Westward Moon

by Linda Bridey

  “Sometimes they need to be kept in line and be taught how to be obedient,” Panther said.

  “Women are to be respected, to be treated as equals. You were taught that the same as I was,” Jack said. “The difference is that I’m a real man because I abide by those laws, but you choose to disregard them and act like a coward.”

  Panther’s nostrils flared. “I think we should see who the real man is. I challenge you to a death match.”

  “Fine,” Jack said, “but let’s make it interesting.”

  “Jack! No!” Sparrow shouted. “Do not do this.”

  Tessa said, “Jack, listen to her. Please.”

  Jack ignored them. “If I win, your braves have to leave my family alone. That includes Sparrow and our baby.”

  “My baby. If I win, well, there are a lot of nice women here, and a few children who would make good slaves. And many fine things we could sell and trade, too.” Panther said. “Do you understand what’s at stake?”

  “Oh, I understand completely,” Jack said and started taking off his shirt. He pulled a wicked looking knife from an ankle holster.

  “Wait!” Mike said. “Wait! Please let me take the children inside so they don’t have to see this. Please! I ask that grant me this small indulgence.”

  Panther smiled. “You are lucky that I am feeling generous, boy. Go ahead, but Golden Sun will go with you.”

  Mike said, “Thank you. Sasha, give Kayla to me and I’ll take her. It’ll be ok. The rest of you kids, come with me, too. Do as I say.”

  “Go with your brother,” Tessa told them. She hated letting them out of her reach, but she didn’t want them to witness what was about to happen.

  Seth said, “J.R., you mind him now. Understand?”

  “Ok, Pa,” the boy said.

  Mike guided the children into the house followed closely by Golden Sun. He put them in the twins’ room and gave the baby to J.R.

  “Hold her for a minute, ok?” Mike said.

  “Ok,” J.R. said. He was unperturbed by what was happening and disappointed that he wasn’t going to get to see the fight.

  Mike turned to Golden Sun and said, “I’m going to change the baby before we go back out. That way she won’t cry and distract anyone. Don’t you think that’s a good idea?”

  Golden Sun saw the wisdom in this. “Yes. Go ahead.”

  “I have to go in here to get the diapers and such,” Mike said as he pointed to his parents’ room. “You guys stay here,” Mike said.

  Golden Sun followed him into the room and watched every move Mike made. Mike gathered what he needed and returned to his siblings’ room. He took the baby from J.R. and laid her on the bed. He turned around to Golden Sun and said, “Do you make it a habit to watch a baby being changed?”

  Golden Sun glowered but averted his eyes a little. He’d been surprised by Mike’s challenging stare.

  As he changed the baby, Mike motioned D.J. closer. “When we go outside, you follow the stream to the camp and get help, ok? As fast as you can run. And be quiet along the way. Understand?”

  D.J. gave him a small nod as he watched the Indian. Mike finished and gave J.R. his sister back. “You take good care of her, J.R.”

  “I will.” J.R. said.

  When they walked outside, Golden Sun roughly pushed Mike ahead of him. Anger flashed inside Mike and he turned around and pushed back. “Keep your hands off me!”

  The other braves laughed and Golden Sun glowered at Mike. “You better be careful, boy, or I’ll be going home with your scalp.”

  “I’d like to see you try,” Mike said with a smile.

  “Mike!” Dean said. “Get over here!”

  Mike walked backwards over to his family so he could Golden Sun in his sight. Dean pulled him close and whispered, “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’ll tell you later,” Mike whispered back.

  “Now, where were we?” Panther asked.

  “I was just about to wipe up the ground with you,” Jack retorted.

  Dean said, “Jack, you don’t have to do this.”

  “Yeah, Pa, I do.” Jack pointed around at all of the braves. “You are all witnesses to the deal that was struck and if you have any honor in you at all, you will abide by it.”

  “Enough talk!” Panther said.

  Jack rolled his shoulders and said, “Ok. Fine.”

  The two men faced off and began circling, as they waited for an opening. After a few minutes of this, Jack used a trick he’d learned from Marcus. He straightened and laughed. “Well, this isn’t getting us anywhere.”

