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Colonel Downing nodded toward one of the most beautiful of the overstuffed chairs. “Sit,” he said. “I’ll make some tea after I build up the fire. Let’s get you warmed through and through, and then I’ll tell you what I’m going to do about what happened to you tonight.”
Relieved that he was at this moment showing his honorable side, Mary Beth sighed as she eased down into the chair.
“Let me have the knife,” Colonel Downing said, gently taking it from her hand. He placed it on the table beside the lamp, then after throwing a log on the flames, left Mary Beth alone as he went to the kitchen.
While she waited, the terrible attack came back to her, making her wince as she reached up and touched her neck. It was painful to the touch. How lucky she was to have gotten the better of the man. Surely only seconds had remained of her life!
She gazed into the flames and thought then of Brave Wolf. Oh, how she wished she was there with him now.
How she wished all of this terrible ordeal was behind her and David was with her again!
She knew that her son and the man she loved would become fast friends. David would look to Brave Wolf as a father figure, and Brave Wolf would take David under his wing, proud to call the young man his son.
“He will one day be called a warrior, too,” Mary Beth found herself whispering as she envisioned David grown and muscled, riding a horse alongside the Crow warriors his same age.
There would be such camaraderie between her son and the others. She knew that he would be proud to say he was one with them!
“Here we are,” Colonel Downing said as he came into the room carrying a tray on which sat a silver teapot and two cups and saucers. “This should hit the spot, don’t you think?”
“I hope so,” Mary Beth said. Trying to respond to his kindness, she smiled up at him.
He placed the tray on the table next to Mary Beth, then poured tea into the cups. “I’m going to have a cup, myself,” he said, smiling at her, then frowning. “I might need it more than you, knowing what I soon must do.”
She nodded a thank-you to him as he handed her the tea. The cup rattled against the saucer, and she realized her hands were trembling so much she could not steady them.
He poured himself a cup, then sat down across from Mary Beth in a matching chair.
The pleasant warmth of the tea eased Mary Beth’s achy throat. She sipped it slowly. The colonel did likewise, looking at her in a studious fashion that was beginning to unnerve her.
She felt as though she were on display. More disturbing, she saw something in his eyes that she had seen countless times before . . . an interest men felt when they were attracted to a woman.
“Sir, you heard the assailant’s description,” she murmured, trying to distract him. “Do you recognize it?”
“Yes, I’m positive I know who it is,” Colonel Downing said, setting his tea aside. “It’s Blackjack Tom.”
“Blackjack Tom?” Mary Beth said, her eyes widening.
“Of course that is not his true name,” Colonel Downing said, relaxing into the deep cushions of the chair. “His name is Lieutenant Thomas Sloan. He gets his nickname from his love of playing blackjack.”
He paused, placed his fingertips together before him, and frowned. “Yep, he’s a gambling man, but it seems he took one gamble too many tonight. His luck has just run out.”
“Then you are going to arrest him?” Mary Beth asked, leaning forward. “You . . . are . . . going to do it tonight, aren’t you?”
“I’ll escort you safely to your cabin, and then I’ll go and do my duty as colonel,” he said tightly. “But first, young lady, we’ve got to get you into some different clothes. Those clothes probably caused Thomas to hate you the first time he laid eyes on you. When he looked at you, he saw an Indian squaw, not a white lady.”
“But why would seeing me as an Indian . . . maiden . . . cause him to be that angry?” she murmured.
“I can’t speak for him or look into his mind and know exactly what he was thinking, but I think I know something else that might have set him off,” Colonel Downing said. He rested his hands on his knees as he continued gazing at Mary Beth. “You see, the rules here at Fort Henry weren’t always as strict as they are now. Before an ambush of a wagon of wives one day, wives and children were allowed to live on the base. You see, Thomas’s wife perished on the day of the Indian ambush.” He lowered his eyes and cleared his throat.
He looked slowly up at Mary Beth. “So did mine,” he said thickly. “So did these soldiers who were escorting the women on the outing.”
“Your . . . wife . . . ?” Mary Beth gasped. “I’m so sorry.”
“You are one of a very few who have escaped death after being attacked by these savages,” Colonel Downing said.
“For a while I thought I would die,” Mary Beth gulped out. “Had it not been for Chief Brave Wolf, I would be dead.”
She noticed that the mention of Brave Wolf caused Downing to frown darkly. “You do not seem to think highly of Brave Wolf,” she said guardedly. “Why is that? He has shown me nothing but kindness.”
