She had actually been brave enough to leave Reginald’s house and was now on the lovely white horse that he had given to her for her riding pleasure, never guessing that she would eventually use it to escape his madness.

With only the clothes on her back, she had fled as soon as Jade told her that Reginald was asleep again.

They had embraced, shed a few tears, and then Jade watched from the front porch as Jessie rode into the darkness of night.

Jessie was concerned at how much her hands still hurt as she took control of the horse’s reins. She was glad that Jade had applied one last bit of ointment to them before she left and had slid the soft gloves onto her hands. She hoped that in a few days the hands would finally stop hurting.

But she had more on her mind than worry about her hands. She wasn’t sure now what her future held for her.

As she rode beneath the stars and the sliver of moon, she had no idea where to go to find Thunder Horse’s village. Finally she decided she would just ride in the direction of the sacred rock and pray that she’d find him.

And then a new thought came to her like a bolt of lightning. Even if she did find where Thunder Horse and his people lived, it would not be wise to arrive there in the middle of the night. Sentries might be posted and take her for an enemy.

She wished the moonlight were brighter, for if it were, the sentries would see that she was a woman. But the moon wasn’t bright.

She had to find somewhere to stay until morning.

She glanced over her shoulder in the direction of Tombstone.

If only she could have gone there, things would have been much simpler for her.

But as it was, Reginald had the townsfolk eating out of the palm of his hand. She could not reveal to any of them that she had left him. They probably wouldn’t even believe her when she told them the reason why.

Somehow he had them blinded to the sort of man he was. If they were to learn about his “cribs,” ah, then they would know the devil that he truly was.

“Where can I go until morning?” she whispered as she clutched the reins, trying not to think about how painful it was to do so.

She looked to both sides of her as she rode onward, the white steed like a ghost in the night. And then she saw something that made her slow the horse to a trot as
she rode toward what appeared to be an abandoned shack.

It was all but falling down, precariously leaning to one side, where several boards had rotted away, leaving sharp edges protruding from the ground. There was no smoke at the chimney, or lamplight at the windows.

As she rode up to it, she drew rein and gazed questioning at the front door, which stood agape. She knew that no one lived there except for perhaps some wild animal. She shivered at the thought that some creature might be sleeping inside.

But at least it would be a roof over her head for the night. When dawn broke, she would travel on.

With luck, she would find Thunder Horse’s home.

But even if she did, would he welcome her, or turn her away?

The sun pouring through cobwebs at the two windows of the shack and the pain in her hands awakened Jessie.

She ached from having slept on the cold floor. Her flesh was cold and clammy beneath her clothes.

She was thankful that she had had the horse’s blanket to wrap up in during the night. But the horse and the blanket were all that she had taken from her cousin’s ranch.

Other than that, she was a woman without any possessions or means to fend for herself. She didn’t even have a weapon.

She was so hungry her stomach ached unmercifully, but she had nothing to eat. Jessie pushed herself slowly up from the floor and folded the blanket as she looked around her.

Someone had lived in the shack, but surely a long time ago. There were cobwebs on everything, even the cooking utensils that sat on shelves over a table.

A wood-burning stove stood at one end of the room, but there was no wood, or she could have had at least some heat during the night.

She saw empty tin cans where food had once been.

She saw a dead rat, twisted and mangled in a thick cobweb at one corner of the room. She felt nauseous at the sight.

She rushed outside to where she had left the beautiful stallion secured beneath a tree. At least it could eat the thick oat grass, by its feet.

“Seems you’re much luckier than I,” Jessie said, slinging the blanket over the horse and then adding the saddle.

The steed gazed at Jessie with large brown eyes, then resumed munching grass.

Jessie took the time to run her fingers through her long, thick, auburn hair to get the witch’s tangles out of it, then untied the reins that she had secured to a low tree limb.

She swung herself into the saddle and was on her way again. She still had no idea where to find Thunder Horse, but hoped she was heading in the right direction. She soon passed the sacred rock and continued onward.

As she rode, her hunger pangs became even more distracting than the pain in her fingers. Once again she began to wonder what she would do if she didn’t find Thunder Horse.

Then her heart skipped a beat when she spotted smoke spiraling up from above the treetops. She smelled the very identifiable scent of food cooking!

Had she found the village, or some white person’s ranch?

She reined the horse to a trot and rode slowly toward the smoke. As she passed through a thick stand of aspen trees, the smell of food was almost an assault on her senses, she was so painfully hungry.

Suddenly she saw something that made her heart sing. Ahead were many tepees; the smoke she had spotted was coming from the smoke holes of the Indian lodges.

She also saw several women and men coming and going, and a circle of children playing what appeared to be a game of tag. Their laughter came to her like a joyous song, for children always gave her a sense of peace.

Tears came to her eyes. She had found a safe haven from her tyrant of a cousin.

But the next moment she gasped as several warriors on horseback appeared on all sides of her. They had come so stealthily and quietly, she had not heard them until they were there, their arrows notched on their bowstrings, their eyes showing mistrust.