Yes, she had made her peace with Frederic. But, this was the first time she was to look upon her father since the deed had been accomplished. And, the awful feeling of being betrayed by this man had not yet been reconciled, if, indeed, it ever would be.
After the necessary introductions were concluded, József Fehér said to them, one and all, "I have a buggy waiting to take our entire party to the ranch. If you will all step this way"—he gestured with his hand—"we will go to my ranch at once, where I have endeavored to greet you all properly with refreshment and drink. We must hurry, since the journey there will take most of the day."
Go to the ranch? Now? So soon? When she hadn't yet seen nor spoken to Red Fox?
"Father," asked Briella, "may I please stay behind?"
"Behind?Why, I—"
"Please, Father! I wish to go inside the fort where I lived for a time, and especially I'd like to visit the trading room to see what new items of trade they have. It has been so long since I have seen the pretty beaded necklaces and earrings. Please, let me have a look inside the trading room."
"Well, certainly, but we will wait for you—"
"Oh no, Father! I wish to take my time and get reacquainted with my home and this land again. Please, you all should go on ahead. I do not wish to disturb your plans. I shallfind a good horse to buy, and I shall ride the animal to the ranch after I have had a chance to look around."
"There is no need to purchase a mount, Briella," said her father. "I had thought you might like to see your beautiful buffalo pony, and perhaps even to ride him again. Come this way; your buffalo pony is tied up next to the buggy."
"You have brought Mr. Dandy here so I can ride him? Oh Father, how kind it is of you to have considered this. Where is your buggy? I would so like to see my beautiful Appaloosa again."
"Good. Good. Come this way, m'dear."
Briella was more than willing to do so…perhaps even excited; she would be reunited with her beloved pony…one given to her by Red Fox. Their entire group followed her and her parent, parading toward the spot where the buggy was parked near the fort, the elder Fehér and his wife leading the way. Certainly, they made a colorful line as they all traipsed over the prairie's summer-green grassland. As they came into sight of her father's buggy, Briella recognized José, a former clerk at Fort Benton who had become one of her father's hired hands.
She smiled at José and waved, he returning the greeting even though he held the reins of the buggy's two horses in his other hand.
Spotting her buffalo pony at once, Briella scooted away from the parade, and, picking up her skirt, ran to Mr. Dandy, a grand name for one of the best buffalo ponies in all this land. There he was, her beautiful brown-spotted white stallion with a white mane, black front legs and striped hooves. Red Fox had gifted the pony to her years ago after she and George had helped him to capture many of his horse herd, which had been stolen from him by the Assiniboine.
"Mr. Dandy! Have you missed me?" Taking her pony's head into her hands, she leaned over to place a kiss upon his muzzle.
The stallion's soft whinny, accompanied by his ears rising up and pressing forward, showed his happiness at seeing his mistress again.
"Oh, Mr. Dandy, I have missed you, too," she cooed to the horse as she petted his head. "But, I'm home now. Come, let us go for a ride. I see my father has already placed my saddle upon your back."
Glancing over her shoulder, she grinned at her father and said, "Thank you, Father. I think, though, that I will skip going to the fort today. Instead, would y'all mind if I take a ride on my wonderful friend, Mr. Dandy?"
"I thought you might like to do exactly this, Briella. It is why you find your stallion all saddled up and ready to ride."
Briella laughed.
"I am happy to hear your laughter, my daughter. Happy, indeed."
Grinning at her father, Briella climbed up onto Mr. Dandy's back, and,despite the small hat upon her head, the painful boots covering her feet, her white gloves with five buttons, the bustle poking out at her backside, as well as the ridiculously tight corset that pulled her waist in to a measurement of twenty-and-one inches, Briella straddled the saddle in what might have been seen in the parlors of New York to be an unladylike position; there was no riding sidesaddle for her.
Once seated, she turned Mr. Dandy around, and, without even a wave of goodbye, she galloped away from her family and her fiancé as fast as she could, taking a westerly direction, considering it might be these western bluffs where she would find Red Fox awaiting her.
"Is this the sort of behavior I am expected to suffer?" she heard Maximillian ask someone, most likely her father. There was a whine in his voice which grated on her. But, Briella ignored it. Her fiancé was not about to stop her from riding out to find the man she loved.
Indeed, Maximillian could disapprove all he wished. She simply didn't care. Once Maximillian had attained the title he would gain upon their marriage, he would be gone from here and she would see him no more.
This, she promised herself.
****
Red Fox was well aware of his actions being inappropriate; he shouldn't see Poka'aki nor talk to her. Too many changes on the western plains over these past two years had brought danger into his people's environment, and, after the Marias Massacre, his people were now suspicious of this new breed of man who was steadily pouring into Pikuni country.
Hadn't his own journey into the territory of the Lakota people two snows ago confirmed this in his mind? Hadn't he been in one of their camps when the white soldiers had attacked?
Áa, it was true; Red Fox had sought out the Lakota people to discover either the truth or lies of József Fehér's words those two winters ago. And, in the end, Red Fox had fought the soldiers alongside his newly made Lakota friends. But, because the Lakota and the Cheyenne had been greatly outnumbered, even he, the Pikuni fighter that he was, had fled from this new kind of white man—the men the Lakota called the Long Knives.
