For the Love of Suzanne (6 page)

“I’m sorry,” she murmured
shakily, gripping his wrist.

“Sh-h,” he comforted, running his
thumbs over her wet face. “It’s okay.”

She met his dark eyes. “I’m so
scared,” she whispered.

“I know,” he said compassionately and
pulled her close again. “I won’t let anything happen to
you. I promise. It’s going to be okay.”

The next morning, Cody and Suzanne rose at dawn,
ate what was left of the rabbits, drank some water and headed for his
village. They didn’t say much as they dreaded the outcome of
the trip.

He had held her respectfully all through the
night, staying alert for any sort of danger. She hadn’t moved
at all and he was sure she was exhausted, but was confident she was
feeling better.

She rode in front of him on the big black horse,
trying not to lean against him, but before she knew it, she was
dozing and had her head resting against his shoulder.

He tried to ignore her hair tickling his nose and
cheek, but occasionally gave into the urge to kiss the side of her
head. She had him upside down and was sure she had no idea she was
doing anything. Her tears last night had rattled him. He’d seen
plenty of women who were frightened of him, other Indians and even
the creatures that roamed the desert, and they had never had affected
him like she did. He couldn’t shut off his conscience with her.
She hadn’t tried to fight him or run away and had actually
warmed up to him. No other woman had ever done that without being
paid. He was listening to his heart and it was telling him not to
give her up. After all, Chief Tall Deer had no idea that he had aided
one of his slaves to escape. Then he reminded himself that this was a
matter of honor.

He would undoubtedly see her around the camp, but
his plan was to ignore her, to pretend she didn’t exist no
matter how he felt about her. It was just infatuation. She was a
beautiful woman with a warm heart who was being kind to him and not
judging him. It was a rare thing.

He could see she wasn’t like the others. She
wasn’t rugged or worn around the edges. She was a lady, despite
what she was wearing. She spoke like a lady and acted like one. He
was hoping the chief would be kind to her even when she crossed him,
which he knew was unavoidable. The chief had a quick, violent temper
and a dislike of white people. Every woman crossed him at some point
and he always punished them severely and publicly. He would humiliate
them, mistreat them and allow the other men in the village to do the
same, if they so desired.

He had never taken part in any of Tall Deer’s
sadistic rituals. It sickened him to even think about it. The torture
he put the women through always left them scarred if not dead. If
they survived, they would be shunned, ridiculed and beaten by the
other women, and the men would use them as whores.

Then there was Angelica. She was the slave who
he’d helped to escape. She was married with two children and
had missed her family to the point where her own life was no longer
worth living. She had done everything Chief Tall Deer had told her to
do, but it had never been enough. He used to beat her, cut her with a
knife, and even burn her with red hot sticks. He remembered her
cascading red hair that the women had cut off at the nape of her neck
only a week after her arrival. She had wept and pleaded with them to
leave it, but they wouldn’t hear her. After several months, her
blue eyes lost their luster and she began to talk to herself. The
life had been too hard for her and she had given up.

Cody had ridden up to the lake, the only one for
miles, and saw her walking into the deepest of the water with her
clothes on. He’d ridden out to get her before she went under
and demanded to know what she was doing. She had just looked up at
him with those blank blue eyes and then wrenched away from him and
started to move again.

He couldn’t follow her far on his horse
before he jumped into the water as she went under. He’d pulled
her up and found her pockets full of heavy rocks and bigger rocks
tied around her ankles. How she had dragged them for any distance was
beyond him, but he cut the strings and swam for shore, pulling her
with him despite her anguished cries to let her go and her futile
thumps on his chest.

That night, he had taken her to the fort and
dropped her off at the big gates. He pounded on them and rode away
before they were opened and got away unseen.

He never saw her again, but she never seemed to be
far from his mind.

