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No, she preferred someone whose life was not governed by strict rules and ambition. She preferred—
She pushed White Fire from her mind before he completely took over her thoughts, as he had these past several days while she was traveling to Fort Snelling.
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Flame said, flashing him a tight smile. “I shall go and be sure that I have placed everything in my travel bag.”
She lifted the skirt of her dress and brushed past him. Then she stopped and took one last look at the fort that would soon be her home. The Fifth Infantry was stationed there under the command of her father. The post was a way station for traders, soldiers, explorers, travelers, and Indians.
The fort was run by two dozen officers, most of them, like Flame’s father, graduates from West Point.
She became lost in thought about the sort of life she would be living. Her father was an autocrat in this northern wilderness. His rule was absolute. He had made his way through the ranks and the command of the Minnesota Army garrison was his ultimate prize.
He had written to her of their home. As in St. Louis, she would be living in a mansion. It had been built for Colonel Josiah Snelling and his wife, Abigail, and their eight children.
He had boasted of the mansion’s many luxuries, the fine rugs and beautiful furnishings, many of them imported all the way from Europe. There was even a grand piano, which was often used during the social gatherings hosted by the fort’s commander. He had promised to hold a dance in honor of Flame’s arrival.
Of course, the three hundred or so enlisted men at the fort would not be invited. They slept in wooden barracks around the massive parade ground. Her father had written that when they weren’t out on patrol, they worked hard in the fields outside the fort, growing corn, potatoes and wheat and planting orchards, too. The goal was to make the fort as self-sufficient as possible.
Her father had further boasted that Fort Snelling was the finest fort in the American West!
Anxious to see it, to be a part of this new life, Flame rushed to her cabin and made sure that she had everything packed.
Then she paused and took a look at herself in a floor-length mirror. She ran her hands slowly over the sleekness of her silk dress, smoothing her fingers over the gentle swell of her breasts.
She ran them lower across her tiny waist, and then across her flat tummy as she turned and looked sideways at herself.
She smiled at her reflection, and how her flaming-red hair hung in long, thick waves down her back. Everywhere she went, men’s eyes turned to stare at her. She fluttered her thick lashes over her green eyes, knowing the power she had over men.
Her smile faded and her shoulders slumped. She had wanted only one man these last eight years. She hoped that in time she could forget her foolish notion of seeing the ’breed again. She wished that while she was aboard the riverboat she would have allowed Lieutenant Green to escort her to dinner each evening, and to
the ball that the boat captain had given in her honor just this past evening.
But she had preferred staying alone, enjoying the travel, the freedom of it. This was the first time she had ever been away from both parents.
And even though she was soon to be with her father again, she would not allow him to stifle her need of freedom now that she had discovered the wonders, the thrill, of it.
The steamboat’s shrieking whistle alerted the passengers that they would soon be docking at the riverbank and brought a wide smile to Flame’s shapely, red lips. She lifted her one and only bag. Her father had promised that she could buy a new wardrobe at the fort’s commissary. Flame rushed from the cabin.
“When the plank is lowered, ma’am, stay close by me,” Lieutenant Green said as he placed a possessive arm around her waist. “There are a lot of ruffians housed along this riverbank.”
Flame inched herself free of his arm and stood at the rail, watching the steamboat’s slow entry into the port. “It’s taking so long,” she said, giving the lieutenant a harried look.
“Just be patient,” he said, smiling at her. “I’d say it will be another thirty minutes or so before you will set your feet on dry land.”
“Why on earth so long?” Flame said, eyes wide.
“The river bottom is much too shallow here,” Lieutenant Green said. He clamped his hands on the rail and watched the slow progress of the boat toward shore. “If the captain isn’t careful, the boat might run aground. That’d cost him his job, that’s for sure.”
Flame inhaled an agitated breath, then looked on the opposite shore. She admired the forests, which were composed of towering pines, and the marshes of Minnesota, home to many thousands of deer and bear. They were the trapping grounds of the mink, muskrat, and beaver. It was a place of crystal-clear lakes and streams, the water abundant with fish.
Then she looked past the fort on the near side of the river and saw many neat cabins nestled beneath the trees farther down from the fort. As far as the eye could see there were identical dwellings.
Then, farther away, where the forest had been cleared, she saw the beginnings of a city. Her eyebrows lifted, for her father had not told her about any city within close proximity to the fort. She wondered what city, and what sort of people lived there.
She had been told that in the summer the life of the garrison was sufficiently varied, picnicking and hunting on the shores of Lake Calhoun. It sounded to her like a pleasant variation on the routines of reveille, guard mount, fatigue duty, agricultural labor, dress parades, and five daily roll calls within the walls of the fort.
But never had her father said anything about a city, where other sorts of activities surely could be found.
The boat’s whistle emitting another loud screeching blast caused Flame to drop her bag and clasp her hands over her ears.
