Rose's Pledge (43 page)

Panting as he caught up, Nate grinned from ear to ear. “The Indians turned back!” He gasped, gulping another breath. “Passed right by me about an hour ago.”

Rose slowly stood from her hiding place. “Are you saying …?”

“Aye.” He came closer, his eyes sparkling in a way she hadn’t seen in weeks. “We can get on the trail now.”

Robert wasn’t quite ready to relinquish all caution. “You’re sure
all
of ‘em went by? The whole search party?”

“Ever’ last stinkin’ one of ‘em. I counted all eight Senecas trottin’ on by me. An’ they looked real eager to get back. I figger they must be as tired of this as we are.”

His friend thumped him soundly on the back. “By tomorrow eve we should be able to do some real huntin’ then.”

“Not only that.” Nate laughed as he caught Rose’s face in his hands. “We can have us as big a fire as we want.”

“Tonight?” she breathed, almost unable to speak for joy.

His smile faded and his shoulders sagged as he released his hold. “I should’a said tomorrow, love. Tomorrow night.”

She took a deep breath and tipped her head. “Well, now. That’s something for us all to look forward to.”

“That it is.” He drew her into a hug. “We got a whole lot of things to look forward to now.”

He called me his
love. Rose could hardly breathe.

“Looking forward to
is more like what I expect you to keep in mind,” Robert reprimanded from behind.

Easing away from her, Nate turned to his friend, who stood with his arm around Shining Star’s shoulders. “Don’t you think you oughta be takin’ some of your own advice,
pal?”

Rose covered a smile with her hand as Robert glanced from Star to Nate. “It’s different with the two of us. We were married by the Miami chieftain.”

“Well, you ain’t married in the sight of almighty God.” Rose burst out laughing. The danger was surely over now—the men were bandying words back and forth, like old times.

Raising her mud-caked hem to step over a root on the trail as she walked alongside Nate, Rose noticed that the leather uppers of her shoes had become unrecognizable, though they’d somehow held together. The trusty walking stick Nate had fashioned for her did make walking easier.

Not even the cold could put a damper on her mood. A couple of hours from now, the men would build roaring campfires—one for toasting themselves and one for roasting whatever game they’d shoot. Better still, in a few more days they’d walk down to the Delaware River and beyond, to safety. She hoped the river wasn’t frozen over. A time of drifting down its current would be a lovely change from walking.

Extending her once-creamy hands out before her, she grimaced at how rough they’d gotten, how browned by the sun. And she didn’t have any clothing to wear, having left every last stitch behind in the burned wigwam. If her family could see her now, they’d be appalled.

“I’m glad I didn’t write to my sisters and let them know exactly where I was,” she said, doing her best to match Nate’s long-legged strides. “By now the colonies must know about the attack on Mr. Frazier’s tradin’ post. The girls would’ve been beside themselves with worry.”

He looked down at her and took one of her hands in his. “Tell you what. When we deliver the baby to her grandparents in the spring, we’ll go visit those sisters of yours an’ see how they’re farin’.”

She felt comforted by his words but could only manage a sad smile. “I had so hoped to be able to buy them out of servitude. If only one of us had thought to bring the money Mr. Hawkes paid us.”

Nate chuckled. “We had other pressin’ matters at the moment.”

“Quite right.” She nodded thoughtfully. “But speaking of Jenny Ann, it’s going to be terribly hard to give her up. I shall miss her so much.”

He gave an empathetic squeeze to her hand. “Me, too. You know, we could write to her kin an’ tell ‘em how attached we are to her. Mebbe they’d let us keep her.”

“What are you saying?” Surely he didn’t mean he’d be willing to settle down in one place and help raise her!

Nate came to a halt, stopping her along with him. “I may not be as thick with the Lord as you’d like me to be, Rose, but me and Him’s been havin’ some real interestin’ conversations lately.”

Conversations? Was there no reverence? Did Nate assume he could treat almighty God like one of his pals? “Nate—”

He dropped her hand and stepped back, his eyes narrowing. “I can tell by the look on your face. You still don’t think I’m good enough for you. Now that you’re all free an’ clear an’ goin’ back to civilization, you figger you don’t need a rough guy like me no more. Figger you can snag yourself some bloke who’s a whole lot more upstandin’, more—”

Robert turned back abruptly, almost bumping into them. He glowered and held a finger up to his lips. “I hear horses up ahead. Get off the trail, Rose, till Nate an’ me see who it is.”

Seeing that Shining Star had already ducked into the woods with the baby, Rose felt her blood turn cold. “More Indians?”

“I doubt it.” Nate’s words came out on a harsh note as he sprinkled gunpowder into the flashpan of his musket. “Most likely trappers comin’ in for winter pelts. Best not to take chances, though. Hurry!” Anger still sparked in his eyes.

Rose grabbed his shoulder. “Not till I tell you your
figuring
is a bunch of nonsense.”

“Go!” He replugged his powder horn. “We’ll talk later.”

Nate and Bob positioned themselves behind trees on either side of the trail, waiting for the source of the creaks and groans of leather and the hoofbeats to crest the hill. Two bearded riders came into sight, each pulling a pack animal.

As they drew nearer, Nate let out an easy breath. “Looks like Reynolds an’ Stuart,” he called across to Bob. Stepping out onto the trail, he waved his rifle overhead in greeting as a relieved grin spread across his face.

