Jessie's War (Civil War Steam)

by Connors, Meggan

  But Jessie’s ancestors wouldn’t let him forget the fact that treaties meant very little to the dead.

  The smile Cheveyo gave him bordered on malicious. “Technically, white man, this is Paiute burial ground. That makes this Indian territory whether recognized by your illegitimate government or not.” He raised his gun and pointed it at Luke, and while Luke never doubted that Cheveyo was quite capable of using it, he didn’t think he would. Not while Jessie watched, anyway. “But you’re not going to argue the point with me, are you, Luke Bradshaw? I think that would be unwise.”

  “Don’t do this,” Jessie implored.

  The muscles in Luke’s arms tensed, preparing for a fight he did not want. “I meant there was no intentional violation of the treaty.” He kept his voice mild and soft. Unassuming. Reasonable.

  Cheveyo eyes promised trouble. “There never is with you people.”

  The tension heavy in the air, Luke was silent for a moment. “We will leave at once.”

  “We? So now you’re going to trespass on our territory and take our women? Typical.”

  Silently, Luke willed Jessie to keep quiet, and, to his surprise, she did.

  He struggled to steady his heart rate. “Jessie chose to come with me last night. We traveled together. There’s no taking here.” He kept his expression carefully neutral, his words cautious, and his tone unperturbed. Yet his jaw ached from clenching his teeth, and the muscles in his shoulders and his chest tightened.

  He was ready to surge into battle, and he would never leave Jessie behind.

  She shook her head tightly at him, as if she recognized the fury boiling beneath his skin.

  But if Cheveyo noticed, he said nothing. Instead, he nodded once. “Then we thank you for keeping her safe and relieve you of any perceived obligation you may feel you have for her. We will be taking her with us.”

  “She stays with me.” Luke’s tone brooked no argument.

  “Who says I want to stay with you?” Jessie asked. She turned to her cousin. “And who said anything about my going with you?”

  Luke ignored her, focusing all of his attention on the man who blocked their exit. He had no idea how many of her kinsmen awaited her outside, but he’d fight his way out, if he had to.

  “She comes with us,” Cheveyo warned.

  Like hell. “She stays with me.”

  Jessie put herself between the two of them. She anchored the blanket to her body with her elbows and held up her hands—one toward Luke and the other toward Cheveyo. “You don’t get to argue about me like I’m not even here. Don’t I have any say in this?”

  Cheveyo winked at her.

  Luke’s blood boiled.

  “No,” Luke and Cheveyo answered in unison.

  Jessie groaned, and opened her mouth to speak.

  “If he’s not your man, why would you choose to stay with him?” Cheveyo interrupted. “You are Paviotso, and you belong with us.”

  Luke forced his fingers to relax. If Cheveyo forced them into a fight, he’d start slapping the trigger if he didn’t. And if Luke fired his weapon, he might miss.

  He never missed.

  “I’m not choosing to stay with him. I’m just asking for a say in the matter.”

  “Jessie…” Luke began, his voice guttural, harsh even to his own ears.

  Cheveyo grinned, triumph glittering in his dark eyes. “Get dressed, cousin. We will be leaving soon.” He gestured vaguely at the tarp behind him. “We’ll be taking that horse, too. I think a horse would be acceptable payment for our hospitality.”

  “Bullshit,” Luke snapped.

  “Tsk, tsk, such language in front of a lady.” Cheveyo laughed. “You’re lucky I’m feeling generous enough to leave one for you. After all, I’m entitled to take both.”

  “Like hell you are.”

  “My land, my warriors, my horse, my kinswoman. You want to fight me? You’ll lose, Luke Bradshaw,” Cheveyo said blandly, but Luke heard the threat in the man’s voice.

  “Would you two stop it?” Jessie demanded, her voice rising angrily. “Right now, I don’t want to go anywhere with either of you!”

  Luke inhaled deeply, ignoring the fury throbbing in his chest like a second heart. “Where you gonna go, Jessie?”

  “The white man has a point,” Cheveyo said. “And you don’t have a choice. You come with us.”

