by Rose Gordon
“Perhaps if you had a backbone, I’d be more willing to follow your orders,” Gray spat.
The color heightened in the older man’s face and his eyes turned to stone. “Though I’ve never agreed with the choices you make on your time, I never imagined a man who Colonel Lewis speaks so highly of could be so foolish.”
“Not foolish, sir,” Gray interrupted. “I know exactly where respect is owed, but it’s not to a man who cows under the words of a retired general who instructs him to go fetch a certain officer, then bring said officer to him so he can foist his daughter upon him in an unwanted marriage.”
General Rigid’s lips thinned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about anymore than you do, boy. Now, come with me.” He tightened his hold on Gray’s arm and yanked him backwards.
Gray’s body tensed. General Ridgely intended to take him to the stockade? For as much as he didn’t like the idea of going there, he had to fight his urge to resist being taken or General Ridgely would have no reservation about adding more time, or giving him a harsher punishment. He didn’t doubt that for a second.
General Rigid practically spun him around to face the door of his quarters. He yanked the door open. “In,” he barked.
Gray hesitantly walked inside. He’d never been in General Ridgely’s home before and didn’t know what to expect other than it would be similar to Colonel Lewis’ in size and the amount of furnishings.
“Afternoon, Captain,” Sarah Ridgely, the general’s wife, greeted.
Gray nodded toward her. “Mrs. Ridgely.”
She swallowed and smoothed her skirts, casting a glance to the sofa where sat one stone-faced Indian wearing more feathers than a chicken and not much else and one trembling Indian maiden, clasping her hands over her uncovered abdomen.
He jerked his gaze away. It wasn’t uncommon for some of the Indian women to not cover their chests and abdomens, and while there was absolutely nothing sexually arousing about seeing her like this, he had no wish to look.
“You wait here,” General Ridgely commanded of Gray. He and his wife exchanged looks and she gave a single nod before General Ridgely stomped from the room, slamming the door behind him.
Gray lifted an eyebrow at Mrs. Ridgely, hoping she’d explain what the blazes was going on. Did they think to have him wait here and have General Ridgely bring him back to announce his presence at the same time General Davis made his announcement? Gray’s blood turned cold. He can’t force you. You’re not under his command or in need of his protection any longer. He relaxed. Marginally. It wasn’t that he was afraid of the man and he knew he didn’t have to marry Michaela, but neither did he want to have to make a scene and publicly deny any interest in her. It likely wouldn’t affect her marriage prospects back wherever it was she was living now, but it would likely humiliate her while she was here, not to mention completely kill his friendship with Jack, her brother-in-law. He breathed a heavy sigh and crossed his arms. He wasn’t marrying her. He didn’t care what her father wanted; he wasn’t marrying her.
So why was he even concerned about this?
The screeching of old, rusty spring hinges rent the air. Every muscle in Gray’s body tensed. This was it. He contemplated turning around to face General Ridgely one more time, with the intent of talking sense into the man in hopes he’d rediscover his testicles and realize he was his own man and didn’t need to cow to the demands of Davis, but his body stilled instantly when he heard the words, “In, Walker.”
Jack came in the room and took his place next to Gray.
The two men exchanged looks and shrugged.
Two more sets of boot falls entered the room. Gray turned around to see a worried Colonel Lewis and what most would think was an impassive expression on General Davis’ face. Gray knew better. The man was scheming. With a grunt, Gray turned his attention away from them and back to the silent guests who were sitting on the sofa.
“We have a problem,” General Ridgely announced, walking to the center of the room where everyone could see him whether they wanted to or not.
“Which is?” Colonel Lewis asked.
That everyone is playing the pawn to General Davis. Gray bit his tongue to keep those words safely in his mouth where they belonged and waited for General Ridgely to make a fool of himself and speak again.
“Soaring Eagle has reason to believe his daughter here, Soft Dove has been attacked by one of our men.”
The room went as quiet as a graveyard.
“And you think the attack came from a man under the command of either of these officers?” Colonel Lewis asked.
General Ridgely shook his head, his lips clamped into a tight line. “It was an officer.”
Every ounce of Gray’s blood drained to his toes and his mind raced. “You think it was one of us who did it.” Gray hardly recognized his own voice.
General Ridgely nodded. “Is there another officer who has wandered into Indian lands recently?”
Gray’s stomach clenched and he thought he might be sick. “No. But I can guarantee it wasn’t either of us. We were together the entire time.”
Color rose in Colonel Lewis’ face. “Gray, a man with your reputation isn’t likely to help himself with a statement like that.”
Gray scowled at everyone in the room. That didn’t make it any less true, however. Everyone at the fort thought he was nothing more than a womanizer always on the hunt for the next bit of skirt. The idea of him and Jack sharing a woman probably wouldn’t surprise too many, except that Jack had never been very obvious about his primal urges. He blinked to clear the thought. The last thing he ever wanted to envision was he and Jack sharing a woman.
“Though I’m fairly certain I already know the answer, I have a duty to uphold and I need you both to tell the truth—”
Gray’s hollow laughter cut off General Ridgely. “You’ve already made up your mind that it was me, so can we please suspend the formality?”
