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"I suppose I could leave in the morning." Hawk said glancing at Eve only for a second as he said it.
"Colonel Mrs. Dawson and her children are very worn out. Perhaps a bath and some clothes might help."
"Of course, we'll see to it immediately."
The Colonel spoke with several officers in the hallway.
Eve was exhausted and when they showed them to their quarters, Eve collapsed on the bed, along with Jane Ann.
"Can I go outside?" Matthew asked.
"All right, but don't bother the soldiers, they have duties to perform." She told him.
"All right."
She lay on the bed and she and Jane Ann cuddled but when she spotted the tub hanging on the wall, she proceeded to heat some water on the stove and take a bath. She bathed Jane Ann first, and got in the tub with her, putting her on her knee as she washed them both.
It was a fun time, Jane Ann loved to play in the water.
Come dinnertime, she had cleaned herself up and one of the officer's wives gave her a dress she could wear.
It was a beautiful silk dress of red and it fit her perfectly. She tried to doll Jane Ann up too, borrowing from another woman that had a girl child that had out-grown her clothes. The women were very helpful and understanding of her plight. She made Matthew wash up in the bowl, slicked his hair down and cleaned his shoes, as they were almost threadbare from the journey here. Another woman came in with some clothes for him. "I have a son about his age; here are some clothes he might be able to wear."
"Thank you ever so much…"
As they joined everyone for the meal, a woman came and took the children to the kitchen, "They'll eat in here." She told her.
Hawk was on the other side of the table. He was heavily engaged in conversation with the Colonel when she came in, but the sight of her had his head turning in appreciation.
The red dress brought all eyes on her, and she blushed, her eyes meeting Hawk's for a moment.
His glance said more than his words. She was a white woman again and he was distancing himself from her. She wished he wouldn't. However, the clothes seemed to throw him off guard. And she was still pondering what had happened between them. Now that she was with white people again, she felt as though she wore a sign, "I slept with an Indian" around her neck.
Her guilt was showing again.
All the men smiled at her and noticed her.
One of the women that was seated to her left started talking to her. She was the Colonel's sister-in-law. Mrs. Merriweather. She was a good ten years older than she was and overly endowed in a dress that showed more than it hid.
"We heard you were captured by the Comanche?" She said with such a frown.
"Yes, for a short while. Hawk rescued me and my daughter and saved my son."
"Really, how interesting that one Indian would save you from another. It must have been horrible for you."
"Well, not exactly." Eve couldn't lie about it. She hadn't been mistreated except when they first captured her; once she was in the Comanche village, everyone treated her well.
"You were lucky you were not accosted." The woman was saying. "I've heard such tales from some of the women that Colonel Mackenzie has rescued. Some had been with the Indians for ages, and had Indian children. Can you imagine?"
"One has little choice when captured." She tried to smile. "I guess that is hard to imagine…for some. Unless you've been through it." She added.
Hawk's gaze caught hers for a second, his approval of her reflected in that gaze.
"You don't have to worry about that here. Colonel Mackenzie takes care of the Indians here. He's made several raids on the Indians that refuse to live in the reservations. It has been very successful. Why we have a garrison full of Indian women and children outside now. They are deplorable. They stink so, they never wash."
"Really," Eve glanced at the Colonel. "Have they been given the chance to bath?"
The woman seemed taken aback by the question.
