Journey of the Heart

by Mills, DiAnn; Darty, Peggy;

  “Beautiful,” Aunt Elizabeth said. “How nice of you, Jacob, to think of your sister.”

  He grinned, and then something else got his attention. “Look over there.” He pointed. “Here comes Sergeant Sinclair.”

  Katie didn’t quite know what to think of Peyton joining them, but she did look forward to talking with him.

  “That young man is smitten,” Aunt Elizabeth said.

  “Oh, Aunt Elizabeth, he’s just interested in the children.”

  Elizabeth laughed and Katie’s face warmed. “We shall see.”

  “Hello,” Peyton called, and Jacob waved.

  “We’re over here in the flowers, Sergeant.”

  “I see,” Peyton said as he bent down to Jacob’s level. “And look at your sister.” He removed his cap, and Emily tugged at his sandy hair.

  “Katie made it,” Jacob said. “And I put it on her head.”

  Peyton’s eyes flew to Katie, and Aunt Elizabeth coughed quite noticeably.

  “Unless you have urgent business, why don’t you and Katie take a walk?” her aunt said.

  “Me, too,” Jacob said.

  “Of course, you,” Peyton said, ruffling Jacob’s hair. “What do you say, Katie?”

  “How can I refuse? Isn’t this weather wonderful?”

  Peyton agreed and the three walked on through the valley.

  “I only have a little while,” Peyton said. “I have drills yet to do.”

  “Well, all of us appreciate your checking so often on the children,” Katie said. “They love seeing you.”

  “Do you think Jacob and Emily are the only reasons why I visit?”

  A slow rise of color warmed her cheeks. Peyton glanced her way and laughed. “I like your aunt’s biscuits.”

  She shook her head and wrinkled her nose at him. She understood exactly what he meant.

  “And I like her niece,” he added. “She has the greenest eyes and the blondest hair I’ve ever seen.”

  “Emily doesn’t have green eyes,” Jacob said, obviously hearing every word. “You must be talking about Katie.”

  “Are you sure, Jacob?” Peyton said, as though surprised.

  “Yep, and I bet if you were nice, she would make you a flower wreath, too. It’s ’posed to be just for girls, but maybe it would be all right for a soldier.”

  “Splendid, I’d like that,” Peyton said, and they stopped there, surrounded by wildflowers, for Katie to weave a wreath for him.

  “I thought you were short on time,” she said.

  “I have time for this.” He grinned, and she turned her attention to the flowers.

  “Take off your hat,” Jacob said to Peyton once she finished. “Now let Katie put it on your head like she did Emily.”

  Embarrassment coursed through her with Jacob’s insistence, but she obliged. As the wreath sat perfectly balanced on Peyton’s head, Jacob called for Aunt Elizabeth to come and see. Peyton’s face matched the color of her own.

  How much she had grown to like Peyton Sinclair and his incessant teasing.

  “Are you understanding tonight’s scripture?” Uncle Seth said one evening after the children had gone to bed. Katie had read for some time, and now the Bible lay open on her lap.

  “I’ve been reading about Moses and how God used him to deliver the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians.”

  “And what about that passage do you find most interesting?” he said.

  Katie considered the question before she replied. “God took Moses from his home in the wilderness and sent him back to his own people in Egypt because God had a job for Moses. He didn’t want to talk to Pharaoh, but God told him to go, and Moses went. Moses believed that God would free the enslaved Israelites.” Do I believe these words? “He was obedient to his heavenly Father.” She closed the Bible and handed it to her uncle.

  “Do you feel a bond with Moses?” Uncle Seth said.

  Katie looked over at the sleeping children and listened to the crackling fire. Her eyes searched the face of Aunt Elizabeth, who had turned her attention from sewing to hear Katie’s answer. Katie glanced back to the lined face of her uncle.

  “Yes, I do. I think God wanted me to stop being selfish and lend a hand to someone who really needed it. He had to pull me away from the Indian village to help these children.” She nodded toward Jacob and Emily. “But oh my, the burden it has placed upon you two. I must find a way to help provide for all of us.”

