For the Love of Suzanne (14 page)

Lone Wolf was immediately suspicious when Cody
asked for some healing herbs and directions on how to use them. He
knew that if Cody were sick, Lame Bird would take care of him, but
went inside his lodge for his wife’s advice.

Cody waited outside, watching his lodge, which was
a pretty fair distance from Lone Wolf’s. He could see it
clearly and was glad that the camp had settled down some and nobody
was around it. He didn’t want Suzanne getting caught.

Lone Wolf’s three sons were running around
with other children close by, laughing and playing, making Cody’s
heart twinge just a bit. He hoped to have sons someday, too and
envied his friend the family he had. His wife was beautiful and smart
and his sons were healthy and strong. The Creator definitely smiled
on Lone Wolf and had given him many blessings.

Lone Wolf came out of his lodge with a fairly
good-sized pouch of herbs and told Cody what to do with them, not
wanting his wife to be seen with his friend because of the danger it
might put her in.

Cody knew why Lone Wolf’s wife didn’t
see him. She was normally very friendly and chatted with him often,
but things were different now.

“Get her out of here before you are killed,”
Lone Wolf told Cody seriously and went back inside his lodge.

~~~

Cody went to the river and filled his container
with water before heading back to his lodge. He didn’t want to
bring any attention to himself and he often got his own water, so
nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He wanted to nurse Suzanne back
to health and take her back to where he’d found her so maybe
her people would find her. He just wanted her to be in better
condition first.

He saw Lame Bird talking with another man and gave
her a slight nod as a greeting. She did the same back to him. He was
relieved to see the man talking to her. She was a nice woman and
would make another man a good wife. She deserved children to care for
her in her old age.

He went inside his lodge and poured some water
into a different pot and set the pot on the fire. When it was hot, he
mixed the herbs into it and let it steep as he gently woke her.
“Suzanne,” he murmured, being careful not to touch her
arm as he ran his fingers over her cheek.

She stirred and began to cough heavily.

He pulled her to a sitting position, muffling her
cough into his shoulder. “Sh-h,” he whispered, slowly
stroking her hair.

She leaned against him wearily, trying to catch
her breath as she wheezed and coughed some more.

He let the spell pass and picked up the cup and
held it to her lips. “Drink this.”

She took a sip and grimaced. “It tastes so
bad,” she said in a gravelly voice.

“I know, but it will help you get well.
Drink,” he said kindly and put it to her lips again.

She sipped more before leaning against him again.
“I can’t drink anymore. I might throw up.”

He held her around her back and supported her head
on his shoulder. “Just a little more,” he urged gently.

With his tender urgings, she finished the cup of
the rank concoction. “Thank you,” she whispered sleepily.

He held her for a short while as she slept on his
shoulder, wishing things were different for both of them. He finally
kissed her on the forehead and eased her back down onto the pelts. He
tried to be careful of her broken arm, but he must have touched it
because she cried out. He quickly covered her mouth with his hand; it
was imperative that she was quiet. “I’m sorry,” he
whispered to her and pushed her hair out of her face as she looked up
at him with tears in her eyes. “You have to be quiet,” he
whispered, then bent and kissed her on the cheek. “So quiet,
honey,” he whispered in her ear.

She nodded.

He kissed her cheek and gazed into her eyes,
wondering if she even knew who he was. She was very sick and it just
made him worry even more.

“You have the chief’s woman!”

Cody hadn’t heard Lame Bird enter his lodge
and quickly threw the blanket over Suzanne’s face. “What
are you doing here?” he snapped.

She pointed at Suzanne. “That’s the
chief’s slave.”

He didn’t turn away. “This is not the
chief’s slave. I found her during the raid and she is not well.
What do you want?” he asked sharply.

“You stole the chief’s slave. She is
the only one with yellow hair and you have her,” she exclaimed.

“I stole nothing,” he said coldly.
“What do you want?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and smiled
smugly. “You’re going to have to keep me quiet now.”

“What are you talking about?” he
