Chapter Eight
I am the Love that dare not
Speak its name.
—Lord Alfred Douglas
The room was filled with smoke from the cigars being puffed around a gaming table at Fort James. Hiram was gambling with his friend Colonel Fred Cox and several other men of the colonel’s regiment. Playing cards was a way for Hiram to work off the frustrations that had been building due to Lavinia’s strange behavior.
He was certain that she was lying about not feeling up to eating at the dining table with Hiram. He knew she had no love for him and had always kept her distance from him even when Virgil was alive.
Well, he would show her a thing or two about avoiding Hiram Price, he thought angrily to himself.
He planned to go to his sister-in-law’s room as soon as he returned home from visiting his old pal Fred. After getting a few drinks in him, he would have the courage to face Lavinia. He would have his way with her by one means or another.
He had waited long enough.
And Virgil was no longer there to protect her.
Just thinking about having Lavinia in bed with him brought a sly, mocking grin to his lips.
“Well? You got more’n I have showin’ on the table, Hiram?” asked one of the soldiers named Jake, his pale blue eyes squinting as cigar smoke rolled into them. He blinked his eyes. “You got a full house, Hiram?”
A sheen of sweat lay across Hiram’s brow. He wiped it clean with the back of his hand, which was already just as sweaty. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” he growled out. He cast his one eye at Jake, who was anxiously waiting to show his cards.
“That’s what we’re here for, ain’t it?” Jake said, laughing. “Show us what you’ve got, Hiram, or give up and go on home. Ain’tcha got a pretty thing waitin’ on you since your brother’s death? You are beddin’ up with her, ain’tcha?”
Colonel Cox intervened. “We’ll not have any more talk such as that, Jake,” he said tightly. “Now just play cards. Nothing else. Do you hear?”
“That’s what I’m trying to do if One-Eye’d just play his hand,” Jake said, still glaring at Hiram, who sat across the table from him.
“One-Eye?” Hiram said, trying to keep his anger at bay. He wiped his sweaty palm on his pants’ leg. “Call me that one more time and I’ll show you more than my cards.”
“Both of you, play cards or the game ends here,” Fred barked out, glaring from Hiram to Jake.
“Yep, I have a full house alright,” Hiram boasted.
Hiram slammed the cards down on the table,faceup. He ran his hand across his brow and wiped it again, as he had so often during the card game.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Jake grumbled. “You do, after all.”
“Well? What do you have, big-mouth?” Hiram asked, chuckling beneath his breath. “Show us what you got, Jake.”
Jake’s face turned as red as his hair as he slammed the cards on the table, face side down, then shoved his chair back. He rose so quickly, it tumbled over backward on the floor.
He glared at Hiram, then hurriedly left the room. “Got no spine, that one,” Hiram said. He watched as the other players, five in all, threw down their cards.
“Seems I’m taking home quite a few coins,” Hiram said, snickering as he slid the coins over to himself, then swept them from the table and eased them into his pockets.
He was dressed in his usual black suit with a slim, black tie contrasting against his white shirt. His collar-length black hair was swept back from his face, making his one eye more pronounced. Sweat clung to his hair in translucent, pearly beads.
“Time to call it quits,” Fred said, gathering the cards as the men passed them to him. “Later, gents. Later.”
All of the men but Hiram and Fred left the table. Fred handed Hiram a fresh cigar and leaned over the table to light it after Hiram shoved it between his lips.
Then Fred, dressed immaculately in his blue uniform, with the gold buttons shining beneath the light of the lantern, lit his own cigar. He slid his chair back from the table and stretched his long, lean legs out, crossing them at the ankles.
“Hiram, I can tell that you’ve come today for more than playing cards,” Fred said, eyeing Hiram speculatively. He winced with distaste at how heavily Hiram was sweating. “What is it? Things aren’t going so good for you since your brother’s untimely death, eh? Hiram, did you ever figure out who was the shooter? Or…do you even care?”
“And what do you mean by that?” Hiram demanded. He smiled mischievously as smoke spiraled from his mouth, the cigar now resting on the edge of an ashtray. “What might you be implying, Fred? Huh?”
“It took no genius to see how jealous you were of your brother, Hiram,” Fred said, resting his own cigar in the same ashtray. “I knew long ago how much you hated Virgil and coveted his wife. Everyone could tell, Hiram. It was always there in your attitude and the way you glared at Virgil when he would not catch you doin’ it.”
“You’ve got a mighty big mouth today, Colonel,” Hiram said between clenched teeth. He again wiped his hands on his pants.
Fred leaned across the table. “Want to make something of it?” he taunted. “Hiram, you know that I’m nothing like your brother. I don’t let anyone push me around. No one. Not even the likes of you who pretend to be my friend.”
“Pretend?” Hiram said, arching an eyebrow. “You think my friendship is all pretense?”
“Son, no one knows how to take anything you do or say, so how can I know whether your friendship is real or false?” Fred said, drumming his fingers on the top of the table.
“Fred, I am your friend and I hope I can depend on you as being mine,” Hiram said. He sighed heavily. He slid a hand inside one of the pockets where he had placed the coins and ran his fingers through them, jangling them noisily.