He looked into Suzanne’s sleeping face and
knew he was making a mistake by giving her to Tall Deer. He was so
cruel and Cody didn’t think she could stand it. She wasn’t
made for this type of life. Where she’d come from was obviously
different and, although her hands spoke of the hard work she did, he
was sure it was nothing compared to this. It was going to be too hard
and she would eventually do what Angelica had tried to do, if she
wasn’t killed first. He could see it already.

As they crested a sandy hill, he saw the village
sprawled out in front of them. The small fires produced little smoke
and he could see people walking around, children playing, and a group
of men talking and laughing, but he didn’t see Tall Deer.

He stayed out of sight, although he was sure he’d
been spotted by one of the lookouts who were posted somewhere. Tall
Deer was a believer in security and the village was guarded at all
times. He circled the camp as Suzanne still slept, debating whether
to leave her. He knew what would happen to her at the hands of Tall
Deer. He didn’t want to see her brutalized or hurt in any way
and he knew she would be eventually if she were to become Tall Deer’s
slave. He knew he should just take her back to where she came from,
to that shell of a machine that had nearly killed her, but he moved
toward the village very slowly. He’d helped Angelica escape,
essentially stealing her even if he hadn’t kept her for
himself. He reminded himself that this was a matter of honor.

“Suzanne,” he gently roused her.

She sat up. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she
said quickly.

He brushed off the apology. “I have
something to tell you,” he said quietly with obvious
reluctance.

She looked at him over her shoulder.

“I have to give you to Chief Tall Deer—“

“Why?” she interrupted in a squeaky
voice, interrupting him, perilously close to tears again.

“It’s a matter of honor. But I think I
should tell you again not to cross this man,” he said
seriously. “You do everything he tells you to do with no
questions or hesitation. You do whatever he wants and do not make him
wait. He is not a patient man.”

“What kinds of things will he ask me to do?”
she asked uncertainly.

“Cook and clean mostly.”

“He won’t expect me to do, um…”
she gestured awkwardly, averting her eyes with embarrassment.

He knew what she meant. “If he does, do it.
He will hurt you if you don’t.”

A wave of intense fear passed through her. “Can’t
I stay with you?” she asked pleadingly.

He shook his head. “It isn’t
possible,” he said regretfully. “I’m sorry.”

“Can’t you take me back to where you
found me?”

He could see her grasping at straws. She was
terrified and was nearing desperation. “There’s nothing
there,” he reasoned. “Whatever that thing was, burned.”

She knew nobody would ever look for her. She would
never be missed. Beau had been gone for a month and after their
families left, she hadn’t seen anyone since, other than at
work. Phone calls were just as rare.

She looked into his dark eyes. “Don’t
do this to me,” she begged. “Please, don’t. I will
be your slave and do everything you tell me to and even have sex with
you if that’s what you want. Please don’t give me to
another man. I’ll do whatever you want.”

He felt bad and was so tempted. But there was the
debt. “I’m an Indian agent. I travel a lot. I can’t
be around to look out for a woman,” he said gently. “I’m
sorry, but this is the way it is going to be. Make the best of it.”

She nodded somberly. “I’m scared,”
she wept.

“I know you are,” he said with
compassion and ran his hand over her soft blond hair with some
affection. “But if you do everything you’re supposed to
do, you’ll be fine.”

“I don’t want to have sex with him. I
can’t.”

“You will if he tells you to,” he said
with soft sternness. “If you want to survive this, you’ll
do everything he says.”

“I can’t go around doing stuff like
that,” she exclaimed. “I’m going to have a baby!”

He felt his mouth drop open with surprise. “You
are with child?”

She nodded with a heavy sniff. “Don’t
make me do this,” she begged. “I don’t think I can
take it.”

This certainly put a new light on the subject. Had
he known this before, he never would have brought her here. He didn’t
know what he would have done, but Chief Tall Deer would never even
have entered his mind.

“Take me back to where you found me,”
she implored, gazing into his eyes. “Don’t make me do
this. Please.”

