She stepped back outside. The sun had disappeared behind a covering of grey clouds. The sudden breeze that blew her hair in her face sent an icy chill down her spine. Her gaze roamed through the village, glad that her teepee sat along the periphery rather than in the middle. She spotted Lucas, talking and laughing with a group of young women who gathered around him. Sophia’s lips raised in the corners. Lucas was a handsome man with a rakish smile. She was sure he had no trouble at all making all the young women swoon over him. Had Joseph been as wild and impulsive as his younger brother?
Instead of heading toward the center of the village, Sophia moved around her teepee to the outskirts. Although the air was cool, it felt good against her skin, and the wind that whipped through her hair brought on an almost exhilarating feeling. Before she knew it, she’d gone as far as the tree line of the forest. A sudden feeling of foreboding swept over her. She glanced hastily back toward where she’d come from. The nearest teepee was several hundred yards from where she stood. When she turned again, her hand flew to her mouth to suppress her startled scream. In front of her stood a woman about her own age, staring back at Sophia with a look of pure hatred on her pretty face. Although she had never seen this woman before, Sophia knew instantly who she was.
Chapter Twenty Three
Sophia stared at the woman. She stood rooted to the spot, even though part of her wanted to run back to the safety of her lodge. Her heart still pounded in her throat from the initial shock of Feather in the Wind’s sudden appearance. The Indian woman glared at her, a sneer distorting her pretty face. Hatred radiated from her eyes. Sophia had known some spiteful peers back in Boston before, but no one could match the contempt this girl obviously had for her.
Sophia squared her shoulders and raised her chin. “Feather in the Wind?” she asked tentatively. Did she even know how to speak English? The few Bannock words Sophia knew would hardly be enough to communicate with her, and she definitely couldn’t speak Blackfoot.
The woman laughed. Like a graceful dancer, she stepped sideways, circling around Sophia, glaring through narrowed eyes. Never had Sophia felt more like a prey animal about to get pounced on by a predator. The weight of the knife hanging from her belt gave her a small sense of assurance, no matter that she didn’t have any practice using it as a weapon.
“What is a white woman doing among the Bannock people?” Feather in the Wind spat. Her English was perfect. Had Joseph taught her?
“I’ve come home to my grandfather,” Sophia answered confidently. She’d had many years of practice dealing with arrogant women who snubbed their noses at her and made her feel as if she didn’t belong. She wasn’t going to let this girl intimidate her. She was home among her family, and nothing Feather in the Wind could say to her would change that.
“You do not belong here,” the woman sneered. “You are not a Bannock, white woman.”
Sophia straightened her back and looked the girl in the eyes. “My name is Kaakki, granddaughter of Chief Two Bears, and I am more Bannock than you. What do you want, Feather in the Wind?” She hoped her voice hid her apprehension. Her eyes darted to the large knife dangling from the woman’s belt.
The Blackfoot woman’s eyes glared with renewed hatred. She raised her fisted hand, and her contemptuous smile widened. Slowly, she opened her hand. Sophia stiffened, and stared. A tangled mess of dark hair lay on top of a small leather pouch. She recognized it as the pouch from her wedding ceremony that contained her and Joseph’s hair that signified their union. The neat braid had been severely severed.
Anger shot through Sophia, and she took a bold step closer to the woman. This bundle belonged to her and Joseph, how dare this arrogant girl destroy it?
“How did you get that?”
Feather resumed her laughter. “I followed the woman who buried it. You can no longer claim Nu umi Kin numpu as your husband. I have broken the bond.”
Sophia expelled the breath she was holding. Did Feather in the Wind really think she would fall for such a ploy? She recalled what Joseph told her about the hair, and clearly this woman was trying to intimidate her.
“You’re lying, Feather,” Sophia said confidently. For a second, Feather in the Wind looked stunned and unsure of herself. Sophia didn’t waste any time to use the woman’s reaction to her advantage.
“Only Joseph or I can sever the bond between us. You don’t have a say in the matter.”