  Panther leaped at Jack, but Jack sidestepped at the last second and swung his knife in a wide arc. It caught Panther across his left shoulder blade and a red line appeared on the brave’s back where the blade had cut. It wasn’t deep, but the color was enough to bring out Jack’s animal instinct to inflict more pain on the man who had hurt Sparrow.

  Panther rolled and gained his feet. His back burned and he knew Jack had scored on him. He narrowed his eyes at the white man. “I think perhaps I have underestimated the white boy.”

  Jack laughed. “You forget who my uncles are, jackass.”

  “Oh, no. I have not forgotten. Why they would adopt white slime is beyond me,” Panther said with a sneer.

  “I could explain it to you all day, but I doubt you’re smart enough to catch on,” Jack said. He looked at Panther’s right leg and the brave followed his movement. Jack then struck Panther’s left shoulder, but Panther was ready for him and smashed a fist into Jack’s exposed ribcage. Jack went down and Sparrow screamed.

  D.J. and Katie ran along the stream. They’d been silent until they were far from the house.

  “You weren’t supposed to come with me,” D.J. whispered.

  “I wasn’t going to let you go alone,” Katie responded. “You might need me.”

  “I can take care of myself,” D.J. groused. “I keep telling you that.”

  “Just shut up and run,” Katie said.

  At eleven years old, their legs were growing longer and they were strong. They flew over the ground along the stream. Though they were young, they understood full well that the lives of their family at least partially rest in their hands.

  The first person they saw when they burst through the trees was White Horse.

  “Do you know where Black Fox is?” D.J. panted at the old man.

  “I’m not sure. What is it?”

  Katie ran on while D.J. explained to White Horse. She saw Reckless headed towards the horses. She called to the brave who turned as soon as he heard her. He smiled at her until he saw that she was crying.

  “What is it, Katie?” he said as he knelt down.

  “It’s a bunch of bad Indians. They’re at our house. They took us prisoner, and Jack is fighting the one. They called it a ‘death match’,” she said.

  Reckless stood. “You stay with Wind Spirit or my mother, Katie. Do not leave camp until someone comes for you.”

  He stood and sent out a trill to get as much attention as he could. Everyone knew that sound meant trouble. Reckless apprised their chief of the situation. Black Fox assembled his warriors and gave them instructions.

  Jack and Panther rolled on the ground exchanging blows and slicing at each other’s flesh. Dean, Seth, and Mike wanted to help Jack in the worst way, but the one brave still held a knife to Maddie’s throat. The other braves held their spears on the rest of them. Then suddenly something occurred to Dean. Jack always performed better at some tasks when he was harassed about doing them.

  “C’mon, Jack. Get this done! We’ve got other stuff to do, you know,” Dean said.

  Seth looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Shut up, Dean.”

  “You shut up. I know what I’m doin’,” Dean responded. “Let’s go, Jack!”

  Jack didn’t take his attention off Panther as he said, “I’m a little busy here, Pa. I’m workin’ on it.”

  “Well work a little faster, will ya?” Dean said. />
  “Would you like to do this?” Jack retorted as Panther laughed.

  “Sure,” Dean said. “Give me your knife and I’ll show you how it’s done.”

  “No! I’m handling this,” Jack said as he feinted.

  Panther blocked his blow and struck one of his own.

  Dean winced but said, “Doesn’t look like you’re handling it very well.”

  Anger at his father added to the anger he already felt. He channeled it and slashed a gash in one of Panther’s biceps. More blood ran red and Jack snarled in satisfaction.

  “Good, Jack. Now kill him off! Quit wasting time!” Dean said in his angriest voice.

  Panther laughed again. “Your father even sees how inferior to me you are.”

  Jack didn’t answer. He dodged in and hooked a hand around Panther’s ankle and yanked. The brave went down and Jack leaped on him. Panther grabbed Jack’s wrist and twisted it hard. Jack’s knife went flying and the group of onlookers gasped. Jack knew his situation was indeed desperate without that knife and that it was time to get creative.

