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Chapter Fifteen
Aiden knew he had to make his report to the Major, so he headed to his office. He found the Major in his office. He wasn't looking forward to talking to him, but he knew he had little choice. The anger that festered inside him for the betrayal this man had caused made Aiden want to hit something. But he was about to pull a daring plot and he wanted nothing to mess it up.
The Major stood tall, and well fit, his eyes straying around the room. Maybe that was why Aiden didn't like the Major, he seldom looked him in the eye.
There was also a newborn tension in the air that Aiden couldn't put his finger on. He felt it but couldn't figure out the source.
"I'm her to give a report." Aiden explained.
"The Colonel is still in Washington, they are planning big things Aiden. You'll do your reporting to me."
"Come in, come in, so was your trip successful, Aiden?" The Major asked, as he moved some papers to the other side of his desk and lit a cigar. He leaned back in his chair and gave Aiden a side glance.
"I'll let you be the judge of that" Aiden replied.
The Major eyed him. "I've been informed of some of it. You didn't get the little girl."
"No sir, we did not." Aiden looked a bit sad about that.
"Why not?" The Major's frown said a lot as he firmed his lips.
"We got permission for Mrs. Winters to see her, but they left it up to the child whether she wanted to come with her mother. Had the child been more receptive she would have been with us coming back, but unfortunately she chose the Indian woman."
"Are you seriously telling me that it was totally left up to the child? A child that age can't make a good decision. You were in charge. Why didn't you demand they hand the child over?"
"You don't go into a Sioux camp demanding anything Major. I wasn't invited into their camp. I intruded. I'm a scout, not an officer. I was on their land, I had no rights Major, even their treaty says so. There were a lot more of them, than us. And we were lucky we could walk out of there alive. Especially since we weren't invited there. I didn't have control over the happenings there. They allowed her to see her and the child to make the choice. That was the end of it."
The Major frowned. He seemed to study on what Aiden told him.
"And did Mrs. Winters accept this news?"
"Yes sir, she did." Aiden added. "It wasn't easy, but I dare say their marriage was repaired from it."
"You went all the way up there, found the child and still didn't get her?" The Major's voice raised with anger. He lit a cigar, stuck it in his mouth and went to look out the window. "I'm disappointed in you Aiden, I thought for sure you'd be able to handle this."
"Major, the Indians gave us permission for her to see her child. They could have turned us all away, they could have killed us. Especially since Custer raided their village only two months before, killing women and children, under a white flag I might add. They let her see her. But they made it clear, the child would choose who she wanted to be with. The child chose the Indian woman that had taken care of her all this time. A child that small has no sense of time. All they know is who loves them. The woman had been very good to her. So, she chose her. Gloria had a hard time accepting it, but she has accepted it. She's seen so much bad sense then that she realizes how life is out here now. I daresay they probably won't be staying long."
"I should have had sent one of the Indian scouts, they are not as sentimental as you."
"No, they aren't. But you might have had a war if you'd sent them. And you know it. Look, I wasn't making any of the decisions. Mrs. Winters agreed, if the child didn't want to go with her. And she didn't. It was nothing but a miracle that they let her see her, much less give the child a choice."
"You were in charge!"
"No sir, I wasn't in charge!" Aiden stood up his anger on the edge of exploding. "The Indians were in charge. That's their territory, their land. Even our government says so. I was an intruder. They could have killed us all, just for being there. We were not invited to go sir."
The Major frowned. "And what of the White Silver Fox?"
Aiden hung his head and sighed aloud. "I'm sorry to report— she's dead!"
"Dead?" the Major whirled around and looked away from him now as though quite shocked at this news.
"Two bushwhackers found us in the hills in a cave and tried to take her. I stopped that. But when we came out of the hills, they were waiting for us and took her at gunpoint."
"What did they want with her?" The Colonel looked unconvinced.
"The fame of raping the White Silver Fox."
"Go on! Then what happened?" The way he said that with no sense of feeling for Lucy, angered Aiden even more.