Feather’s head snapped up to glare at her, the loathing back in her eyes. “He chose me as his first wife.”
“And you let him go.” Sophia dared a quick glance toward the village. Would Evelyn notice that she had left her lodge? Could anyone even see her this far away? With all the trees around, she and Feather most likely blended in among the trunks and branches.
“It was my brother’s doing,” Feather spat angrily.
Sophia studied her. There was only anger in the woman’s eyes. She detected no remorse or longing for something she had lost or given up reluctantly. Feather couldn’t truly love Joseph and regret that she’d left him. Did she really believe that she didn’t have a choice but to let Joseph go? It sounded like a noble thing to do, but surely if she loved him, she wouldn’t have let him go so easily.
“There is always a way if you love someone,” Sophia offered.
“A man will always favor his first wife. You are nothing but a second wife, a servant to the woman who comes before you. A first wife, a true wife, is always valued over any other.”
Sophia almost felt sorry for her. Feather in the Wind appeared desperate. She didn’t understand all the social customs the woman spoke of, but apparently it was quite common for a man to have more than one wife.
“Did you love him? Do you love him now?” Sophia challenged. Perhaps if she kept talking long enough, Evelyn or Lucas would notice that she wasn’t in her lodge.
Feather looked at a loss for words for a moment. Her forehead wrinkled, and her mouth opened and closed. Her eyes narrowed.
“I require a husband,” she said dryly. “Nu umi Kin numpu is a man held in high regard by the Bannock. I am his first wife.” She paused, a malicious smile forming on her face. “He has always enjoyed my sleeping palette. He will do so again.”
The woman wasn’t truly in love with Joseph. She simply saw him as a prize, an acquisition. Feather’s words stung, and for a brief moment Sophia wondered if Joseph had shared the same passion with this woman as he had done with her. She swallowed back her sudden insecurity, and held her ground. Joseph had said they’d both been young and foolish. If Feather thought Sophia would simply hand over the man she loved, she was sorely mistaken.
“You may have been his first wife, but I’m the one he chose for his wife now.” She took a bold step closer to Feather, and stared her in the eye. She may as well throw her words back at her. “It is my sleeping palette he prefers now,” she added. Joseph loved her, and only her. She was willing to stake her life on it.
“If you hadn’t come, he would have taken me back,” Feather screeched. In one swift move, she pulled her knife and lunged at Sophia. Sophia stumbled backward. The heel of her foot caught on a protruding tree root, and she swayed to keep her balance. A sharp pain sliced through her skin where Feather’s knife found its mark, and warm liquid ran down her arm. Without thinking, Sophia pulled her own knife, and held it out in front of her. Her hands trembled, and she backed up. Could she really use the knife to hurt someone, even this woman?
Feather in the Wind leered coldly at her, a deadly gleam in her eyes.
“You are weak. You are afraid. You do not deserve him.”
Feather lunged forward. Sophia stepped to the side to avoid her thrust with the knife. Her foot hit a rock and she stumbled. Before falling completely to the ground, the sound of a gunshot reverberated through the air. Feather in the Wind cried out, and the Blackfoot woman’s body landed heavily on top of her. Sophia’s head collided against a hard object, and a dull pain ripped through her skull. She blinked to remain conscious. Black
ness threatened to envelop her.
From somewhere in the distance – or was it close by? – a horse’s hooves pounded the earth. Sophia struggled for breath. She tried to push Feather’s body off of her. Why wasn’t the woman moving? Her head throbbed as if it had split in two, and dark shadows drifted in and out of her view.
Suddenly, the weight was lifted off of her. Sophia inhaled deeply. She blinked and squinted, trying to see. A dark form hovered over her.
“Lucas?” she mumbled. Her voice sounded far away.
Someone grabbed her arm, and hauled her up off the ground. Sophia cried out in pain. As hard as she tried, her limbs wouldn’t move.
Saddle leather creaked, and the man pushed her up and over a sandy-colored horse’s neck. Her heart responded with a jolt. A dun horse! The knife. Where was her knife? She fisted her empty hand. She must have dropped it during her fall.
