Stone Heart's Woman by Velda Brotherton

Author:Velda Brotherton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, western, historical
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2012-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

After he left Aiden’s bed, Stone Heart spent the remainder of the night looking for his people. They were no longer imprisoned in the building from which they’d made their escape. Often, in his search, he would have to scurry into hiding when a guard approached. Several patrolled the grounds all night long. But they were awkward white men, not accustomed to going about silently, so he had little trouble avoiding them.

He slept not at all that night, but wandered throughout the fort, slipping in silence from shadow to shadow in what seemed an endless and hopeless quest. Hunkering in a protected corner when he grew too cold to move about. In the flickering light from the watch fires, tended by rotating guards who stood over the flames to warm themselves, he continued his search. If he didn’t find the Cheyenne before dawn then it would mean another day and into the night they would have to endure the hardships of starvation. Some would die of it. He had to do something.

He did, however, find the dead, brought in and stacked behind the sawmill, looking like cords of wood. Frozen stiff by the bitter cold, the corpses lay one on top of the other. He saw some he knew, others whose features were no longer recognizable because of their wounds. He could not find Dull Knife or Roman Nose or Little Finger Nail, nor the warrior woman Buffalo Calf Road. But some bodies were frozen together, making it difficult to identify them in the pale, silvery dawn.

For long dreary moments he studied the grisly sight, hugging himself while his insides quivered. A brisk wind caught at his elk coat and beat relentlessly against the blanket he’d tied over his head. For fear his feet would freeze, he stomped back and forth alongside the stack of bodies. He spied an occasional army boot or uniform coat sleeve that told him some of the dead were soldiers. Thought it amazing that such poorly armed, nearly starved people could still manage to slay some of the enemy.

From the parade grounds came the morning cry of the trumpet summoning the soldiers to formation.

He had to move on or be discovered, but he knelt for a brief moment, back to the brutal wind, placed his hand on one of the departed ones and spoke to the spirits asking that they guide these poor souls to the afterlife.

Silently he slipped into the shadows of the mill to wait and watch his chance to move on without being seen. As the rising sun cast a glow through the low hanging clouds, he found himself within sight of the door to Aiden’s quarters. There he remained hidden until she came out. In dismay, he watched her peculiar actions when she entered another door, shook his head grimly when she came out carrying a uniform. He had hoped that his absence this morning would put a stop to her crazy plan. He vowed not to return, therefore ending it for good and all.

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