  “Like hell,” Luke snarled.

  Cheveyo focused on Jessie. “It’s not an accident we found you.”

  Danger eddied in the silence as Luke considered Cheveyo’s words. He would die before he allowed anyone to take Jessie away from him—even her own kin.

  “Oh?” Her voice conveyed only vague interest, nothing more, and a small fraction of Luke’s fury subsided.

  “No. We have been searching for you, Jessica.”

  “And you didn’t think to look at her house?” Luke asked. “That’s where I found her.”

  “She wasn’t there.”

  “Then you didn’t look very hard,” Luke returned. “You didn’t protect her from the airship that destroyed her house, you didn’t save her from the Confederate soldiers who were pursuing her. You didn’t lead her through a snowstorm and find her shelter. You didn’t see how she suffered last night. You didn’t do anything. But I did all of that, and more. Where were you?” He grabbed Jessie’s arm and forced her to face him. “Just try to deny it, Jessie. Just. Try.”

  She gave him a long look before turning back to her cousin. “Why would you choose now to look for me? It’s been almost nine years.”

  “We respected your father and stayed away.”

  Jessie blanched. “My father… my father told you to leave? And you did?”

  “Grandfather worried you would be caught between worlds. A person isn’t meant to walk in both for long,” Cheveyo answered. “Now, it is time for you to come home.”

  She closed her eyes briefly, and Luke fought the urge to take her into his arms and spare her this hurt, but he didn’t think she’d allow him to. He could safeguard her body, but her spirit wasn’t his to protect.

  “I looked for you,” she said. “I went to the summer hunting grounds. You weren’t there.”

  Cheveyo regarded her, and for the first time, his eyes were interested. “We have not been there.”

  “So I noticed. Where have you been?”

  That’s right, Jess. Keep pushing.

  “We’ve been… hunting,” Cheveyo replied. The man clearly had no plans to offer her anything more. He shifted his weight, and Luke recognized the look of a man who was hiding something. “It’s time to come with us.”

  Jessie rubbed her chest as if it hurt. “For so long, I was all alone. You have no idea what I went through.”

  “I can’t do anything about what happened before, but I can help you now, Jessie.” Luke hoped she believed him, for he’d never spoken truer words. “I’m the only one who can.”

  “You think so highly of yourself,” Cheveyo said.

  Luke swallowed the sudden inclination to punch Cheveyo in the face simply to feel the crunch of bone beneath his knuckles.

  Cheveyo turned his attention back to Jessie. “Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. This is not a request. Grandfather summoned you.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to see him.”

  Good girl.

  “You will not deny Grandfather,” Cheveyo said in a voice like a bullwhip. The temperature in the mineshaft inexplicably dropped. “I will not return to the tribe without you. So you can either come with me as my cousin or you can come as my prisoner. You choose.”

  Jessie simply glared at her cousin, but said nothing.

  “Your bitterness will be your downfall, cousin.”

  Luke stepped forward to stand beside Jessie. “She goes nowhere without me.”

  “I’ll go wherever I please, Bradshaw,” Jessie snapped. “You don’t own me any more than he does. And if you two will excuse me, I’d like to get dressed.” When neither man moved, Jessie made an angry motion to
ward the tarp.

  “You have not made your decision, Jessica,” Cheveyo pointed out.

  “And I haven’t forgotten what happened last night.” He took his eyes off Cheveyo to glance over his shoulder into the darkness stretched out behind him. The chill swirled around him, the air heavy with a sense of foreboding that settled in his lungs. “I’m not leaving you alone for even an instant. Not in here, anyway.”

  Cheveyo chortled. Let him. As long as he and Jessie left together, he didn’t care what Cheveyo thought of him. Jessie was the only thing that mattered in all of this.

  “You’re eight years too late. I’ve been alone for a long time, Bradshaw. What’s one more minute?” she asked.

  For the first time since his departure, he wished he could take it all back. Do the last eight years over again. He shook his head to dismiss the idea. What was done couldn’t be undone, and he’d just have to live with it.