Sophia struggled in his grasp, her arms and legs heavier than lead anchors. No sounds came from her mouth when she tried to scream. She fought to focus her vision, but the pain in her head was blinding. A steely arm wrapped around her waist, and pulled her against a hard chest. The rider kicked his horse into a gallop, and she cried out. Her head was ready to split open.
Off in the distance, several gunshots echoed, or had she imagined it?
“Joseph,” she mouthed silently, and her head slumped to the side as her world went dark.
****
Joseph guided his mount along the banks of the wide creek. Just around the bend, the tips of teepees came into view. What a welcome sight. He’d been gone for four long days. Too long not to see and hold his wife.
His search for Oliver Sabin had come up empty. After he and his father found the Crow warriors’ camp and asked them about the man they had seen, they decided to split up. Based on the warrior’s description, it could very well have been Oliver Sabin. A man about his father’s age, with dark hair and wearing an eye patch over his left eye.
His father had ridden south to scout out the trails along the Snake River, while Joseph had followed a more easterly course through the marshlands. They had agreed to meet back at the Bannock Village within a week if neither had found anything. From there, they would resume their search and head north toward the great Jackson Lake, and into the higher mountains.
If Sabin was in the area, where would he hide out? The high country was an obvious choice if someone didn’t want to be found, but Sabin’s presence here after all this time could only mean one thing; he was after Sophie.
Damn! Yancey had been right. The greenhorn had feared that Sabin would try and get to Sophie, and Joseph had dismissed the idea as ridiculous. He still couldn’t figure out how the man would have even found out about her presence here in the first place.
The obvious answer was the man on the dun horse. Joseph gritted his teeth and cursed his own stupidity for the thousandth time. He should have dealt with the man when he had the chance in St. Louis. He wouldn’t rest again until he found him, and Sabin, and made sure they would never get the chance to harm Sophie again.
Sophie. The thought of her sent ripples of warmth flowing through him. Her smiling face, the love that shone in her eyes for him, her touch. He urged his horse into a lope, eager to reach the village and his wife’s arms. Soon, they could begin their lives together, after the danger was dealt with once and for all.
He’d build her a cabin anywhere she chose. Perhaps she’d want to remain in the valley that his parents called home, or maybe he’d show her some of the lakes along the base of the mountains. The old cabin his father had built over twenty-five years ago for his mother still stood along the shores of a pristine mountain lake. He hadn’t visited the area in years. Maybe next spring, he would take Sophie there. Maybe he’d even take her to climb the peaks of the Teewinots like she’d said she wanted to do.
Joseph slowed his mount as he rode past the herd of horses grazing the periphery of the village. His eyes fell on the lodge he and Sophie spend their wedding night in, then his gaze roamed the village, trying to spot her. What had she done during the last four days to occupy her time?
Several children ran toward him, but their usual exuberant greeting was absent. Caleb was among the group.
“Joseph, Joseph,” the boy called and ran past all the other children. It wasn’t a greeting of joy. An inexplicable shiver of dread washed over him. Something didn’t seem right. Men and women gathered in groups, watching him approach. Where was Sophie?
Joseph reined his horse to a stop and dismounted. Caleb flew at him and wrapped his arms around his thigh.
“What’s wrong, Caleb?” Joseph kneeled to be at the boy’s eyelevel. Tears streaked down the child’s face.
“It’s Miss Sophie, Joseph,” Caleb sobbed. “She’s gone missing. A man took her.”
A jolt so fierce, he thought it might pierce his heart, shot through Joseph. He sprang to his feet. His mother came running from the direction of Two Bears’ lodge. Joseph rushed up to meet her. He held her upper arms, the look of anguish on her face confirming what Caleb had said.
“Oh, dear God, Joseph,” his mother sobbed. “I’m so glad you’re back.”
“What happened?” he asked, swallowing the bile that rose to his throat. “Where’s Sophie?”
“He took her,” his mother wailed. “I . . . I’m not even sure what happened. One minute, she was in her lodge, the next, we heard a gunshot.”
