Captive Trail (4 page)

The woman in a black dress patted her arm and said something. Her voice was almost hypnotic. She spoke to the man, a firm command.

The man bent beside her and spoke. Taabe tried to understand, but it made no sense. Was her first language completely gone?

He touched her, and she shrank back. Again the woman touched her and spoke. The words were meaningless to Taabe, but gentle. She raised Taabe’s shoulders. The man slid an arm behind her. When he put his other
arm beneath her knees to lift her, the pain was too great. Taabe let her eyes fall shut and lost herself to the pain.

Ned carried the young woman to the stagecoach. The nun hiked her black robe up six inches and ran ahead, black shoes and a bit of black stocking evident beneath her hem.

Brownie stood on the driver’s box, alternately staring at Ned and looking down the road and off to the sides, his shotgun ready.

“Sister Adele,” the nun shouted. “Help us!”

The stagecoach door opened and the second nun emerged. By the time Ned reached the lead mules, the women were tugging and shoving at the mail sacks.

“Whatcha got?” Brownie called.

“A woman. She opened her eyes for a second. She’s white.”

“In Comanche getup?”

“That’s right.” Ned walked to the door of the coach. “Can you get her onto the seat if we help?” the first nun asked.

“Yes, ma’am, I think I can.”

“I’m Sister Natalie.”

“Ma’am.”

The second nun was younger, with wide eyes making a quick appraisal of his burden. She lifted her skirt slightly and scrambled back into the stage. “Let me take her shoulders, sir.” Her words lilted with an accent Ned couldn’t place.

The three of them got the injured woman into the stage. Ned stood outside at the open door while the two nuns arranged the unconscious woman on the padded back seat.

“Think she’ll be all right until the fort?” Ned asked. He was supposed to let the nuns off in a mile. The unconscious woman might fall off the seat.

“The fort?” Sister Natalie frowned. “You’ll leave her with us, young man.”

“But if she’s a captive—”

“No buts. She’s in no condition to travel. We’ll take care of her at the mission house. If someone official from the fort wants to see her, he can interview her there.”

Ned glanced at the other nun, but she was opening a canteen and raising the young woman’s head to put it to her lips. No help at all to his position.

“Ma’am—”

“Sister Natalie, if you please.”

“Yes, ma’am. If I go to the fort and tell them we found this woman, but I have no idea who she is, and I left her off with a bunch of defenseless women, I’ll probably get in all kinds of hot water.”

Sister Natalie looked him up and down. “Probably it will be the first bath you’ve had in some time. Now I suggest you get up there and drive.”

Ned didn’t dare open his mouth again. Weren’t nuns supposed to be meek and humble? This woman reminded him more and more of Aunt Alla.

What if the injured woman regained consciousness and tried to get away? She might hurt the nuns if she tried to escape from the coach.

He started to speak, but Sister Natalie’s glare made him think better of it. If the stage hadn’t been spanking new, he’d have slammed the door. He closed it firmly and hoisted himself to the driver’s box.

“What do you make of it?” Brownie asked.

Ned unwrapped the reins from the brake handle.

“White woman in Comanche regalia, and it’s not sudden. She smells like an Indian.”

Brownie laughed. “Is she sick?”

“I don’t know. She looks beat up.”

“Maybe her tribe doesn’t want her anymore if she’s sick.” Brownie raised his chin, looking far out over the grassy plain. “More likely she escaped.”

“Nah.” Brownie shook his head. “They don’t escape. Not if they’ve been in captivity very long.”

T
he stagecoach rolled up to the home station at Fort Chadbourne an hour later. “We should have brought her here,” Ned said to Brownie as the tenders came out to hold the mules’ heads.

“Sister Natalie is right—they’ll take better care of her. They’re good at nursing.”

“How do you know?”

Brownie shrugged. “That’s the kind of thing they do.”

Ned climbed down and stalked toward the commander’s office, leaving Brownie to stand guard while two men unloaded the mail.

Captain Tapley’s office, in a stone building facing the parade ground, held two desks, two chairs, a potbellied stove, and a few shelves. Maps and notices papered the walls. He’d been commander of the fort for about six months. The sergeant who assisted with the regiment’s paperwork rose when Ned entered.

“May I help you, sir?”

Ned pulled his hat off and looked to where Tapley sat, hunched over his desk. “I came to report to Captain Tapley that we found a woman lying on the road about six miles east of here. She’s sick—exhausted, maybe, and she had some bruises. We took her in the stagecoach and left her at the nuns’ mission house.”

Tapley stood and walked toward Ned, his face showing concern. “Who is she? Do you know?”

Ned shook his head. “She’s white, but she was all got up like a Comanche. Her hair’s quite light—might be blond when all the tallow’s washed out of it. And her eyes are bluer than yours, sir.”

“She was unconscious?”

“Out cold when I left her with the sisters. She opened her eyes for a few seconds when we found her, but didn’t say anything. Two of the nuns were riding with me, and they said they’d nurse her to health.” Ned watched the captain’s face for signs of displeasure but saw none. “Otherwise I’d have carried her here, sir.”

“No, that’s all right,” Tapley said. “I’m sure the Ursulines will give her good care. Will you pass back that way?”

“Tomorrow. And we’ll come back westbound on Friday.”

Tapley nodded. “If the sisters think she needs medical treatment, I can ask our surgeon to ride out there. And send me word if the woman’s ready for questioning.”

“Yes, sir, I’ll do that.”

“I’ll ask around in the meantime and see if anyone has a clue who she is.”

