Love in the Wind by Baker Madeline

Author:Baker, Madeline [Baker, Madeline]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Butterfly Kisses Press
Published: 2016-12-08T05:00:00+00:00

The morning of the tenth day, they topped a rocky hillside. The settlement lay below, what was left of it. Only the outer walls remained standing. Everything else had been burned to the ground, with only blackened foundations to show where buildings had stood. Iron Wing left Katy behind while he rode down the hill to read the sign, though it was clear what had happened. Indians on the move to join Sitting Bull had attacked the settlement, destroying everyone inside and making off with whatever horses and livestock they could find. Bodies littered the ground. Most had been gnawed by wolves, or by the great black birds that took to the air at his approach, circling high overhead while they waited for him to leave.

On foot, he walked through the charred ruins. There was no sign of life. He paused near the back wall of the fort, his face thoughtful. The Indians had suffered much at the hands of the whites. Now, with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse rallying the tribes together, the white intruders would be made to pay for the many broken treaties, and broken Indian bodies. The Indians might achieve a few victories, he mused, and they would be sweet indeed, but in the end the Indians would lose. He felt it strongly, and it caused him great pain. And yet, he would fight to the end, and fight gladly. Better to die in battle, with a lance in his hand and a war cry on his lips than to bow in subjection to the white man, or live penned up on a reservation, his freedom gone forever.

His dark thoughts were sharply curtailed by a shrill scream, and he whirled around to see a large group of riders surround Katy. They were a mixed bunch, made up of whites, Mexicans, and a few flat-faced Apaches. Iron Wing’s first impulse was to attack, but he quickly realized that such a course of action would accomplish little but his own death under a fusillade of bullets. Noiseless as a shadow, he melted through a break in the wall and disappeared into the underbrush.

Katy stared at the men surrounding her, mesmerized with fear. They were outlaws, renegades—she was certain of it. They were armed with pistols, rifles, knives, and bandoleros slotted with fat shiny shells. The men leered at her for a long time, all the more frightening because they did not speak. A man on her left slowly reached out and touched her cheek. Another ran a dirty hand through her hair. A third laid a hairy brown paw over her breast and squeezed.

“No, don’t!” Katy screamed the words, but only a hoarse whisper emerged from her throat.

Feeling more helpless and afraid than she had ever been in her life, she searched the swarthy faces hovering around her, hoping to find one that showed a spark of pity or compassion, but she saw only lust reflected in their eyes, and in the slack set of their mouths.

No one

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