Red River Rising by B.J. Bayle

Author:B.J. Bayle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2012-07-13T04:00:00+00:00

Sunday morning, after prayers, Angus found Maggie outside by the paddock. “I’ve been waiting for you,” she said. “You must have had a big breakfast.”

Angus grinned while he patted his full stomach. Noticing her deer-hide leggings peeping below her skirts, he asked hopefully, “Will we be going for a ride then, Maggie?”

Maggie laughed. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Both River and Willow appeared to be delighted to have the bit in their mouth and riders on their backs. It was an effort to keep them from breaking into a gallop as they loped along the river and past headquarters. Angus and Maggie slowed the horses to a walk when they spied the North West Company flag in the distance, flying above the trees.

Angus looked at Maggie. “Are ye willing to go a wee bit closer?”

For a reply, Maggie kicked her heels into Willow’s flanks and cantered ahead. Angus followed, and the fort appeared through an opening in the trees above the river. The stockade was high — higher than the one around Colony Headquarters — but the huge gates stood open wide. Both riders reined in their horses to read a scrawled sign. In large letters it read: BY ORDER OF HIS MAJESTY, DUNCAN CAMERON IS HEREBY APPOINTED CAPTAIN OF THE VOYAGEUR CORPS. It was dated February l, 1812.

When Maggie giggled, Angus raised his eyebrows. She explained: “I heard Archie say that Duncan Cameron made himself captain of an army nobody ever heard of, and has about as much authority as a weasel in a den of wolves.”

Angus laughed aloud, and Maggie nudged Willow with her heels and rode through the gates. Angus followed her around a large grass-covered square, lined on two sides with rows of connected log buildings. Straight ahead, behind the tall flagpole, stood a two-storey building with dozens of glass windows and a porch running its length. When they pulled up in front of it a door opened, and the yellow-haired man who had arrested Mr. Spencer stepped onto the porch. Angus wished they hadn’t come.

Duncan Cameron still wore his flashy uniform, but this time a huge tri-cornered hat almost covered his flowing, yellow hair. “This is indeed a great pleasure,” he said as he removed his hat and swept it in front of him while he bowed from the waist. “Please allow me to introduce myself: I am Captain Duncan Cameron at your service.”

Angus gestured at Maggie and said, “She be Miss O’Hare and I’m Angus Fraser.”

Never one to sit in ladylike silence, Maggie added, “We were out for a ride, and saw your gates are open.”

“Come in. Come in,” Cameron boomed, and opened the door again to beckon them inside.

Angus heard Maggie’s soft gasp when they stepped into a large room, panelled in polished wood that gleamed in the sunlight that streamed through the windows. Plainly, this was the man’s office, for a high-backed stool was perched in front of a desk littered with papers, and shelves lined one side of the room. Angus knew instantly what had prompted Maggie’s sudden intake of breath: the shelves were full of books.

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