Negotiating her pony through the tall undergrowth, she came up beside him and said, "I need you to stop, for I have needs to attend to."
The look he gave her might have sent an enemy scampering. However, she endured it.
He said, "We not stopping here. Unsafe. Not enough cover. You...must wait."
"I cannot. You did not give me enough time to attend to requirements and other needs before we left."
She heard him growl as he stared away from her. He said, "Ahead...little more cover. Not long time...to...reach."
Once again, he took the lead, and she dropped back behind him. She glared at him as he rode ahead of her, silently admitting her needling him wasn't much of a weapon. Still, it was all she had, and she was going to use it.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
––––––––
"INEED YOU TO UNTIEmy hands and feet."
At last, they had stopped so she could attend to all things necessary. Eagle Heart had found a seemingly perfect location in which to call a halt. As she had brought to his attention, their trail was following the water, keeping them close to it, and, eventually he had discovered a location where they could break and recoup yet would not cause them to be openly visible to an enemy.
After all that had happened this day, this little spot seemed perfect. As she sat atop her gray mare, she looked up toward the sky, recognizing the tall stands of the ponderosa pine, the red cedar, the balsam and the Rocky Mountain juniper trees. The trees looked to be old and had grown up together in a manner which sheltered a pathway to the water. Indeed, as she gazed farther outward toward the water, she became aware that the same kind of trees grew along the shoreline, some shooting up straight out of the water.
She sighed. It was good because their horses could drink from the stream without gaining the attention of an enemy, if any were about.
As Eagle Heart had led her into this clearing, he had told her the name of the lake was Red Lake. However, to Laylah, as she looked outward through the trees, it appeared to her again that the body of the water looked more like a river than a lake. For one thing, the distance across the water from one shoreline to the other appeared to be so short, one might easily swim it. For another, the waterway flowed and curved around several hills. It did not simply sit in one place.
But, none of this mattered. For the moment, she felt safe and protected, especially when she breathed in the aroma of the pines, particularly the butterscotch-like fragrance of the bark of the ponderosa pine. This, mixed up as it was with the chest-of-drawers aroma from the red cedar, helped her to think more clearly. Ignoring for the moment that her hands and feet were still tied, she grabbed the reins Eagle Heart had dropped as he had dismounted. She pulled these toward her and, using these, guided her mare, Honey Sugar, down to the water. The path from the small clearing to the lake was awash in shadows due to the trail being covered from above by the tall pines. Lingering under these as she made her way to the water, she and her pony eventually reached the beach, and, while her pony bent from her neck to enjoy a refreshing drink, Laylah looked out upon the loveliness of nature's beauty.
At the edge of this small hub of trees was a rocky beach; though a little farther away, Laylah beheld a beautiful white sandy beach. She smiled, for its shoreline looked like a perfect place to leisurely enjoy the rays of the sun—were it not so cool and were her hands and feet not still tied.
Eagle Heart led his own spotted Appaloosa, as well as the Nokota packhorse, to the water. And, as he stood beside her, he said, "Before I...untie. You...must promise you not run away."
"Where would I go?" she asked without vowing to do or not do anything.
"This is...question you ask...not promise. You must...promise you not run away." Nevertheless, he untied the buckskin that held her feet together; her hands he left tied.
She sighed. "Are we still within the valley you call No Man's Trail?" Holding onto her gray mare's mane to steady herself, she brought up one of her legs over the pony's back and, with her legs together, slid down to the ground.
"We are," he answered in English. "But we...leave...few days. For now we safe. This little people land...they guard."
She glanced outward at the stunning scenery of greens, browns and the pure blue of the water. The same kinds of trees lined the mountains on each side of them, and, in this spot, those trees also trailed all the way to the beach.
Once she was safely back in St. Louis, she would miss all this. She knew she would. Always, would the memories of No Man's Trail remind her of the happiness and love she had found with Eagle Heart...even though she'd had no choice but to leave him.
If only... Again, she sighed and held out her hands toward him. "I still need you to untie my hands so I might attend to...private matters."
"Yet, you ask this...without making...promise."
"It's just that it seems so unnecessary. Where would I go without you? I don't know my way back to the place where we had stayed, and I don't know where we are going."
"You know...way back. We not...go far yet. And, you smart...could get there."
She looked away from him. It was true. She was aware they had followed the river here. It would be easy enough to retrace their path.
Still without looking at him, she said, "Oh, all right. It's silly, but I promise I will not try to run away while we are here. There, are you happy?"
"Not happy. You say, no try run away...while we here. Must promise not run away...ever."
"Ever? I will not promise you to not run away ever. There must be some limit to the promise. For instance, while we are traveling to the Beartooth Mountains, I might promise you not to run away while we are on the trail. Or I might tell you I won't try to run away from here or after we find your brother. But, I will not promise to never leave you."