  She continued. “I can’t refuse Grandfather’s invitation. I can’t. But I’m sure Cheveyo here will see me safely to Fort Clark or whatever rendezvous point you have in mind.” She paused, and when she next spoke, her voice was quiet and solemn. “I promise I’ll come back.”

  Her voice was reasonable, her logic sound. But he would never, never let her go.

  “You go nowhere without me.” Let her try to deny him. If she did, he’d fight her. If she left, he’d follow her and get her back.

  She opened her mouth to retort, but she never got the chance.

  “You’re absolutely right, Luke Bradshaw,” Cheveyo interrupted. “Because the invitation extends to you, too.”

  Chapter Ten

  “You could have said something,” Jessie later said to Cheveyo as they rode down the mountain together, following the dry creek bed through a steep, high-walled desert canyon so narrow they could only go two abreast. Wind whipped through the canyon, and the cold seeped into her bones. The sky was blue and clear and perfect. The color caught her attention.

  It had been a long time since she’d seen the sky unmarked by the dirty clouds peppering the hills of Virginia City even on the clearest of days. A long time since she had taken a breath and not felt the weight of soot in her chest.

  Cheveyo turned in his saddle, toward where his warriors separated Luke from the two of them. “Could have,” he agreed. “Didn’t.”

  “I noticed. But why not tell us Grandfather extends his invitation and be done with it?”

  “I guess I wanted to see how far your man would take things.”

  So like Cheveyo to taunt the devil simply because he could. “He’s not my man,” Jessie pointed out. But no matter how often she told Cheveyo this, he seemed unconvinced, and as they rode, she began to wonder who needed convincing more, her cousin or herself? She turned in her saddle, and Luke caught her eye and nodded a greeting.

  “If he’s not your man, why are you with him?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Cheveyo arched an eyebrow.

  “Because I need someone to help me find my father?”

  “Is that a question?” Cheveyo laughed. “We would assist you, if you wanted.”

  She studied the golden brown rocks of the canyon walls. “He’s got contacts you don’t. His people can help me find my father. And he helped me when I needed it. Things were bad, Cheveyo. I owe him this.”

  Cheveyo regarded her for some time, his inky eyes interested and cautious. “So you’re throwing your lot in with him.”

  Jessie nodded slowly. She hadn’t made the conscious decision until now. “Yes.”

  “A wise move.”

  “You… you approve?”

  He gave her a noncommittal motion of his shoulders.

  “Then why did you act the way you did at the mine?” she asked.

  “Sometimes the only way to measure the strength of the bear is to poke it.”

  “Sounds foolish to me.”

  “Maybe so, but I found out what I needed to know.”

  Jessie sighed. “No need to be cryptic, Cheveyo. Why can’t you say what you mean?”

  “I have.”

  Talking to Cheveyo reminded her of the way her grandfather used to speak to her, his words forever a riddle needing to be puzzled out. She was quiet for a moment. “Why did Grandfather summon Mr. Bradshaw?”

  “That is between the white man and Grandfather, and not for me to say.”

  “Did he ask for him in particular?”

  “Grandfather said I would find you in the company of a man, and I was to bring you both to him.” He jerked his head back in Luke’s direction. “I found you with Luke Bradshaw. Therefore, he is the man our grandfather asked for.”

  “So, no, not him in particular.”

  “I would argue otherwise,” Cheveyo said. “I think out grandfather’s directives were very particular.”

  Jessie rolled her eyes. “You’re talking in circles again. He didn’t say, ‘Get me Luke Bradshaw.’ He said, whatever man I was with at the time. It could have been Old Man Jensen.”

  “But it wasn’t Old Man Jensen,” Cheveyo replied, as if those words cleared everything up. He motioned vaguely in Luke’s direction. “Not just any man, but that one.” He paused for a moment. “Now I get to ask the question. Why do you claim he’s not your man? I found you both naked, and he behaves like your man.”

  “We did what we had to in order to survive, and if you think he behaves like ‘my man,’ I’d hate to see how you treat your wife.”

