“Shoshana, do you hear me?” George said, bringing her out of her deep thoughts as he stepped away from his desk in his assigned office at Fort Chance.
“What?” Shoshana said, blinking her eyes as George came to stand directly before her. “Did you say something?”
“I was introducing you to this nice major, Shoshana,” George said, idly rubbing his right leg above the knee. “This is Major James Klein. Shoshana, he has been assigned the duty of escorting you today since you are so stubborn about wanting to leave the fort and explore.”
Blushing at her unintentional rudeness to the major, Shoshana turned to the young man who stood straight and tall beside her in his freshly pressed blue uniform.
“Major Klein, it’s nice to know you,” she said, reaching a gloved hand toward him.
She herself was dressed in a leather riding skirt, a long-sleeved white blouse, riding boots, and gloves that were butter soft against her flesh.
“As it is to know you,” Major Klein said, blushing as he gazed into Shoshana’s dark eyes. “It is my pleasure to escort you today. I shall, at all costs, keep you safe from such a ruffian as Mountain Jack.”
“And anyone else who might be a threat,” George said, groaning as he wheeled himself around on his wooden leg. Gripping his cane hard, he went and sat down behind his desk again.
Shoshana smiled into Major Klein’s green eyes, finding him handsome with his square jaw and long, straight nose.
He was muscled beneath his uniform, and surely drew female attention whenever he entered a room back where there was civilization and women.
She would have singled him out with her own eyes at one time, but the world had changed for her when she arrived in Arizona.
She had only one thing on her mind now, and that was to familiarize herself with this land that she had roamed as
a child. She hoped to run across one of her people. She wanted to speak her mother’s Indian name and ask if anyone had heard of her.
“Young man,” George said, drawing Major Klein’s eyes back to him. “I can’t stress enough the importance of keeping an eye on my daughter at all times. And listen well to me when I say you must not travel far from this fort. Don’t let anything happen to Shoshana. Do not let her out of your sight. Don’t you ever forget the cunning of Mountain Jack, and most of all, why he is in this area. He would surely enjoy getting his hands on such beautiful hair as Shoshana’s!”
“How ghastly,” Shoshana gasped. She straightened her shoulders and tried to put from her mind that terrible reminder of what Mountain Jack did for a living.
She must, for nothing would dissuade her from what she planned to do.
If only her father would not treat her like a child. To have a soldier escort her at a time when she wanted to explore the land of her people was an insult, most certainly a bother.
While riding on land where her mother surely had been, she wanted to feel her mother’s presence. She wanted to have the opportunity to follow the vision she had had in her dreams. She wanted to believe that her mother was alive, and that she would somehow find her.
“Major Klein is not needed,” Shoshana suddenly blurted out. She placed her hands on her hips and lifted her chin stubbornly as she turned to the major. “You are excused. I apologize for having taken up your time, which could surely be put to more valuable use elsewhere.”
“Shoshana!” George said, pushing himself up from his chair. He placed the palms of his hands flat on the desk and leaned over to glare into her face, then turned to Major Klein. “Ignore her. She’s just showing her stubborn side. You’ve been brought here to escort my daughter. So be it.”
“Yes, sir,” Major Klein gulped out, now stiff as a board at Shoshana’s side.
Shoshana was not to be dissuaded. She glared into George’s angry eyes. “You know that I can defend myself if necessary,” she said tightly. “Must I remind you that I am a crack shot with a rifle?”
She had become a tomboy early on, especially after she realized just how different she was from the other children.
She was Apache, and that name had seemed a brand of sorts.
The taunts had gotten mean. She had felt the need to learn how to protect herself.
She had learned how to shoot from a young man who became smitten with her when she was ten and he was twelve.
He had seen the Apache in her as intriguing and thought her beautiful.
He would have done anything to get a kiss from her. That something was to teach her how to shoot his father’s rifle.
She smiled at the recollection of how many kisses she’d given him in payment!
It saddened her to realize that he had been killed on his very first outing when he got old enough to enlist. Ironically, it had been an Apache that had killed him.