“Shall we go back to the dinner table?”
“But—”
Jarrett was already walking back in. The women followed him, taking their seats. Jarrett sipped from his wineglass.
“Please!” Teela exploded.
He gazed at her as with surprise, then smiled. “Teela, nothing has happened. That was Jim Johnson, a man of mixed blood who has always lived with my brother’s people.”
“Then—”
“He brought word from my stepmother that she is well and fine, and far from the fighting and danger.”
“Stepmother!” Teela gasped.
“Mary McKenzie,” Tara told Teela.
“My brother’s mother,” Jarrett said, watching her as he swirled his wine. “She raised us both.”
“And she’s living out there—somewhere”—Teela gasped with horror—“while soldiers like my father track Indians down and slaughter women and children as well?”
“Your stepfather,” Tara reminded her with a trace of amusement.
But Teela felt a constricting fear seize her. “Jarrett, how can you let her stay in the swampland and the bush with so much danger?”
“How can I stop her?” he asked politely in return.
“But you must—”
“Teela,” Tara interrupted, “Mary does not wish to come and live with us; I have entreated her to do so, as has Jarrett, and for that matter, James. Her way is a difficult one. Filled with many hardships. But she loves her life, and finds it every bit as civilized and rich as any we might lead.”
“But—” Teela began again.
“Enough! I haven’t the right to force my way of life on her,” Jarrett exploded.
Teela shook her head, unaware of just how hard she was pushing. ”What if the soldiers do win? What if the warriors are killed to the last, and the women and the children are shipped west? What will you do then? What if the warriors are all killed and men like Michael Warren move in to exterminate all the Indians who remain? Will you let her be slaughtered to maintain her way of life?”
“Teela, to some people a way of life is life,” Tara said quickly, trying to make peace. Teela saw the warning in her eyes and bit her lip, determined to fall silent.
But it was too late. Jarrett stood up suddenly, casting his napkin down upon the table. He started from the room, pausing by her chair. “You may rest assured, Miss Warren, no member of my family will suffer extermination or execution while I draw breath. But neither will I force my stepmother or my brother to my opinion or viewpoint; nor can I fight any battle for James. Each man wages his own war.”
He left the room.
Teela looked miserably at Tara. “I’m sorry. I had no right. It was just that I was so surprised to learn that his stepmother was alive, that she is in the wilderness …”
Tara shook her head, smiling slightly. “It will be all right. It’s just that he does suffer terribly, worrying about his stepmother. Jarrett adores Mary. As I do. James and Jarrett both pleaded with Mary to come to Cimarron after Naomi died, but she pleaded right back that she would rather stay with her people and run farther south.”
“What’s she like?” Teela found herself asking. It was foolish. There was no future for her with James; she needed to stay out of his life. He had certainly managed to stay away from her. But she couldn’t seem to help herself.
“Mary?” Tara said, thinking. “She’s very sweet. Generous, giving. Strong, intelligent.” Tara smiled. “You can tell by the sons she has raised.”
“And what was Naomi like?” Teela heard herself inquire.
Tara hesitated.
“She would have been beautiful by any man’s standards,” Tara said softly. “She would have been a part of James, of his way of life. She would have understood his people and his language. He would have loved her very much instead of just wanting her.”
“Teela—”
Teela stood, smiling at Tara. “Don’t, please don’t. You don’t need to say anything to me. I don’t mean to sound morose. I am full-grown and quite able to take responsibility for my own actions. You’re very kind, and you ache easily for those around you. Don’t suffer for me.”
“Teela—”
Teela pretended not to hear. She hurried out of the room and ran to the porch, anxious to breathe in the fresh air that drifted off the river. She clung to a column, feeling that she had been cast into hell. These were wonderful people. It hurt to be with them. She loved the territory, loved the sunsets, the heat, the soaring flights of the exotic birds … loved it, but had no place within it. She would leave it, but unless she ran very hard and very fast, she would simply find more soldiers on her doorstep to bring her back. Unless she could find a way around them.
