“We came back the next spring, collected all the rest of the furs we could find, while we looked for your body, only we never found it. We came back down the mountain, and ran into Griz in the woods and asked him if he had seen you. He told us he hadn’t, so we left.”
“What,” Mackenzie cried, “Griz lied to you and said he hadn’t seen me? I was at his cabin the whole winter and he treated me like a slave. He violated me by touching me at night, and he assured me that if you came looking for me, he would let me leave with you. He claimed he was only taking care of me until I could discover if you had survived.”
“I know, the son of a bitch, I should have him shot!” her father bellowed. “I found it out later, when we went to the trading post to get money for our furs, only they were just doing commodity trades and I needed money to pay the bank off for the house. It was then we were told about you asking if anyone had seen us, and that you had been with Griz. We went back to his cabin and confronted him, and he admitted you had been with him, but you wanted to go back to Missouri, and had given him the slip while the two of you were at the trading post.
“We had lost a lot of precious time going back up the mountain to Griz’s place. By the time we got to Missouri, we realized you had been there and gone. A lot of your belongings were missing, and we discovered you had sold most of the household stuff to the secondhand store. People said they saw a redheaded girl dressed up like an Indian, paddling upriver, pulling a bathtub behind her Indian canoe. We figured it had to be you, and you had taken up with the Indians. We sold the furs and paid the bank off for the house, but we had to go back looking for you.
Later, as we continued to hunt for you, someone at the trading post told us you had come in, along with a Sioux brave, and paid money for supplies. We started checking all the Sioux clans in the area, and it has taken us this long to track you down.”
“You are safe now, Mackenzie. We paid the village chief a ransom for you, and now we can take you home with us.” Cable broke into his father’s explanations.
Mackenzie pulled herself out of their arms, and stared at them as tears streaked her face. “I can’t go with you,” she gulped. “I have a Sioux husband and a child. I am also taking care of another child that belongs to a friend of my husband’s. I can’t leave them behind, and I can’t rip them away from their fathers to take them with me.”
“We can’t leave you here,” her father protested. “There are strict laws about the Indians keeping white captives.”
“I am not a captive! I came here willingly. The Sioux helped me, while Griz only used me! Besides, I can’t leave my son behind, and I have raised Plenty Proud’s daughter as my own since birth.”
“You don’t have a choice about this, Kenzie,” Caleb offered. “Whether you are a prisoner or not, the military will not allow us to just leave you here, and you can’t take any children, you gave birth to, with you. They have Indian blood in their veins and are considered Sioux now. The various tribes are starting to be rounded up and put on reservations. That is not the kind of life you would want to live. It is just a matter of time before the Sioux will be pushed off their land too, or at least be corralled to a single place on their land, where they can’t bother anyone anymore. There is a special bill passed through congress giving permission to contain the Indians in order to keep them from attacking American citizens.”
“You can’t rip me away from my husband and children,” Mackenzie gasped.
“The government can, Kenzie,” Caleb mumbled. “It would be best to leave your child in the care of the Sioux, since if you brought him with you, he would be shunned for being a half breed, especially if our neighbors believed you willingly married a Sioux. It is one thing to be taken and raped by the heathens and end up carrying a child… that would, at least, be overlooked. If you chose to join the Sioux, you would be ostracized by the community. Think about it, Kenzie, it is better this way! No one ever needs to know you married one of them.”
“My husband is away! I won’t have a chance to say goodbye to him!”
“We know,” her father told her. “We waited until the braves left the village, so they wouldn’t get excited when they saw us coming and try to attack us. The chief has taken the ransom and therefore he is bound by honor and his word to let you come with us.”
“Only I don’t want to come!” Mackenzie cried.
“We brought an extra horse for you,” Caleb said, ignoring her protest. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”
“I have to go to Plenty Proud’s mother’s tepee and tell her to take the children to her lodge. I can’t just leave them alone in my tepee.”
“I will go with you, then,” Caleb offered.
“Are you afraid I may try to escape?” she asked angrily.
“Yes,” Caleb said truthfully. “I can see you are not in your right mind, but eventually, you will get over this and be able to live a normal life again.”
“This is my normal life, now!” she hissed, and started stomping ahead of him in the direction of Plenty Proud’s tepee.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Mackenzie sat atop the horse her father and brother had brought for her to ride, following the Cavalry to the closest fort, where they would board a stage heading for Missouri. She could feel her breasts hardening as her milk came down, reminding her it was time to feed the children. The Sioux would usually breast-feed their children up to the age of four or five to make sure they remained strong, as mother’s milk was believed to protect them from diseases. Now White Wing would have to find another Sioux mother to continue feeding the children, or give them sheep or goat’s milk instead.
The group had camped once on the same night they had taken Mackenzie away, and now they were getting ready to camp again. The whole time, she worried what Eagle Eye or Plenty Proud would do, now that she was not there to care for the children. Plenty Proud’s mother would have to take them under her wing, she guessed, since Eagle Eye did not have a mother or sister in the village.