“Are you admitting guilt?” General Ridgely asked, narrowing his eyes on Gray.
“No.”
“Then are you saying it was Captain Walker?”
“No.”
General Ridgely sighed. “It had to be one of you.”
“It wasn’t,” Gray said tightly. “There are a dozen or more other officers at this fort it could have been.”
“None as dimwitted as the two of you to risk an attack on this fort and all who inhabit it by going into their lands unannounced and forcing themselves upon an innocent woman,” General Ridgely boomed.
“Sir, sneaking off to a Cherokee camp at night might not be the most intelligent thing either of these men have ever done, but I can assure you that their reasons for going had nothing to do with this young lady,” Colonel Lewis defended.
General Ridgely narrowed his eyes on Colonel Lewis. “You act as if you know more about their outing than you led me to believe.”
“That’s enough,” Jack said in a loud, even voice. “I take full responsibility for our going onto Cherokee land without orders from you or permission from them. It was my idea to go, not Gray’s nor Colonel Lewis’, and I’ll take whatever punishment you find fitting, but that’s as far as my responsibility goes. We were together the entire night, and didn’t encounter this girl or any others.”
“And just who did you encounter?” General Ridgely asked.
Jack’s face flushed, just as Gray imagined his did as memories cycled through his mind of a naked Indian named Dark Moon jumping around, shouting at them after inviting them into his tent. And that was preferable to the man wearing only a three-by-three-square patch of leather that hung down over his prick and insisting on riding Gray’s horse with him. He shuddered.
“Fond memories there, boys?” Colonel Lewis asked in a light tone.
Jack cleared his throat. “A hunting party.” He glanced to the pair of Indians seated on the sofa. “Made up of only men.”
Gray shook his head in disbelief. “No women—or men—” Gray added for good measure— “
were accosted by either of us that night.”
White lines formed around the edges of General Ridgely’s pursed lips. “I have a hard time believing that.”
“Why?” Jack blurted.
“I believe there was some sort of an altercation that night or Captain Montgomery here wouldn’t have reported to work the following day with bloodied knuckles and a bruised jaw.” The gleam in his eye dared Gray to deny the charge, but he couldn’t. He had been in an altercation that night: with Jack. They’d fought, first verbally sparring, then physically, over Jack’s foolishness.
“Boys, would you like to explain that to the general or shall I?” Colonel Lewis asked.
Gray and Jack exchanged another look, then Gray cast a quick look behind him to where General Davis stood, his head cocked slightly to the right in what appeared to be either interest or amusement.
“No,” Gray said, turning back to face Colonel Lewis. “Let him believe whatever he wants to. He will anyway.”
“You’d better watch it, Captain, the future of your very life depends upon these answers,” General Ridgely said in a tone harder than granite.
“Their bruises came from an altercation that took place between the two of them before they even left,” Colonel Lewis said matter-of-factly. “I was there, and so were Wes and Allison. You can send Sarah next door to ask them to join us, if you’d like to hear them say it.”
“No, I have no desire to discuss why these two got into a round of fisticuffs. We have a far more important matter to discuss—the rape of Soft Dove.”
“She wasn’t raped,” Gray bit off, crossing his arms.
General Ridgely’s dark eyebrow rose. “Oh, and how do you know that?”
“She’s pregnant.”
All eyes in the room shot to the young girl’s barely covered form—more specifically narrowing in on her flat, almost concave stomach.
“I don’t mean to do your father’s job, boy, but when a woman is expecting a babe, her stomach grows out, not in,” General Ridgely said gruffly with a tinge of sarcasm.
“I know that,” Gray said with a sneer. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. “I’m telling you, she’s pregnant.”
General Ridgely’s nostrils flared. “And you know this because she told you?”
“No.” Gray released another breath. “I’ve never spoken to her. I just know.”
“Just like I just know who did this,” General Ridgely said.
“No, you don’t. You just think you do, but I’m telling you—” he met Ridgely’s gaze straight on— “it wasn’t me.”
“No?” General Ridgely asked.
“No.” Gray confirmed. “You have no proof that I did it.”
“And you have no proof she’s pregnant.”
Gray stood quiet. He could try to explain it, but they’d never believe it. At least not without him divulging details. Details he had no interest in telling anyone. Ever. “You’re right, I have no proof as to the state of her body and if she’s carrying a child or not, but I do have to wonder why she’d wait almost a full week to come forward.”
General Ridgely shrugged. “Perhaps she was scared.”
“Yes, of her father that he might kill her when he realized she’d conceived a bastard,” Gray muttered.
“That’ll be enough of that, young man,” General Ridgely snapped. “You have no proof that she’s carrying—”
“And you have no proof that it was me who accosted her,” Gray fired back.
“Perhaps not. But I know your character well enough and that’s all I need,” General Ridgely countered. A superior expression came over his face. “Why just today I witnessed you forcing yourself on—”
“His intended?” General Davis interjected smoothly, stealing the very air from Gray’s lungs and keeping him from voicing the denial he longed to speak.
“Intended?” General Ridgely asked, a dubious expression on his face.
