by Karen Kay
Again, she chanced a quick glance behind her, but perhaps her look was too swift. She could discern no reaction from the man at all. When he spoke, all he said was, “I am talking about the man who brought you to the Minnetaree village, the scout, LaCroix.”
“Scout LaCroix? Oh, you must mean Jacques LaCroix, of course. He is not my husband.”
“Yet you travel with him.”
“Yes.” Her ire rose. “Good Lord, is it a crime for a woman to travel with a man in this country? I did hire a maid to accompany me. I employed Jacques LaCroix to take me to a particular village. He is not my husband.”
“But he is.”
“No, he is not.”
The man paused. “You do not understand. In this country, when a woman travels, she goes alone, with her husband, or with other women. To be with a man who is not her husband…alone… Her reputation will be marred.”
“Yes, well, perhaps it is a good thing then that my birth does not originate from this country, and that I don’t care about my reputation.”
The man didn’t utter a word, but by his silence, Marietta felt that he must certainly disapprove. It compelled her to say, “Mr. Rainmaker…”
“Grey Coyote,” he finally supplied. “My name is Grey Coyote.”
“Very good. Thank you.” She nodded, her demeanor sweet and one that might have spoken well for her had they been discussing a harmless subject over a cup of tea and a tray of biscuits. “Now, Mr. Coyote, understand, I was not alone. Yellow Swan, my maid, accompanied me. Also, where I come from, a woman may travel anywhere she pleases, and she may even hire a guide to take her to places, particularly if she does not know the lay of the land. And this is what I did. I engaged Jacques LaCroix, paid him money—gold—to bring me to St. Louis…a town farther south of here. That is all there is to it. Jacques LaCroix is no more my husband than you are.” She paused for emphasis. “And yet I am traveling with you.”
The rain began to fall a little harder, drowning out whatever the man might say. Despite this, she thought she heard Grey Coyote state, “I am your husband.”
“What was that?” she said, addressing the man behind her.
Patiently, as though women were a breed apart from men, Grey Coyote repeated slowly, “I am your husband.”
“You are what?” she asked, squinting against the downpour. “Did… Did you say you are my husband?”
“That I am,” he validated. “By winning you in the game of the bowl, I have become your husband.”
Marietta sat as perfectly still as she was able, which was a feat, seeing as how she rode astride a pony. Briefly, she wondered if she had been dropped into some dramatic sideshow, a badly written play.
The rain seemed to splatter everywhere—on her, on him, on the pony, on the ground—and she was beginning to feel particularly cold, but for a reason she could not quite name, she was not of a mind to let this man know about the discomfort. At last, she pulled her thoughts together. “You can’t possibly be my husband. I barely know you.”
“Yet I won you in the game, and until I can decide what I must do with you, I am your protector, which makes me your husband.”
“No. That makes you my protector and nothing more.”
“Hiya,” said the man. “It is you who does not understand. A husband is a protector. And this I must be until I can take you to your own people.”
Marietta sat up straight. Take her to her own people? Was there hope for her after all? “You…you…” she mumbled. “Do you mean that you will take me to St. Louis?”
“I do not know what this St. Louis is.”
“I told you. It is a village that lies south of here. It is a white man’s village, and it is situated on the western side of the Mississippi River.”
“Humph.”
“Then you are taking me there?”
“Hiya. No.”
“But…I thought you said…”
“I am en route to a trader’s post, where I will leave you. It is not far from here, and it is not called St. Louis.”
“I see.” Marietta slumped against her backrest, which was the man himself. Suddenly, she sat up straight again. “But…”
“I will take you no farther.”
She didn’t answer. A trader’s post? Something off the beaten track? She could very well be stuck there for months and months.
As they continued onward, the rain let up slightly, but a wind had started to blow, and Marietta grew colder yet. Goose bumps appeared on her arms, and involuntarily she shivered, her teeth rattling. When he tightened his arm around her—almost as involuntary an action as hers had been—she asked, “Is it necessary that we wander in this rain and wind? Couldn’t we stop, seek some shelter?”
“Humph. The rain does not hurt a man, and it does many good things. If you look behind you, you will see that the rain wipes away our trail, making it hard to follow. And this might be a good thing, for I think that your husband may be a poor loser.”
“He is not my husband,” she reiterated. “And, since we’re on the subject, neither are you.”
They both fell silent.
After a while, he continued, “The rain is good also for the life that is all around us. The rain is food.”
Marietta blew out a breath. Perfect. She was captured by a man who thought rain was food. What were they to eat? River water? “If you call this food, sir, I think you may have a strange idea of it. Rain is simply water. True, it is necessary for life, but it is hardly filling.”
“And yet it must be food, for a man cannot live without it.”
Marietta pressed her lips together. “It is not the same thing, and you know it. It is…water. It is not something one can chew. It is necessary, but…” She didn’t finish the thought, mostly because to her own ears she was beginning to sound shrewish. Meanwhile, she and Grey Coyote fell into a rather protracted silence, during which Marietta tried to recall what had happened between herself and her guide.
