She instinctively fell again only to have him pick her up and set her back on her feet, keeping her in front of him.
As he was straightening, another shot came. He shoved her back down into the snow and fell down on top of her again. He raised his head, seeing how far it was to the trees and was dismayed to see that they seemed to be no closer than before.
Another shot rang out and they both covered their heads with their hands.
“We have to run for the trees,” he whispered to her. “We’re just easy prey out here. Can you make it?”
“I don’t think I have a choice if I want to live.”
He admired her spunk. “I’ll drag you if I have to.”
“This dress weighs me down,” she explained lamely. “I can’t move like I should.”
“I understand. You just hang onto me.”
“Why are you doing this?” she whispered. “Why don’t you just leave me here and save yourself?”
“Why don’t I just cut off my arm?” he countered. “It would be a lot easier. Come on now. We can do this,” he said confidently.
“I’m scared,” she whimpered.
“I know. I am, too, but we can do this. Remember to keep in front of me.”
“I don’t want you getting shot,” she said worriedly. “Can’t we crawl?”
“We don’t know how deep the snow is.”
“I’m going to get you killed,” she said fearfully as he moved off her.
“No, you won’t,” he said confidently. “No honorable man would shoot another man in the back. Come on.”
She didn’t move. “Who says he has any honor? Can’t we crawl or even stay here?”
He knew she was scared and wanted to ease that. Maybe if they were to play dead, whoever was shooting at them would show himself just to check on the bodies; then Cody could get the upper hand and kill him if he had to. “Okay. Here’s what we’ll do. I’m going to stand up and the man is going to take a shot at me. He’ll miss, but I’m going to fall like he hit me. You can take it from there. I’ll play dead and when he comes out, I’ll take care of it.”
“What if he doesn’t miss?”
“He hasn’t hit yet,” he reasoned. “I want you to know that I’m going to kill him if I have to,” he said seriously. “I don’t enjoy killing people, but I will do it if it comes down to you, me or us. Okay?”
“Please be careful,” she said with fear in her voice.
“I will. I’m going to act like I’m going to help you up, but I want you to stay down.”
“Okay,” she said nervously.
He kissed her on the cheek. “I love you,” he murmured to her.
Her cheek was freezing as the snow packed it. “I love you, too.”
He’d barely risen to his knees when another shot rang out and a searing pain went through his arm, making him cover it with his hand and fall down again.
She knew he wasn’t acting and bolted to her knees in terror. “Oh my God!” she shrieked when she saw blood seeping out between his fingers, staining the snow a brilliant red. “Cody,” she panicked. “Oh, my God.”
“I got him, Pa,” a young voice cried out excitedly from the trees.
“You sure did, son,” the father congratulated.
“Let’s go see what he’s got,” he said happily.
Cody heard them and reached for his gun. “Keep grieving, honey. You’re doing good.”
“You’re hurt,” she whimpered fearfully.
“It’s just a scratch. Keep grieving.”
Suzanne watched the boy run into the clearing, whooping and hollering with happiness as his father trailed him at a leisurely pace with a smile on his rugged face. She was appalled that the boy wasn’t much older than ten or twelve years old. “He’s just a little boy,” she said wondrously.
Cody didn’t look, but lay still, listening to them approach as he breathed hard with the pain.
“This Injun here stole you, huh, ma’am?” the boy called to her with obvious pride that he’d saved her.
She looked at him with genuine sorrow as tears streamed down her face. “He’s my husband, you moron!” she said hotly.
Cody looked up at her, almost smiling at the new word. “Keep going, honey,” he whispered to her.
The boy appeared beside her breathlessly with excitement written all over his rosy cheeks. “You looked like you needed to be rescued.”
“I didn’t need to be rescued, you idiot,” she said furiously. “He’s my husband.”
“What?” the man asked in astonishment as he came up behind the boy. “You mean to tell me you married an Injun?”
Cody pulled his gun from beside his leg and pointed it at the man. “And she carries my child,” he growled, gracefully rising to his feet, still holding the gun steadily at the surprised man, “Give me your guns,” he commanded coldly.
They both handed their pistols to him without question, both still stunned that he was alive.
He slipped them into his spacious coat pockets, and hauled Suzanne to her feet by the arm, glaring at the man and the boy. “Don’t be shooting at people you don’t know. I didn’t do anything to threaten you or harm you and you can show me the same respect. Come on, honey,” he told Suzanne patiently, tipping his hat mockingly at them and started to trudge a path for her in the snow, heading for the trees.
Suzanne looked back to make sure the two didn’t follow them and saw them walking the other way. She slipped her arm around Cody’s waist, wanting to help him. She feared he was injured worse than he was letting on.
Chapter 36
Suzanne was worried about Cody. He wouldn’t let her look at his wound, but it was bleeding through the sleeve of his coat and matting the fur. He was showing signs of fatigue as he shuffled through the deep snow, nearly falling more than once.
