Cavalry Scout by Dee Brown

Author:Dee Brown [Brown, Dee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-7425-5
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2012-09-25T21:42:00+00:00

Five

1

ALL I COULD THINK about (Singleterry repeated) was to take Marisa away from that place. I knew I must persuade her to leave her people and run away with me before Colonel Comstock or Sardis Pender discovered my presence on the post and became suspicious of my purpose.

So, with a careless remark to the bemused sentry—something about returning after a short while—I walked on toward the cottonwoods. A shrill cry and a sudden splashing of water told me the bathers had seen me.

Marisa had dismounted on the other side of the spotted pony and, as she adjusted her blanket skirt, she peered at me from under the animal’s belly. A second later she came running barefooted toward me, her black braids trailing over her shoulders, her face happier than I’d ever seen it before. Keeping my voice as low as possible, I ordered her to stop. “Pretend you don’t know me! Pretend you’re angry. Soldier back there is watching us.”

She understood, but she couldn’t make her face be angry. After one look into those blue eyes, I knew she would go with me to the ends of the earth. She began scolding in Cheyenne, making insulting gestures, and as I turned off toward the first row of cabins, I asked: “Which place is yours?”

“The third one, with the brush over its front.”

“I’ll meet you there,” I said, and walked on.

The cabins appeared to be deserted. I called out at the door of the third one, but no one answered. When I stepped inside, a warm mustiness surrounded me. The first thing I saw was Medicine Woman’s huge red hat suspended from a nail beside the single window. Somehow that hat was a reassurance against the odor of decay hovering in the air.

As I turned to go back into the sunlight, a shadow filled the doorway. Marisa! We clung together, and all the ache and hunger of the past days flowed away from both of us. When she drew back, her blue eyes were wet but smiling, and we just stood there looking at each other, drunk with the madness men call love.

“I’ve come to take you away,” I said. “Far away!”

She rubbed her nose along the edge of my chin. “Marisa so happy she cry.”

“Cry then. But when it’s dark we’ll go away from here, away where there are no Army posts or reservations, no agents, no bluecoat soldiers to tell us what we may do.”

She held her head back, her eyes studying me carefully. “You not wish to be soldier scout, John Singleterry?”

I shook my head firmly, tightening my fingers on her shoulders until she squirmed away. “Marisa go make talk with Red Eagle,” she said. “If Red Eagle say Marisa go with John Singleterry, Marisa go.”

With some misgivings I agreed to this, and we moved toward the door as if drawn out of the dank cabin by the bright sunlight. The spotted pony she had been riding was tied by its rope bridle to one of the cabin posts.

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