“Oh, God!” she whispered aloud, and pressed her temple with her palms. It was then that she heard the creak of a rocker behind her. She spun around to see that Jarrett had come outside, too. She blushed a shade of crimson, miserably lowering her head. He rose and walked to her, lifting her chin with his thumb and forefinger.
“If I am cruel or impatient,” he told her gently, “I do not mean to be so.”
She drew back, trying very hard to stiffen her spine. “You are not cruel. And as I told Tara, you mustn’t worry on my account. I am not as fragile as I appear. My actions here have been of my free will, and I accept all the consequences.”
She was startled to see that he was smiling with a certain amount of amusement. He sat upon the porch rail, leaning back against one of the massive columns.
“You don’t appear at all fragile,” he told her.
She arched a brow, and his smile deepened.
“And there, my dear Miss Warren, is the dilemma I face. For my brother, I would keep you safe. My brother who covets you on the one hand, and yet would be faster than Michael Warren to push you down the aisle to marry young Mr. Harrington, if that would take you from the territory, and from danger. But as to the fragile part, no, you are not that! You have a will as wild and flaming as that hair of yours, a determination of steel. That, as much as the delicacy of your beauty, is the attraction that obsesses my brother.”
“So you would push me down the aisle with John as well?” she asked somewhat bitterly.
“Maybe.”
“If you’re angry—”
“I’m not angry. If anything, I feel a sense of guilt. I brought you here. I had no idea of what it might mean to the two of you. I wish that you had come here and somehow found happiness.”
Teela smiled slowly. “You were angry with me because I didn’t understand that Mary had to live her own life. You were right to be angry because I should have seen it myself, perhaps more than anyone else. We all have to lead the lives we choose. I wouldn’t change anything that has happened. Perhaps the future is bleak, but I’d not have changed anything. I’m not sorry.”
He studied her for a minute. Then he said, “Jim Johnson did come with a message from Mary, but he had also seen James.”
Her heart seemed to catch in her throat. “Yes?”
“He is at a council with Osceola, Philip, Jumper, Micanopy, and others. He is well.”
“But he is in the path of the soldiers.”
“He is well, Teela. And well able to care for himself.”
She nodded. “Thank you,” she told him.
“You should get some sleep.”
She nodded, thanked him again, and went into the house. She lay awake, certain that James had known that Jim Johnson was coming to Cimarron. And James had sent no message to her. In his mind, there was nothing for him to say. He had said it all already.
She slept very late and very badly. She awoke to hear a pounding on her door. Tara was calling to her tensely. “Teela, wake up! Quickly.”
Alarmed, Teela ran to the bedroom door and threw it open. Tara was pale.
“James … ?” Teela whispered in horror.
“No, no!” Tara said quickly. “It’s—it’s Michael Warren. He’s come for you.”
James was a
ll right. That was the only thought that spun in her head. The world suddenly seemed to spin black, and she pitched forward in a dead faint.
Teela awoke to discover that she was lying on her bed with Tara anxiously hovering over her. “Just breathe easily. I shall do something if Jarrett doesn’t. I’ll—I’ll shoot him! You won’t have to go with him—”
“Tara!”
Teela sat up, pushing back her hair, fighting the last few waves of dizziness that assailed her. “Please! I’m not afraid of Michael Warren. I was just so relieved because when I first saw you, I was so frightened. About James.”
“Warren has come for you, Teela. He’s been assigned across the territory to a newly built depot that is heavily fortified and manned. Tyler Argosy is with him, and Dr. Brandeis, and they’re traveling with him as well, so I’m certain that you’d be safe, but you don’t have to go, there must be a way out of it—”
“Tara, you can’t shoot Michael Warren for me,” Teela said, managing a slight smile.
“Still—”
“It’s all right. I’m not afraid of him, really. And remember, I’m engaged to marry John Harrington. Michael will have to take care.”
