Black Horse

by Veronica Blake

  Walks Tall violently shook his head. “No, one woman to take care of is more than enough,” he stated.

  Meadow tossed her head back indignantly. “I think I have proven that I can take care of myself,” she retorted as she cast a narrow-eyed glance at Walks Tall.

  He shrugged and nodded his head in agreement. “This is true. You have traveled alone farther than some warriors have, and you have survived much sorrow in your life, yet you do not lose the strength to go on. In some ways you are almost as strong as any man.”

  “Thank you,” she said. She had traveled many, many miles alone, endured the wilderness and all its dangers, as well as taken more chances than most men would dare. But, more importantly, her journeys had made her strong in body and mind. She knew now that she was capable of living and loving life to its full extent, and she hoped that she could use the knowledge she had learned from her experiences to help her adoptive people in some way.

  She thought about White Buffalo’s medicine pouches that she still possessed. The Blackfoot woman, Bear Woman, had been a medicine woman. Meadow wondered if she might be able to train herself to tend to the medicinal needs of her people. In spite of her father’s refusal to teach her his healing skills, she had managed to learn a few of his secrets when he mixed his potent medicines. Maybe this was a way that she could show everyone that she was a worthy member of the tribe. She was thinking of discussing this exciting possibility with Black Horse when they were together again, when Walks Tall interrupted her thoughts.

  “I was going to the river to fetch water.” He smiled at Gentle Water and added, “Would you care to join me?”

  Gentle Water giggled and shook her head enthusiastically. “I think my grandmother needs water for the morning, too.” She smiled at Meadow as she rushed to join the warrior. “I will talk to you later.” She paused and leaned down to kiss Meadow’s cheek as she passed by her. “I will thank Wakan Tanka every day that you have returned to us,” she said softly.

  This was as it was meant to be, Meadow decided as she watched Gentle Water and Walks Tall disappear into the darkening forest along the same path that she had followed on more than one occasion to see Black Horse. A poignant smile touched her lips. The river was providing them with many treasured memories.

  Meadow took her time before retiring to the tepee she was once again sharing with Gentle Water and Sings Like Sparrow. “Thank you, Wakan Tanka,” she whispered as she glanced up at the sky.

  “Wakan Tanka listens,” Sings Like Sparrow said as she exited from the tepee. She was carrying an elk hide that she had been working on ever since the past winter. The hide was tanned to a soft golden color and was ready to be cut and sewn into clothing. “I couldn’t sleep, so I figured I might as well make use of the time.”

  “That would make a beautiful wedding dress,” Meadow said, clasping her hands behind her back and smiling slyly.

  “Do you have anyone’s wedding in mind?” Sings Like Sparrow asked with a coy smile on her cracked lips.

  “Yes. Gentle Water and Walks Tall.”

  Sings Like Sparrow stopped abruptly, nearing dropping the hide she carried. “Is this true?”

  Meadow nodded her head. “Yes, I think it will happen soon. Even as we speak they are getting acquainted with one another down by the river.”

  Sings Like Sparrow drew in a deep breath. “They are alone?” She gave her head a casual toss and shrugged her bony shoulders. “Oh, it does not matter. Gentle Water is a good girl, and she deserves a good man like Walks Tall. I had suspected that they were flirting behind my back, but I did not mind. He will be a good provider, and then I will not have to worry about who will take care of my granddaughter when I am gone.”

  Meadow put her arm around the older woman. “You will be around for a long time.” Warmth spread through Meadow when the older woman looked up at her and smiled as she squeezed Meadow’s arm with her wrinkled old hand. “Come, help me cut the rough edges from this hide,” Sings Like Sparrow ordered, although her voice was slightly shaky with emotion. “Walks Tall is a very good man,” she stated once more as she began to spread the hide out on a blanket that she had already laid on the ground.

