“No. Not much happened.” He puffed his cigarette, avoiding the major’s gaze.
“If you say so, Johnny.” Frank North stood up. “Has it occurred to you she might be a spy, trying to report on our troop movements and scouting expeditions to her uncle?”
And he was the Fifth Cavalry’s most important Pawnee scout, responsible for the Fifth’s best-kept secrets. He felt a little sick-betrayed. Had that been where she was going when the Pawnee had caught her? To tell the Dog Soldiers the strength of the fort, how many soldiers there were? When the campaign might move against them? A laundry girl picked up a lot of gossip on her rounds.
“Major, I don’t think I want to talk about this.” With an annoyed gesture, he pitched the cigarette into the spittoon.
“Johnny, she’s probably just a little half-breed girl trying to survive.” He chewed his lip a long moment as if choosing his words carefully. “But think twice about what you tell her.”
“I will.” He had to fight a terrible impulse to run out the door, find Luci, and choke the truth out of her. Had she coldly let him make love to her to bring his guard down? Would she yet try to learn more about the Cavalry’s coming offensive and then ride out and report it to her uncle?
North interrupted his troubled thoughts. “We’ll be finally moving in full force in a couple of weeks. I’m sending Lieutenant Osgoode, my brother, and a scout into Denver to see about coordinating a full-fledged offensive by including troops from Colorado Territory. I don’t suppose you’d like to be that scout?”
Johnny hesitated. “Ride all the way to Denver with that Boston bastard?”
The major chuckled. “I hear you two have been at loggerheads over that girl.”
“Amazing how fast gossip travels,” Johnny said wryly. “It’s better than the telegraph.”
“Which reminds me, that’s why I’m sending men to Denver instead of just wiring.” North paced up and down. “The Dog Soldiers have learned how important the telegraph is to us. They keep cutting the lines and then tying them back together with rawhide so it’s hard to spot the break. I’ll send Cody, then.”
“Are you sending Miss Starrett with them? She’s a pain in the–”
“No, I’ll want the messengers to travel fast and Miss Starrett has enough boxes and baggage to fill a caravan. I’ll be glad when things settle down enough that the stage will begin to run again and take her on to Denver. At least with the telegraph down, her rich papa isn’t wiring me continually with instructions and inquiries.”
Johnny had a sixth sense about things. “Why are you really sending Luther to Denver?”
The major sat down on the edge of his desk. “If I didn’t trust you so much, I wouldn’t tell you, considering the Cheyenne girl–”
He couldn’t control his temper. “Don’t call her a spy, Major! You have no proof!”
The major looked at him without blinking. “We go a long way back, don’t we, Johnny? You saved my life. I’m thinking about that now when I should be throwing you in the guardhouse for insubordination.”
Johnny didn’t answer. It was true. In the heat of battle, North’s horse had stumbled, throwing him. As he lay there unconscious, his men had rallied around his limp form. Ten of them had held off over a hundred Cheyenne until he regained his senses rather than desert him to certain death at the hands of the enemy. “Pani Le-shar, I’m sorry. Like I said, I can’t think anymore because of her.”
“As to why Luther’s going to Denver- Washington suspects some white might be trading with the renegades.”
Johnny stared at him, thunderstruck. “You mean, providing guns and supplies to be used against other white people? That’s so lowdown, I can’t believe it!”
The major shrugged, and stood up. “Just a suspicion. The hostiles seem too well armed to just be picking up an occasional weapon in a raid.”
“So besides being outnumbered and ill-equipped, we may be going up against savages better armed than we are?”
“It sure looks that way. Congress always wants to cut the army’s budget at the end of a war, and that’s what’s happened. You’ve seen the old castoff guns and ammo they’ve issued us. I don’t know whether Luci knows how badly we’d fare against the Cheyenne right now or not.”
“She’s innocent, Major.” Was she?
“For your sake, I hope so. That’s why I don’t just lock her up.” He pulled at his mustache. “So why has she suddenly been trying to rejoin the Dog Soldiers?”
