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She was trying so hard to be courageous, for she had always heard that Indians rewarded courage and bravery.
“You have not spoken of anyone else—does that mean that you and your father are alone?” Wolf Hawk asked, losing some of his stiffness as he spoke.
He was beginning to believe that there were no trappers there.
This young woman did not seem to be someone who spoke lies easily.
“There is only one more person in our party,” Mia said, her spine stiffening at the thought of Tiny Brown cowering inside the cabin, afraid to show his face. “His name is Tiny Brown. He is my father’s assistant, who helped man our scow…a scow we no longer have. As I have already told you, it…it…was stolen in the night. We have been left stranded here.”
Something about the white woman, her innocence, her ability to speak with him, an Indian, so easily—even though most white women were terrified of men with red skin—made Wolf Hawk believe that she was not lying.
But he did not want her to know that he trusted her. Perhaps she was able to lie while looking someone square in the eye. He would practice restraint; he would not allow her, yet, to know that he trusted her.
Trust had to be gained.
A search of the cabins would prove whether or not she deserved to be trusted.
“You say that your party numbers only three?” Wolf Hawk said stiffly. “My warriors will search all of the buildings and see if you lie, or tell truths.”
He looked over his shoulder at his warriors. “I will stay with the woman and her father while you search,” he said stiffly. “Go to each cabin. Make a thorough search. Soon we shall know if this woman tells the truth, or is skilled at lying.”
“I have told you, there are only the three of us,” Mia said, worrying about her father. He was standing perfectly still, and was strangely quiet.
She could feel his weakness as he clung to her. And she could hear his shallow breathing. It sounded the way he breathed when he was about to have one of his attacks!
“Please believe me,” Mia begged. “My father…”
Wolf Hawk saw how desperate she seemed to be, and wondered whether she was truly worried about her father, or afraid his warriors would find others hiding in the fort.
“Search carefully,” he shouted at the warriors who were already going in and out of the other cabins.
The woman truly did seem concerned about her father, and Wolf Hawk thought that surely she wasn’t pretending.
“The search will be quick,” he hurriedly advised. “If you tell truths, then we will leave you to yourselves.”
Mia didn’t know how she felt about being left alone without a way to leave this place, yet she realized that it was foolish to consider this Indian someone who would concern himself about white people and their troubles.
It was surely crazy to think of asking this Indian for help. She knew that most Indians despised the ground that white people walked on.
“May I take my father inside so that he can return to his pallet on the floor?” Mia asked softly, pleading with her green eyes for understanding.
Wolf Hawk was just about to tell her that she could return her father to a more comfortable place, but was stopped when one of his warriors came running toward him, an armload of pelts held before him.
“These pelts were surely hidden here by the trappers!” Blue Sky exclaimed as he stopped directly in front of Wolf Hawk.
Wolf Hawk’s eyes went wide with surprise as he reached out and ran a hand over the plush softness of the pelts.
“There are many,” Blue Sky said, looking over his shoulder as other warriors came carrying more and more pelts. “We found them hidden beneath a trap door in yonder cabin.”
Seeing that the woman had not been truthful, and surprised that she was such a skillful liar, Wolf Hawk stepped around the warriors and stopped directly in front of Mia.
“You lie,” he growled out. He nodded at another warrior. “Go inside. Find those who are surely hiding in there. Bring them out to me. Surely there are two, not one, as the woman indicated.”
“There is only one man in there and he has nothing to do with trapping,” Mia cried as two warriors brushed past her and her father and went inside the cabin. “He…helped…my father on our scow.”
“You lie so easily,” Wolf Hawk said stiffly. “Did you know that not only animals have died in your dreadful traps, but also two young braves who got trapped in those jaws of death!”
“Died…oh, no, please don’t think I…we…had anything to do with such as that,” Mia cried. “We knew nothing of these pelts. When we arrived, to rest for the night away from the river, we chose this cabin without looking at any others. We knew not of any pelts being hidden there. We know nothing about trappers. When we arrived here, we looked only in this cabin. All we wanted was a place to rest. My father…he…isn’t a well man.”