  Rather than jumping clear, Jack clamped his legs around Panther’s midsection and squeezed as hard as possible. Panther felt a couple of ribs give way and grunted in pain. He drove his knife into Jack’s thigh. Though Jack cried out in pain, he didn’t release Panther.

  Dean screamed at Jack, “Finish him, Jack!”

  Jack was tired of hearing his father yell at him. He grabbed Panther’s arm, yanked on it to get the knife out of his leg and then used Panther’s resistance to him to help him sink the knife into Panther’s chest. When Jack felt it hit the hilt, he twisted the knife to cause maximum damage. He heard Panther’s breath begin to gurgle in his chest and let out a victory trill that sent chills down the spines’ of his family.

  He ripped the knife from Panther’s body. Jack was beyond thinking at this point. Pulling Panther’s head up by the hair, he was poised to scalp the hated brave when he heard Dean say, “Don’t! Don’t do that, Jack!”

  Jack looked over at his father and saw that his father held his mother who had her face buried in Dean’s chest.

  “Please don’t, Jack,” Dean said. “He’s dead, son. That’s enough.”

  Jack seemed to return to himself and dropped Panther’s head. Slowly he got up, tried to walk and fell. Suddenly, Lakota braves ran from the woods and at first the Samuels family thought they were more warriors coming to kill them. Then they recognized He Who Runs and the rest of their Lakota family.

  The brave who’d been holding Maddie threw her to the ground and Seth immediately helped her up as Dean began shoving everyone into the cookhouse. Mike avoided his father and ran to Jack. He took off his belt and pushed Jack to the ground.

  “Hold still,” Mike said as he wrapped his belt around the top of Jack’s thigh and tightened it as hard as he possibly could.

  Jack grimaced in pain as Mike secured it in place. “C’mon! We gotta get to the cookhouse!” Mike said as he started helping Jack up.

  Dean came out of the cookhouse to help them. Once they had Jack inside, Mike slipped back out the door. Reckless saw his cousin and acted as a buffer when Mike signed to him that he needed to get to the house. Mike scrambled inside and ran to the twin’s room. J.R. sat on the floor with the baby.

  “Where’s Katie?” he asked J.R.

  “She went with D.J.,” J.R. said.

  Mike was highly annoyed that his little sister had disobeyed him, but didn’t have time right then to worry about it. He said, “Do not come out of there J.R.” and closed the door to the twins’ room.

  He found his mother’s sewing box, fished out what he needed, and then went into the kitchen. He opened the kitchen cupboard where he knew Dean kept whiskey and got it down. Then Mike pulled out a clean sharp knife from a drawer and left the house. Reckless had waited for him. Mike spoke in his ear and then Reckless covered him again as he raced to the cookhouse. He entered the cookhouse and shut and locked the door as the fight raged on outside.

  Maddie asked him, “Where are the children, Mike?”

  “Safe in the house. Reckless is guarding them. They’ll be ok.” He felt that his partial lie was necessary to keep everyone as calm as possible.

  He took his supplies over to where Jack lay on the floor. His brother looked up at him. “What’re you gonna do, Mike?” Jack asked.

  “Save your hide,” Mike said with a smile. “Uncle Seth, please knock him out.”

  “What?” Seth said.

  “Knock him out. I need him unconscious and I don’t have time to brew the right medicine. Knock him out.”

  “Sorry, Jack,” Seth said and punched his nephew in the jaw.

  Jack’s eyes rolled back and his head lolled to the side. Sparrow sat down next to him and held his hand even though he wouldn’t know it. It made her feel better to be close to him. This was the second time he’d gotten hurt because of her and remorse washed over her. Only this time, she vowed to make it up to him every single day by making him as happy as she possibly could.

  Mike cut away Jack’s pant leg and was disheartened by the amount of blood on it and the floor. He said, “If you’re squeamish, look away now.” Then he started the job ahead of him. He used the whiskey to clean the wound. He tried to examine the wound a little more closely, but it was bleeding too much. Briefly he closed his eyes to see the proper suturing technique in his mind again. He opened them and started stitching.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Five weeks later, Sparrow stood looking around the yard and other buildings on the Samuels ranch. She could still see the scenes from the bloody battle in her mind. It would be forever burned into her mind. Watching Jack fight for his family had been horrible because there had been nothing she could do to help him.