She thought of how Plenty Proud had begged her to come back to him, even leaving the village and joining another clan together. This was worse than that because she had to leave everything behind. At least then, she would have had her children and Plenty Proud still. Only if she had done that, Eagle Eye would have nothing. That saddened her to even think about it. Perhaps it was better this way, she kept telling herself.
“When we get home, we will replace all the objects you sold,” her father told her, as he rode beside her. “We need a fresh start anyway,” he smiled. “I have been offered a position in the tanning works. Once we reach the fort I will send a telegram informing them I am on my way back. This is their busiest season, when the trappers are all bringing their winter furs in to sell. Caleb and I have been working there over the winter for the last three years, while we could not go out looking for you. Then, come spring, we would start out again.”
“At least you will remain in Missouri,” Mackenzie mumbled, thinking of how hard it had been on her mother when he had left them to trap furs in the first place.
“We have missed you, Mackenzie,” Caleb added. “I am so glad we finally found you.”
“I have missed you too, only now I am missing my husband and child, as well as Plenty Proud’s daughter. I am the only mother they have known. It isn’t right to drag me away from them like this!”
“You will get over it,” Caleb promised.
Only Mackenzie knew she would never get over it. How could she? She had given birth and raised both children as her own for the last two years, and Caleb just expected her to get over it?
“You have not suffered the pain of childbirth like me,” she told him. “It bonds you to your child. It is not something you can just get over by pretending it never happened,” she said, stabbing him with an angry stare.
“It is unfortunate, I am sure,” he muttered. “Yet, it can’t be helped. We couldn’t leave you with those heathens and risk you having to go to a reservation.�
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“Of course, not, you don’t care that the Indians will have to suffer, as long as your own don’t share in their misery! They are people with feelings too, even if you may lack them!”
“That is not fair, Kenzie! If we had no feelings we would not have spent three years searching for you.”
“Well, you found me. I suppose it makes you happy. If I didn’t have to give up so much to be with you again, I would be happy too.”
“I know it will probably take time, but you are strong. You have lived through being with Griz and then the Sioux. I am sure you will buck up and look to your future.”
Only what kind of future could she have, Mackenzie wondered? She was no longer a virgin. She had lived with the Sioux for three years. What eligible man would ever want her for a wife? Besides, she would never stop loving Plenty Proud, even if someone did choose her. He had been right. They were meant to be together. Even as kind as Eagle Eye had been to her, it had not overshadowed her love for Plenty Proud, and now she would have to forget Eagle Eye as well!
The group had stopped and the men were dismounting their horses and setting up tents. Mackenzie slid down from her saddle, feeling uncomfortable because of her breasts being full of milk and no way to relieve the pressure. She could feel them starting to leak, which made it even worse. She sat, watching the men going about setting up their camp, some starting a fire while others put up their tents. They had brought a small tent for her to use since she was the only woman, and once it was set up, she crawled inside trying to calm herself, to no avail. She couldn’t face it. She had to return to her children.
She would take Plenty Proud up on his suggestion, and go with him to another clan. Only she would leave Brave Eyes behind for Eagle Eye to raise. It was the least she could do, she thought, since she planned to leave him and go with Plenty Proud. At least, she would have A Little Hope with her, and she and Plenty Proud could have another baby together in the future. It was the only fair solution she could think of, in spite of the fact she knew she would miss Brave Eyes, almost more than she could bear.
She and Plenty Proud could move from clan to clan if they had to, so no one could track her down and drag her away, she resolved. It would be easier with one child, and would be better than leaving everything behind like they expected her to do now. She wished her hair had been black instead of red, so she would blend in better among the Sioux. Even if the tribe was forced onto a reservation, she told herself, she would rather suffer that in order to remain with Plenty Proud than live in luxury without him.
Now that her mind was made up, she just had to wait until everyone fell asleep, and try to sneak out without the guard on duty discovering her. She would take the horse she had been riding, and ride it without a saddle. It should only take her a day to return if she rode straight through without stopping along the way. Just a canteen of water, was all she planned to take. Any other food she needed, she would have to find in the wild, she decided, fingering the knife she still had in the sheath on her belt, wishing she still had her handgun. After all, she had gone for several days without eating when she was going downriver. One day without food was not going to kill her.
Caleb called her out to eat and someone handed her a bowl of beans, and she requested a canteen of water, which they gave her. She sat by the fire, eating the beans, but merely put the canteen strap over her shoulder. Caleb, sitting across from her, watched her, but didn’t say anything. She did not look like she was in the mood for conversation, and he had decided to give her more space to get over having to leave her children behind. Mackenzie’s father was busy talking to the leader of the group, making plans, since they were supposed to reach the fort by the next day.
“I’m tired,” she said, when she had finished eating her beans. “I think I will go to my tent.”
