Lois Carroll's 3-Book Box Set by Lois Carroll

Author:Lois Carroll
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Whiskey Creek Press
Published: 2015-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Ingor looked at Still Water with a proud smile and then at the gun again. Stepping closer, he picked it up and put it back in the holster hanging from a peg on the wall beside the door. “You won’t need this.”

“I won’t let them take me,” she said levelly as she went right on with her work.

Ingor froze with his hands over the strap on the peg. He looked at the revolver. He saw it all clearly then and understood how desperate she felt. Still Water had taken the revolver to use on herself if the Sergeant had come to the cabin to take her for relocation.

Would she rather die than go with Tall Cloud, too, if he came back and found her? He dropped his arms to his side and turned slowly to face her.

The bruising was gone from her cheek now. He still noticed her wince once in a while from a pain in her hip and ankle, but the swelling was down and the discoloration nearly gone. She was well enough to travel, and yet they had not left to find Red Moon.

When she had looked up and smiled as he’d come in, he couldn’t help but think how comforting it would be to come home to a woman who would smile at him like that everyday. He ran into few people in the territory and even fewer of them smiled. Most were grizzled old trappers who had nothing to smile about.

“Ah, the patrol, could you hear what we said?” he began, wondering if she’d heard the bad news.

She shook her head. “I not hear without opening door and I could not do that.” She went back to cutting another slice.

“I not think it safe for us here anymore,” he burst out, walking over to stand on the opposite side of the table.

She slowly lowered the slab of meat to lie on the warm surface and set the long-bladed knife beside it. Clutching the side of the table with her greasy fingers as if she needed its support, she said, “You want me to leave today.” It was not a question. She was stating what she saw as the inevitable.

“No!” he said harshly, hitting the table with the palm of his hand. When he saw her shrink back in fear, he immediately tempered his voice. “No, that’s not what I mean at all, Still Water.”

She watched him warily as he circled the table and took a square of cloth to begin to wipe the grease from her hands. “What I mean is that we need to leave. Both of us. Army looks for Red Moon and Tall Cloud looks for you. Now those two drunken bastards who took you look for me to get even. The Army stop here because I know most of what goes on around here.”

Pausing with her hands still in his, he looked into the fry pan where she had been laying the slices of fatty pork. “I’m not sure I can keep you safe here anymore.

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