CHAPTER NINTEEN
Madison paced back and forth in the stable yard, waiting for Daisy to return. After a couple of hours, he became alarmed, mounted his horse and rode to the hotel to speak to Blake.
Blake looked up in surprise from his desk when Madison entered. His brow furrowed. “I thought you were out riding with my daughter,” he mumbled, as he turned a piece of paper over on his desk that he had been reading.
“That was the plan, but Davy and Daisy have not returned yet, and I am beginning to worry that maybe something has happened to them. Did you see which direction they went? I should ride out and look for them.”
Blake paused, feeling a little panic rise, and tried to tamp it down. He shook his head. “I merely saw them heading down the drive. They may be out on the beach, or any place, for all we know.”
“It shouldn’t have taken them this long to come back, considering they left long before I arrived,” Madison muttered. “Davy locked her in the outhouse once. I hope he is not up to bad tricks again. He promised me he would be kinder to Daisy from now on, and I know he likes me and wishes to please me.”
“Go ahead and ride out to look for them. Maybe someone saw which direction they went. You could ask around,” Blake suggested. “If they just lost track of time, I am sure they will return before dinner, since it is long past lunchtime, and they should be getting hungry by now.”
“I hope nothing serious has happened to them,” Madison grumbled, as he headed back out the door.
“She had her wolf with her,” Blake called after him when he left his office.
Madison mounted his horse again, turning it in the direction of the beach to look there first. When Madison reached the beach, even though he could see hoof prints of horses that had been on the beach, he didn’t see any dog tracks, so he assumed they had not come to the beach to ride. Where else would they go?” he wondered.
He turned back towards the house, and it was then he noticed Davy riding up the drive, but he didn’t see Daisy or her wolf with him.
“Davy,” Madison called out, causing the boy to turn in his saddle. “Where is Daisy?” He gave his horse a kick to catch up to where Davy was.
“Why are you asking me? I don’t even like my sister.”
“Yet you went out riding with her,” Madison, grunted.
Davy’s face took on a stubborn stance. “Yes, I attempted to go with her. We packed a lunch and was going to have a picnic,” he explained.
“Only you were supposed to give her my note telling her I was going to show up before lunchtime. Why would you plan on taking her on a picnic before I arrived?”
Davy shrugged. “You said to be nice to her, and I was jealous that she was going to spend the day with you, so I thought if I was nice to her, and took her on a picnic, it would please you, and you wouldn’t be so mad when we returned. However, we got into a big argument on our ride. She told me how much she hated it here, and how much she hated me, and how much she didn’t want to marry you. She said she would rather be with her Indian lover and was going back to him, and then she and her wolf pup took off. I didn’t try to stop her, after all she had the food with her, and since she was raised by the Indians, I figured she could find her way back to them. To tell you the truth, I was glad she was leaving. Since she had the food, I knew she wouldn’t get hungry for a while. She keeps claiming she is Sioux and knows how to live in the wild. I am sure she will find her way back to her tribe easy enough.”
“That was very irresponsible of you, Davy. It is a long way back to where the Sioux are. It could take a couple of weeks or more for her to get back. A picnic lunch is not going to sustain her! Which way did she go?”
“In the same direction from which she came here in the first place,” Davy mumbled. “It was not my fault. Father never should have taken her away from the Indians. You could see she was having a hard time changing her wild ways. She didn’t even know how to read, for peat sakes! I don’t know why you would want to marry someone like that, except to get my father’s hotel!”
“That is not fair. It is not the whole reason I wished to marry Daisy. I am very attracted to her. I wanted to help her learn to fit into society. I knew it frightened her to marry me, but she had a year to get used to it, if she was willing to stick around.”
“Well, she wasn’t willing to stick around, and good riddance!” Davy bellowed.
“If she wanted to go back so bad, I could have taken her back,” Madison muttered.
Davy snorted. “Like you would actually do that? You would never take her back; you would find any way you could to convince her to stay,” he accused.
“You are probably right,” Madison shrugged, “but I don’t think your father is going to allow her to leave. We had better inform him of what happened. We could probably catch up with her and if she refuses to return, then make arrangements to take her back to the village where your father got her.”
“Do whatever you want. I could care less if she returns or not. She has changed everything! My life was just fine before she showed up!”
“That is very cruel of you, Davy. She is your sister, for heaven sake. You should have some brotherly feeling towards her.”
“I was doing just fine without a sister, and I will continue to do just fine now that she is gone,” Davy bellowed, then kicked his horse and headed to the stable, while Madison turned his horse to return to the hotel to inform Blake of what had happened.
Daisy stood shaking in fright. The only time she had felt this frightened, was when Talking Dog took her, but this was totally different. She was locked in a house and had no idea how she would manage to get out. All the windows were boarded up, and even if she broke the glass, how would she get the wood off? She wondered if there were any tools in the house she could use to hammer the wood off, but she wasn’t sure where to look. Frantically, she started pulling out drawers, looking in cupboards, opening closets, but most of the drawers and cupboards were empty. She only found a few dishes and pots and pans in the kitchen cupboards.