“You have come to ask me for something, haven’t you?” Fred said. He smiled cunningly at Hiram. “You didn’t come just for a few games of poker or chitchat, did you?”
“Not to ask for something, just to see if you have recently sent men into the Everglades to try to find that Seminole island,” Hiram admitted. He flicked sweat from his brow with his fingertips. “My brother thought he could peacefully coexist with them, but I’m not sure whether I can. If I stir up trouble, will you be there to cover my back?”
“What sort of trouble are you talking about?” Fred asked. He lifted his cigar from the ashtray and slipped it between his lips again.
He took a long, leisurely drag and let the smoke leave his mouth in casual circles.
“There’s this lone Indian I’ve been seeing sneaking around way too close to my property,” Hiram said, recalling the glimpses he’d caught of the Seminole in a canoe, far too close to his home.
Yes, his home.
He owned the plantation now, except for the portion that Lavinia had inherited from her husband.
“Has he caused you any actual trouble?” Fred asked, eyeing Hiram closely.
“Not really,” Hiram said, shrugging. “It’s just that I feel uncomfortable with him being so close to my property. Who’s to say whether he might come some day with a whole passel of Injuns and take over everything, even Lavinia, for God’s sake?”
“I imagine he’d be more interested in that golden-haired beauty than your land,” Fred said. He laughed softly. “Even I’d come around if I knew there was a chance in hell she’d consider courting me. My wife has been dead now for five years. I’m ready to settle down again. Lavinia would be a wonderful choice.”
Hiram leapt from his chair. He leaned down and glared into Fred’s face. “Don’t you think for one minute about coming around my place to court Lavinia.”
“And you think she’d take a second glance at you with that one eye and that God-awful sweat?” Fred said, slowly rising from his chair to glare at Hiram. “Hiram, I think you’d better leave. All you brought with you today was confrontation. Don’t come back until you are in a better frame of mind.”
“
The same goes for you, Fred,” Hiram growled out. “Don’tcha come anywhere near my place or you might find the barrel of my shotgun staring you in your ugly face.”
“I think you’d better take my advice, Hiram, and leave, or one of us will do something foolish, evenmore foolish than the words we are exchanging,” Fred said tightly. “Calm down, Hiram. You’re letting your brother’s death get the best of you.”
“He’s got nothin’ to do with anything I say or do,” Hiram said. He turned and stomped toward the door. He stopped suddenly, whirled around, and glared at Fred. “Just remember what I said. You’d best heed my warning not to come to my place ex-pectin’ to see Lavinia. You see, Fred, she’s mine now. All mine.”
“Like hell she is,” Fred said, guffawing at the nonsense that Hiram was speaking. Fred knew Lavinia well and knew she wouldn’t take well to Hiram’s attitude. The man sounded as if he thought he owned her, like one of his slaves.
Hiram gave Fred one more glare, then hurried from the cabin.
He mounted his horse and rode swiftly through the tall gates of the fort. The argument between him and Fred had stoked his courage to confront Lavinia at his first opportunity.
“Tonight,” he mumbled to himself. “Yep, by gum, tonight.”
Chapter Nine
They are not long,
The weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate.
—Ernest Dowson
Quiet little drops of water fell from the paddle as each stroke pushed Dorey’s canoe onward. Only the ripples of the water lapping at the opposite shore and the cry of a solitary bird broke the silence.
Dorey knew that she had already gone beyond the boundary of where her mother allowed her to travel in her canoe.
But everything was so beautiful and peaceful, it was hard to turn back.
Yet she knew she should.
She didn’t want to do anything that might jeopardize her ability to enjoy these quiet times alone on the river.
Life had been so hard of late; being in her canoe carried her away from the sadness of it all.
She still couldn’t believe that her father was dead.
But the fact that no one had found out who had done the ghastly deed made Dorey feel that she was no longer safe on the river, or even on the plantation itself.
Just as she started to turn back, she gasped and went pale. Two young braves in a canoe had suddenly appeared from behind some tall brush that leaned out over the water.
Before she knew what was happening, they had blocked her way, preventing her from going any farther.
She gasped when one of the young braves, who appeared to be no older than herself, raised a small bow notched with an arrow and aimed it directly at her.
She saw how small both the bow and arrow were, yet knew that even an arrow of that size could be lethal.
Having no choice but to lift her paddle out of the water, Dorey looked from one young brave to the other. They were dressed in breechclouts, their dark hair hanging down their backs to their waists.
“What do you want of me?” Dorey finally found the courage to ask. “Why are you stopping me? Why…are…you threatening me with your bow and arrow?”
Running Bear was the first to speak. “My brother and I have seen you before and are intrigued by your courage. You are not afraid to travel from your home and go among alligators and snakes…and Indians,” he said.
“You speak in English,” Dorey said, amazed at how perfectly he spoke her language. “Are you…Seminole? Are you from the clan who have made their home on Mystic Island?”
Deer Shadow slowly lowered his bow and arrow,feeling that they weren’t needed. The young white girl couldn’t get away even if she tried.
“Yes, we are from Mystic Island,” he said, studying her and seeing just how pretty she was. “We are Seminole. My name is Deer Shadow, and my brother is Running Bear. By what name are you called?”