The rawboned men, bundled in heavy fur wraps, gave a jaunty return wave. The first one shook his head. “Well, if it ain’t Nate Kinyon an’ Black Horse Bob. An’ still sportin’ their scalps, yet.”

Nate grinned back. “Aye. Barely.” He turned and hollered into the woods, “You gals can come out. They’re friends.”

Bob strode forward. “Howdy, boys. Sure is good to see a friendly face.”

Rose emerged from the stand of trees, checking her hair and drawing her worn cloak snugly about herself. Nate had to chuckle at the sight.
Women. Always worryin’ about their looks
.

“How—” The greeting died in Stuart’s mouth as he spotted the women stepping onto the trail. A white woman never ceased to catch everyone by surprise. He and his partner dismounted and walked straight to Rose.

“Ya poor thing.” Reynolds’s bushy eyebrows dipped into a frown. “Don’t ya be frettin’ none, yer on yer way home now.” He turned to Nate. “What’d you boys have to fork out to ransom the gal back?”

“I wasn’t a hostage,” Rose said. “I worked for Eustice Smith until he went to be with the Lord.”

Reynolds whipped the coonskin cap off his wiry hair. “You was at Smith’s tradin’ post? Well, I’ll be a—” He clamped his mouth shut before uttering something Nate was sure was not fit for feminine ears.

He and his partner crowded close. “Well, I’ll be,” they said in unison, wagging their shaggy heads.

Not appreciating the way the hunters were surrounding Rose, Nate edged to her side. “We’re in a real hurry to get back to the Delaware.”

“Aye.” Bob nodded. “Some Frenchies an’ a big party of Senecas from up north came sneakin’ into Muskingum b’fore dawn a week ago. They been chasin’ after us. They finally gave up an’ turned back the day b’fore yesterday.”

“Turned back, did they?” Surprise tinged Stuart’s expression. He narrowed his beady eyes.

Nate slipped closer to Rose. “We covered our tracks real good when we left then did our best to stay off the trail, so they were never sure we was comin’ this way. They passed us by that first day and kept right on goin’. They must’a waited up ahead, hopin’ we’d come to them. When we never did, they gave up and went back. I’m sure they sent out trackers to the north and south, too. Figgered we might’a went thataway.”

Reynolds scratched his head. “‘Bout how far ahead of us would ya say them Injuns be?”

“Two, mebbe three days,” Bob answered as Shining Star moved alongside him. “You should pick up their tracks in a couple’a miles.” He helped unhook the cradleboard on Star’s back and brought Jenny around to the front.

Both hunters gawked.

“Whose babe is that?”

“Mine.” Nate blurted the word without thinking. He didn’t like the way the pair kept ogling Rose. He caught Bob’s glare and attributed it to the lie, but he still didn’t correct the error. He maintained a steady glare.

Reynolds kneaded his scraggly beard and looked from Nate to Rose and back. “I didn’t know ya had a young’un.”

Stuart picked up on Nate’s not-so-subtle warning and changed the subject. “So Smith’s tradin’ post was taken by the French, too. Make sure ya get word to Governor Dinwiddie. He’ll be mighty interested. Last month he talked to the Virginia House of Burgesses about them forts the Frenchies are puttin’ up on the south side of Lake Erie. Dinwiddie told the assembly the Crown wants ‘em to take some tax money an’ raise a militia. Well, the House was already up in arms about some fool taxes the king started slappin’ on the colonies. The whole meetin’ turned into such a ballyhoo over the new taxes, nothin’ was done about raisin’ a militia a’tall.”

“That’s it?” Nate was appalled.

The hunter cocked his head. “Far as the House is concerned. When Dinwiddie found out the Frenchies took Logstown, too, he—”

Bob’s mouth gaped in dismay. “They took Venanga an’ Logstown?

Both?”

“‘Fraid so. An now from what you say, they got Smith’s.”

“Aye.” Nate let out a weary breath. “Guess they figgered on gettin’ themselves one more before the hard winter sets in. What galls me is there ain’t nobody doin’ a blasted thing to stop ‘em.”

“That ain’t entirely so.” A slow grin widened Stuart’s weathered face. “The governor dubbed some young surveyor named Washington a major an’ sent him forth.”

“Then Dinwiddie did raise a militia despite the House of Burgesses.”

“Not exactly.” The other hunter swapped grins with his partner. “He sent Washington with a letter, him an’ a couple’a longhunters an’ a interpreter. Now ain’t that just a hoot! ‘Monsieur Frenchie, would y’all please leave? We ain’t got no militia, but we’d sure appreciate it if ya’d go.’ “Both men howled.

Nate failed to see the humor in any of it and noted that Bob didn’t either. “Well anyways, you boys know what you’re walkin’ into.”

“That we do.” Reynolds sobered. “That’s why we’re fixin’ to turn south when we reach the west fork of the Monongahela. Goin’ down Cherokee way. Winter furs won’t be as plush, but we’ll still have our scalps.”

Nate nodded. “That fork was froze over when we crossed it.”

“We ain’t plannin’ to go over it again. Figure we’ll stay on this side. We best get a move on, too. Only got a couple more hours before dark.”

Even with his dismissal, both hunters turned to Rose, looking much too pleased at the sight of her. They tipped their caps as Nate wrapped a proprietary arm around her.

“Been a real pleasure, ma’am.”

Chapter 38