“Well, sir, I’ve been thinking on it for the last hour, and I believe it might be wise not to let it be known where she is. Those nuns don’t have any protection out there, and until you know that woman’s story …”

“Good thinking. The Indians show up at the most inconvenient times. Your name is Bright, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir. Ned Bright.”

“You’re Patrillo Garza’s partner?”

“That’s right.”

“Do you think this woman’s been living among the Comanche?”

“Sure looked like it. She had on their type of clothes, and her hair was loose, with the part painted red, the way their women do. And she didn’t seem to have a horse. Looked as if she’d walked across the range alone.”

Tapley frowned. “Curious. If you can check on the sisters and their guest when you pass, it will relieve my mind. I’ll try to get out there in a few days and take a look at her myself. If she’s able to talk, maybe we’ll get some answers.”

Ned hesitated. “I’m told they usually can’t speak English if they’ve been long in captivity.”

“We’ll have to see, won’t we? Meanwhile, I’ll send out a message along the line and to all the forts, reporting that a captive woman has been found. How old do you think she is?”

“Hard to say, with her face all purple and swelled up. But I don’t think she’s too old.”

Tapley drummed his fingers on his desk. “Well, thirteen or thirty?”

“Somewhere in between, I’d guess. Nearer twenty than thirty.”

“Blue eyes, you said.” Tapley went behind the desk, sat down, and scribbled in the margin of a paper. “Any other identifying marks?”

“Not that I could tell. Maybe the nuns will know more tomorrow.”

“Yes. Perhaps the woman will have told them who she is. I understand several children were captured in this area over the last few years.”

“That’s true. Too many.”

Tapley nodded. “I haven’t been here long, but my men have had several brushes with raiding parties. Perhaps I’d better send a detachment out to the mission tomorrow or the next day, just to check on things.”

Ned stepped toward the door. “Thank you, Captain. I’ll be over at the home station. The stage crew will be sleeping there regularly.”

When he reached the yard, the stage still waited before the station with the fresh team in harness. Several passengers were handing their luggage to one of the tenders before they boarded.

Ned went into the station and found Brownie eating a belated dinner or an early supper—a plate of beans, bacon, and cornbread.

“Wash out back, or Miz Stein won’t feed you,” Brownie said between bites.

Ned ambled out to the back of the house. He’d eaten here before, on their freighting trips, and he should have remembered. The station agent’s wife was particular about the cleanliness of her establishment and those who patronized it.

He washed his hands in a tin basin that sat on top of a flour barrel, then splashed a little of the water on his face and dried off with a damp towel hanging on a hook nearby. The second time he entered the dining room, Brownie had a half-eaten slice of pie before him.

Ned hung up his hat and his coiled whip. He had barely sat down before the plump German lady came toward him carrying a heaped plate and a mug of coffee.

“Guten tag, Herr
Bright.”

“And good day to you, Mrs. Stein.” Ned grinned at her. “That looks edible. Thank you, ma’am.”

“Bitte.”
She smiled and bobbed her head before retreating
to the lean-to where she reigned over her step-top cookstove. The day Ned and Patrillo had hauled it in on a wagon drawn by eight mules had been one of celebration at Fort Chadbourne. Other than days when she put the blacking to it, that stove never cooled off. In the summer the kitchen would get so hot, no one but Mrs. Stein would venture in there.

Mrs. Stein’s food was plain but plentiful and well seasoned, which was more than Ned could bank on at the army mess. He’d eaten there several times before the Steins came and opened their stop for travelers. In Ned’s opinion, Mrs. Stein’s provender outshone the army’s anytime. With Fort Chadbourne now on the coast-to-coast overland mail route, the Steins’ place had been the obvious choice for a home station.

Once his belly was full, he wandered out to the corrals. Brownie and the tenders lounged against the fence, debating the merits of the mules that browsed their hay inside, and the difficulty of keeping them secure.

“Can’t put ’em out to pasture,” said Sonny, a skinny boy of seventeen. “Too much Indian activity.”

Brownie adjusted his hat and nodded. “That’s right. Leave them in the open, and they’d be gone in the morning.”

The second tender, Dutch, was older than Sonny. He’d recently been hired by the stage line’s division agent and assigned to the Steins’ station. He let out a sigh. “We have to stay up all night guarding them. At least Herr Stein takes a turn.”

Brownie glanced at Ned. “I was tellin’ ’em about the woman we found.” Ned nodded.

“Did you bring her to the fort?” Sonny asked.

“She’s being looked after,” Ned said quickly. He gave Brownie a look he hoped the shotgun messenger would understand. “The captain’s putting the word out. We don’t know who
she is, but folks who’ve lost a girl over the last—I don’t know, ten years or so—can inquire at his office.”

Dutch shrugged. “I knew a family back in Mason County that lost a couple of kids. Hard thing.”

“Yup.” Brownie turned away from the fence. “I’m heading over to the barracks. Coming, Ned?”

Ned shook his head. Brownie knew he wouldn’t go—Ned never went with him to find a card game. “I’ll be in the house.”

He went around the back to the little room given over to the stage crews. Mrs. Stein had made up the beds with clean sheets and homemade quilts, and she’d left a pitcher of water and a plate covered with a dish towel. There were even a couple of books on the shelf over the washstand. That surprised Ned. One was a small German book of some kind. The other was in English—
The Scarlet Letter
. Ned laid it on the bottom bunk.

He lifted the corner of the towel over the plate. Doughnuts. He smiled as he took one and covered the rest to keep the bugs off. This was some pumpkins!