“To get away from me, I think,” he answered with a sheepish shake of his head.
“There really is more to it than just wanting to take her a few times?”
Johnny fiddled with the hilt of his knife, looking all the while at the floor.
“A man who’s that crazy about a woman doesn’t think straight, Johnny. Be careful.”
Johnny stared at his moccasins. “You don’t trust me, Major?”
The slightly built officer smiled. “Let’s say I don’t trust the judgment of a man who’s so taken by a woman that he’d risk his career, his life, and maybe the lives of his comrades over her.”
Was Luci trying to get information from him to take to her uncle? Would she do that? “Is that all, sir?”
North nodded and Johnny snapped him a sharp salute, turned, and strode out.
He stood looking up at the stars, deeply troubled. Morning Star. Niece to a bloody killer whom the cavalry hunted. Johnny walked slowly-through the twilight, past the quarters.
A woman called behind him. “Johnny?”
He turned. Winnifred Starrett stood in her doorway, smiling at him. “Oh, hello, Miss Starrett.” He nodded, then turned as if to go.
“You might come in a minute, we’ve things to discuss.”
He studied her win the light from the room behind her. She was beautiful in her expensive sunrise pink dress with a wide sash that accentuated her slim waist, her dark hair tied up in ribbon. Something about her face made him wonder why she looked so familiar to him, then he decided it was only his imagination.
Winnifred smiled at him invitingly. “Do come in.”
He started to refuse, but she was already stepping back to allow him to enter. Johnny followed her into the room, watching as she closed the door behind her. “Your reputation will be ruined if I’m found in here with the door closed.”
She smiled cooly. “I’m not worried,” she drawled.
“What was it you wanted, Miss Starrett?”
“Land’s sake! Don’t act so coy, Johnny. We’re both adults.” She came over and slipped her arms around his neck.
He looked down at her, slightly amused. “What happened to the shy, Southern belle act?”
“You make me forget I’m a genteel lady; maybe it’s the swarthy skin.” Her small, white teeth nipped his lips as she pressed her full breasts against his chest.
He felt his manhood surge as she molded her curves against the hard planes of his body. Very slowly, her hands reached to undo the laces on his shirt. Her fingers ran over his bare chest, with slow, stroking movements. When the tips brushed his nipples, he caught her hand. “Don’t play games, miss. I’m a man, not a boy to be teased.”
“I know. That’s what I like about you. You’re a dark-skinned, primitive savage. I’ll bet you wouldn’t take no for an answer like the simpering fops I’ve known.” She kept stroking his nipples while she pressed up against him.
He could feel the hard rosettes of her breasts though her sheer dress as evidence that she wore no camisole or maybe anything else beneath it.
She bent her head as she pushed his shirt open and ran the hot tip of her tongue across his dark nipple. “Go to Denver with me, Johnny.”
He took a deep breath, his groin aching at her touch. She wore some wonderfully expensive perfume. He smelled it on her hot skin. “You’re supposed to be a lady. I’m trying to remember that.” He grabbed her wrist.
“But you make me feel like a tart. That’s what I like about you. No woman can tame you; you’re a
ll man.”
Winnifred’s fingertips still stroked his chest in a teasing way that drove him crazy and made him want a woman-any woman. No, that wasn’t true. He saw Luci’s face in his mind and cursed her for her hold on him.
Winnifred smiled coyly at him. “Come to Denver with me, Johnny.”
“And do what?” He was almost hypnotized by the way her little pink tongue licked her lips so slowly .
“Anything that needs doing, I reckon.” She reached up and kissed along his high cheekbone.
“In a town like Denver, I could get gelded and lynched for messing with a white girl.” He let go of her wrist, his pulse beating faster. Johnny was too much man not to be affected by her nearness, her perfume.
“Who’ll know?” she drawled. “I’ll have a husband Father’s chosen for me. As long as I’m discreet. . . .”
Looking down into her bright blue eyes, he suddenly saw another pair of eyes. Luci. Why did Winnifred’s face make him think of the little half breed ?
He turned toward the door.