growled irritably, knowing she was going to want something in return
for her silence; at this point, he would give her anything for it.

“The chief is looking for her. They think
she drowned and was carried down the river, but we know different,
don’t we?”

Her arrogance was annoying him. “You know
nothing,” he said coldly.

“Ah, Black Fox,” she sighed longingly
and sat down beside him with a smile of contentment. “You think
you are so smart, but you will die for this.”

“And this makes you happy?” he asked
with mild surprise. She had asked him to marry her before he’d
left for battle with the white men; now she was gloating because he
was facing death by the chief. He didn’t understand this at
all.

“No, but if I can’t have you, neither
can she,” she said with a twinge of anger in her voice.

“Nobody is going to die. The woman is mine,”
he said calmly.

“You’re lying,” she accused
quietly.

He shook his head with disbelief, hardly believing
she’d caught him. She normally called out for him before she
came in. Why had she not done that this time?

“Keep me quiet, Cody,” she said softly
and raised herself to her knees to kiss him gently.

He was surprised by her act. She’d never
done this before. Under different circumstances, he might have
enjoyed it, but he turned his head and pushed her away. “No. I
cannot do this.”

She kissed him again, holding his face in her
hands. “You would rather have a white whore over a woman who is
one of your kind?” she purred seductively.

He set her away again. “She was never a
whore and she is with child.”

She looked at him in shock. “Your child?”

“I will protect her and the child,” he
said sternly.

“Is the child yours?” she demanded.

He knew if he told her the truth, it would open
Suzanne up to Tall Deer’s cruelty all over again and he may
even try to kill the child. If he said yes, it would be a lie, but
maybe it would make things a little more understandable for Lame
Bird.

“The child is mine,” he said quietly.
“I do not wish for my son to be harmed in any way. If you tell
anybody she is here, she will be harmed, my son will be harmed and I
will die. My son will have no father.”

She knew the importance of family, but she didn’t
understand why he had chosen a white woman. “Are you married?”
she asked in a hushed voice.

“No.”

“Then you must marry her,” she
declared.

He shook his head. “No.”

“She is carrying your child,” she
tried to reason.

“I cannot marry her,” he said sadly.

“Why?” she asked with frustration.

He couldn’t tell her that Suzanne was
married to someone else and that her child was her husband’s.
He couldn’t tell her anything to clarify the situation without
looking like he’d lost his mind. Nobody would ever believe he’d
found her in a machine that took her places without walking or the
aid of a horse or how she had been dressed or anything about it. He’d
be shot for being crazy.

“I cannot marry her and that’s all I
can say,” he said quietly, looking at Suzanne who was sleeping
peacefully, resisting the urge to touch the strands of gold that he’d
failed to cover when he’d thrown the blanket on top of her.

“She is very sick, yes?”

He nodded. “She is,” he said sadly.

She jumped to her feet. “Let her die,”
she hissed and stormed out of the lodge.

He leaned his head in his hand distressfully,
wondering how he was going to move Suzanne. Now that Lame Bird knew
she was here, he was sure the whole village would, too and he was
stuck until nightfall. In the meantime, he would have to find her
some clothes.

This was getting more dangerous with each passing
minute. If the chief were to find her here, he would not understand.
He would consider it stealing and have them both tortured and killed.

For the first time in his life, Cody was genuinely
scared.

Cody sat with Suzanne all day, but knew she had to
eat and he was hungry as well. When night fell, he went out to hunt
and gather whatever he could find to eat and find her something to
wear. He didn’t go far and shot two rabbits with his bow and
arrow, then cleaned them and headed back to his lodge.

~~~

Suzanne was coughing and wheezing violently as she
desperately tried to stay quiet. She remembered what Cody had told
her about both of them being killed if she was discovered. She’d
already had a brush with that and didn’t care for the
experience, so she tried to muffle her coughs into the blanket.

Her body ached. She still felt sick as she sat up
and sipped more of the vile concoction that Cody had put together and
wondered where he’d gone. She hoped he hadn’t left her
again.