  “Nonsense, child. One doesn’t look at gifts as being burdens,” Aunt Elizabeth wiped a single tear from her eye. “All my life I prayed for children, and now I have three. God allowed Seth and me to love and care for three special people who needed us.”

  “It amazes me how your God might use me, an unbeliever, to carry out His plan,” Katie said.

  “But, Katie child, your stating God used you says you are a believer,” Uncle Seth said quietly.

  Katie paused and regarded Seth’s words. Have I started to believe the words of the Bible? When did her heart begin to open up to God? Was it the night she first saw the children? She well remembered the hideous depredation of human bodies and the fury that burned inside her for the horrible injustices. At times reminders of Comanche spirits and gods triggered her thoughts, but she no longer dwelled upon them. She couldn’t remember the last time she feared evil spirits might harm her aunt and uncle for the Bible reading. Slowly the superstitions had faded, and her mind lingered more and more upon the Word of God. Katie now scribbled scripture from Reverend Cooper’s sermons and later looked them up in Uncle Elizabeth and Uncle Seth’s Bible. Perhaps now marked the time to purchase her own. A few gold pieces lay in the bottom of her trunk. She needed a Bible, and she could give the remaining gold pieces to her uncle. It would buy provisions for all of them for a long time.

  Had she really come to accept the same God as her aunt and uncle? She wasn’t sure, except His ways were becoming more of her own.

  Almost two weeks later, Peyton paid an unexpected call to the Colter home. Usually he visited much later in the evening, when he had been relieved of his duties and could play with the children. Jacob and Emily had just fallen asleep for an afternoon nap when he arrived. Rather than accepting Aunt Elizabeth’s invitation to step inside, Peyton stood in the doorway and asked her aunt if he could speak with Katie privately.

  The seriousness of Peyton’s voice alarmed Katie. Aunt Elizabeth gave her silent permission, and Katie followed him into the sunlight. She didn’t question him, for he looked far too preoccupied with his thoughts.

  “Katie,” he began once they were several feet from the house. “The colonel wants to see you, but I want you to know that you have every right to refuse.”

  “All right,” she said slowly, observing the concern in his gray eyes. “What does he want of me? Does it have anything to do with my land?”

  “It has nothing to do with your land. One of the scouts, a Kiowa, says he needs to speak to you.”

  Her heart thudded. What could this mean? “About what?”

  Peyton shrugged. “I don’t know exactly, and he won’t tell the colonel.”

  “That’s strange,” Katie said, attempting to sort out her thoughts on the matter. “I probably should ask Uncle Seth’s permission first.”

  “I already have,” he said. “At first he declined, stating he wouldn’t have you upset; then he said you should decide.”

  Katie looked above her to the canyon walls where attacking Indians could easily surprise the soldiers. The vulnerability of the fort’s location never frightened her before the night of the Lawrence murders. She’d always felt safe because of her relationship with the Comanches. It didn’t occur to her that the friendship with the Indians would ever change until she saw for herself what hatred could actually do. Now she feared for all those people living in and around Fort Davis. She despised the Lawrence murders, but their deaths didn’t mean she could willingly pick up a rifle against a Comanche. She couldn’t deny her past or love for her friends, both Com
anche and white. But if the Comanches decided to attack the fort in large numbers, no one would be spared. Would they kill her, too?

  Did her white skin mark her a victim, just like the Lawrence family? The land, always the land, echoed the war cry from both sides. If only the two could compromise for a peaceable solution.

  Now a Kiowa Indian wanted to talk to her. Peyton said the man was a scout. He could easily spy for the army or the Indians, depending on who held his loyalties or promised the most in return. Many Comanches considered the Kiowa an inferior race, and she couldn’t help but be suspicious of his motives.

  Others would hear of this meeting, and they would start gossiping again. She shouldn’t care what anyone said about her business, except it involved her aunt and uncle. Uncle Seth must have originally refused the colonel’s request in order to protect his niece from malicious gossip. After further deliberation, Uncle Seth must have decided she should be the one to choose whether to speak to the Kiowa.