Joseph’s chest tightened as if a bullet had hit him.
“Feather in the Wind is dead. Several of the warriors gave chase, but it was getting dark, and they lost the tracks. Lucas still hasn’t returned.”
Joseph blinked and shook his head. He tried to make sense of his mother’s words. What did Feather have to do with this?
“When?” It was the only word he managed to produce. He swallowed several times, trying to work the lump out of his throat.
“Yesterday afternoon. We found this.” His mother held a familiar leather pouch out to him. The braid of hair that was his and Sophie’s had been cut and ripped apart.
Joseph could only guess at what had happened. Somehow Feather had found the bundle. She must have been lurking in the area rather than heed his advice.
“We think Sophie met her along the tree line, and they must have argued. Sophie’s knife was on the ground. Feather’s, too.”
“Where was Lucas?” Joseph asked between clenched teeth. He’d made one specific request of his brother.
“Don’t be angry at your brother, Joseph. Sophie was with me all afternoon yesterday. She said she wanted to freshen up in her lodge before helping me with supper. That’s the last we saw her.”
Joseph gathered his reins and mounted his horse.
“Be careful, Joseph.” She reached up and grabbed his knee. “Lucas thought there were two men. He said judging by the hoof prints, the man who took Sophie was not the one who shot Feather. The shot was fired from a different direction.”
Joseph weighed his mother’s words. He knew exactly who had taken Sophie. Now that Sabin and the other man were together, it would make tracking them easier. And he had prints to follow. He refused to even think of what he might find when he caught up with the men.
He nodded curtly to his mother, then spun his horse around, and kicked the gelding into a gallop. Anger mixed with fear coursed through his veins. If any harm had come to Sophie . . . Joseph cursed. She was here because of him, and he’d endangered her life, or worse.
Chapter Twenty Four
The impending darkness made it nearly impossible for Joseph to follow the trail of hoof prints that led away from the Bannock village. He’d covered a lot of ground already, but Sophie’s abductor had been in quite a hurry, and had a day’s head start on him. Joseph scanned the ground for another set of tracks to join the first, but the only other visible prints were presumably from Lucas’ horse.
It gave Joseph a small sense of assurance that his brother was in pursuit of the abductor. Lucas would have been only minute
s behind. Perhaps his brother had already caught up to them and Sophie was safe. Lucas was fiercely competitive to a fault, and if nothing else, he’d see this pursuit as a personal challenge.
When the night fully enveloped him, Joseph had no choice but to dismount his horse and continue on foot. He didn’t want to risk losing the trail, and the cloud cover in the sky obscured the moon enough to dim its light. He hadn’t covered many miles over several hours, and he cursed the blackness.
A twig snapped somewhere up ahead, and Joseph froze. He cocked the trigger on his rifle that he carried in his arm. A horse snorted, and Joseph’s gelding tensed, then whinnied a soft greeting.
“Joseph?” Lucas’ voice drifted from out of the darkness. A shadowy figure leading a horse materialized.
“Lucas, where’s Sophie?” Joseph’s heart pounded in his chest. He approached his brother, who appeared to be limping.
“That bastard’s taking her up into the high country,” Lucas grumbled. “My horse took a fall and threw me. Afraid we’ve both gone lame. I was trying to get back to the village to get a fresh mount and head out again.”
“Did you see anyone else? Who took her?” Joseph didn’t disguise the frustration in his voice.
“I only caught a quick glimpse of him, Joseph. Looked like a dun horse. Didn’t see anyone else with him. When I got within shooting range just before sundown, my horse took a misstep.”
Joseph paced in front of his horse. He’d clung to the hope that Lucas would be close enough to Sabin and the other man to keep Sophie safe. Now he was still a day behind.
“Get goin’, Joseph. I’m sorry I let you down. I can’t move any faster right now.”
Joseph stared at Lucas through the darkness. Even in the dim light, the grimace on his brother’s face was obvious. He still had a fresh bullet hole in his shoulder, and now an injured leg. There would be no stopping Lucas from boasting about his war scars.
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