by Merry Farmer
“It is unfortunate that this happened to you.”
Katie’s heart bounced to her stomach and back again. “You speak English too?”
“I do.” He nodded, but made a sour face. “I do not like the taste of it in my mouth.”
Katie took a step closer to him, reaching out. “Please,” she pleaded with him. “Please take me home. I’ve been kidnapped. Save me.”
Grandfather studied her with solemn consideration. “Sky Bear says he has claimed you as his prize.”
“What?” Katie balked. “I’m nobody’s prize.”
To Grandfather’s side, the woman with spots translated everything that was being said for all who were watching. When she reached Katie’s final statement, Sky Bear barked something in protest and grabbed Katie’s arm, yanking her back to his side. Katie’s panic flowed anew.
“He… he says that you will be his wife now,” the woman with spots translated. Now a stark kind of sadness came to her eyes. “He says you will replace the wife the white man stole from him.”
“What? No!”
Katie jerked to free herself from Sky Bear’s grip. She took two steps to run away, but a pair of braves watching near the front of the gathered crowd stood shoulder-to-shoulder to block her. She was trapped.
“It has been long enough that Sky Bear has mourned his wife,” Grandfather said.
Since there was no way she would be able to make a run for it, Katie turned and straightened as best she could with her aching body, and held her chin high. “I will not be any man’s wife unless I love him with my whole heart.”
Aiden. As soon as she finished her protest, Aiden came to her mind. His roguish laugh, the way his eyes filled with light when he played his fiddle, the way he’d kissed her and kissed her, even though she swore she didn’t want him. She would have given just about anything to see him then.
Instead of Aiden, the young woman who Grandfather had sent off returned with a skin of water. She held it out at arm’s length to Katie, shying away as she did, as if Katie was dangerous. As soon as she saw the water, all Katie could think about was drinking it. She snatched up the skin and tipped it up, drinking deep. No water had ever tasted so good.
A debate of some sort sprung up amongst the elders as Katie drank enough water to satisfy her thirst and unstick her dry mouth. She handed the water skin back to the woman when it was empty. Grandfather was now talking with the other old men, and although she couldn’t understand the words, Katie could tell they didn’t all agree.
“What are they saying?” she asked the woman. “Are they going to let me go home?”
The woman inched closer to her. She held her hands clasped in front of her, like Emma sometimes did, and snuck a glance at Sky Bear the way Emma peeked at Dean. “Elk Man says you should be given to Sky Bear as his wife because you have as much fire as he does.” She nodded to a weathered old brave.
Katie’s heart sank. “I don’t want to be Sky Bear’s wife.”
“Crooked Neck says that you should be sent back to the white people, you will bring trouble,” the woman went on, gesturing to the man speaking.
Hope welled in Katie’s chest. “Yes. Yes, listen to Crooked Neck.”
“But Bad Horse says it is right for a man to take something from those who have stolen from him.” She gestured to a third old man.
“Then why doesn’t Sky Bear go get his real wife back?” Katie argued.
The woman’s face sagged. “The white man killed her.”
Katie felt as though someone had punched her in the stomach. Her heart and her hopes sank. Some fool had killed an Indian woman, and now she would pay for it.
At last, Grandfather spoke again. He spoke longer than any of the other old men, and all of the people around listened to him. He seemed to be a chief of some sort. At the end of his pronouncement, people nodded and hummed as though he had said something wise. Katie was at a loss. She turned to the woman.
“Grandfather says that you should stay here.”
“But—” Katie started to protest.
“It is safer for you here,” Grandfather interrupted her. “The white man will be angry that this thing was done. We should wait for now.”
“But this isn’t right,” Katie said. “I don’t want to stay here. My mother, my family, Aiden.” She stopped as her heart lurched in her chest.
“It is the way of things,” was all Grandfather had to say by way of explanation. “Sky Bear should take a new wife,” his gaze flickered to the woman with spots, “but not one who is full of fire. We will wait to see if that fire dies down. When it does, we will consider whether this thing should be.”
