The Officer and the Traveler (32 page)

Soaring Eagle sneered and made some gesture with his hand that made all the other Indians close ranks around their remaining captive. “No. Promise made.”

“
Who made you a promise?” General Howard asked calmly, taking a step toward Soaring Eagle.
 

Soaring Eagle’s lips thinned as he stared shrewdly at General Howard.

The general put his hands into the air and took another step closer to the chief. “I’m General Philip Howard from Washington. I make treaties between my people and yours.” He gestured first to the soldiers, then to the Indians. “If you tell me what you were promised, I will see what can be done to make that happen.”

Chief Soaring Eagle blinked, his face expressionless. He turned to the translator who was more fluent with English than he was. The two began speaking back and forth in their language.

After a few exchanges, the translator turned toward General Howard. “He say that General Ridgely promised to find the man who attack his daughter and kill him. Since General Ridgely not here, nor stop man from more attacks, we keep him and kill him ourselves.”

“
Don’t be hasty,” General Howard said slowly. “General Ridgely is around here somewhere, once he gets here, we’ll get this all settled.”
 

“
No. I no wait for broken promise,” the chief said. He walked over toward the masked man who was still on his horse wiggling around like a fish on a line and pulled him to the ground with one swift movement.
 

He fell to the ground with a hard
thwack
where he immediately continued bucking and squirming.
 

“
E do da! E do da!”
a feminine voice called out, running out of the darkness where the Cherokees had arrived from earlier. The young woman was screaming something Gray couldn’t begin to understand and shaking a piece of torn leather.
 

“
What’s she saying?” Colonel Lewis demanded of the translator.
 

“
That’s his other daughter,” the translator murmured. “She says not to hurt the man.” He paused to listen to the heated exchange between father and daughter. “She says it’s a trap.”
 

“
A trap,” Gray breathed. He didn’t know what kind of trap this could possibly be, but they’d all fallen victim to it.
 

“
She claims, the masked man is not the real man,” the translator continued.
 

No, he wasn’t a real man if he had to reduce himself to forcing women. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. That’s not what he’d said. He’d said the man under the mask wasn’t the real criminal. Heedless to the angry screaming around him, Gray walked up to the man wiggling on the ground and ripped his mask off.
McCorkle
. Not bothering with the nicety of cutting the rope on the gag, Gray reached down and gave it a hearty yank out of McCorkle’s mouth.
 

McCorkle screamed at the pain of the rope burn his flawless face received at Gray’s action.

Gray felt no sympathy. “What the hell are you doing?”

“
Nothing.”
 

Gray placed his booted foot on the man’s chest to hold him still. “Tell us what you know.”

McCorkle hesitated and Gray pressed down harder on the man’s chest. “Will I go to prison?”

“
We’ll let the Indians take you if you don’t start answering your superior,” Gray snapped, grinding his heel in the man’s sternum.
 

“
All right,” McCorkle wheezed.
 

Gray took enough weight off the man’s chest for him to catch his breath then waited.

“
The four of us did nothing. Nothing. I tell you.”
 

Gray looked down at the man’s empty gun holster around his waist and a sinking sensation filled his stomach. The Indians had taken their guns. This might not end quietly or peacefully. “Then why were you out there with your gun?”

“
Protection.”
 

“
From who?”
 

“
The Indians,” McCorkle said, blinking.
 

Gray nearly kicked the insolence out of the man. “What is your role in all of this?”

“
Nothing.”
 

“
I don’t believe you.”
 

“
I was told just to wait in the woods and if I hear an ambush, I’m supposed to fire my pistol.”
 

Gray muttered a curse at McCorkle’s stupidity. “What were you waiting for?”

“
I don’t know, I was just told to wait.”
 

“
By who?”
 

“
General Bridges. He sent a note asking me to wear this mask and wait on the side of the road for protection during his arrival tonight.”
 

“
Do you have the note?” Gray barked. Without waiting for McCorkle’s answer, Gray began searching his pockets for paper. He’d long ago deduced that the note he’d received had been written by his father-in-law as part of his harmless scheme to keep him occupied and out and of sight until it was safe to assume the men had left for the night. McCorkle’s note, however, held far more interest to him right now. He’d sent and received enough correspondence with General Bridges and his men over the years to recognize his handwriting. Gray found the folded paper, opened it and scowled. “That wasn’t from General Bridges.”
 

McCorkle let out a little squeal of distress and Gray walked off, shaking his head.  McCorkle had never been one to demonstrate the ability to act without being given orders—no matter whom they were from nor the stupidity they contained. If he was foolish enough to put on a mask and ride out into the middle of Indian Territory in the dead of night and fire his gun if he suspected an ambush while waiting for a general from a nearby fort to travel to Fort Gibson at night, then the best place for him was prison. At least there he’d be told what to do, when to do it and he’d be reasonably safe.

Gray turned his attention back to the chief and his daughter who were still shouting at each other, then walked to the other men lying on the ground, still bound. Lt. Lansky was the first one he reached. He removed that man’s gag the same way he’d done with McCorkle. “What’s your reason for leaving the camp?”

“
We always go along,” Lansky said.
 

His companions nodded in agreement.

“
Always?”
 

“
For almost two years now, we’ve been riding out as protection.”
 

“
Protection for who?”
 

“
I don’t know.”
 

“
What do you mean you don’t know?” Colonel Lewis snapped. He turned toward the others. “Do you know?”
 

Both of them moved their heads side to side, their eyes wide and full of fear.

“
He always wears the mask,” Lansky said.
 

“
How does he compensate you?”
 