Mackenzie decided she would try to get as much sleep as possible before she attempted to leave, so she could travel through the rest of the night and next day, hopefully making it back to the village before the end of the that day. Then, she and Plenty Proud would have to leave the village as soon as possible, on the chance her father and brother might come back to get her and possibly tie her up, forcing her to go with them.
When Mackenzie woke, the camp was quiet. She could hear the soft rumbling of snoring men and the occasional call of an evening dove, resting in a tree nearby, as she stuck her head out of the opening of her tent. She secured the canteen on her shoulder, as she emerged from her tent, keeping in the shadows, and working her way slowly toward the horses. The man, guarding the camp, had his back to her, looking out away from the camp for any danger that might befall them. He was at the other end of the rope stretched between two trees that the horses were tethered to.
Mackenzie walked slowly backwards, along the rope of horses, as the feeble light of the moon cast a pattern of leaves over her, her eyes watching the guard, and preparing to duck under one of the horses if he turned to look in her direction. When she reached the last horse on the line, which happened to be the horse she had ridden earlier, she released it from the tether and silently led it away, looking over her shoulder from time to time as she kept her eyes on the guard. Once he had disappeared into the shadows, she grabbed the mane of the horse, and swung up on its back, giving it a sharp kick, and causing it to leap into a gallop.
The moon was still almost as bright as it had been the night they had ridden away from the village with her. It illuminated the trail enough for both her and the horse to see their way. Her heart was in her throat, expecting that at any moment she would hear horses advancing behind her, and she kept looking over her shoulder to check. Only the thundering of her horse’s hooves filled the night air, though.
Eventually, when she was certain that no one was following her, she slowed her pace to an easy lope, and then finally to a fast walk. Since she planned to ride non-stop, back to the village, and she did not want to tire her horse unnecessarily.
Mackenzie pressed on through the night and then during the next day, only stopping along the river to water her horse when necessary. As the village got closer, her heart started to lighten, only she worried about Eagle Eye and how he would feel when she told him that she wanted him to divorce her so she could go with Plenty Proud. Every approach she conjured up in her head, which she might use, seemed to fall flat, and sound empty, though.
She didn’t know what all a divorce entailed, but she was hoping that Eagle Eye would understand, considering she was willing to leaver Brave Eyes with him, and he had always known she had never stopped loving Plenty Proud. Also, because her father and brother might come back looking for her, it was imperative that they leave the village and join another clan, staying on the move until she was certain that no one would come and force her to leave the Sioux. She and Plenty Proud would have to depart as soon as she arrived, so they would be far from the village, if the Cavalry returned.
She decided the best plan was to sneak into the village and go to Eagle Eye’s tepee, after everyone had retired for the night. Even if someone saw her, they would not mistake her for an enemy. They could think what they wished about why she was back at the village again, and if anyone came looking for her, they could honestly say they didn’t know where she was, after she left with Plenty Proud. She doubted her father would even bother to come get her when he discovered she had left, but the Cavalry might have other ideas, she worried.
When the village was in sight, Mackenzie caught her breath at the familiar sight of the tepees all aglow in the darkness, dotting the village like stars had fallen from heaven and landed there. She guided her horse to the shelter of trees along the river, deciding to wait there until the village settled down for the night, wondering if there would be a celebration going on over a successful raid. Even if there was, it would make it easier to go unnoticed to Eagle Eye’s tepee while everyone was involved with the celebration dance, and wait for him to return from any festivity they may be having, she reasoned.
When she heard th
e drums starting, she knew they had a successful raid and was about to start the celebration. She wondered what Plenty Proud and Eagle Eye would be thinking as they joined with the others in the dancing and chanting. She wanted to feed the babies to get rid of the excess milk in her breasts, but she knew that was impossible. She would just have to suffer until Eagle Eye came back to his tepee after the celebration ended. The only problem was, sometimes the merriment lasted all night!
When Mackenzie lifted the flap of the tepee, the familiar smell of what she considered home, wafted into her nostrils, making her feel nostalgic. Her stomach started to tighten, just knowing she would be leaving Eagle Eye to join Plenty Proud, and how upset it would make him. Somehow the scent of him was woven into all the memorable smells about her, making her start to doubt her decision. What surprised her most though, was the fact that the fire had not been lit. Since the coals were not even warm, it indicated that, for some reason, Eagle Eye had not been in the tepee for a while.
This disturbed her, fearing that Eagle Eye had been so upset when he discovered she had been taken that he wouldn’t even sleep there. Or maybe he had gone on a vision quest, to decide if he should come and try to rescue her from the Cavalry men. Either scenario concerned her, because she could not wait around for him to show up if he was off in some cave praying to God, or tracking her down so he could bring her back.
However, if he had been tracking her, she would have run into him on her way back, so she figured he was either on a vision quest, or trying to overcome his sorrow at losing her. However, he could be celebrating with all the others, for all she knew.
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