She opened a door which led down into a basement, but it was too dark to see, so she was afraid to go down there. She was pretty sure there were no tools upstairs, and if any tools existed, they most likely were out in the barn or one of the sheds. Finally, she sank down into one of the chairs at the table, laying her head against her arms as she rested them on top of the table. Frustrated tears began to spill as she wondered what she should try to do next.
She knew that Lucky could go without food for a couple of days without much harm, since wolves were used to going long periods of time without eating while they hunted their pray. Starfire would eventually wander around to hunt for grass to eat, and Daisy hoped she would at least remain by the house until she could figure out a way out of the house. She knew calling out was useless since the house was out in the middle of nowhere. Who would hear her? She couldn’t even hold out hope that someone would look for her because Davy was going to tell them she went back to the Sioux, unless… he started feeling guilty and told the truth. Only she didn’t think she could count on him to do that.
Maybe there was a key somewhere inside of the house, she thought, her hopes rising, but she had already looked in all the drawers and cupboards. Where someone would put an extra key, she couldn’t imagine. She could hear Lucky whining and he was still scratching on the door, but she knew he could never get the door open no matter how long he chewed and scratched at it.
She thought about what Davy had said about wondering if Lucky would stick around if he got too hungry or would he wander off to try and find something to eat? Would Starfire eventually decide to make her way back to the stables, where she knew grain and hay waited for her? If she did, Davy would have some explaining to do, and maybe decide to tell the truth. Only as long as there was grass here for Starfire to eat, she wouldn’t have a reason to run back to the stables, especially if she knew Daisy was close by, not to mention Lucky being there.
She was starting to get hungry,
but she wasn’t sure how long she would be stuck there, so Daisy decided not to eat anything until maybe the next day, just to preserve the food Davy had furnished. How could Davy be so mean, she kept asking herself? He must really hate her, even though she had never done anything to him to earn his hatred.
Finally, no more tears would fill her eyes, and she felt exhausted. She was certain no one would come out here looking for her, and already the sun was starting to go down, which made the house even darker. She pulled herself up the stairs and collapsed into one of the beds, pulling the quilt up over her head as she tried to block everything out. She didn’t want to think. She didn’t want to hope. She felt numb and forsaken. In the morning, she would eat something, and then try to pry the wood from one of the windows, if she could figure out a way to do it. Right now, she was too tired and stunned to think. Even if she got out, where would she go? It was a sure thing, she would never return to her parent’s house again and the Sioux village was so far away, she would probably get lost trying to find her way back.
Madison and Blake followed the trail that led away from San Francisco, back towards the way Blake had brought Daisy in the wagon. They barely spoke as they urged their horses forward. Only Daisy had several hours lead and they weren’t even certain this was the way she had traveled. Blake didn’t even know if she knew the way back to the Sioux village. She would have to cross two territories before she reached the Dakotas, where the Sioux tribe dwelled. There were many other Indian tribes along the way, which could present danger to a young girl traveling on her own. She didn’t even have a gun or a weapon to protect herself or to use to hunt for food? What was she thinking to try and return when she wasn’t prepared?
Perhaps it had been a bad idea to try and bring his daughter back after she had lived with the Indians for so long. She had been with them much longer than she had actually lived with him and his wife, Blake thought warily. Maybe she was more Indian than he realized. Maybe Rebeca had been right and she was just too wild to adjust to polite society.
Blake looked over at Madison. The young man’s expression was grim. He realized that Madison must love Daisy, even though he knew Daisy was not excited about getting married to Madison. However, she had seemed to like him on some level. What if they couldn’t find her? They couldn’t just give up. Anything could end up happening to her, and he would feel guilty for dragging her away from that tribe in the first place. If they did find her, he would have to promise to take her back if that is where she actually wanted to go, he decided.
By nightfall, they had not caught up with her, and Blake was wondering if she even came this way. He also wondered if Davy had been telling the truth.
“There is no use continuing tonight,” Blake said. “It is too dark to see. No telling where she is. Let’s find some shelter where we can sleep, and in the morning, we will have to decide what to do.”
Madison nodded, even though he wanted to continue, but knew it was better to stop until morning. After all, Daisy was probably camping somewhere along the way, rather than traveling in the dark, he reasoned. She couldn’t be too far ahead of them.
Gray Wolf woke with a start in the night. He could hear wolves in the distance howling. They sounded more mournful to his ears than ever. Only he suddenly remembered he was having a dream. He thought it had been Lucky howling, and through the howling he could hear someone crying. He was certain it must be Little Flower. She was not happy with her white family after all, and neither was Lucky he began to believe.
The sun was burning through the morning fog, but there was a subtle chill in his bones. He couldn’t wait to get to his destination to discover how Little Flower really was. He nudged his companions awake and built up the fire that had gone out during the night. They huddled around the flame until their bodies warmed up, ate some leftover rabbit from the night before, then put the fire out and climbed up onto their horses. Gray Wolf was anxious to be on their way. Soon their journey would be completed and he would be able to lay his eyes on Little Flower again, even if she no longer loved him. All he wanted to do was see her and tell her how much he loved her.