  Reckless had given the all clear signal and they’d emerged from the cookhouse.

  Seth and Dean had both been angry that they hadn’t had any guns at the time so they had been just as powerless as Sparrow in assisting. Although Mike had gotten in trouble for sending the twins to the camp, his parents knew he would never have done it had the situation not been so critical. Jack’s leg wound had healed well thanks to the quick action of his brother.

  Jack came out of the cookhouse and saw Sparrow just standing there. He smiled at the sight of her big belly and bare feet. His fiancée was having trouble wearing shoes or even moccasins because her feet were so swollen. Even rubbing her feet didn’t help at this point. He walked over to her and put an arm around her. “What are you doin’?” he asked as he placed a kiss on her cheek.

  “Just thinking.”

  “About what?” Jack asked.

  “That day. Is it wrong that I’m happy you killed him?” Sparrow said.

  “If it is, then I’m wrong, too,” Jack said. “I’ve done a lot of killing the past six months, but I’m not sorry about it. I’ll have to answer for that someday, but I can’t lie about it. I’m not sure what we’re going to tell our child about him one day. They’re bound to hear it somewhere, but I’d rather it come from us.”

  Sparrow’s voice was strong as she said, “We will tell our child that he was an evil man who just happened to be the man who sired them, but that you are his or her father. Their pa. That is what we will say.”

  Jack smiled as he recognized Marcus’ words. “I think that’s the best way to explain it.”

  Sparrow and Jack had decided to wait until he was better and after the baby was born to get married. It wasn’t an idea situation, but there wasn’t much to be done about it except to move forward. Neither of them wanted a rushed wedding. They wanted to give that most important day the full attention it deserved.

  “I have to get going to work. Are you gonna be ok?” Jack asked as he looked down into the face he loved so much.

  “Yes. I will be fine. I will sit on the sofa and eat and play with Kayla,” Sparrow said with a laugh. It was the same thing she did every day now.

  “And sleep. Don’t forget to have a nap,” Jack sa
id.

  “I won’t have a choice,” she said. “Go, deputy. I’m fine.”

  “Ok,” Jack said and kissed her.

  Sparrow was restless all that day. There was no getting comfortable and late July was unbearably hot. Sitting under the trees was the best place other than the stream to cool off, but even the shade there didn’t help much. It was dry and they needed rain badly. She wondered around the property despite Tessa attempting to keep her closer to the house.

  Their baby kicked and moved around and Sparrow kept telling it that it could come at any time. They were ready for their little one. The nursery was set up. The women in the family and their friends had given them baby clothes that their children had outgrown. Sparrow’s Lakota family had also made Lakota clothing for the baby and He Who Runs had made them a beautiful cradleboard.

  As she walked over to the paddock fence, Sparrow reflected on how blessed she was to have such wonderful family and friends. But most of all, she was blessed to have a man that loved her and loved the baby. A baby that was his because he’d fallen in love with her and with it as a result. Jack wanted the baby to have his last name the same way she would.

  She heard Seth come up behind her. He rested his forearms on the fence and smiled down at her. “It’s getting’ close. You being all antsy proves it. I haven’t seen a woman yet who didn’t have the baby soon after being so restless.”

  “I hope so. I am so ready for this baby. I can’t wait to hold them and watch Jack hold them,” Sparrow said.

  “I hear ya,” Seth said. “I know that feeling.”

  “Do you think you and Maddie will have more children?” Sparrow said.

  Seth laughed. “Probably not. I think we’re happy with what we have. Of course, you never know.”

  Sparrow said, “We want more. I want to give Jack a baby of his own.”

  Seth turned to face her. “This baby is Jack’s, Sparrow. The same way Marcus was Pa’s. Blood doesn’t always make family, sweetheart. You see it all the time here. Owl ain’t related to any of our children except Marcus’ by blood and yet he’s their uncle just as much as any of us. The same for Black Fox and He Who Runs. Wind Spirit, Eagle Woman, and Hannah are their aunts. Don’t you believe that?”