  For the first time in her life, she didn’t want to talk to an Indian.

  “I don’t have any idea what he wants, but I am willing to find out,” she finally said.

  Side by side, the two walked the short distance to the colonel’s cabin. Inside, the Indian scout waited with Colonel Ross.

  “Thank you for coming, Miss Colter,” the colonel said with no trace of emotion. He motioned for Katie to sit down, and she obeyed. Not once did she give the Indian notice.

  “This man is a Kiowa scout for the army. He states he has business with you,” the colonel said.

  She carefully observed the Kiowa. “I don’t know him.”

  The Kiowa turned to her. “I must talk with you alone. This is important.”

  “If you have anything to say to me, then do so in front of these men.” She would not be above reproach.

  “I have a message from Lone Eagle,” the Indian said in Comanche.

  Every nerve in her body responded to the Indian’s choice of tongue, but she masked her surprise and suspicion.

  “Why should I believe you, a Kiowa?” she said in the same tongue. “You are paid by the army. Are you a spy?”

  The Indian ignored her question. “Lone Eagle does not honor the promise made to your father.”

  The man spoke the truth, and she’d be a fool not to believe him. Only Lone Eagle’s father, Swift Arrow, knew of Pa’s dying words. Yet, she couldn’t trust him.

  “What promise do you speak of?” Katie said.

  “To leave the Comanche village and return to your own people—as Jeremiah Colter requested before he breathed his last.”

  Katie nodded, still refraining from revealing any emotion. “Is that all of the message? All Lone Eagle asked is for you to tell me of his disapproval?”

  “Lone Eagle says you must return to the village.”

  “I can’t go back. I gave my father my word to live among the whites. I was with him when he breathed his last.”

  “Lone Eagle does not ask but demands as your husband. Your place is with him.”

  “The marriage was not consummated.”

  “Your father accepted the gift of horses. You are Lone Eagle’s wife.”

  “I agree. My father kept the horses. But I left them at the village with the other gifts. My home is here.”

  “You cause great anger in Lone Eagle’s heart. His hatred for the whites burns even more. You will die with the rest of the whites.”

  Chapter Six

  Anger and fear raced through Katie’s blood, and she fought hard to keep her emotions from spilling over.

  “So those are Lone Eagle’s words?” Katie said.

  “Yes, all whites will die at the hand of the Comanches. Already Swift Arrow speaks to unite the warriors. They will be driven from the land.”

  Katie glanced at Colonel Ross, who did not understand a word of their conversation. She dare not turn and face Peyton. She did not want these two men dead or any of the others. Neither did she desire Lone Eagle killed.

  “If I go back to him, would he reconsider his attack against the fort and the people living near it?”

  “You think of yourself more important than you are,” the Kiowa sneered. “Indian doesn’t fight for a woman, but honor and the land of their fathers.”

  “I understand full well the desires of a warrior,” she said. “But peace would be better. Tell Lone Eagle, I desire peace. Tell him I will break my promise to my father and return to the village if he will cease talks of war.”

  The Kiowa faced Colonel Ross and spoke in English. “I wish to leave now.”

  Colonel Ross nodded, and Peyton stepped away from the door. Weak and physically ill with the outcome of the meeting, she desired to leave the two men, too. How much of the conversation should the colonel and Peyton hear? What could the soldiers do in the event of an attack? She stood frozen to the wood floor. She didn’t want the responsibility of knowing what the Comanches planned…. Perhaps if she explained part of the Kiowa’s mission, reinforcements from other army posts could be obtained. The trail to San Antonio or El Paso was desolate and invited Indian raids. The dangerous passage marked the key reason the army first built Fort Davis. Leaders in Washington knew the peril of this part of the country and believed the fort lay in a strategic position. Anyone viewing the fort soon realized the canyon walls could very well imprison those living inside. But now wasn’t the time to debate the army’s lack of good sense. Katie didn’t have the mind of the army. Colonel Ross might have the perfect solution to ward off an Indian attack. Defending civilians and the settlers were his lifeblood. His solution might be quite simple.