“I doubt if anything makes such a man take care,” Tara said.
Teela mentally steadied herself, then rose. “I’ll just dress and be down,” she told Tara.
“I will be at your side,” Tara said.
Tara left her to dress, which Teela did quickly. She tried not to think, but she had to think, and amazingly, she realized that she was ready to go with her stepfather. She still loved Cimarron—and the people who had shown her such kindness here.
But she did know Michael Warren. She had been on borrowed time all of the days that she had been here. And she could not stand another day of pining away for James.
When she hurried downstairs, a still and ashen Jeeves directed her to the library. She paused to kiss his cheek. “I am going to be all right, Jeeves!” she assured him, and hurried on in.
Jarrett McKenzie stood behind his desk, tall, straight, imposing. Joshua and Tyler were seated in the upholstered chairs that faced the desk, while Michael Warren stood before a globe of the world, whirling it slowly. Tara stood very stiffly some distance from him, and though the room had fallen silent when Teela entered, she was certain that the conversation had been heated before.
Joshua and Tyler both stood as she entered. “Miss Warren!” Joshua said enthusiastically, coming forward to take her hands. “Tyler here has had the sweet opportunity of seeing you often, alas, having met you, I have missed you.”
“Thank you, Dr. Brandeis, it is good to see you again,” Teela told him. Her stepfather was staring at her then with his hard, cold eyes.
“You’ll have ample opportunity to enjoy the good doctor’s company, Teela. I have been assigned to bring men and supplies across to Fort Deliverance. Even Mr. McKenzie will agree that you may abide in safety there, for over two hundred men are to travel with me, and even more are stationed at Deliverance. I know that you will be anxious to accompany us, since John Harrington will also be assigned to the fort on occasion.”
“Major Warren, you are talking about traveling nearly a hundred miles through harrowing territory—” Jarrett began sternly.
“But—” Teela jumped in, interrupting him with an apologetic smile, “I am deeply interested in the terrain. I will be safe with so many soldiers, surely. And if Dr. Brandeis has found himself in need of my services …”
“Most definitely,” Joshua said, and he too looked at Jarrett. “She is extremely efficient and helpful. A natural.”
Jarrett stared at Teela. “You are welcome to remain here. Indeed, we would most certainly prefer it if you were to remain here.”
“We?” Michael Warren inquired politely, staring hard at Jarrett.
“My wife and I, sir,” Jarrett said.
“And I thank you both with all my heart and hope that I might return,” Teela said. She couldn’t look at either of them as she added, “John might come to Fort Deliverance. I should be there.”
“John has always and frequently come here,” Jarrett said.
“Harrington is assigned as I myself am, sir,” Michael Warren said, “to the area south of St. Augustine, where it seems many of the spitfire chiefs have gathered to discuss their war and their business. It is a place from which we will smoke them out in the months to come. We’ve great strength there, Mr. McKenzie, I do assure you. Though I need not do so. Teela is my daughter.”
“Stepdaughter,” Jarrett, Tara, Teela, and even Tyler Argosy said in unison.
A slight smile played on Teela’s Up. Michael was not amused. “Teela is my ward, my responsibility,” he said firmly.
“And I will be fine,” Teela said earnestly, looking at Jarrett.
He stared at her a long while, then threw up his hands. “If you are willing to go …”
“Yes,” she said simply.
“I will help you with your things,” Tara said.
“Perhaps Teela should not leave my sight this time,” Michael said, his eyes narrowed on Teela.
“I will be right back down,” Teela assured him. He seemed to know that she meant it.
He shrugged. “Then take your time, daughter.”
Teela fled the library with Tara close on her heels. Upstairs, once they had both reached Teela’s room, Tara closed the door quickly and told her, “You don’t have to go. You’re agreeing because you don’t want to cause trouble for Jarrett and me. But you needn’t be afraid.”