Had LaCroix tried to explain this fate to her? If he had, she certainly didn’t recall it. No, her last memory before awakening to find herself in the arms of this man had been of Jacques LaCroix’s face swimming in her vision.
Sighing, she calmed herself. It could be worse. At least the Indian did not appear to be antagonistic, nor did he believe she was his captive. Perhaps it might be safe to assume that if she kept asking, she might be able to persuade him to help her.
To this end, she said, “You say you won me in this game with LaCroix?”
“Hau, hau.”
“Yes. I can see, given your understanding of the situation, how you might reason that you now…ah…own me.”
“Waste.”
“What does that word mean?”
“Good. It is good.”
“Ah… But, Mr. Coyote, I am English, I am not Indian and am not subject to your rules. To my knowledge, the English are not a people to be bought and sold in an Indian game of chance. Besides, this is America—many people come here to be free, free to live their lives as they see fit.”
He didn’t respond.
“And if this be the case, that we are free,” she continued, “then you don’t really own me and—”
“But you are not in your own country. You are in my country, and here, if we are to travel together, we must be married. It is to be regretted that this is difficult for you to accept, but I will try to make it as easy for you as I can until I can take you to the traders. Once there, we will part, and you will once again be as free as the wind.”
Marietta swung her head around sharply. “But how do I know that you will make it easy for me?”
“You will have to trust me.”
“Really? How do I know that I can trust you?” She turned slightly so that she could watch him as she spoke. “I don’t know you. I don’t even remember how I came to be here. How am I supposed to believe you? For all I know, you might have stolen me from Jacques LaCroix. It certainly seems to be a custom in this country.”
“I
did not steal you.”
She was not prepared to give quarter. “Or you might have actually encouraged LaCroix to drug me so you could cart me away without my screaming or alerting anyone to what you were doing.”
He said nothing to this, simply tightened his arm around her and drew her back against him.
“Well?” she asked after a while, wiggling around in his arms. “What do you have to say to that?”
She felt him shrug. “You are free to believe what you will.”
“But—”
“However,” he cut her off, “your observation is poor, if you think this.”
“And I might think it.”
He seemed to pay no attention to her as he continued. “If I meant to capture you, you would be tied and gagged. Do you see that you are not?”
“Immaterial.”
“I would have also taken you to my sleeping robes by now.”
“Your what?”
“A captured woman, and particularly a pretty one, is never left with her virginity—if she had it before her capture.”
Had he called her pretty? The compliment caused a warmth to stir within Marietta, enough so she didn’t quite catch the rest of what he’d spoke. However, too soon the entire meaning of his words penetrated. “You mean you… A woman who is captured… Mr. Coyote, did you…?”
“To you? I have not. Because you are now under my protection, I have not taken that which is considered mine to take.”
“And…and… Do you…? I mean…is it…? Will you?” She didn’t look at him.
“A wife has many rights,” said Grey Coyote. “Among them is the license to name her time and place, as well as her prerogative to say no. And a man should try to abide by it.”
“Oh, I see. But a captured woman has no rights?”
“None.”
“Ah. And a man should try to abide by what his wife says?”
“Hiya, not necessarily. But it is a good idea if a man likes to have peace in his home, and he generally does.”
“Fair enough. Then I order you to take me to St. Louis.”
“Hiya.”
“What does that word, hiya, mean?”
“To the Assiniboine, it means no.”
“Assiniboine. You are an Assiniboine Indian?”
She felt him nod. She wished she had spent more time learning about these American Indian tribes.
“Sir, you tell me I am your wife.”
“Hau.”
“And does a wife have any influence on where she and her husband travel?”
He was silent.
“Well?”
“It is the man who decides where the family goes, and when.”
“But the woman must have some influence.”
“Sometimes she does.”
“Well, Mr. Coyote, tell me,” said Marietta. “What must I do to influence you to take me to the village of St. Louis?”
He didn’t respond.
“Sir?”
At last he roused himself and said, “There is nothing you can do. My mind is already set as to where we will go.”
She turned toward him, and in doing so, her breasts brushed against him, sending a shot of excitement up her spine. She ignored it, certain it was only their unusual situation that caused it. “Surely there is something I could do to sway you to my plight. You see, a trader’s post is far away from where I need to go, and I have some urgency to return to St. Louis.”
Again, he remained still.
Whether she should or not, she plundered on. “If you would like gold, I could pay you, as I had paid Mr. LaCroix.”
“Humph!” He snorted. “I have no need of the white man’s gold.”
She turned her face outward, toward the environment. “Mr. Coyote,” she said, speaking as though she consulted the wind. “I am desperate to gain the village of St. Louis. There must be something you desire from me. Something I could give you if you will only take me to that place.”
She heard, or perhaps she felt, his low groan. But all he said was, “Perhaps there is one thing you could do for me.”
“Oh?” she countered, hope rising within her. “What is that?”
It took him a while to answer. “You could perform your wifely duties for me.”
Chapter Five
“My what?”
“Your wifely duties,” repeated Grey Coyote, his tone of voice the same as if he spoke to an infant.