Suddenly, five large Indian women came in with knives in their hands. None of them looked friendly and
none of them was less than a man in height and weight. She knew this
wasn’t a social call, but didn’t panic and stared one in
the eyes, pulling the blanket around her naked body self-consciously.

Before she could even think or react, one had her
on her feet by the hair while two others seized her arms and tied her
wrists together behind her back. The pain in her arm was
excruciating. She felt like passing out and was unable to fight them
as they bound her feet and hauled her outside into the darkness.

She was defenseless and feared for the life of her
child. “No,” she begged. “Please, no.” She
knew her pleas were falling on deaf ears and hoped that her death
would be quick and painless. She’d had enough.

Outside the village, several men were standing
around a small fire, laughing and joking around and went silent when
the women dropped Suzanne at the feet of their chief and his son.

Suzanne recognized Tall Deer and Walking Bull but
none of the others. She didn’t know there were any other women
around, until she heard one of them whimper and looked toward its
source. The white women were all naked, beaten, bound, gagged and tied to trees
behind the men.

Chief Tall Deer approached her, staggering a
little and waving a whiskey bottle. “You Black Fox’s
woman?” he slurred.

She looked away, shivering from the cold night air
and didn’t answer.

He yanked her to a sitting position by her arm,
making her cry out. “I ask you question,” he said
angrily. “You Black Fox’s woman?”

She still didn’t look at him and was shaking
her head when he slapped her hard enough to knock her back down, then
yanked her up again.

“You are Black Fox’s woman, yes?”
he demanded.

Her ears were ringing and her cheek was hot from
the brutal slap and she couldn’t remember who Black Fox was.
“Who?”

“You not Black Fox’s woman?”
he asked with surprise.

She shook her head. “No.”

“Then you whore like the rest,” he
declared and slapped her again, sending her against one of the women
who had brought her here, and slamming her broken arm into the
woman’s unyielding body.

“Untie her feet,” the chief barked to
the woman who caught her, and watched her cut the rope with a knife
and move away from both of them.

He took a firm grip on Suzanne’s hair and
pushed her onto her back and her bound hands, making her sob in pain.
“You whore,” he yelled and slammed her head into the
dirt, then straddled her abdomen, resting his full weight on her and
pinching her nose closed as he forced her head back.

She was crying with the pain in her face. With his
added weight to her arm, she was fading into unconsciousness, but was
suddenly gagging as the chief pulled on her jaw and drained whiskey
down her throat. She was thrashing and kicking, but he didn’t
stop and only laughed with the other men. She was fighting for air
and, in her panic, was able to roll the chief off her and coughed
until she vomited.

The man laughed as did the Indian women while the
white women sobbed.

The chief rolled around on the ground, holding his
gut as he laughed heartily.

Walking Bull dragged her to her feet and punched
her squarely in the face, sending her flying backward. He was quick to retrieve her and drag her to the fire where he stuck the ends of her hair into the flames, holding her down with his knee on her chest. The stench was sickening. She could see
it curling as it smoked and singed while the flames moved closer to
her face. Tears rolled down her temples as she was forced to watch,
wishing she could die any other way except by fire.

“No. Please, don’t,” she begged
and began to cough again.

One of the other men flicked an ember onto her
chest, making her shriek as it branded her bare skin, but Walking
Bull was heavier and stronger than his drunk father. He laughed with
the others and didn’t move the ember.

When he moved off her and pulled his loincloth to
the side, exposing himself, she knew what was coming and didn’t
know how much more she could take. “Don’t hurt me,”
she begged, trying to roll away from him.

He brought her back and pinned her with his hands
on her shoulders. “Don’t hurt me,” he mimicked her
and laughed with everyone before cruelly biting her lip.

She tried to move away, but he held onto her lip
with his teeth until she cried out, then released it with a laugh.
“Her blood is red,” he declared with a smile as he forced
her legs apart with his knee, oblivious to the cheering that was
going on around them.