Cody whistled over and over for Titan as he tried to track both horses and was disappointed that they had gone in different directions. He knew which tracks were Titan's and followed them, sure the horse would come back. He’d spent countless hours training the horse with whistles, hand signals, and to remain calm in battle, the latter being a work in progress. Despite his tendency to panic at loud sounds, the horse was an excellent animal and Cody thought very highly of him.
“Will he come?” Suzanne panted, trying to keep up with Cody as he still maintained a brisk pace despite the cold and his wound.
“Eventually,” he muttered and whistled again as he scanned the horizon, looking for him. There was no sign of him and, without the horse, there was no food or supplies.
He knew he could hunt something, but there was no way to start a fire in the wet snow. He opted for nuts and berries, showing her what to eat and what to leave. As they trudged forward, he looked for a place to make a shelter for the night.
She was eating with him, picking berries of her own, but they didn’t taste good. She was hungry and ate them without complaint, still struggling to keep up with him.
He stopped abruptly and looked at her, finally realizing that he was making her work too hard for her condition. “I’m sorry. I’m wearing you out,” he said sincerely.
She was thankful that they’d finally stopped. “Can we rest for just a minute?” she asked as she tried to catch her breath.
“Yes. I need to look for a place to bed down for the night. It’s going to get very cold again,” he murmured more to himself than to her and began to wander away.
She didn’t sit or rest and stepped in behind him again.
He turned around. “You can rest,” he said easily.
She looked up at him uncertainly. “I know, but I’d rather stay with you if it’s okay.”
He led her to a boulder and sat her down on it and went down on his heels in front of her, holding her by her shoulders. “Honey, you are tired,” he said in a reasonable tone. “Just sit here and rest. I won’t be far.”
He could see the shrouded fear in her eyes and knew she didn’t want to be left alone and didn’t blame her. I
t was cold, the forest was covered with snow and there were wild animals around. Of course, she was frightened. Any normal person would be.
He ran his gloved hand down her hair that Marda had cut and gotten straightened out before leaning forward and kissing her softly for a moment. “I’m not going to leave you, honey,” he promised in her ear and kissed the side of her head. “You’ll be fine right here.”
She clung to him loosely then let him go, accepting the kiss to her cold cheek and watched him walk away, her stomach knotted with trepidation. It was cold, he was injured and wouldn’t let her help him, and they were both hungry and tired. It seemed as if everything was working against them.
He didn’t wander too far and made sure he could still see her and felt her watching him, wishing he could provide a hotel room for her, a hot bath, and a real bed. This kind of life was too hard for her. Although she never complained, he knew she was suffering.
He found a dead spruce tree lying on its side and pulled some branches off it and began to form a shelter, whistling repeatedly for Titan. He was angry now. He and Suzanne had been on foot for hours, were both famished and exhausted, and he was in pain with the graze from the bullet.
“He isn’t coming back, is he?”
He turned at the sound of Suzanne’s quiet voice “Who?” he asked patiently, despite his frazzled nerves.
“The horse. Titan.”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “He’s well-trained and should have come back by now. He may be hurt or something,” he said thoughtfully as he looked around. “When I get this done, I’ll go hunting. We need food to stay warm.”
“Can I go with you?” she asked with some hope in her voice, desperately not wanting to get left behind.
“I won’t be long. Food is plentiful out here. I’m sure I can shoot a rabbit or two without wandering too far. You should rest.”
She accepted his answer quietly and wondered how they were going to manage to stay alive in the frigid weather. She’d heard of people freezing to death in the mountains and the Upper Midwest. They had vicious winters and people were known to have died in snowstorms and the cold. She didn’t have winter survival skills and knew even if she did, she wouldn’t know how to use them because this was not her time. Not her era. Everything was different. She hated to depend on Cody even more, but if they were to survive, it would be up to him.
He slipped his arm around her waist and gazed into her eyes, seeing the uncertainty. “I’ll be back. I’m not going to leave you,” he promised.
She nodded. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Aw, honey,” he cooed and hugged her. “We’re going to be okay. We’ll have to keep each other warm, but I think we can do that. Don’t you?”
She nodded.
“Okay,” he drew away, kissing her lightly on her cold lips. “I’ll try to get a fire going and go hunting.”
“Can I help you do something? Anything?” she nearly begged.
“No. You just try to stay warm.”
She sat under the shelter, glad for the long coat so she didn’t have to sit in the snow and watched him rub two sticks together. She knew he was in pain, but he kept going at it anyway.
“I wish I had that thing you used to make fire,” he said good-naturedly as he took a break from rubbing.
“The lighter. Yes, I wish we had it, too. It got lost at the fort,” she said apologetically.
“Whoever found it probably had no idea of its power.”
“It really wasn’t power. They’re everywhere in my world. You can buy them anyplace.”
He nodded and went back to rubbing the sticks together with vigor and strength he didn’t have until smoke started slowly swirling from it, making him rub even faster until a small flame erupted. The wood was wet and the flame was weak, but at least it was going and after a lot of blowing and fanning on the smoldering pine boughs, he finally had a small fire. He was lucky to have gotten it going at all and hoped it lasted long enough to cook some food.
He showed Suzanne how to keep the fire going and then went hunting. He didn’t have to go far or stay gone long before he shot two rabbits. He brought them back and began to clean them, whistling for Titan while he did.