Nodding, General Davis pursed his lips and said, “Amos, I had hoped to talk to you before now to introduce you to my daughter Michaela, Captain Montgomery’s intended. But, as you saw, she was…uh…otherwise engaged.”
The color rose in General Ridgely’s face as he looked back and forth between Gray and General Davis.
“You’re allowing your daughter to marry him?” General Ridgely asked at last.
“And why else did you think I would come to this fort so forsaken it’s not even on a map?” General Davis asked. “As it would happen, I have come to see my daughter and new son-in-law united in a wedding that would outshine the grandest in any of the big cities. Since my other daughter deprived me of that by sneaking off early to marry his friend she hardly knew.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t going to allow that to happen again.”
Gray nearly choked on his own tongue. That was the last thing the man had come for and they all knew it. There was no use in lying about it.
“There will not be a wedding,” Gray announced without ceremony.
General Davis’ face transformed back to granite, making him appear more rigid than General Ridgely ever had. “What did you just say?” His words were more of a demand than an actual question.
Tension crackled in the air. In the entire two years Gray had spent under General Davis’ watchful eye at Fort McHenry, he’d never seen anyone dare to defy him. Ever.
Gray looked the man straight in the eyes and said, “I said, there will not be a wedding between me and Miss Davis.”
“And that just proves my point,” General Ridgely said with a slight edge to his voice. “He’s just as good as admitted to you that he doesn’t intend to marry your daughter—a woman who he has openly showed affection for. What makes it hard to believe he wouldn’t force himself upon a young lady who cannot defend herself?”
“He just said there wouldn’t be a wedding, not a marriage,” General Davis said in his usual tone. He shrugged. “’Tis for the best, I suppose. Large weddings can be costly and there aren’t too many guests ‘round these parts to invite.”
Gray pierced the man with his eyes. And of course the older man ignored him. Did he just have to come out and be blunt? There wasn’t going to be a wedding or a marriage. “There will be—”
“A wedding tomorrow,” General Davis finished for him. He made a show of looking at Gray and acting the authority in the room. “I know the two of you might be eager for your wedding night, but it will have to wait another day.”
Gray just stared at the man. That’s all he could do. Words swirled around in his head, but for some reason his tongue had grown so thick he couldn’t speak them.
“Wedding or not, this man has committed a crime that is punishable by a sentence of no less than seven years of hard labor,” General Ridgely said, jarring Gray from his fog.
“Is my son-in-law not to have a trial, then?” General Davis asked.
“Well, yes,” General Ridgely said quickly. “But, I don’t think there’s much of a trial needed.”
“Perhaps not, but he is owed that, wouldn’t you say?” General Davis pressed.
“Of course.”
“Very well. We shall all rejoin the other guests over at Colonel Lewis’ and speak more of this trial tomorrow,” General Davis said.
***
“There will be no wedding tomorrow,” Gray hissed to General Davis as soon as they’d all made it into the alley and out of earshot of General Ridgely.
“You think so, do you?” General Davis asked sharply. “And would you rather spend the next seven years hauling bricks and stones through the mud and the muck, gravel and twigs, snow and ice without shoes on your feet or even a thin scrap of fabric to cover your back?”
“No and I won’t have to. That girl is pregnant and as soon as everyone sees that, they’ll know I’m innocent.”
General Davis laughed hollowly. “You have much to learn, boy.” He jerked his thumb behind him toward General Ridgely’s house. “If you stay in the army long enough you’ll understand his position. You might be inno
cent, but it’s his job to keep peace with the Indians and if there has been some sort of complaint that anyone has done something to upset them, he’ll have to solve the situation to their satisfaction, even if it means sacrificing an officer to keep peace.”
Gray stared at the man, the truth of his words sinking in. There was no reason for General Rigid to believe him, and even if he did, it wouldn’t matter. He had to do something to appease Soaring Eagle that the problem had been dealt with or everyone at the fort would be in danger.
He swore under his breath and raked a hand through his dark hair. Why had he been the one blamed for this? He knew his answer before he’d even finished the question: everyone already saw him as a womanizer, it wasn’t much of a stretch to see him as a man who paid for the company of a loose woman to being a man who forced himself onto another in desperation. His throat burned with bile and he gulped it down with a grimace.
“While I appreciate your believing me, I have to admit that I do not understand your insistence that I marry Michaela.”
General Davis sent him a hard look, then shook his head and walked inside Colonel Lewis’ home.
“Your marriage to Michaela will help clear your name or at least will allow you a fair trial,” Colonel Lewis said quietly when they were alone.
Gray kicked a rock with the toe of his boot. “I don’t see how having a wife would prove that.”
“She’s not just any wife. She’s the daughter of a very powerful man. Amos is in a position no man wants to be in—deciding whether to sacrifice one man to spare a thousand or keep the peace in a place where it’s hard to get the supplies and men we’d need if a fight broke out. Your marriage to Michaela ensures he’ll do his best to find the man who’s guilty.” He chuckled. “It wouldn’t do for Amos to sentence Michaela’s husband to hard labor without a genuine trial and he knows it. Sam would write a letter to the president and Amos would be stripped of his uniform before you’d have a blister on your heel.”