“Tara, really, it will be all right. Joshua and Tyler are both with Michael. He will have to behave decently among such men.”
“But—”
“Tara, I can’t stay any longer. I love the house, I love the children, I love visiting Robert and poring over his library. But I feel that I need to go. I can make a difference when I’m with Joshua. I can help save lives.”
Tara was silent for a moment. “All right. I’ll help you. James will not be pleased.”
“All I hear is that James must fight his own war and live his own life. Well, I must do the same—or go mad!” Teela told her.
Tara didn’t reply to that.
But later, when Teela was ready to go, they hugged each other fiercely, and it was hard to part. It was hard to kiss the baby, harder still to part with Jennifer. Then there was Jarrett, still disapproving and stern as he stared at her, then more gentle as he held her and kissed her forehead. “Guard that red head carefully, Miss Warren,” he told her.
“I promise.”
“I wonder if my brother is aware of just how much you do love him.”
“I hope not, since he does not feel the same.”
“He would die for you. What more could you ask?”
“He would die for many; it is a trait in certain men that you two seem to share.”
Jarrett shook his head. “It is his war in a way that it cannot be for you. Try to understand that. And rest assured, he would die for you. For you, Teela. Not for the sake of a cause. As I told you, he is a realist—”
“And I am not?” she asked with a slow smile. She kissed his cheek. “Don’t worry. I will not let him die for me. If I ever see him again,” she added with a pained whisper.
“I almost wish that you would not. But quite strangely, I am quite certain that we will meet again. So again I tell you, protect that beautiful head of red hair, keep well and safe.”
“You do the same.”
Her throat was choked; tears threatened. She turned quickly and headed along the dock to reach the sloop where her father waited.
Joshua leapt forward to help her. He lifted her to the deck, steadying her as she landed.
She turned back. The McKenzies were together. Jarrett, tall, dark, so imposing, had his arm around his wife. The baby was cradled in her arms. Jennifer stood before them, and Jarrett’s free arm rested on her shoulders. She lifted a hand to wave to them, and tears did blur her eyes.
The ship moved away from
the McKenzie docks, along the river, inland.
She heard a voice from behind her. “We’ve a day on the river, girl, then we march inland. And I’ve little to say to you now that should be heard by this company, but I promise you, Teela, I’ll have plenty to say once we’ve taken up our march on land.”
He left her. The men on the deck rushed about with the business of sailing the ship.
The McKenzie dock slowly faded and disappeared around the bend of the river.
Chapter 14
The army moved quickly.
On their second day of travel, the last transport vessel—a fishing boat “borrowed” from a Tampa fisherman—reached the landing whence they were to start on their eastward march. There were two hundred soldiers in the movement, with Michael Warren in command. Fifty-five mounted men, one hundred and forty soldiers on foot, some militia, some regular army, some marines and navy men, loaned by their own commanding officers for land duty.
They made a sweep through what had once been thriving Indian lands, clearing the way, carrying supplies that had arrived at Fort Brooke. They brought with them rifles, haversacks, and tents—wall tents, common tents, hospital tents. Huge sheets of rubber cloth, sheepskins for many uses, saddle blankets, halters, harnesses. Horseshoes, kettles, tools, food. Bags of rice and corn meal, astringent wines, foods that would survive the wretched heat that assailed the party day after day.
Jarrett had often described the life of the Indians to her. She could have told him now that it was almost as bad for the soldiers who had been sent out to track them down. But Jarrett would have known that as well.
The soldiers themselves were a strange lot. Many were immigrants who barely spoke English. Many were, strangely enough, men who had trained for other walks of life, such as the ministry or law. But the whole of the country had been suffering from hard financial times, and some men had joined the army just to feed themselves and their families. Teela had found some friends among them.
She also accrued a few enemies, specifically regular army men who were her stepfather’s elite core.
On the third day of their march across the peninsula, they discovered a small band of Yuchis, and one company of Warren’s men was sent in to take care of them.
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