All their gear was on that horse, including the blankets, and it was going to be another cold night. It was conceivable that they could freeze to death if the horse didn’t come back.
He was worried.
~~~
Suzanne waited patiently as Cody cooked the rabbits on sticks. She wanted to help, but he didn’t want her to expose herself to the cold and it was, indeed, very cold. The wind was calm and the moon was out in all its glory, but the air was frigid.
The rabbits were very slow in cooking because the fire wasn’t doing much better than it had been before he’d gone hunting. He watched her huddle into the big coat and knew she was cold and hungry, but she never said anything about it. He wondered if all women in her world were like her. He’d never heard a woman complain as little as she did. He tried to remember a time when she had complained and couldn’t recall a single incident.
She was burrowed deep into the coat, but was still cold. She had her face buried in her arms as she sat with her knees to her chin, watching him over the fire that was slowly gaining. She had never been so cold in her life. She had a headache from the frosty air, but knew it wouldn’t do any good to say anything. Undoubtedly, he was cold, too, and there was nothing he could do anyway.
He watched her as she dropped her head fully into her arms as she held her knees close to her chest. “Hey,” he commanded to get her attention.
She looked at him.
“Don’t go to sleep,” he said sternly.
“Why?” she asked curiously.
“When you sleep, your body rests and when your body rests, everything slows down and you slow down until you die. Do not go to sleep.”
“Is that why people freeze to death?”
He nodded. “I would say some die because they fall asleep in the cold. It isn’t a wise thing to do. I don’t want you to die out here,” he said seriously. “We’ve come too far to let that happen.”
“I don’t want you to, either,” she said solemnly.
“I’m doing my best to see that it doesn’t. After we eat, I’ll let you sleep for a little while but not long. Okay? I’m thinking maybe we should get moving again,” he said thoughtfully.
“In the dark?” she asked with surprise.
“Moving will keep us warm. The moon is bright and the light is good. But we aren’t going anywhere until dawn at this rate,” he muttered, nodding toward the rabbits on sticks as he held them in the weak fire.
She moved next to him and reached for one of the sticks. “Let me help. Okay?” she said quietly, knowing he was tired and that his arm must hurt like crazy. Judging from the matted fur on his sleeve, he had lost a lot of blood. He needed to rest worse than she did. He was constantly on the move.
He met her eyes for a moment, seeing nothing but warmth and compassion, and reluctantly handed her a stick.
They sat quietly, slowly rotating the slowly cooking meat in the flickering, weak flames.
“I’d marry you if I could,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “You are such a beautiful person. But I would never ask because nobody wants to be married to a half-breed,” he said sadly.
She gazed at him, touched by his kind words, wanting to tell him she would marry him in a second, half-breed or not. It didn’t matter. “Maybe you wouldn’t want to marry a white woman who is pregnant by another man,” she said thoughtfully, looking back into the flames again.
“Maybe I wouldn’t if she had gotten pregnant by another man willingly who wasn’t her husband,” he conceded. “But obviously that doesn’t apply to you. You were married when the child was conceived.”
She saw and appreciated his conservative values that were much like her own. “I never had sex with my husband before I married him, even though he wanted to very much. I’d nev
er had sex with any man before him or after him until you,” she said with some embarrassment.
He nodded slowly. “You’re a decent woman, Suzanne. I cannot imagine why your husband was so cruel to you. It wounds my heart to think of you being abused,” he said softly. “And it seems that’s all that’s happened to you since we’ve met and it’s my fault.”
“No, it isn’t. Not at all. If you hadn’t helped me in the first place, I probably would have died. It’s not like you turned me over to Chief Tall Deer and his son. They took me and you got me back. As for what happened to the fort, you were in no way responsible for that. I should have been safe there and I was for awhile. Then it got stupid, but it worked out.”
“The major was a madman,” he muttered. “I knew he was a little loco, but I didn’t know he was like he was. I’m sorry I left you there. Hell, I’m sorry about all of this,” he said distressfully with a shake of his head. “I probably should have left you at that thing, whatever it was.”
“It’s a car,” she said patiently.
He nodded. “Yes. A car,” he remembered.
“You did nothing wrong, Cody and I appreciate all you’ve done. I would never have made it without you. As for my husband,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Sometimes I think I deserved what he did to me. I never knew when to shut my mouth and I didn’t like him being out all night and carousing with other women and drinking all the money. I told him so on more than one occasion and it just angered him. I think he hated me at the end,” she said thoughtfully.
He gazed at her. “I can’t imagine anybody hating you.”
She shrugged casually. “It’s okay. It’s over now.”
He nodded slowly, mesmerized by the slow burning fire again,
“You know, you’re a really special person. You are the nicest guy I have ever met and you’ve been through all of this with me. That says a lot for you,” she told him quietly.
“If I were anything special, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now,” he mumbled, looking around for Titan and hoping he was hiding in the trees.
She ran her hand over his fur-clad forearm. “It isn’t your fault that the kid shot at us.”
For the Love of Suzanne Page 21
