“Friendship is a universal language. Show her what you intend to do. Use pictures or sign language to make her understand. See if she will help you. We are going to escape tomorrow night, all right?” Ronan stepped closer to Elise. “Sneak out of wherever you stay at night and get here. Help me if you can so we can go together. We’ll steal a horse, and we will flee. But if you see a better opportunity to escape, leave me behind and go by yourself. Do you understand?”
Elise shook her head. “No. I am not just leaving you behind.”
“You have to. If you can escape better on your own, you need to do it. I will be fine. I’ll figure it out. You need to get to California, Elise. You have your entire life ahead of you. You can’t let it end here and now because of this.”
“But you’ve helped me so much. I can’t just give up on you.”
“You won’t be giving up on me. You will be choosing you, and that is not a problem.” Ronan reached out and took her shoulders, squeezing them gently. “Promise that you will escape alone if you have to.”
Elise gave a brief nod, but she didn’t look convinced or at all certain that she would. Ronan could only hope that she would keep her word if it came down to it.
“All right. I’ll see you here tomorrow night after sundown.”
Elise smiled lightly, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Maybe they will let us go today, and it won’t be necessary.”
“Maybe,” Ronan said. But he was nowhere near hopeful.
Chapter 19
Elise hadn’t told Little Sparrow that they were planning to escape. Goodness, even if she’d wanted to tell Little Sparrow, it would have been impossible since Little Sparrow could barely understand the few words she had taught her over the past few days.
So, after the sun had fallen, Elise slipped out of her buffalo covering and crept around the other sleeping members of Little Sparrow’s family and out of the teepee. To her relief, no one woke up. Elise felt her heart thumping in her chest. Maybe she’d made it out of a teepee full of sleeping Indians, but part of that was because she’d been sleeping almost directly in front of the door. How was she going to make it halfway across the Indian village in the dark to free Ronan without being spotted?
Her eyes landed on the horses in their coral. She could leave now. She could probably make it a good distance before the Indians even realized she was gone. But she wasn’t about to abandon Ronan.
She nearly screamed when she felt a hand on her arm. She looked down to find Little Sparrow with her fingers pressed up against her lips.
The Indian girl’s eyes were large and reflected the moonlight, sparkling with adventure.
Little Sparrow tugged her hand.
Elise struggled with whether to follow or not and then decided that she had no other choice. Besides, if Little Sparrow didn’t want to help her, she would have woken the entire camp by now, wouldn’t she have?
Elise followed Little Sparrow through the teepees. At first, she thought the girl was leading her away from the teepee that held Ronan. But when she looked closer, she realized that they were indeed heading in the right direction.
When they arrived, Elise’s heart sank. In front of Ronan’s tent was a guard. Before she could say anything, Little Sparrow took a stone and threw it as hard as she could behind the tent.
The guard turned toward the noise. When Little Sparrow threw another rock, the guard followed the noise. Little Sparrow motioned for Elise to go in. Elise wondered how the girl had known she was going to escape and how they were communicating so well even without words. Maybe Ronan was right, and the best thing to have in these situations was friends.
She was happy that she had made a difference for Little Sparrow during the time they spent together. For a second, Elise felt bad that she would most likely never see Little Sparrow again.
Ronan was sitting in the middle of the teepee. His hands were tied just like they had been when they were first captured, except in front of him instead of behind his back.
Elise brought out the small bone knife she’d stolen from the fireplace earlier in the evening and set to work on the ropes. The entire time, her eyes kept going back to the entrance. She expected the guard or the chief or someone else to come barging in at any moment, demanding that they both be put to death for their disobedience. But even though she was terrified, she kept cutting and trying to untie the ropes.
Eventually, Ronan was standing there in front of her, taking her hand into his large, warm one and leading her back toward the entrance.
Little Sparrow was waiting there. She had an amused smile on her lips and mischief in her eyes. If Elise had to guess, Little Sparrow was enjoying the entire adventure.
She motioned for them to follow, and both Ronan and Elise didn’t hesitate. Elise kept from speaking, but she was terrified that the guard would be back from investigating the noise at any moment.
Little Sparrow led them through the teepees in a roundabout way until they were near the coral of horses.
“I’ll find us a horse or two. You say goodbye,” Ronan whispered to Elise.
Elise nodded and turned to Little Sparrow.
“Goodbye, Little Sparrow. I know you probably can’t understand me, but I really enjoyed getting to know you and spending time with you. Even if it was under strange circumstances, I will always consider us friends, no matter what happens.”