He returned her gaze, knowing she was right.
Everything she was saying was right. He tossed the idea around in his
head for a few moments as his heart was slowly growing tight with her
tears. She was so soft and beautiful and he knew Tall Deer was going
to be cruel to her, but there was nothing left of that
whatever-it-was that had burned. “I can’t take you back,”
he finally said definitively.

“Why? I’ll do anything you want. I
will,” she vowed. “But please take me back,” she
pleaded. “I’ll die out here.”

He knew he couldn’t take her back. There was
no way. Not now. There was nothing to take her back to. Her best
chance of survival was with other people.

Suzanne didn’t ask any more questions nor
did she beg. All she could see was the village disappearing as he
steered the horse in another direction.

A long while later, Suzanne watched an organized
gathering of buildings come into view that was surrounded by a very
large wooden fence with a gate. She wanted to ask what it was, but as
they got closer, she could see men dressed in old-time blue cavalry
uniforms standing in watch towers with guns and figured this must be
the fort.

Cody stopped the horse. “We have to have a
story to tell these people,” he said thoughtfully.

She looked at him with some confusion. “Why?”

He returned her steady gaze. “Who is going
to believe this?”

She nodded. “Good point.”

“We will tell them that I found you lost in
the desert and that your husband is still out there.”

“But he isn’t.”

“They don’t know that. I’ll take
you to Annalee. She’ll take care of you,” he said
confidently and started the horse toward the fort again, wishing he
had something else for her to wear. Her lack of clothing was
indecent, at the very least.

As they approached the gates, they swung open and
Cody rode right through. They immediately drew stares, but
surprisingly, nobody asked any questions. Cody didn’t stop
until they got to the saloon.

He got off the horse, and guided her down, holding
her around her waist. He followed her inside the whitewashed
building, opening the door for her.

“Cody!” a brunette woman called
excitedly from across the room and ran to him with her arms open.

Suzanne moved out of the way as the heavyset
woman, dressed in a gaudy red dress with black plumes on the bodice,
threw herself into his arms. Her hair was piled on top of her head
and adorned with a silver tiara of rhinestones and a feather that
matched her dress. She wore black fishnet stockings and high heels
with bows on the toes and looked like she’d stepped off the
silver screen.

“Hello, Annalee,” he said with a
smile, returning her hug.

“Oh, my goodness, it’s been so long,”
she said jovially with a smile, patting his cheek affectionately.

He continued to smile. “It has.”

“You’re just as handsome as ever,”
she said with appreciation. “Let me buy you a drink,” she
said, pulling him toward the long wooden bar, purposely ignoring
Suzanne.

He stopped her. “Not now, thanks. I need to
talk to you,” he said in a soft voice so only she could hear.

“Sure, honey. Right this way,” she
gestured toward a green curtain that was obviously a private room.

He took Suzanne’s arm and followed Annalee,
not wanting to leave her to the watchful, wary eyes of the men who
were drinking and playing cards. It was early yet, but there were
still a few intoxicated men who might mistake her for one of
Annalee’s girls, considering how she was dressed.

Suzanne was so stunned by the rustic building and
could do nothing but look around as Cody herded her behind the
curtain. It was pretty much what she’d seen in the movies.
There was an enormous mirror behind the bar, men playing poker at
round tables with shots of whiskey at their fingertips, and others
scattered throughout the spacious room. There was an upright piano
against a wall, but nobody was playing it. The bar itself was a deep,
dark rich wood with a brass footrest attached to it that extended
from one end to the other. The staircase was curved instead of
squared which she found a little out of the ordinary, but then
reminded herself that the only thing she had to compare it to was
what she’d seen in movies. She’d never seen the real
thing and she wasn’t sure she was seeing the real thing even
yet. She was still thinking this was all a dream.

Cody pulled out a chair for her and sat down
beside her. Seeing no point in dancing around the subject, he got
straight to the point. “I need you to take care of this lady,”
he told Annalee, giving Suzanne a subtle nod.

She smiled warmly at Suzanne, looking her over
with unabashed interest but addressed Cody. “Sure, honey.
Anything you want.”