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He waited until she started to fold the blanket before he stared at her. He reasoned she had many troubled and sleepless nights in her life.
"Good, we will travel until darkness settles."
She nodded scrambling to her feet. A bit groggy she stumbled, and her hands landed against his chest. Warm hard flesh, with the silkiest of skin. He caught her and steadied her but kept her at a distance.
She stared up at him, he wasn't that much taller, but he was very lean, and he gave off the appearance of being much taller than he was. "I got up too quickly."
"Yes," he stared down into her face. But tension grew between them and she didn’t understand it.
"There is one thing we must speak of," he told her.
She handed him the blanket.
"Alright, what is it?" She turned her attention on him once more.
"White men." He said simply.
"White men, I don't understand." She looked puzzled at him. He rolled the blanket up so he could carry it on his shoulder once more.
"If we run into white men, they will not accept us being together. None of them."
She thought about that a moment, and nodded, "You are right. They wouldn't. It would seem you and I understand that people are all just people, but there are many that don't see this."
"We must have a ready story or hide. Which do you prefer?" He asked her, staring at her now from a distance.
She looked at him once more, all of him, then up to his face. "I do not believe they would believe any story. They'd probably think the same thing my father would. They'd probably kill you. So, we must hide. For if they found me alone, they might try to take me with them. So, hiding is the best thing."
"I agree."
"You do?" she looked into his face and saw a glimmer of a smile.
"Yes, they would not believe any story. And they would try to take you with them." He nodded. "You are a smart woman. But it puzzles me, why do you trust me so, and not other white men? I would think it would be the other way around."
"I confuse you, don't I?" she laughed.
"Some, yes."
"It is not trust exactly that you speak of. I know how people jump to conclusions, how they judge others. White do this all the time. It is in our nature, I suppose. I have witnessed it many times. I know how they would react. One old farmer brought a young man to town to the Sheriff and told him he stole a pig. The Sheriff arrested him. Before the sun went down a bunch of men in the saloon had heard the story and quickly decided that the young man should hang."
"Did he hang?"
"Yes. These people, mostly white, wanted to see justice. But strangely, after the hanging, all of them seemed to realize what they had done in the blink of an eye. They hung their heads as they watched him swing from the ropes. And no one, including the Sheriff who allowed this to happen said another word about what happened."
"It is the way of some men. I suppose I should be thankful that you are a thinking woman."
She smiled. "You on the other hand, saved me from Earl, something you didn't have to do. You took me with you, another thing you didn't have to do. You say you want to protect me, and as strange as it might seem, no one has ever wanted to protect me, since my mother died." She stared at him for a moment with a hint of a tear in her eyes. "I know by your expressions that you did not want to take me with you, but you did. I thought about all of this, you seem to have a great respect for right and wrongs. But most of all, because you let me come with you, I trust you. The very act of protecting someone lends trust."
He stared now, surprised, "Then we agree!"
"Agree?"
"I trust you too, Lady."
"Thank you," she smiled at him and suddenly his facial expression changed.
Her smile widened too.
"Well, at least we have a plan on that."