“You aren’t leaving?”
“Watch me!” Johnny strode out, feeling a little cleaner as he reached the open air outside. He went back to his quarters and lay sleepless on his cot, thinking what a fool he was not to take advantage of the situation. Winnifred was beautiful and rich. She wanted a dark stud; he ought to be willing to service her. But he had a feeling that every time he tried to take her, he’d see that other pair of bright blue eyes and wouldn’t be able to complete the act. Helluva note!
It was a nice morning for late spring, Luci decided as she shook out a wet shirt and hung it on the line. Although she’d had a few curious stares, all the soldiers seemed to be going out of their way to be polite to her. Somehow she suspected that might be the Pawnee scout’s doing, but she couldn’t be sure.
He hadn’t spoken to her in the several days since that night under the stars when she’d lost both her reason and her virginity. In fact, she’d been avoiding him, not quite sure where they went from here.
As far as Johnny Ace himself, she had seen him riding out the big gates this morning on patrol, and when he saw her, he stared at her long and hard as if to fathom what was inside her head. But he said nothing, only nodding curtly.
No doubt he regretted it as did she. But he didn’t have to worry about being pregnant. If that happened, what in God’s name would she do? She decided not to borrow trouble by worrying about that now. For that matter, what was she going to do with the rest of her life? She saw herself suddenly as a gnarled, gray-haired laundry lady, still on suds row doing soldiers’ shirts with red, wrinkled hands.
She mused over the possibilities of returning to her uncle as she stuck a clothespin in her mouth and reached for another shirt. That would be better that this-unless she came up with a Pawnee baby. She couldn’t expect some Dog Soldier to raise an enemy’s child.
What about the possibility of marrying some soldier? It would be a gamble like the one her mother had taken and lost. A soldier was more apt to use her and throw her aside when his hitch was up-unless he really cared for her. Stranger things than that had happened. After all, she was considered pretty and the chaplain’s wife at Fort Leavenworth had educated her and taught her some of the niceties of white women.
Lieutenant Osgoode rode by, turned his dun gelding, came over, and touched the brim of his hat. “Why, Miss Luci, how nice to see you again!”
“I was just thinking the same about you!” She smiled prettily at him, thinking how handsome he was, how elegant and well bred.
He looked embarrassed, fumbled with his hat, and took it off. The brown curls fell across his forehead. “I–I had been meaning to look you up and apologize for what happened at the party the other night. When men have had too much to drink, they do foolish things.”
“Think no more of it, Lieutenant. It was my fault for rushing in somewhere that I obviously didn’t belong.”
He looked at her a long moment as if really seeing her for the first time. “You are a real beauty, you know that? I think not only did I act the fool, I must have been blind.”
“You’re too gallant-such a perfect Boston gentleman.” She went on hanging up shirts, uncomfortably aware of his ardent gaze.
He fumbled with his hat. “I’m embarrassing you. How awkward of me.”
“It’s all right, really,” she said. “I don’t think a man need apologize for being gallant.”
“Spoken like a real lady,” he said softly. “Miss Luci, I know I’ve behaved badly, but can I hope you might somehow forgive me; give me another chance?”
Luci hesitated, her emotions in turmoil. The well-bred Bostonian might be her ticket out of here–a remote chance, true, but a chance. Why then did she see herself suddenly on the porch of that imaginary ranch house with Johnny Ace dismounting to take her in his arms?
She smiled prettily. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
“I’ve got to leave tomorrow to go to Denver, but I’d love to take you picnicking today.”
“Denver?” It now seemed as far away as the moon to her. “I suppose you’re finally escorting Miss Starrett to meet her father?”
He laughed. “Hardly. Army business. Miss Starrett will have to cool her heels here at the fort until the raids die down and the stage begins to run again. Major North can hardly spare a whole patrol to escort a spoiled lady.”
“You’re going alone, then?”
“No, I’m going with Luther North and Cody. What about that picnic?”
“Let me think on it.” She was actually enjoying flirting with the handsome man. “You’re the only one who’s approached me the last couple of days. I feel like the most unlovely frump on the post.”
