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“Who?” she asked.
“Do you not recall me making mention of a Colonel Anderson from another fort that I urged you to go to instead of Fort Henry?” Brave Wolf said.
“Yes, I remember. He is in command at Fort Hope,” Mary Beth said. Her eyes widened as he told her that Colonel Anderson would also join the fight against Colonel Downing.
“I am not certain whether or not I told you everything, how I knew this colonel from another time, another raid on innocent Indians,” Brave Wolf said, his voice tight. “We became fast friends when we met one day to defend a weakened band of Crow, who were in the midst of a massacre from a renegade group of Cheyenne. At that time, we discovered that soldiers from another fort were fighting alongside the renegades. The colonel in command was none other than Colonel William Downing.”
“Truly?” Mary Beth gasped.
“Colonel Downing retreated under fire and later paid for his misdeeds by being ordered to the guardhouse for a month,” Brave Wolf said, sighing heavily. “But he soon was assigned a new post, Fort Henry, where he seemed to walk a straight line, until now.”
“So you sent for Colonel Anderson to help fight the evil colonel,” Mary Beth said, nodding.
“Yes, I knew that Colonel Anderson would want to help with this fight,” Brave Wolf said, his eyes narrowed. “I anxiously await his arrival. We will embrace once again as friends.”
“You do seem to have worked it all out,” Mary Beth said, sighing with relief.
“Colonel Anderson and his soldiers have been spotted!” a voice said from outside the tepee. “I have sent a warrior to greet them.”
“That is good,” Brave Wolf said, suddenly standing. “I shall join you all soon in the council house.”
He reached down and grabbed his fringed breeches and stepped quickly into them, then drew a fringed shirt over his head. His fingers went through his long, jet-black hair, straightening it.
He turned to Mary Beth and reached a hand out for her. “Come with me,” he said thickly. “Be a part of the council.”
“Truly?” she asked, rushing to her feet. “You truly want me to?”
“You are a part of me, so, yes, I wish for you to sit at my side in council, for soon you will also be a part of my people,” he said. He bent low and picked up a doeskin dress that she had been given as soon as she arrived at the village; the silk dress had been burned in his lodge fire.
She slid the dress over her head, then stopped and gazed into Brave Wolf’s eyes. “What about Night Horse?” she blurted out. “What if he is discovered here by Colonel Anderson?”
Brave Wolf’s eyes wavered, for he had temporarily forgotten the dangers of his brother being there and what Colonel Anderson might think about it.
Chapter Twenty-six
He clothes himself in the skin
of animals and decorates himself
with the plumage of birds.
—Anonymous
As the sun was lowering in the sky, casting shades of orange and pink on the tepees in the Crow village, Brave Wolf and Mary Beth stepped from Brave Wolf’s lodge just in time to see Colonel James Anderson and his blue-coated soldiers ride up. Mary Beth gazed up at a slender man dressed in full uniform, whose hair was as red as the poppies she grew in her flower garden in Kentucky. His eyes were a shade of golden brown as they smiled down at Brave Wolf, then turned to Mary Beth.
She immediately liked him. She could see the difference between him and Colonel Downing. There was not even an ounce of prejudice in this man’s eyes and behavior.
“Hohahe, welcome to my village, kola,” Brave Wolf said, stepping up to the colonel’s horse and reaching a hand of friendship up to him. “It is always good to see my friend and ally.”
He clasped hands with Colonel Anderson for a moment, then dropped his hand as he gazed at the huge contingent of soldiers the colonel had brought with him.
Brave Wolf looked past them and saw how many Crow friends who had arrived to join the fight.
There was no doubt in his mind that he would best Colonel Downing and his soldiers.
“So this is Mary Beth Wilson,” Colonel Anderson said, dismounting. He held out a hand to her. “Ma’am, Swift Lightning, one of Chief Brave Wolf’s warriors, who brought the message that I was needed here, explained about your presence in his village.”
She could tell by his gentle smile and his handshake, which she quickly accepted, that he held no resentment of her, even though she was wearing an Indian dress. She did not look past him to see the other soldiers’ reactions. Having this colonel’s acceptance was all that was important.