Marietta was not the meek foundling this man might assume her to be. Perhaps she needed to demonstrate what she was made of, for if he expected her to…
Glancing down, she noticed she was, indeed, not far from the ground. With a sudden move, she swung her leg over the animal and jumped.
However, she had not accounted for the arm around her middle. Grey Coyote caught her before she hit the earth.
“Omph!” She hung along the side of the pony. “That hurt.”
Grey Coyote shook his head at her, but he smiled.
She glared up at him. As though she wasn’t dangling delicately from the side of the horse, she said heatedly, “Would you let me go?”
“Hau, if you really want to hurt yourself.”
“That was not my intention.”
“Ahhh.” He drew out the word. “Then it must have been your plan to leap down and set up camp?”
She sent him a sardonic look, but for all that voiced sweetly, “Of course.”
“It is not in my mind that we camp here.” With a quick motion, Grey Coyote pulled her back onto the horse, setting her upright and seating her in a sidesaddle fashion against him. “We will stop when I have put a good distance between us and the Minnetaree village.”
She squirmed in his arms, but if her fidgeting bothered him, he showed no sign of it.
At last she glanced up at him…a mistake. From this position, the man was much too close, the musky scent of his skin altogether too pleasant, and despite his rain-soaked appearance, Grey Coyote was considerably too handsome for her own good.
Perhaps that was why there was a tinge of desperation in her voice when she articulated, “Please, Mr. Coyote, it is very important to me that I make my way to St. Louis with all due haste. There are things that I must do, things I must see to, and I…” Abruptly, she stopped. What was she thinking? This man cared nothing for her concerns.
He gazed at her curiously, seemingly encouraging her to continue. Instead of speaking immediately, she clenched her jaw.
With brows narrowed in preparation for a good fight, she cleared her throat and said, “Now, Mr. Coyote, I am more than willing to help you, but there are some things a woman cannot do, and I will not… Well, you know what it is that I can’t… I won’t…”
He frowned. “Hiya, I do not know. What is it that you cannot do?”
She gestured toward him, toward his midsection. “That…that…well, you know…”
Puzzled, he glanced down, then back up at her.
“That…that…” she stumbled, “…lovemaking thing. I will not—”
“Hau, hau.” He smiled slightly. “At last I understand. However, when I spoke of wifely duties, I did not mean that we engage in sex.”
That he had spoken the actual word in relation to her almost unseated her, but once again he steadied her before she could slip off the pony. He held her firmly.
She shot him as casual a look as she could. “Well, if not that… What did you mean?”
He speared her with a searching glance. “I would like you to clean the game that I bring to camp. To gut it, cook it and do other things. Gather wood for the campfire. Light the fire when we camp, mend torn clothing. Tan hides. Patch moccasins. Dry meat. Gather berries…all those things that a wife is expected to do.”
“Oh.” It sounded like hard work to her, although harmless, at least compared to what she had thought. However, there was a problem. What did she know about cleaning game, or gathering firewood, tanning hides, or for that matter, cooking over a fire? She had been a lady’s maid for a royal princess,
not a scullery maid. “I am skilled in mending clothing, but I am not a cook or a gatherer.”
“Humph!” He pinned her with a scowl. “You were on the trail with the scout, LaCroix. Surely you—”
“Do you remember me telling you that I had a maid with me? Yellow Swan was her name, and she did all those things for me. I’m afraid I had my attention on other matters, things very important to me. So I didn’t pay heed to what she was doing, nor am I certain I would have learned completely from it even if I had.”
“Humph!” was again all Grey Coyote uttered. But his scan of her was filled with curiosity.
“However, if you would be so kind as to take me to St. Louis,” Marietta was quick to point out, “I would try to help you.” Anxious now to please, she sought his gaze.
“Hmmm…” He eyed her carefully. “Say the name of that village again.”
“What? St. Louis?”
“Hau. It is a white man’s village?”
“It is.”
“Perhaps…”
“Oh, sir, if you would take me there—”
His glance at her was sullen. “I might…if I do not find what I seek at once, and if it is in a direct line to that which I travel. And if—”
“Oh, sir, I would be—”
“And if you can prove yourself to be of use to me on the trail.”
“On the trail? Oh, I see. Yes, yes, I would do all I can. Truly I would. And what I don’t know, I could learn. I have been told that I acquire skills quickly.”
Grey Coyote raised an eyebrow. He gazed at her oddly, and despite the heavy downpour and its inevitable result, he seemed to peer at her in a way that pierced deeper than mere flesh.
Had he found her wanting? Did he realize that her promises stemmed from hope rather than ability? Flustered, Marietta said, “Honestly, I promise you that I am a quick study.” She gulped, and holding her breath, waited for his next words.
But she tarried in vain. Aside from the thunder, which continued to rumble overhead, and the occasional crash of lightning in the distance, there was no reply.
The fresh, crisp air that follows in the wake of a storm rang in the sunset. They had left three of their horses hobbled at the foot of a butte and had begun the climb to the top of a flat-topped jutting mound. Though they had chosen to traverse up the most gently sloped side of this small mesa, it was still a steep incline.