  The two women worked quietly side by side by the firelight until Walks Tall and Gentle Water reappeared some time later. Meadow smiled at her friend as they approached, and immediately noticed that Gentle Water’s hair was slightly mussed and several tiny tree twigs clung to her ebony braids. Walks Tall’s long hair sported similar adornments. Meadow attempted to motion to her friend so that she could pull the twigs out of her hair before her grandmother noticed, but it was too late.

  “A man who takes a woman down into the grass had better make sure he also plans to make that woman his wife, especially if her grandmother has a bigger stick than the ones poking out of your hair.”

  Meadow stifled a giggle when she noticed the horrified expressions on both Gentle Water’s and Walks Tall’s faces.

  “I—I plan t-to,” Walks Tall stammered as his frantic gaze slid back and forth between Gentle Water and her grandmother. “But not until my blood brother, Black Horse, is here, so that we all may celebrate together.” He smiled and nodded his head toward Meadow. “We will all begin new lives then.”

  “That will be a joyous occasion,” Sings Like Sparrow agreed. Smiling, she turned her attention back to the hide she was working on. Her gnarled fingers worked with renewed vigor as her knife cut through the heavy skin.

  Walks Tall motioned for Meadow to walk with him and Gentle Water, so she quickly excused herself from helping Sings Like Sparrow and joined the two of them.

  “We will leave for Fort Keogh tomorrow at first light,” Walks Tall announced as soon as Meadow walked up to them. “Take only what you need. We will travel light and fast.”

  “I’ll be ready,” Meadow answered without hesitation. “All I need is Black Horse.”

  Walks Tall nodded in agreement. “There will be many warriors going with us to fight the soldiers if necessary, but only you and I will go into the fort. If you still have any of the clothes of a white woman, take them with you.”

  Meadow nodded, but did not ask Walks Tall the details of his plan. They would have plenty of time while they rode to the fort to discuss the way they would break Black Horse out of prison.

  Meadow shivered when she recalled the way Black Horse had looked at her the last time she had seen him. Wrapping her arms tightly around herself, she struggled to remember the way he had looked at her on the night that they had made love for the first time. Warmth immediately replaced the cold in her body and gave her the strength that she knew she would need when the sun rose up in the sky tomorrow morning.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Fort Keogh looked as forbidding to Meadow today as it had on the first day that she had arrived here from Fort Walsh with the American soldiers. But now, everything was different. The knowledge that Black Horse was alive and present, however, gave her hope.

  “Are you ready?” Walks Tall asked. His approving gaze traveled over her strange costume.

  Since she considered the clothes that white women wore to be pure torture, the only clothes she had kept from her brief stay at the fort were a pair of men’s trousers, an old floppy hat and a baggy coat. Even if she did look quite odd in the oversized getup, it did not disguise her identity completely. Her wavy blonde hair had grown out enough so that it now cascaded over her shoulders, and not even the limp brim of the hat could conceal the delicate features of her face. But they were not worried about hiding her identity anyway.

  Finding a costume that concealed Walks Tall’s identity, however, had proved to be a real challenge. He had found some old clothes among the numerous souvenirs that the Indians had saved from past battles. But the pants and shirt were far too small for Walks Tall’s towering frame. Finally, it had been decided that Walks Tall would be easier to disguise if they forwent the white man’s clothes for a Mexican costume. Someone located a battered old sombrero and a white sera
pe, and long-legged pants completed his outfit. Now, they had donned their costumes for the final play.

  “Are you sure you can do this?”

  “Sha, I would do anything for him,” Meadow answered as she gazed at the buildings scattered in the distance. The torture that he was suffering behind those dark walls gave her the courage to scale the highest mountain or face the darkest demons. “It’s time,” she stated calmly.

  Walks Tall’s long form straightened atop his horse. This tiny woman was as brave as any warrior he had ever known, and her endless love for his friend made him believe that there really could be a happy future for all of them. He nodded his head and waved for her to move ahead of him. They tied the horses in a small grove of cottonwood close by the front gate and walked the rest of the way. They had decided to enter the fort under the cover of darkness rather than waiting until daybreak.