“Ye Gods! Then you don’t know?” His face sobered.
“Know what?”
“That Pawnee scout has passed the word to stay away from you. A man could get his ears cut off, the camp gossip says, for even looking at you.”
She felt terrible indignation. “He doesn’t own me!”
“He seems to think he does.” Carter grinned. “But I’m not afraid of him. What about that picnic, Miss Luci?”
She felt carefree and reckless. “Why not?”
“I’ll bring a buggy around to the front of the trading post in about an hour. You pack a lunch. See you then!” He put his hat back on, touched the brim with two fingers, and rode away.
What had she done? She didn’t really want to go on a picnic with Carter Osgoode. But she’d show that Pawnee scout! Without giving herself too much time to think, she ran inside, put on a cheap cotton dress she had already done a mountain of laundry to pay for, and recombed her hair, putting it up on her head the way white women did.
She packed homemade pie and pickles, then made some sandwiches and lemonade. True to his word, when she went out on the porch, Carter Osgoode was in front of the trading post in a light buggy.
He stepped down, bowing gallantly. “It’s a lovely day for a picnic with a beautiful girl.”
“You have such nice manners, Carter. Such a , model gentleman.” She blushed with pleasure, letting him assist her up into the buggy. As they passed the major’s quarters, she thought she saw his troubled face looking out at her. Carter clucked to the horse and they drove at a fast clip through the gates.
It was only a couple of miles to a shady spot by a small creek, and it was there Carter reined in and helped Luci from the buggy.
“This reminds me of my college days before the war,” he said, spreading a blanket and reaching for the picnic basket. “My younger sisters had a school friend I was rather sweet on, Summer Van Schuyler. We all went picnicing a few times with the Shaw boys and some of the others. Her twin is that new medic here at the fort.”
She thought a minute. “Oh, yes, the blond, sensitive one who paints pictures.” He had been kind to her.
“Yes, that’s him, David Van Schuyler. We went to Harvard together, but he dropped out.”
Could she ever forget Carter’s bl
ue-blooded background? What was she doing out with this perfect gentleman from Boston? She didn’t have to answer that. She’d done it to get back at Johnny Ace.
Well, she was here now. She smiled at Carter while she unpacked the lunch. “What happened to Summer? Did she marry someone else?”
He scowled in memory. “Ran away to the Indians, if you can believe that,” he snapped. “Caused quite a ripple of scandal in staid Boston, I can tell you. Imagine, with all the men to choose from, she ran away with an Injun buck!”
His angry tone made Luci uncomfortable. “Love makes people do crazy things sometimes.” She took a sandwich and some of her homemade apple pie and filled a plate for Carter, her mind busy with thoughts of her mother and her own foolish behavior with Johnny Ace.
The food was good and the weather pleasant under the shade of the cottonwoods. Luci ate with enjoyment, pouring some cold lemonade for the two of them. Carter talked about himself, his life in Boston, how his family had lost much of their fortune during the war with bad investments.
“Unless I marry well,” he said, “I suppose I’m stuck in this hellhole with the army. Terrible place for a man with my upbringing.”
She wondered then if he was making it plain that he couldn’t take her seriously. As she finished eating, she looked up and caught Carter staring at her.
“You are beautiful,” he said softly. “You could make this outpost almost livable.”
She looked at him a long moment, holding her breath. Was he proposing already? “I don’t quite know what to say.”
“Say yes, Luci.” He reached out and caught her hand. “I know I shouldn’t rush you, but I’ve been stuck out here in this hellhole for weeks. I–I’ve got a–a man’s needs. You’re alone, trying to survive.”
Even though he was her ticket out, she hesitated, seeing- the big scout in her mind, tasting his lips in her memory. “Mercy! Maybe we shouldn’t rush into anything, Carter. After all, marriage is a big step, and–”
“Marriage?” He blinked at her and she felt suddenly sick at the astonished expression on the gentleman’s face, realizing that hadn’t been what he’d meant at all.
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