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Sam glanced up at her and noticed she was nearly asleep in the saddle.
With a long sigh, he got up behind her and held onto her as they moved at a steady gait most of the night. He had time now to ponder why he was doing this. How’d he get so tangled up with a white woman? Had he completely lost his mind? He’d prided himself with using his head most of the time, but this wasn’t a good idea and he knew it. Still, she needed help. Unlike him, she had no training on taking care of herself in a survival situation.
Nodog caught scent of something and trailed off the beaten path for a while, coming back with a whine.
“Okay, have it your way, you stubborn dog.” Sam laughed.
Nodog ran ahead of them now. Sam smiled.
Sam knew the reason he was helping Riley: she was just so darn vulnerable. Not like most white women he knew either. She put no stock in color, that was certain, and unusual. She lacked a certain amount of confidence in herself, too. Why he didn’t know, she was nice looking, he particularly liked her small frame and long dark hair, and especially her angel eyes. Her smile and eyes was like peeking into heaven, and even Sam couldn’t deny that. He’d never seen such beautiful eyes as hers. She was also smart in some ways and a little too gullible in other ways to be on her own.
He wondered about her father and the mother she never spoke of.
It was times like these that he realized exactly how many people he had as a child to depend on. Grateful for Lee coming into his life, and appreciative of Chase Rivers, he’d had a mountain of people teaching him the things that would someday help him become a man. And seeing his nature clearly, Burning Tree, the Shaman of the tribe had taken Sam under his wing to teach him many more things; like how to heal himself with the earth’s gifts, how to find food when there was none, how to outwit his foe when he was outnumbered. Sam had been a good student too. Being the only black man in the tribe, he knew he might someday need all these things to survive.
But Riley was a mystery to him. This girl seemed so alone. He wondered why, but he didn’t want her going it alone. There were bad people in the world and they would eat her alive.
He wondered if she got the ranch back, could she manage to keep it? How could they have just taken it over from her? What kind of people was she dealing with? Although, when he thought of George and John, he realized they were part snake, and about as low down as a man could get. He didn’t blame her for being scared, but still helping her wasn’t going to be easy.
Chase Rivers warned Sam not to fall prey for the weak, but Sam had a natural soft heart and he couldn’t change that. Even though he’d been laughed at many times for taking in poor creatures, he couldn’t let them die. He’d been the one to take the stray wolf that was crippled into the camp. Nursing it back to health, it had become his constant companion. Lee kept trying to tell him he would never stay, but Nodog did stay. Although Nodog healed, he never once left Sam, the man who nurtured him back to health. He glanced down at Nodog now, happily scouting out the distance for him.
Sam had been the one to risk his life for the other children in the camp too. Knowing he was older, he fought as an adult to defend the Indian camp many times when Lee and Chase were gone on scouting parties. Most of the time the Indian camp remained peaceful, but every now and then a renegade bunch of outlaws would try to take it over, and those were the times that Sam learned to fight and defend the weaker ones.
He’d been doing it ever since.
Yes, Lee and Chase had taught him well how to handle himself and how to defend, and he was grateful. But the one thing they didn’t teach him, couldn’t teach him, was how not to defend the weak.
He glanced down at Riley once more. Did she have any family? Friends? She sure didn’t act like it.
Or was she like Nodog, another stray. He’d protect her, as long as he could, for he knew it was the right thing to do, maybe not the intelligent thing to do, but the right thing. Lee had taught him values he’d never forget. It was the things Lee taught him that he held fast to, for Lee was a good man.
Chapter Six
It was nearly noon the next day before they stopped, finding the ruins of an abandoned shack. They scouted the place first and once Sam was sure it was safe, he made camp. Nodog didn’t leave his side, sniffing the place and wagging his tail that all was alright.
Whoever had lived here had left little, and in a hurry, Sam decided as he tried to find food or comfort. Odd and end clothes were scattered about, as though they had either been gone through many times or thrown out for travel. Evidence of a couple of Ind
ian attacks and a partially burnt out floor left Sam with an idea that Comanches had raided the place a couple of times.
“Not much of a place, but we can rest up here for a while,” Sam said. “Looks like a norther blowing in. Looks like we’re gonna need some shelter before long.”
Riley nodded.
He walked around the shack and opened a cellar door around the side. “Got a storm cellar too. And looks like we found a little food here. It’s all canned goods, but we can take some.”
“I hate storm cellars; they are so dark, and there are spiders and sometimes snakes in them.” Riley shivered visibly.
“Well, you may hate them, but if the weather is bad enough you might be glad of it,” Sam informed her none too gently.
“I’m sorry, but I was bitten once…” Riley offered her excuse.
“By a snake?”
“Yes, dad had shoved me into the cellar when a bad storm came up and he’d gone to check the stock, and there was a rattler down there just waiting. With no doc around, I almost died. Old Gordy, he fixed me up though. He had some Indian cure and it worked.”
“Gordy?”
“Yeah, the hired hand I told you about that I trusted so much.”