  At this late hour, Meadow knew that the only soldiers milling about would be the sentries at the front gate and the guard watching the barricade that housed the prisoners. She hoped she could gain entrance once they recognized who she was from her previous stay here. If this far-fetched plan worked, Meadow would attempt to distract the guards while Walks Tall sneaked into the fort. Then, they had to figure out a way to get into the prison to get to Black Horse. Since they had no other plan in place, Meadow could only hope that they would be able to work out the rest of the details once they were inside.

  “Halt, there,” called out a voice as Meadow approached the entrance to the fort. “State your name and business.”

  “It’s Mary—M-Mary McBain.” Her white name still sounded strange to her ears. She stepped closer. “I was staying here until a short time ago when my brother came to pick me up to take me to Fort Custer.”

  The guard leaned down from his perch to get a closer look at her. “What are you doing back here?”

  Meadow attempted to divert the guard’s attention by moving to the opposite side of the entrance so that he was forced to turn around to look at her. “It’s a l-long story. My brother and I, we were separated from one another, and I was able to s-somehow find my way back here.”

  The guard hesitated long enough to make Meadow’s knees begin to shake. He didn’t believe her!

  “You were lucky to get back here all alone—and on foot, too!” the soldier finally answered. He rested his rifle against the rail and climbed down the ladder to where Meadow waited. She held her breath as she tried not to give away Walks Tall’s hiding place at the side of the entrance.

  “What in the devil happened, and where’s your brother?”

  Meadow swallowed the heavy lump in her throat. “Oh, it’s—it’s so hard for me to talk about and I really could use some water. I’ve been wandering around out there in the wilderness for several days now.”

  The soldier nodded his head. “Of course. Do you need assistance?” He extended his arm for Meadow to lean against.

  “Oh, thank you,” Meadow said as she let the soldier help her. She leaned heavily against him as if she were too frail to stand on her own. “It’s a good thing I’m finally here, because I don’t think I could have made it much farther.” Meadow could see the concern in the soldier’s face, and she sighed with relief as he began to lead her through the gate without so much as a glance back over his shoulder at the tall man who sneaked silently into the fort behind them.

  Once Meadow felt confident that Walks Tall was out of sight, she straightened up and took in a deep breath. “I’m feeling so much stronger now that I know I’m safe. Please, you go back to your post. I can make it to the captain’s quarters on my own. I’ll tell him everything that happened to me and my brother.”

  “Are you certain that you’re all right?”

  Meadow shrugged off his apparent concern. She had other things on her mind now. “Yes, th-thank you so much for your help, but I don’t want to get you in trouble.”

  The young soldier glanced back over at his post and nodded his head in agreement. “I suppose I shouldn’t be gone too long. If anyone tried to sneak in while I was on duty, I’d be doing dishes for the mess hall for the rest of my life.”

  The soldier chuckled. Meadow fleetingly remembered Brandon Cornett saying almost those exact words to her once. “I’ll tell the captain how helpful you were,” she said as she quickly turned away and headed in the direction she knew the soldier expected her to go. The instant he was climbing back up to his post, Meadow rushed toward the area where she planned to meet up with Walks Tall.

  “I was worried you would not be able to get away from him,” Walks Tall whispered as he clasped Meadow’s arm. They huddled together as they sneaked behind each building and inched closer to the prisoner’s barricade.

  “That was the easy part. What do we do now?” Meadow’s worried gaze moved toward the dark building where she knew the prisoners were kept. On this quiet night, there was only one guard leaning against the door, and it appeared that he was not paying too much attention.

  “Only one guard?” Walks Tall whispered. “That looks too easy.” He glanced around nervously. Other than the one lonely soldier, there did not appear to be any one else in the area. “Can you distract him as easily as you did the first one?”

  “He is all that stands between me and Black Horse,” she sighed. “That soldier doesn’t have a chance.”

  The darkness hid Walks Tall’s smile as he nudged Meadow forward. He rarely put himself in a bad situation unless he knew that he had a comrade to cover his back; he was confident that this woman would not disappoint him.