  “Don’t have a woman,” Cheveyo said. “You are not ignorant of our culture, cousin, no matter how white you pretend to be. On our land, sharing a shelter with a man neither kin nor husband is forbidden.”

  “I didn’t have much of a choice.” She peeked over her shoulder again and Luke waved as if he’d been staring at her back the entire time.

  “Obviously.” Cheveyo’s voice mocked her with its gentleness.

  She ignored it as she ignored everything else she didn’t want to acknowledge. “What will you tell Grandfather?”

  “Worried, cousin?”

  “No. Just wondering.”

  “I will tell him the truth and nothing more.”

  Jessie frowned down at her horse. “I’m not worried about the truth. I’m worried about how much of it you’re planning on telling.”

  Cheveyo regarded her for a long time. “I won’t lie to him for you. You have been gone too long.”

  “Wasn’t my choice. You left me, not the other way around.”

  “Not my decision. You could have looked for us sooner, but chose not to. We would have come.”

  “How was I supposed to find you? What do you think I should have done?”

  Cheveyo looked at her for a long time. What was he thinking? She missed the boy who’d been her childhood playmate, with the open eyes and the wild heart. The boy she’d lain with under the stars, as they both howled with laughter.

  This reserved, cautious man was a stranger.

  “Maybe nothing,” he answered. “Or maybe search for us. You only sought us out once you had no one left.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Yes it is.” His voice was bland. “You stayed in a town where everyone turned on you, rather than coming to us. If you’d really wanted us, we would have come.” He looked away. “Even now, when we’re all you have, you turn away.”

  “Oh, no, Cheveyo, no. I didn’t know where to go.” Tears threatened her, for she’d told the truth, yet all she found in her cousin’s expression was judgment. He’d already tried her and found her guilty.

  Perhaps she was.

  She chose her next words carefully. “Does Grandfather think the same way you do?”

  “I don’t know what Grandfather thinks. He keeps his own council. Perhaps that’s a question better asked of him,” Cheveyo said after a time. “Now it’s my turn. An answer for an answer. Why have you ignored us? Did it have anything to do with your father?”

  “No.” Her father had never said anything about searching out her moth
er’s people. After she died, Jessie had thought about joining the summer hunt, and she would have, had Luke not left.

  In those months after his departure, Jessie simply hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to face anyone. The months had gradually stretched into years, long stretches of bitter grief punctuated only by fear and isolation.

  “So why didn’t you come?”

  “It wasn’t safe for an Indian woman to travel alone,” she said. “Still isn’t.”

  “True,” Cheveyo responded. “But that’s not why you didn’t look for us. You’ll have to do better when you talk to Grandfather.”

  “It’s not what you think, Cheveyo.” He thought she’d abandoned them as surely as they’d abandoned her, and she hated herself because he was right. She hadn’t looked until after her father died, had stayed in a town and suffered attacks for months before finally deciding to turn back to her mother’s people.

  And she’d stayed because there had been... things... she had simply been unable to part with.

  She thought about the ring Luke had once given her, now burned into ash, and she turned in her saddle to look back at Luke.

  “Hey Jessie!” he called.

  Jessie wondered if the happiness in his voice was for her benefit. More likely, it was a meant to taunt Cheveyo.

  “Shut up, Bradshaw,” she mumbled.

  The canyon opened up onto a narrow valley, the river reflecting the azure sky as it snaked through the desert and disappeared between the mountains, the white of the snow temporarily dazzling her. She’d forgotten the glittering brightness of sunlit snow.

  Beside her, Cheveyo made a noise, and when she turned her eyes to her cousin, he smiled. “You know why he does that.”

  “Because he’s obnoxious.”

  Cheveyo laughed. “Perhaps. But that’s not why he does it.”

  “What are you getting at? Why do you think he does it?”

  “For the same reason he’s done everything else. He does it for you.” Cheveyo put his heels to horse and took off for the river. Putting the distance between them she’d felt ever since his sudden arrival.