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—Shakespeare
Shirleen found it hard to believe that Speckled Fawn was willing to place herself in danger to help her and her daughter Megan.
She still stared disbelievingly at the woman whom she had first mistrusted so much she would not even speak with her. Now she trusted Speckled Fawn implicitly. She had clear evidence of her kind and giving nature.
“No, I can’t allow you to take such a chance,” Shirleen suddenly blurted out. “What you are suggesting might not only get you killed, but also Megan.”
Speckled Fawn put her hand gently on Shirleen’s shoulder. “You want Megan back, don’t you?” she asked, gazing intently into Shirleen’s eyes.
“You know I do,” Shirleen said, returning the gaze. “But what you suggest doing is so . . . dangerous. You might never be able to return to this village. It would be horrible if that happened. I would blame myself, always.”
“Forget everything but your daughter’s welfare,” Speckled Fawn said. She took Shirleen by the hand and urged her to sit beside her, while Blue Thunder sat on Shirleen’s other side. “We must give this plan a try. I won’t have it any other way.”
“Shirleen, do you understand the plan?” Blue Thunder asked, impressed by Speckled Fawn’s eagerness to help.
He was beginning to see her in a different light and felt that he had been wrong to ignore her as he always had.
“Not altogether,” Shirleen murmured.
“Then let us go over it again so that you do understand it,” Blue Thunder said. “Speckled Fawn, myself, and my warriors will go to the fort under the pretense of needing to trade at the post there. We recently had a good hunt, so the pony soldiers will not think we are there for any other purpose than to trade. While we are making an actual trade, we will make sure that the man who is waiting for the riverboat with his child goes by the name Earl Mingus, and if the child’s name is Megan. If so, we will set Speckled Fawn’s plan in motion. She will go to the fort alone after my warriors and I leave. She will be dressed in the clothes of a white woman and will pretend to be a woman in distress.”
He looked around Shirleen and nodded at Speckled Fawn. “Speckled Fawn, you tell the rest, since you will be the one living it,” he said.
Speckled Fawn nodded and began speaking in a low voice as she continued telling Shirleen the plan. “As Blue Thunder said, I will arrive at the fort as a woman in distress. I will say that I am the only survivor of a Comanche attack on my cabin. I will say that my husband and child are dead and that there are no bodies to retrieve. I will say that the renegades took the bodies with them to prevent anyone from the fort giving them a decent Christian burial. I will plead for safe asylum at Fort Dennison until the next riverboat arrives so that I can leave this godforsaken place forever.”
She paused, then said, “I know the fort commander will take me in and care for me; he will pity me as a woman who has lost everything. After earning the soldiers’ trust, I will ask for something that might raise a few eyebrows.”
“Whiskey?” Shirleen asked, remembering part of the plan as Speckled Fawn had outlined it to Blue Thunder.
“Yes, whiskey,” Speckled Fawn said, smiling almost wickedly.
“But, Speckled Fawn, surely most women don’t go to the fort requesting whiskey,” Shirleen said, her eyes filled with uncertainty.
“No, I’m sure they don’t, but I am a woman, remember, who has lost everything,” Speckled Fawn said. “They will think that having seen my family murdered might have caused me to lose some of my senses, making me ask for something that normally I would not ask for. But I expect them to give me anything I want because of how pitiful I will appear. I will explain that my reason for wanting the whiskey is to forget my woes . . . my losses. I will explain that I am not normally a drinking woman, but after what I have been through, I need something to numb my memories of how my family died so horribly. I will say that I need to drown the pain of my loss in whiskey.”
Speckled Fawn paused, then continued, “I will find Earl then, and get on his good side by showing him the whiskey. I will tell him I’ll share it with him if he wants some. Hopefully, he will agree, and will take me into his cabin with him. I’ll make sure that he drinks much more than I, until he is as drunk as a skunk.”
“But, Speckled Fawn,” Shirleen said, interrupting her. “If you do manage to get in his cabin with him, might he not take advantage of you sexually?”
“Surely he wouldn’t do that, not while his daughter is there,” Speckled Fawn said. “Anyway, what I plan to do is ply him with whiskey until he’s so drunk he won’t know what hit him. Hopefully, he’ll pass out from it. That’s when I will have the chance to get Megan away from him. I will wait until it is dark so that the sentries at the fort won’t be able to see my movements. I will then take Megan where Blue Thunder and his warriors will be waiting for me.”
“I still see many loopholes in the plan,” Shirleen said. “First, you told me you are a wanted woman whose likeness is on posters. Won’t the men at the fort recognize you and see right through your plan and arrest you?”
“Those posters were placed here and there five long years ago,” Speckled Fawn said. “My picture was only one little speck on the wall, surrounded by many of the worst criminals in the area. Surely by now the posters, which didn’t even look like me, have been yanked down and thrown away, replaced by pictures of other, more hardened criminals. Also, I have gained a lot of weight since those posters were put up, and my hair was dyed red back then. I am a natural blonde now. And I am confident that I am more likely to succeed than fail.”
“But, Speckled Fawn, when Earl sobers up and comes to realize what happened, when he finds Megan gone, all hell will break loose,” Shirleen said, her voice tight. “A search party will surely be sent out to look for you and Megan. I can’t see Earl just standing by and allowing a woman to get the best of him.”
“By then I will be safe back in the village. The men at the fort won’t have any reason to suspect that Indians had anything to do with this,” Speckled Fawn said in a tone of confidence. “To them, I will have disappeared from the face of the earth with the child.”
“I believe Speckled Fawn’s plan can work,” Blue Thunder said, drawing both women’s eyes to him. “It doesn’t matter how it is done, just as long as the child is brought safely back to her mother. Her father is evil, through and through. Our main focus here must be to get the child back to her mother.”
He reached over and placed a gentle hand on Shirleen’s cheek. “But it is up to you, whether or not you want to give this plan a try,” he said softly.
“Why are you doing this for me?” Shirleen wondered aloud. “I am still . . . no more than a stranger to you. You . . . truly . . . don’t know me.”
He moved closer to her and reached his arms around her to draw her close. “I do know you,” he said thickly. “I know your goodness. I know your sweetness. And I know that you are a devoted mother and how much you are missing your daughter.”
He placed his hands on her shoulders and gazed directly into her eyes. “You have suffered too much already in your life, especially at the hands of the evil white man who calls himself your husband,” he said tightly. “You have never deserved such inhumanity as that man showed you. You are a good woman.”