  “Miss Colter, you look pale,” Colonel Ross said, interrupting her racing thoughts. “Shall I have a soldier fetch smelling salts?”

  Katie shook her head. She must say something about the Kiowa’s threats.

  “Colonel Ross. Are the words spoken in this room private?”

  “Yes, Miss Colter, if you so desire. Sergeant Sinclair?”

  “Yes, sir. Miss Colter’s words are confidential.”

  “Perhaps additional sentries for the canyon walls might be a consideration.” She trembled, while fear for others weighed on her heart.

  Colonel Ross sat erect and appropriately gave Katie his full attention. “So the Kiowas are planning an attack?”

  She folded her hands in her lap. They were moist and cold, like Jacob’s hands the night she brought home the children.

  “Not the Kiowas, but the Comanches.” She secured eye contact with the colonel. “I don’t think the Kiowa lied because his words held other matters of truth.”

  “Did he say when?” the colonel said.

  “No, sir. He most likely didn’t know for certain. You and I both know Comanche warfare is in stages—circling and striking when they have the advantage.”

  “Why did he have to speak with you about it?” the colonel said.

  “I think, sir, his purpose was to see my reaction. Perhaps Swift Arrow wondered if I had abandoned all the Comanche ways.”

  “And was he satisfied?”

  Katie gave Colonel Ross a wry smile. “I believe in peace.”

  “Is there anything else I need to be aware of? The conversation with the Kiowa appeared longer, and the sergeant and I would have to be fools not to note the tension.”

  She nodded. “The other matter had nothing to do with their talks of war.”

  The walk back home proved more of silence than words. Katie pondered every word spoken with the Kiowa. Granted, the Comanches had hit settlers and small bands of travelers for a number of years. More than once they’d climbed the canyon walls into Fort Davis and struck terror. The Comanches, with their strategic element of surprise, always kept the army at a disadvantage. She had little else to tell Colonel Ross. The Indians had threatened to wipe out the whites since they first arrived in the territory. The threat merely reinforced all of their actions in the past.

  Certainly Lone Eagle could not be so upset that he increased the number of attacks
to bring her back to him. The thought hardly made sense, unless his anger and revenge lay with pride—and Lone Eagle, as all other warriors, had a great deal of pride.

  “Katie,” Peyton began. “I’m sorry about today.”

  “There’s no need for you to be sorry. It was my choice to speak with the Kiowa.” She avoided his eyes.

  “He obviously upset you.”

  “He would upset anyone.”

  “But why do I have a feeling the things you didn’t tell the colonel are the most serious ones.”

  “Oh, Peyton.” Katie attempted humor. “I believe you are being overly protective.”

  “Don’t be coy with me,” Peyton said. He grabbed her shoulders and whirled her around to face him. He trembled in uncharacteristic rage. “I want to know what the Kiowa said.”

  Katie felt her own anger race through her veins. “No! It’s none of your concern, and besides, you’re hurting me. Now please let go.”

  He instantly released his hold on her as though he had seized a forging iron. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Katie, I never intended to hurt you. I had no right to demand anything of you.”

  “That’s right, you didn’t,” she spat at him as fury raged through her. “I’ll make my own way home from here, Sergeant Sinclair.”

  In the wee hours of the morning, she tossed and turned over the events of the day. First she would contemplate every word from the Kiowa scout; then she’d recall Peyton’s demands. Her thoughts raced with such fervor that she failed to put either of the matters at rest. Tightly closing her eyes, Katie tried to divert her thoughts. Neither incident should rob her of sleep, but the resolution didn’t stop the unrest rising and falling in her spirit.

  She gave up trying to figure out why Lone Eagle sent a Kiowa with his message. Lone Eagle could very well have held the man’s family hostage until he returned with Katie’s answer, or he could have promised horses or rifles in exchange. Lone Eagle wouldn’t risk the life of another Comanche warrior, but he would consider the job for another tribe member.