Little Sparrow grinned up at her, and then pulled something from behind her back.
“For you,” she pointed to Elise.
Elise received the items. Upon closer examination realizing they were the pair of moccasins that Little Sparrow had been in the process of making when they’d arrived at the village.
“Are you sure?” Elise asked, offering the pair of moccasins back.
“For you,” Little Sparrow repeated. She was grinning from ear to ear like a little child who had just received the greatest gift that anyone had to offer.
Elise couldn’t keep the tears from her eyes. The shoes were beautiful. They were perfectly sewn, and they had a beautiful pattern of beads and fringe all around the edge and toe of the moccasin.
“Thank you,” Elise whispered. She leaned in and pulled Little Sparrow into an embrace. She wasn’t sure if it was a custom for the Indians, especially since Little Sparrow stiffened against her as she did so.
But a few seconds later, Little Sparrow returned the embrace.
“Goodbye,” Elise whispered.
Little Sparrow rose her hand and waved it gently, like a breeze on a dark night.
Elise quickly went to Ronan’s side and mounted up behind him while tucking the pair of moccasins into her dress pocket to keep them safe. She needed to make sure that she didn’t lose anything else that she cared about. She had barely had a chance to think about the fact that she had lost her grandmother’s journal.
As Ronan touched his feet to the horse’s side, Elise looked back and watched Little Sparrow disappear into the distance.
She was sad to leave Little Sparrow behind, but she was happy to have seen a glimpse into the girl’s life. It was a strange feeling to feel both anger and love towards a group of people.
But she knew that Little Sparrow had nothing to do with what her tribe chose to do with Elise and Ronan.
Elise expected Indians to follow them, to recapture them and drag them back to the village, but so far, they hadn’t.
Instead, Ronan pushed the horse further and further, taking them southward. The wind rushed against her face, the moonlight making the path clear in front of them.
Elise listened hard for the Indians behind them; she looked behind them, expecting to see the Indians’ angry forms on their horses. But still, the night was empty.
Elise felt herself dozing off, her head slowly resting against Ronan’s back until she dozed off completely, letting much-needed sleep take her. She didn’t know where she would wake up or what would be happening when she did wake up, but she did know that she was safe because she was with Ronan. No matter h
ow she had felt about Ronan, he made her feel safe, and for now, that was perfect.
Chapter 20
Ronan looked over at the sleeping figure on the ground. She was beautiful and peaceful, and he didn’t want to wake her and bring her back to the terrifying reality that was their life now. She didn’t deserve anything that had happened to them.
Yet there she was, strong and ready to help. He couldn’t describe how proud he was when she had taken such good care of the Indian boy and made friends with the boy’s sister.
Only a few people could have handled that situation with the grace and poise that Elise had.
Ronan looked up at the black sky. They were still in the woods, but they were several hours from the Indian camp. They still had a good six or seven hours before daylight. If they both slept, they might have enough energy to leave and make their way to the nearest town. The problem was finding the nearest town. As far as he could figure, the Indians had taken them northeast, and although they had traveled rapidly, he was pretty sure they hadn’t gone all the way back to where he and Elise started. So, if they were to travel directly south, he was pretty sure they would run upon the wagon trail where they had passed days earlier. And that would lead them to a town.
Ronan looked over to where he had secured the Indian horse to a tree with twisted vines. The animal didn’t look any happier about the predicament that they were in than they were. He kept pacing and tugging at his restraints. It had just been their luck that neither of the horses they’d come on the wagon train with were in the enclosure that they had stolen the horse from. The Indian horse was strong and fast and obedient, but the further they went, the more it had begun to act up and wanted to return to the village. It was as if it sensed they were separating it from its home.
Also, there was no way to find any of their belongings before their escape. They were now in the middle of nowhere and had no supplies to take them anywhere else.
Elise stirred and sat up. Ronan knew it must have been because she was cold. A cool morning breeze blew over them. Only a precursor of the terrible sun they would experience out in the open in a matter of hours.
“Ronan, what happened? Where are we?” Elise looked around as she blinked away the clear exhaustion in her eyes.
“We got away, but we have a pair of problems to deal with now.” Ronan ground his jaw. He didn’t want to scare her or make her think they would have been better off at the mercy of the Indians. But the fact was, being out in the open with no supplies was dangerous, and that was the exact situation they were in.
“What sort of problems? Should we be here in the woods? What if the Indians find us?” Elise asked.