Katie was so stunned that she didn’t know where to begin. At least she had a sort of reprieve when Sky Bear said something curt, then turned and marched off. The two braves who had blocked her way went with him. Slowly, the rest of the people turned and went back to whatever morning routine the scene had interrupted.
“You will go with Two Spots,” Grandfather went on. “She will take you to the family of Sky Bear. They will welcome you as if you are their new sister.”
“But I don’t want to be their new sister,” Katie tried one final protest.
By all appearances, Grandfather didn’t even hear her. “You will stay here a while and learn the Cheyenne way and then we will see.”
“Cheyenne?” Katie glanced from Grandfather to Two Spots. Her heart felt as though it would pound right out of her chest. Neither of them were going to listen to her or take her back to Ft. Caspar. Her case was as hopeless as if Sky Bear still had her bound and gagged.
“Cheyenne. We are the people.” Two Spots nodded and gestured for Katie to come with her.
Katie had no choice but to follow. She spared one last glance over her shoulder for Grandfather as they left. He sat and began talking with the other old men. Katie’s glance traveled beyond him, past tipis and campfires, women who spied on her as they worked and children who had already moved on to the next little excitement, all the way to the edge of the village and the empty landscape beyond. Which way had she come from? Where was her family? Where was Aiden?
“Magpie Woman is Sky Bear’s mother,” Two Spots explained as they walked through the mass of tipis. They didn’t seem to be arranged in rows like houses. “She is very important in the quilling society.”
“Quilling society?” Katie asked, though her attention was barely on what Two Spots had to say. So many people were staring at her as she walked that she wondered if she’d broken out in purple spots.
“They sew quills on tunics, moccasins.” Two Spots touched the intricate beadwork down the front of her dress. “It is an honor to be invited to the quilling society.”
“Oh.” A part of Katie wanted to soak up everything the shy, friendly woman by her side had to say. The rest of her felt dangerously close to tears.
“Magpie Woman will look at you,” Two Spots went on as though making a promise. “She will know what is to be done.”
“I don’t want to marry Sky Bear,” she said, feeling as though she had been saying the same thing with every breath but getting nowhere. Not a soul in the Cheyenne village seemed to understand.
Katie blinked as a new thought hit her. “Your name is Two Spots?”
Two Spots nodded. She touched the patches of pinkish-white skin on her face. “I have more than two spots, but they are hidden.” She pushed back one sleeve of her dress to show a long patch of unpigmented skin, and the other sleeve to show a smaller one. “Grandfather tells me that the moon spilled water on me when I was a baby.”
A smile tweaked the corner of Katie’s mouth in spite of the danger she still felt. “How did you come to speak English when no one else does?”
Two Spots glanced at her out of the corner of her eye as they continued walking. “I was stolen from my people too, when I was a girl. They were missionaries. They came upon my mother when she had taken me to the river to fetch water. It was not here, it was somewhere else. She lay down to sle
ep. After the missionary woman took me, she said my mother was a bad mother for sleeping when I was playing by the river and that they were right to steal me.”
Her story brought a strange, aching feeling to Katie’s stomach. Part of her wanted to agree with the missionary woman. The rest of her knew what it was like now to be taken away from your family, your people.
“How did you get back?” she asked, quieter.
“I was with the missionaries for three years. We traveled from fort to fort. One day, a Cheyenne brave saw me. He asked who I was and how I came to be with the white man. I told him, and he took me back. The people of his village had heard of the people of my mother’s village, and when they came together for a hunt, I was returned to my family.”
The story, short and simple as it was, left Katie with a lump in her throat and tears in her eyes. “My mother must be so worried,” she said.
Two Spots lowered her eyes as if she too felt the pain of the situation, and as if she too felt helpless to do anything. She said nothing until they approached a tall tipi painted with bright red and blue patterns. “We are here.”