“It is not too far now,” Gray Wolf informed his companions.
They had finally made it back to the trail they had started to follow before they ran into the Apaches. Just another day’s ride and they would be there, he calculated. Only then they would have to discover where Little Flower lived. The whites may not take kindly to red men asking about a young maiden and where they could find her.
Spotted Coyote paused and pointed ahead. “There are travelers coming our way,” he said to the others. “Should we risk talking to them?”
“There are only two of them and there are three of us,” Sleepy Fox pointed out, as he leaned around Spotted Coyote, on the back of his horse. “We could at least ask them how far away this place is we are looking for,” he suggested.
They noticed the two men had stopped and were staring back at them. Then the two slowly continued forward. When they met opposite each other, they all sat and studied each other as though not sure what to say. Finally Gray wolf cleared his throat.
“I speak your language,” he said. “My name is Gray Wolf,” he began.
“Gray Wolf,” Madison exclaimed, “are you a Sioux Indian?”
Gray Wolf nodded. “I am.”
“What are you doing out here?” Madison asked.
“We are looking for a friend who left our village with her father, going to San Francisco.”
“Is her name Daisy?” Madison breathed.
“We call her Little Flower, but that is the name she went by when I found her as a child.”
“Then you must be the brave she is in love with, the one who gave her the wolf pup.”
“She told you of me?” Gray wolf beamed, his heart taking a leap. “Did she say she loved me?”
“She said she could love no other,” Madison admitted.
“Take me to her,” Gray Wolf demanded.
“Haven’t you seen her?” Blake questioned. “My son told me she was heading back to your village.”
“We not seen her. She not come this way if she was returning to us. When did she leave?”
“Yesterday, we have been out all day and night looking for her.”
“She not come this way, so you show us where she started, and we track her,” Spotted Coyote suggested.
“It will take us a day to return,” Blake said. “So much time would be wasted.”
“It is only way,” Gray Wolf insisted. “My friend Spotted Coyote is great tracker. He sure to find Little Flower. Was she not happy being with you?”
“Apparently not,” Blake grumbled. “I thought for sure she would get used to being with us, but she did not get along with her younger brother. I think she was lonely for your tribe.”
“We come… make sure she happy here,” Gray Wolf told them. “If she not happy, we take her back.”
Blake did not answer. However, he knew that his best chance of finding his daughter was to let the Indians help him, so he merely nodded. He had been totally surprised that the three young Indians had come all this way just to make sure Daisy was happy. He must love her as much as she loves him, Blake thought. Perhaps it had been a mistake taking her from the people she felt close to.
“Did one of your companions lose his horse?” Blake asked, wondering why two of the Indians were riding one horse.
Gray Wolf nodded.
“When we get back to the house to ask Davy where Daisy left him to return to your village, I will give him a new mount,” he offered.
Madison felt a twinge of jealousy. The young brave was rather handsome for an Indian, and he could tell by the concern in the heathen’s face that he was worried about Daisy. He was beginning to believe he had no chance of ever persuading Daisy to marry him now. The only problem was none of them knew where Daisy was. He could just wring Davy’s neck for taking off with Daisy before he could come and go riding with her.
The group rode i
n silence back towards San Francisco, all worried for the safety of the young girl who had touched all of them in one way or another.
By the time they reached Blake’s home, it was dark again. None of them had eaten, and since Blake knew they could do nothing until morning, he told Gordon to take all the horses to the stable. He invited the Indians in, along with Madison, and offered them a hot bath, something to eat, and a place to stay the night.
Davy, along with the servants and Rebeca, watched with wide eyes, as Blake led the group in through the entranceway door.
Davy bravely stepped forward. “You are Daisy’s friends, aren’t you?” he asked in awe.
“Do you know where she is?” Gray wolf asked.
Davy merely stared.
“You said she was heading back to the Indian village, but these Indians have not seen her, and they were coming from the village she said she was going back to,” Madison said, giving Davy a piercing glare.
“She wanted to go back to be with the Indians, only she didn’t think father would let her,” Davy replied, not wanting to tell them the truth.
“We could not find her, Davy” Blake stated. “You are going to have to show her Indian friends which way she was going when you saw her last, so they can track her and make sure she is safe.”
“You won’t be able to track her, but I am sure she is safe,” Davy said quietly.
“What makes you so sure?” Madison asked.
“Because I locked her in the farmhouse,” he mumbled.
“You what,” Blake exploded, “she has been locked in the farmhouse all this time? What did you think would become of her if you left her there?” He grabbed Davy by the arm, causing him to yelp. “Were you just going to leave her there to starve?”
“I left her some food,” Davy defended. “And she had plenty of water from the kitchen pump. I know there are jars of food left in the basement. We used to eat it when we camped there,” he continued to plead his case. “She wasn’t going to die. I was going to go back to check on her and see if she got out or not, and if not I was going to let her free so she could go back to the Indians. By then, it would be the only thing she would want to do,” he said slyly.
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