And she doubted her father had any intention of getting Strong Heart out of there. It was all up to her, and she had a plan. She would speak up for Strong Heart at his trial. She would make sure that he was set free, for she already knew what she was going to say to ensure it.
“All right, I shall go with you,” Elizabeth consented. Then she went to Strong Heart’s cell and placed her fingers over his. “Darling, do not think that I am deserting you. I have a plan that will set both of us free. Please have faith in me. Soon, my darling. Soon we shall be married. Soon we shall see small footprints in the snows of winter—our children’s footprints, my love. Our children’s.”
With many eyes on her, Elizabeth stood on tiptoe and kissed Strong Heart. Then, with tears burning at the corners of her eyes, she fled the jail with her father. She was numb as she rode the streets on horseback with him. She expected to be taken to his ship, where she supposed was his home until he could rebuild his fishery.
But her mouth dropped open and she emitted a low gasp of wonder when her father took her to her mother’s stately house. She was speechless, until she was inside and she saw the changes—not only in the decor of the house, but also the sincere warmth between her mother and father.
“Elizabeth,” Marilyn said, rushing to her after giving Earl a deep kiss. She touched Elizabeth’s face, then seemed to be feeling for broken bones as she touched her all over, tears rushing down her cheeks.
“Oh, sweetheart, you are all right, aren’t you?” Marilyn said, flinging herself into her daughter’s arms.
“I’m fine,” Elizabeth said, smiling at Maysie as she stepped into view. Then her smile faded when she realized that Maysie’s exit from Seattle with Four Winds had been delayed because of his loyalty to Strong Heart.
She eased away from her mother and everything about her father and mother’s reunion was explained to her, even the revelation of her father’s bankruptcy in San Francisco, and his subsequent money problems.
Elizabeth suspected that her father had probably gone back to his wife only for the security that she offered him.
That suspicion was squelched when her mother explained her own money problems, and how Earl had managed to get enough money to set Elizabeth free.
“You sold your ship?” Elizabeth asked, astonished. “Father, that ship meant the world to you.”
Earl went to Elizabeth and took her hands in his. “My daughter means even more than that to me,” he said thickly.
Elizabeth’s feelings were beginning to soften toward her father. Yet nothing could excuse the fact that he had plotted against Strong Heart’s people.
No. She doubted if she could ever truly forgive him.
Chapter 34
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
—ANNE BRADSTREET
The courtroom was packed with people who were curious to see an Indian put on trial. A strained hush came over the crowd as Strong Heart was escorted into the room and led to a chair at the front.
Elizabeth sat between her mother and father, looking sedate and prim in a plain cotton dress devoid of frilly trim, and wearing a matching bonnet. Her hair streamed long and free from beneath it across her shoulders and down her back. Frannie sat beside Marilyn.
Maysie sat on Earl’s other side, wearing a dress as colorless as Elizabeth’s, and sporting a bonnet where, beneath it, she had woven her hair into a tight bun. Her face was pale and lined with sadness. Maysie’s gaze moved slowly around the room as she looked for Four Winds, even though she knew that he would not be there. He was still wanted and he could not take his place alongside Strong Heart. He had already had a trial, one which had condemned him to death.
At times, Maysie had grieved over Four Winds, thinking that he had forgotten her. She knew that she should hate him for his deception, but her very soul cried out to be with him again, and would not lose hope. It was this trial, which had brought lawmen from all corners of the Pacific Northwest, that had frightened Four Winds away.
Elizabeth strained her neck to see over the shoulder of a man in front of her. But she still could not see Strong Heart easily. There were people blocking her view.
Nervously chewing on her lower lip, she settled back in her chair. Then she sat more erect and felt an anxious blush rise heatedly to her cheeks as the judge came into the room and took his place on the bench. He reached for his gavel and slammed it hard against the top of his desk.
“Let’s have silence in the room and get on with this,” Judge Cline said, looking soberly at Strong Heart, pausing as he studied him. Obviously he was assessing this man whom he would either set free or condemn to death.
Elizabeth watched the judge, seeing so much about him that hinted that his reputation for being a kind and considerate man could be true. Behind gold-rimmed glasses were dark eyes that looked gentle and caring. Although his thinning hair and bent shoulders indicated that he was perhaps in his early seventies, there were not many lines on his face. This man had smile wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and mouth. His color was good. His voice was pleasant when he talked to the two attorneys who sat on opposite sides of the room from each other. No jurors had been chosen for this particular trial. The judge would be judge and jury today.
“I have read the record of the accused,” Judge Cline said, his voice smooth and even. “I see that he is accused of helping more than one person escape from Copper Hill Prison.” He studied the papers that he was now laying out on the desk. “I see here that he is also blamed for the deaths of the sheriff and his deputy, and for setting fire to the prison.”
He removed his glasses and sucked on one of the stems, again looking at Strong Heart intently. “That’s an awful lot of meanness for one man to get into, wouldn’t you say, young man?” he asked, laying his glasses aside, leaning forward, his eyes locked with Strong Heart’s. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Strong Heart rose to his feet and squared his shoulders. “Strong Heart is guilty for only two things of which he is accused,” he said plainly, glancing over at Elizabeth. “My friend Four Winds had an unfair trial. Nothing was proven that should have condemned him to the hangman’s noose. I saw no other choice but to set him free. Elizabeth Easton was unjustly arrested by the corrupt sheriff and was treated disrespectfully by the deputy. She did not deserve to be housed with criminals, under a sheriff and de
puty whose respect for law and order was a mockery to the white community as well as the red. For this, I became her judge and jury. I set her free. These things I confess to, and it seems everything else which followed was by chance.”
Judge Cline raised a shaggy, gray eyebrow, his gaze moving slowly to Elizabeth, whose testimony was to be heard today. He thought of her as nothing less than beautiful, and he could understand why any man would be pulled under her spell. Even an Indian.