“
Tobacco.”
 

Gray sighed. That didn’t tell him much of anything. All of the officers ranked captain or higher had a key to the commissary where the tobacco was stored. All they had to do was steal some to use as payment.

General Davis muttered a curse and asked the translator what else had been said.

“
She says that Soft Dove has run away with her—” he made a rolling hand gesture as if to think of the English word for what he wanted to say.
 

“
Captor,” General Davis said at the same time that Colonel Lewis suggested, “Lover.”
 

The translator nodded excitedly and pointed to Colonel Lewis. “Yes, she ran away with her lover.”

Run away with her
lover.
A lead weight settled on Gray’s chest as those words rang out over and over in his mind. Michaela had been right once again. This entire elaborate scheme tonight was the product of a love affair. How stupid was he for automatically dismissing her notion that it involved one of the soldiers.
 

The translator continued to speak, explaining something about how her father was furious and the men were talking about chasing them down and demanding satisfaction. Gray didn’t care what they did. Nor did he care what happened to McCorkle for being so foolish as to act on irrational orders given via a scribbled, unofficial missive. He couldn’t even force himself to care who the man was behind everything. The only thing in this world he cared about was standing just beyond the firelight: Michaela.

***

Michaela squinted in the direction of the men. It was so dark she hadn’t been able to make out who was who in the moonlight. But her heart told her all she needed to know: Gray was not one of the four captured men.

Next to her, Sarah’s body grew tense. “I must get closer to hear what they’re saying.”

“
You cannot go alone,” Michaela hedged.
 

“
We’ll all go,” Aunt Lucille said weakly, joining them.
 

Hesitantly, Michaela began to walk with them toward the men. “This is close enough,” she said. “We can hear them here.”

“
No, closer.” Sarah continued to walk closer, Michaela and Aunt Lucille right behind her.
 

The rough masculine voices that were calling out sent chills up Michaela’s spine. She’d give almost anything to go back inside. There were more men there now than there had been originally. She searched the tableau in front of her for any sign of Gray. Perhaps if she could see him, she’d feel safer knowing he’d hear if she screamed. She closed her eyes for a second. Did it really matter? He’d come after her if she screamed of course. Obligation demanded that he did. But what of his heart? Would she never truly own it or would it always be duty and honor with him?

She found him then. He was stalking over toward the masked man. She held her breath in anticipation as he reached down and yanked off the disguise.

He then shoved his booted foot on the man’s chest and asked him a question that Michaela couldn’t hear. Receiving no opposition from the other ladies, Michaela led their trio closer.

She wasn’t as close as she’d like, but she was as close as she dared to go, lest they be discovered. Gray’s loud voice carried just enough for it to sound like a whisper to Michaela. But it was enough.

Beside her, Sarah gasped. “It’s Amos.”

“
I don’t think that’s Amos, dear,” Aunt Lucille said. “Amos’ hair is black.”
 

“
I know it’s not Amos on the ground. Amos is the one who set that man up,” Sarah said. “He mentioned a note and being asked to wear a mask. Two days ago, I had to sneak over to Amos’ office in order to get money buy items at the Sutler’s store because Charles refuses to allow me to put my items on Amos’ accounts. Anyway, when I opened the drawer he keeps his money in, I saw a mask just like
that shoved in the back of the drawer.”
 

“
Are you certain?” Michaela didn’t mean that to sound as rude as it did, having a black mask in his drawer didn’t make him guilty. Surely with more than a thousand men out here, more than one could have had a similar mask for one reason or another. Besides, with only the moon and a few torches giving off light, it was too hard to see much of anything specific. All thoughts of the mask and who it belonged to disappeared when she saw Gray abandon his stance by the accused and walked over to the other three.
 

“
It has to be him,” Sarah said. “He’s nowhere to be seen. He said this morning before leaving for whatever it is he does on rounders days that he wouldn’t be home for dinner that he was going to make his watchtower rounds. If he were doing that, surely he’d have taken notice of all of this by now.”
 

“
Perhaps we need to get closer and you’ll see him then, dear,” Aunt Lucille said in her typical caring tone.
 

Sarah let out a deep exhale, all eyes on the exchange between the soldiers. “I’m not wrong. I know it’s him. I just know it.”

“
But that makes no sense. Why would he frame someone for a crime? Is he that desperate to keep Soaring Eagle content he’d stoop this low?”
 

“
She says that Soft Dove has run away with her lover.”
 

The words of the English-speaking Cherokee hit Michaela like a brick to the toe. She couldn’t say why exactly, but those simple words confirmed Sarah’s earlier statement: it was General Ridgely. It had to be. It all made sense: General Ridgely’s absence, the uninformed man in his place, even Sarah’s vanishing medicine within days of Soaring Eagle’s first appearance and why the sores started coming back just days later. He’d probably given it to Soft Dove, especially if she were pregnant as Gray suspected.

Above one of the flaming torches she locked eyes with Gray—a strange play of expressions crossing over his face.

Michaela was vaguely aware that Sarah had said something about going to speak to the colonel and from the corner of her eye could see Sarah and Aunt Lucille walking toward him as everything else faded away except the intense expression on Gray’s face as he came her way.

Gray murmured something he’d hope would pass as an apology to Mrs. Ridgely as he brushed past her and Mrs. Lewis in his pursuit of Michaela.

Someone reached for his arm, and he shook the hand off. His only priority was who it should have been from the start.

“
Are you ready to go home?” He studied his wife’s face while he waited for her answer, hoping she’d at least offer him a smile. That would be a start.