Chapter Eight
Katie swallowed. “Is this Sky Bear’s tipi?” she asked Two Spots, fear curling in her gut.
“No.” Two Spots shook her head. “Sky Bear is a brave. It is not right for a brave to live in the same tipi with his mother and sisters. He has his own—”
Her explanation was cut off as a tall, older woman stepped out of a flap in the side of the tipi, which served as a door. She wore her hair in two plaits over her shoulders and had on a fine, beaded tunic. A younger woman who bore a strong resemblance to Sky Bear followed her, speaking as though she was in the middle of telling a story. She and the older woman stopped and blinked in surprise as Katie and Two Spots pulled up short. An awkward silence followed.
The silence was broken when the older woman spoke. She directed her words to Two Spots, but her eyes stayed fixed on Katie.
“Magpie Woman wants to know what she is supposed to do with a woman who has too much fire in her,” Two Spots explained, lowering her eyes.
Katie glanced from her friend to the older woman, Sky Bear’s mother. She could see the same stubbornness as her captor in this woman’s eyes.
“Tell her she can take me home,” Katie said, though she knew it was a bad idea.
Two Spots looked up, confirming Katie’s suspicions. She hesitated, then began to translate.
“No,” Katie stopped her. “Never mind. Just ask her if she is going to hurt me.” Genuine worry that she might had Katie’s empty stomach tied in knots.
Two Spots translated. Moments later, Magpie Woman replied with a dark frown and a sneer in her voice. Two Spots cleared her throat and said, “She says if you think your fire is going to burn her, you must think again.”
In spite of her exhaustion and fear, in spite of the pounding in Katie’s head and the ache in her limbs, her back went up. “Well, you tell her that it is not my idea to be here in the first place, her son kidnapped me, and if she has any shred of decency, she will return me to my people where I belong.”
Again, Two Spots looked as though she might faint as she glanced from Katie to Magpie Woman. She started to translate.
“Just tell her the first part,” Katie interrupted. “And tell her I want to go home.”
Two Spots nodded and finished her translation.
Magpie Woman planted her fists on her hips and shook her head, saying something in the same tone Katie’s own mother used when she was at the end of her patience.
“She….” Two Spots hesitated. “She wants you to come inside. This is home.”
Katie had the feeling Two Spots was leaving something out. “It’s not my home.”
“Sky Bear wishes it to be,” Two Spots replied, as if that was an explanation.
“Sky Bear has another think coming,” Katie growled.
Two Spots didn’t translate. Magpie Woman and the younger woman who had stood like a shadow behind her turned back to the tipi, pushing aside the flap and ducking inside. Two Spots gestured for Katie to follow. There was nothing Katie could do but obey.
The inside of the tipi was lighter than Katie expected it to be. A fire flickered in a small hollow in the ground at the center of the conical room. Above, a gap in the tipi’s covering where it was wrapped around its poles let in a fair amount of the morning light. The living space was more of a gentle oval than a circle. Soft-looking hide coverings hung from the walls, giving the space a cozy feeling. Several palates consisting of furry hides with some sort of divider between them lined part of the wall. Various baskets, pouches, and bags hung from pegs fastened in the poles beneath the wall coverings, along with bundles of feathers and dried herbs. The air was warm from the fire and fragrant with the scent of herbs and tobacco. Katie stood inside of the door, taking it all in.
Magpie Woman said something sharp to her from the other side of the room. The other young woman searched through a bundle beside one of the beds.
“Magpie Woman say to take off your clothes,” Two Spots translated.
“My clothes?” Panic swirled up through Katie’s gut. They didn’t expect her to… to become Sky Bear’s wife right then, did they? “Oh no,” she said, backing away until her head brushed the wall covering near the door.
Magpie Woman huffed out an irritated breath and snapped at her. “She says that she will not have a woman in her tipi walking through the village in white man’s clothes,” Two Spots translated.
“But I am a white man. White woman,” Katie argued.
