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“All of this is gone from me now,” he whispered to himself.
He saw no hope of getting free. No one but Flame and the soldiers at Fort Snelling knew that he was incarcerated. The soldiers would not dare go behind the sadistic colonel’s back and release him, though they all had to know that he was wrongly imprisoned.
And he knew that Flame would be watched so carefully that she could not come to him and help him escape.
“And Chief Gray Feather would have no way of knowing. . . .” he said.
He gasped when a fat rat came scurrying by, stopping long enough to place his twitching nose at White Fire’s bare toes.
“Scat!” he said, wiggling his toes.
He sighed with relief when the rat scrambled on past him and left through the open spaces of the bars.
When he heard voices, White Fire strained his neck to see whose they were. The door was closed between his cell and the outer room where guards were stationed day and night. No one had even come and spoken to him since his incarceration, or he might have tried convincing them of the wrong that was being done here.
He sighed heavily, for it seemed even that orders had been given not to feed him. Perhaps he would not die by hanging or by a firing squad after all. Colonel Russell might let him slowly starve to death.
He lowered his head again, his chin almost touching his chest. “Flame . . .” he whispered. “Flame . . .”
Chapter 30
Birds in the high hall-garden
Were crying and calling to her,
One is come to woo her.
—Alfred Lord Tennyson
Having heard the two soldiers talking about wanting more morning coffee, and knowing that only one of them was outside the cabin door, Flame took the opportunity to set her plan of escape into motion. She opened one of her travel bags and removed one of her most lightweight skirts and a white blouse.
Her heart beat quickly. She must dive overboard soon or they would be too far downriver for her to get help for White Fire quickly enough. Flame removed her beautiful silk dress and hurried into the skirt and blouse.
She stared at her bare feet. It would be best for her not to have shoes on during her swim. Yet knowing that she could travel shod much more quickly once she reached dry land, she stepped into a soft pair of flat shoes.
Then she searched through another valise and found the letter her father had given to her to deliver to the head nun at the convent where she was to stay until he sent for her.
“Obedience, ha,” she said sarcastically as she pulled out the letter. “I’ll show him a thing or two about how to teach me obedience.”
Grasping it in one hand, Flame went to the cabin door and tapped on it. “Lieutenant,” she said, loud enough for him to hear her through the closed door. “Will you please come in my cabin for a moment?”
She looked around the room for something with which to bang him on the head.
She quickly thought better of resorting to that sort of violence and stepped back from the door and smiled wickedly up at Lieutenant Green as he opened it and came into the cabin. She was glad that it was him, for she knew that he had the other letter—the one that was the exact copy of the one she carried.
Lieutenant Green’s gaze swept quickly over her and he noticed her change of attire. Then he looked guardedly at her, his eyes squinting into the soft rays of the sun as it poured in velvet, golden streamers through the one cabin window.
“Well?” he said, placing his fists on his hips. “What do you want this time?”
“Do you see this letter?” Flame said, giving him a wicked smile as she held the envelope out before her.
“Sure, I see the letter,” Lieutenant Green said, forking an eyebrow. “Why? What about it?”
“Do you know what the letter is all about?” she asked, slowly opening the envelope, and just as slowly removing the letter from inside it.
“It’s a letter to the supervising nun at the convent,” Lieutenant Green said. “I’m to see that you, personally, place it in the hands of the nun.”
“And what if I don’t give it to the nun?” Flame taunted, waving the unfolded letter before his eyes. “What if I tear it up instead?”