“I- I am not sure. I imagine they are a good way behind us. Hopefully, they won’t notice that we are gone until morning. For now, we should try our best to hide and then we should leave near morning. I’m guessing we are north of the wagon trail we were travelling on. If we go south of here, we should run into the trail, and if we are lucky, we may be near one of the towns that we passed before that long stretch we were on.
It seemed like such a waste of time to go backward in their journey, but at this moment, there was really no way to go forward with no supplies or horses.
“What do we do after we get to a town? Even if we get to one, we are out of supplies, out of money, and all of our belongings, except for this.” Elise held up her father’s watch and then touched the place where he knew she wore her mother’s necklace.
He was relieved that the Indians at least hadn’t taken those things from her.
“We are not going to sell your last belongings. We will either get jobs or …” Ronan trailed off. He had an idea, but it was a far shot.
“Or what?”
“There was a criminal I was tracking down in Faircrag before I found out your father died. Faircrag is about a three-day ride from Richwater. When I was there, a few people mentioned that the criminal might have gone to Overport. I figured it was just a rumor. I really have no proof he was there, but I’m thinking it might be somewhat close to where we are now. We passed Overport while we were still with the wagon train.”
“Oh. You want us to track down a criminal to pay for supplies? If you are planning on sending me back to Richwater, don’t even think about it. I’ve already sold all of my father’s things and said goodbye to everyone. I want to make it to California. Besides, we are already a decent portion of the way there.”
“I am not trying to send you back to Richwater. But we can’t exactly keep going to California or even catch up to the wagon train with no supplies. We need to get to some town. Maybe we can find a clue to the whereabouts of the criminal I was tracking, or find another mark that could come easy. It’s not my first time bounty hunting. It’s sort of what I do. I also have a friend or two that could maybe help us out in Overport if we could get there.” Ronan tried to search his mind for who he could count on in Overport. He had a lot of friends in the towns he frequented. Some were real friends, and others were only friends when he had money.
Elise bit her lower lip, looking uncertain. “All right, let’s do it. Should we continue tonight?”
“No. I am too tired. You’re too tired, and the horse is exhausted. We’ve been riding for a good six hours already at high speed. If we want him to carry us through that stretch in the heavy sun, we need to let him rest a bit. We don’t need another lame horse.”
Elise nodded, “All right. What are we going to do if the Indians find us?”
“We will cross that bridge when we get there. I know that this is terrifying at best, but we need to just get through one thing at a time, all right?”
Elise nodded. She didn’t look happy or convinced, but she did look determined, and that was enough for Ronan.
Elise shivered, her slim shoulders pulled in against herself and her arms wrapped around her chest.
“Are you cold?” Ronan asked.
Elise nodded. Her dress had long sleeves, but they were still thin. Ronan scooted next to her and took off his coat. It was not much, it was thin, but it was something. In the forest, there was almost a strong wind now, blowing through the trees.
He wrapped the coat around her shoulders and once again thanked God that the Indians hadn’t taken absolutely everything from them.
“Thank you,” Elise said. Ronan wasn’t sure if she was shivering from cold or from fear, but either way, he wanted to make it better in some way. “What was it like living in the orphanage? You never talked about it much when you lived with us,” Elise said softly, interrupting his thoughts.
Ronan looked down at her. Normally, he wouldn’t talk about the orphanage. It was one of the least favorite parts of his life, but right now, it seemed like a good story could help Elise escape their current situation.
“It wasn’t fun. I had a friend whose name was Timmy. The two of us stuck together through a lot of it, and that made it so much better.”
“Why didn’t anyone ever adopt you?” Elise’s words weren’t ill-intended or meant to make fun of him. Instead, they were kind and sincere. They reminded Ronan of the girl he used to know when he was fifteen living on her father’s ranch.
“I don’t know. Maybe I just wasn’t cute enough, or they thought I had a face for mischief.” Ronan scrunched up his nose, which he was certain Elise could see in the moonlight.
Elise giggled. “That couldn’t have been the reason. What did you and Timmy like to do?
“You know, our favorite thing to do was eat. There was never enough food in the orphanage, and they were very strict about the times they handed it out. We always tried to be on time for meals, but sometimes we wouldn’t make it. When we were on time, we would try to save little scraps for later. When we got caught, we would be punished. I suppose that explains the reason that I try to have extra food on hand. I went a bit crazy on supplies I guess.” Ronan remembered the time when they’d had extra supplies fondly. His stomach growled, reminding him they hadn’t eaten in hours.
A Long Way to Love: A Historical Western Romance Book Page 14