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She could not see how he could be gentle and caring one moment, a vicious savage the next.
Even though Echohawk had many reasons to hate her father, she just couldn’t envision him burning and killing at the very same moment he was planning to come to her to ask her to be his woman.
No.
It did not make sense.
But she had to be sure.
The buckskin dress turning her back into the woman that Echohawk had fallen in love with, Mariah slipped hurriedly into knee-high moccasins, ignoring heavy footsteps that entered the room.
“What is this that William Joseph told me?” Colonel Snelling said in a threatening growl.
Mariah turned with a start. Her eyes widened and her back stiffened when she saw the anger in Josiah’s eyes. “I must go to my father’s trading post and see for myself what has happened,” she murmured, feeling dwarfed as the colonel towered over her, a sternness in his flashing dark eyes that she had never seen before.
“I have assigned a unit of men to ride to the trading post,” Josiah said, his hand clasped to a saber at his side. “William Joseph will lead them. You will only be in their way, Mariah.” His gaze raked over her, seeing her change of clothes; then he glared at her again. “Change back into your gown. Return with Abigail to the ball. Let men do men’s work.”
Firming her chin, insulted that Josiah would think that she could dismiss the welfare of her father so frivolously from her mind, Mariah placed her hands on her hips and glared up at him.
“I do not need reminders that I am not a man,” she said stubbornly. “And caring about what has happened to my father does not make me any less a lady. I am going to accompany your men, Colonel Snelling. If you still say that you will not allow it, I shall ride alone.”
Josiah kneaded his chin, slowly shaking his head back and forth, then placed his hand on her shoulder. “I can’t have you riding anywhere alone beyond the walls of the fort,” he said glumly. “Not while those who are going around killing and burning are running loose close by. I’ll tell William Joseph that you are riding with him and his men.” He leaned closer to Mariah’s face. “But I’ll also tell him to keep an eye on you. I don’t care if you can ride and shoot like a man, I am not going to let anyone hurt you!”
Tears welled up in Mariah’s eyes and she felt ashamed for having been so harsh with this man who was only looking out for her welfare. She crept into his arms, so wishing that her own father could have been as compassionate—as caring.
When his strong arms swung around her waist, holding her to him, she relished the moment, pretending he was her father—wishing it were so.
And then, realizing that time was passing quickly and that her father’s life might be ebbing away as the clock ticked away each second, she eased from Josiah’s arms and walked toward the door. When she found William Joseph outside waiting, having changed into buckskin riding attire, she walked proudly with him outside and mounted her horse beside his.
When Colonel Snelling and Abigail came to look at her, she was touched deeply when Josiah handed her a rifle.
“Ride with care,” he said as she took the rifle.
“Please be careful,” Abigail said, blowing Mariah a kiss as Mariah nodded and wheeled her horse around, riding beside William Joseph at the head of the group of soldiers.
“Please be careful!” Abigail said again, waving frantically at Mariah and William Joseph until they rode on through the opened gate that led out into the forest.
Abigail sobbed and turned to her husband. “I wish they had waited until morning,” she said, shivering as she looked into the dark depths of the forest, hearing the howl of a wolf and the hoot of an owl somewhere in the distance. “The killers could be just waiting outside the fort walls. It would be so easy . . . to . . . to ambush our loved ones.”
“Now, now,” Josiah comforted her, placing an arm around his wife’s waist. “Let’s not let our imagination run away with us.”
“So many tragedies have happened of late, Josiah,” Abigail said sullenly. “The attack on Echohawk’s village. And now on Mariah’s father’s trading post. Her father is missing. What can happen next, Josiah? As long as those who are responsible are running around loose, how can I not be afraid for our son and for Mariah?”
“We must have faith in God that we will find those responsible soon,” Colonel Snelling said, sighing heavily. “Until then, darling, you must keep your faith.”
Abigail nodded, but found it hard at this moment to feel secure about anything.
* * *
Riding his horse hard through the night, Echohawk desperately needed to get back to Chief Silver Wing’s village. Those white men who might point an accusing finger at Echohawk for the tragedy that had befallen No-din’s father tonight would come searching for him, and once they were at Chief Silver Wing’s village, might decide to punish all of the Indians there for good measure.
He could not allow that to happen. He had to warn Chief Silver Wing. He and his people, and Echohawk’s must disband and take their village elsewhere.
Having won and lost Mariah again almost in the same breath tonight made a bitterness soar through him. It did not seem that he was meant ever to have a peaceful heart. If not one thing, it was another! And that his losses included Mariah over and over again made it almost too hard for him to bear.
It was up to him to clear his name before ever approaching No-din again. Even if she was with him, she would not be safe. If tragedy befell the Chippewa again, and if she were with him, performing in the capacity of wife, transformed, herself, into Chippewa, she could be counted among the dead....
The reflection of orange in the sky from outdoor fires made Echohawk realize that he was almost at Chief Silver Wing’s village. His heart ached over having to tell the noble chief that he would no longer be safe in the village that he had established many moons ago—a village where corn grew in abundance and where wild rice was always there in the autumn, thriving, just for the Chippewa, it seemed.