“My name isn’t any of your business,” Dorey said stiffly. “But the fact that you are keeping me from returning home is. Get out of the way. I don’t want to worry my mother.”
“It is not our plan to allow you to go so soon,” Running Bear said. He spoke firmly, yet not in a threatening way.
“Then what are you going to do to me?” Dorey asked, almost in tears. She struggled not to cry because she wished to show these boys that they did not frighten her. But the truth was that she was almost sick to her stomach with fear.
Yes, they were only young braves, surely no older than she, but there were two of them and they had weapons.
“We do not plan to harm you. We only wish to take you where we have prepared a place for us to sit and talk,” Running Bear said. “But we cannot talk long today. We must return home soon. We are not allowed to leave our island except for a short time in search of small alligators and turtles.”
“Will you let me go when you leave to return to your home?” Dorey asked, looking from one brave to the other. “You see, I don’t want to be gone long enough to worry my mother. She’s been through enough of late without having me to worry about.”
“You are intriguing to us,” Deer Shadow said. “We want to hear about your life. We will tell you, in turn, about our people and customs. Will you come with us now without screaming?”
“I should scream, but I know I have gone too far for anyone at my plantation to hear me,” Dorey said, sighing heavily. “Where are you going to take me?”
“Just come with us and you shall see,” Running Bear said, standing and gesturing with a hand for her to move from her canoe into theirs. “You will soon see that we have good intentions. We will not harm you. We have prepared well for your visit with us.”
“You…have…prepared well?” Dorey said, stubbornly staying in her canoe, her hands clutching the seat tightly. “What do you mean?”
“You will come and see,” Running Bear said, carefully stepping into her canoe. “Do not fight us. You are not as strong as we. Come. Climb into our canoe. We will take you where you will be comfortable for the time you spend away from your home. We made careful plans for the day we would finally see you again on the river. You have not been here for several days now.”
“That is because my father was murdered and my mother is mourning his death and I am helping her through it,” Dorey said. She winced when Running Bear reached out for her, then jerked his hand back quickly when Dorey leaned away from him. “You cannot keep me away from my mother. She needs me.”
“We need you, too,” Running Bear said, this time grabbing her by an arm and forcing her to her feet.
“Now go peacefully with me. You will see that we mean you no harm. We are your friends.”
“Friends do not treat friends as you are treating me,” Dorey said, now having no choice but to go over into the other canoe.
Once inside it, she sat down, her arms crossed defiantly across her chest. “Now what?” she demanded, hoping the fear building inside her wasn’t revealed in her tone of voice. “Where are you taking me?”
Running Bear sat down in front of her, and his brother sat behind her.
They both lifted their paddles and turned the canoe around, directing it toward the spot where they had built their tree house.
Both boys’ excitement was revealed in their eyes as they paddled the canoe briskly through the water. “What are you going to do with me…or should I say…to me?” Dorey asked, looking over her shoulder at one of them, and then straight ahead at the other.
“You are not going to be harmed,” Deer Shadow said, looking at her as he momentarily stopped paddling. “You might even enjoy it. We plan to.”
A shiver raced up and down Dorey’s spine at a thought that made her insides turn cold. She was all alone with two boys who might be seeking excitement in a way that made her feel ill.
And who was to say that they might not even kill her once their experiments were completed?
She hung her head, yet fought off the urge tocry. She had disobeyed
her mother by going much farther downriver than she ought, and now she was paying for it.
“We are going to keep you for only one night, and we will not harm you in any way,” Running Bear said. “We have never been with a white person before; we just want to get to know you and learn of your ways. Then we will release you.”
“You are going to hold me against my will for a full night?” Dorey gasped, turning pale at the thought of how that night might change her life.
“You are making a big mistake,” she blurted out, slowly looking up into the eyes of Running Bear, who was studying her intently. “Let me go and I won’t tell anyone what you have done. I promise. Please believe me. I need to go home to my mother.”
“We will release you when we are ready to,” Deer Shadow said, his voice suddenly tight. “Soon you will see that we have prepared well for your visit with us.”
All was quiet for a while, and then Dorey saw a tree house built high above the river. “Are…you…taking me there?” she asked softly. “To…a tree house?”
“It was built just for you,” Running Bear said, smiling at her. “You will see that you will not want for a thing.”
“Except my freedom and my mother,” Dorey said sarcastically, yet she could not help admiring the lovely tree house. She knew that these two youngbraves had spent much time and care building it with her in mind.
Something told her that she might not have anything to fear except the worry she would cause her mother.
“We just want to talk with you and spend time with you,” Running Bear said. “You are a curiosity to us, and I am sure we are the same to you. You can ask and we will tell you about us and our people, and then you will tell us about your own.”
“You could have asked politely, and then I would have come with you without being forced,” Dorey said, thinking that she might really have done this, for she loved excitement in her life.
Even now, the longer she was with the young braves, the more she felt they were not the sort to hurt her!
“Just come with us and all will be well,” Deer Shadow said as he and his brother beached the canoe just beneath the tree house and secured it to a rock.
Savage Flames Page 5