  Meadow approached the guardhouse as if she knew exactly what she was doing. But, inwardly, she was trembling like a leaf in a windstorm. Every step that took her closer to her man also brought more danger to all of them. Her legs felt as heavy as lead, and it wasn’t until she gasped for air that she realized that she had also been holding her breath. The guard looked up just as she drew near.

  “Sorry to startle you,” Meadow said without a trace of the terror she felt inside. “I just needed a breath of fresh air and thought a walk around the fort would help me to sleep better.”

  The soldier slowly lowered his gun. He squinted as he sought to focus on the woman standing directly in front of him. “Are you staying here at the fort?” he asked as he lifted up the kerosene lantern that was sitting on a chair beside the door.

  “I’m Mary McBain,” Meadow said as she extended her hand in a friendly gesture and stepped closer to the soldier.

  He sat the lantern back down, along with the rifle he had been holding, and took another step toward her. He never got any farther.

  Meadow threw her hand across her mouth to keep from crying out when Walks Tall rushed out from the shadows and hit the soldier in the back of his head with the butt of his gun. The sickening thud against the man’s skull made Meadow’s stomach feel as if it had just twisted inside out, and when he crumpled to the ground, his limp form reminded her of a rag doll that White Buffalo had given to her when she was a child. As Walks Tall dragged the soldier around the corner of the barricade where he would not be seen, Meadow remained unmoving and numb.

  “Let’s go,” Walks Tall commanded as he proudly held up a key he had taken off the unconscious guard, then grabbed Meadow’s arm and led her down the narrow stairs that led into the dimly lit barricade.

  The smell of feces, urine and spoiled food assaulted Meadow’s nostrils, and she had to throw her hand over her nose and mouth again, but this time it was to keep from gagging. Please, please, let Black Horse be all right, she prayed as they made their way down the stairs and to the back of the dirty, foul-smelling basement. The uneven sounds of the prisoners fitfully sleeping could be heard as they reached the cell area. Lanterns hung sparsely along the walls, barely providing enough light for Meadow to make out the forms of the men lying on the floor.

  She frantically searched among the dark shapes, looking for anything that would distinguish Black Horse from the other men. Then, even though the light was so poor
, her gaze locked with the pair of dark eyes that seemed to be staring straight through her.

  Unlike the other men, Black Horse was not sleeping. He was sitting against the back wall with his knees pulled up under his chin and his arms wrapped tightly around his legs. When Meadow realized that he was staring directly at her, it was all she could do not to cry out to him. Instead, she quietly leaned up against the steel bars and held her hand out toward him. For several seconds, he remained unmoving as if he was in a trance and didn’t believe what he was actually seeing. When Walks Tall stepped up beside her, however, Meadow could tell that Black Horse finally realized they were more than just a vision in his mind. He slowly rose to his feet and did not speak as he carefully stepped over his two cellmates. Nor did he make a sound when he approached the bars where Meadow’s outstretched hand waited for him.

  Without acknowledging Meadow’s presence or her waiting hand, Black Horse looked at his friend and nodded his head slowly. Meadow observed the silent gesture and gradually pulled her hand back against her breast. She forced herself to turn away before she cried out for Black Horse’s forgiveness and got them all killed with her foolishness. No one else in the prison even seemed aware of their daring escapade so far, and Meadow knew that she could not let Black Horse’s rejection affect her now. When they were safe again, she would find a way to convince him of her love, and then he would remember his love for her…she was almost certain.

  Walks Tall wasted no time inserting the key into the lock on the cell, but the clanging of the key ring against the metal bars made a loud noise that seemed to echo throughout the building. He grabbed the dangling ring, but the damage had already been done. Men in every one of the cells began to stir and awaken.

  The panic that had only been a threat to Meadow’s sanity before was now raging out of control. She threw her shaking hand over Walks Tall’s hand in an effort to aid him in opening the cell door, but he was already pulling the barrier open. Black Horse was out of the cell, and Walks Tall was pushing Meadow back along the corridor before she even realized what was happening.