Noble's Way by Dusty Richards

Author:Dusty Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781590772515
Publisher: M. Evans & Company

Chapter Eleven

Sudan rode out the front gate, the winter sun on his wooly black head, two pack horses in tow behind him. His woman, Gunsmoke, seemed oblivious to the well wishers as she followed on her horse.

In his buffalo coat, the black man looked strong, capable of taking care of himself. Noble watched him leave with a slight frown. He didn’t even hear Fleta, so engrossed was he in the black man’s departure.

“Sudan will be all right,” she assured him, taking a hold of his ann to gain his attention. Noble smiled down on her. In the past she had pulled him out of a lot of moods by attaching herself to him as she was doing now.

“I agree,” he said, “but he’s going into a mighty inhospitable world.”

“He wants Gunsmoke happy.”

Noble rubbed a hand through his hair. “I know, Fleta. I just hate to lose him. Not only is he a good worker, but he’s become a close friend.”

“I know, Noble. Come back inside, I’ll brew some fresh tea.”

“Nothing I can do now.” He circled her shoulder and they went back inside the store.

Sudan was uncertain of the future as he headed out on his journey. He had the new repeater, a cap and ball Colt Noble gave him, and enough ammunition to last a while. But his new woman worried him more than any unknown trouble ahead. The beautiful Comanche woman, so supple and lovely, seemed to him like she was dead inside. Nothing he did for her or to her raised even a spark of life. She just accepted his advances. Finally in disgust, he began to sleep alone. He was angry because he couldn’t awaken her womanhood, yet he was not so desperate as to take an unwilling woman.

The days grew warmer as they crossed the short grass land, bisected with fewer streams. He avoided Indian camps and the larger buffalo herds.

Sudan shot a small deer for their meat. He noticed the woman working the hide as they rode. He shifted his eyes to the brown sea of short grass, for he knew if he looked at her, he would be tempted by her physical beauty.

He had no idea how much further he must travel. There was nothing—no trees, no hills, just open grass prairie. Gunsmoke rode beside him and handed him a buckskin fringed scabbard for his rifle. He frowned suspiciously at her gift.

“Now that sure is pretty,” he said aloud, admiring the fringed cover.

She rose in the stirrups and pointed southwest. Sudan blinked at her. A smile was flickering at the corner of her mouth and a light sparkled in her brown pupils.

They were five days out of Noble’s Fort. Sudan sighed wryly at the abrupt change in the woman. Either the bad water they’d been drinking hit her or the good Lord had silently struck her. His spirits rose as he pushed the oily barrel into the deerhide sheath. Certainly he was not going to worry about what caused the damage. He was too elated.

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