The younger woman turned and straightened. She held a dress of supple leather worked with a few simple bead designs across the bodice. In spite of herself, Katie’s curiosity was piqued.
Two Spots had translated Katie’s words, and Magpie Woman replied in a no nonsense voice. “Magpie Woman says you are not white, you are red with fire.”
As if to prove her point, Magpie Woman strode across the room, around the fire, and stopped toe-to-toe with Katie. She reached out and took a handful of Katie’s copper curls, repeating some of the words she had said before. “Voneoestâho'h.”
When she let go of Katie’s hair, Katie turned to Two Spots for an explanation.
“It means ‘burn with fire.’ She means it to be your name.”
“My name is Katie Boyle, not Voneo… something,” she finished with a sigh. And not a ghrá either.
The thought struck her out of nowhere. Her heart broke open all over again as the image of Aiden’s laughing face rushed to her mind. The aches in her body were nothing to the ache in her heart. Where was he? What if she never saw him again?
The panic that thought brought with it left her stunned for a moment. Magpie Woman took hold of her wrist and tugged her across the room to where the other young woman held up the dress. Katie winced at the pain in her wrists left over from having her hands tied. She didn’t truly come out of her thoughts until Magpie Woman reached for the fastenings at the top of her bodice.
“No.” Katie pulled away, raising her arms to protect herself.
Magpie Woman said something irritated that Two Spots translated. “She says if you do not cooperate, she will have Yellow Sun hold you down while she tears your white man clothes off.”
“She wouldn’t dare,” Katie replied, glancing between Magpie Woman and the young woman, Yellow Sun.
“She would,” Two Spots said, her eyes large and round. “She is Sky Bear’s mother.”
Katie remembered the way Sky Bear had hit her over the head and tied her up when he got tired of her fighting and the way he had yanked her off his horse. She shared a knowing look with Two Spots. “She would, wouldn’t she?”
Much though it pained her, she had to admit defeat. She had always liked her fancy blouse and green skirt. Chances were, as soon as she took the things off, she would never see them again. Of all things, that brought tears to her eyes as she undid the row of pearl buttons that started at her neck.
“I
want these things back,” she demanded as she handed her blouse over to Magpie Woman and started on the fastenings of her skirt.
Two Spots translated. Magpie Woman huffed a humorless laugh and spoke. “She says white man’s clothes are weak and useless and not good for anything but burning,” Two Spots translated.
“So help me,” Katie replied, her voice shaking as she stepped out of her skirt and petticoat, “if she burns my clothes I will use my fire to burn down her entire house and everything in it.”
Reluctantly, eyes downcast, Two Spots translated. Magpie Woman’s reaction was instant. She lashed out and grabbed a fistful of Katie’s hair, admonishing her with a long speech that left Katie certain of her intent even before Two Spots could translate.
“She says that if your fire will not be stilled, she will cut it all off your head.”
Katie gasped, but Two Spots went on, even while Magpie Woman was still speaking.
“She says her son is a fool for wanting to marry a white woman. She says white women are just as much trouble as their men. They are violent and think of nothing but killing. She says you are pretty, but that is nothing if you have murder in your heart. Sky Bear should marry a Cheyenne woman and turn you out for the wolves.”
Half of Katie wanted to kick and fight and protest. She wanted to scratch Magpie Woman’s eyes out, even if she was old enough to be her mother. But the other half was struck by her words as Two Spots translated them. Magpie Woman didn’t want her to marry her son. She might be willing to help her escape just to get rid of her. Beyond that, Katie heard a hint of what the woman’s experience with white people might have been.
“I do not have murder in my heart,” she said as calmly as she could, which wasn’t much.
Two Spots translated.
Magpie Woman tightened her fist in Katie’s hair, shook her, then let her go. Katie’s head was still sore from the night before and ached anew. She pressed her hand to her forehead and winced, not caring if the women around her saw her in pain. Two Spots said something else to Magpie Woman in a hushed voice. Magpie Woman’s face resumed its neutral expression.