Swift Horse

Swift Horse saw her determination. He had to prove her wrong. He took her gently by an elbow and began ushering her back toward the trading post. “I will take you and introduce you to One Eye,” he said, stunned when she yanked herself away from him and glared at him, then ran from him.

Marsha was devastated that Swift Horse wouldn’t believe her. There she was, in mortal danger, with the very man who killed her parents and who had looked at her with such hate, at the store, and still Swift Horse wouldn’t believe her.

She hurried back toward the store, alone. Her brother had been too involved in trading earlier to listen to her, and had actually told her not to interfere. But now that no longer mattered. He had to listen to her. She had to make him understand that the man he hated with every fiber of his being was there—so close to them both that he could murder them.

Pushing her way through the crowd, very aware that people were lined up from the door to the counter where she should be helping her brother, Marsha ignored them and went to her brother and took him by an arm and spoke his name.

When he turned and glared at her again, obviously still wanting her to stop interfering, she grabbed him by an arm and half dragged him away from those with whom he was talking trade. She took him to a far corner, then turned him to face her.

“You must listen to me, Edward James,” she said, placing her fists on her hips. “And look.”

She nodded toward the one-eyed man who was still there but this time talking with others, seemingly for the moment forgetting about her. “There he is, Edward James,” she said, her voice trembling as she pointed at him. “Do you see him now? He’s the one I described to you. He’s the one, Edward James. He killed our parents.”

Edward scanned the crowd, then stopped when he saw who she was referring to.

He turned to her, a renewed irritated look in his eyes. “You are mistaken,” he said. “This man is Swift Horse’s best friend, a man who is chief of his Wolf Clan. I have talked often with One Eye. We have also smoked from the same pipe, as friends. One Eye is a rich Creek chief. Why would he have a need to ambush and kill people?”

Marsha stepped closer and spoke into her brother’s face. “An evil man needs no true reason to kill,” she said, her eyes dancing angrily into his. “It is not so much for money. It is for the sheer pleasure—the excitement of the kill.”

“Sis, if you can’t do anything but stir up trouble, I’d rather you stay in the living quarters from now on,” Edward James said. He pointed toward the door that led there. “Go now. Forget your foolish notion of who you think this man is.”

Swift Horse came into the cabin and went to Marsha and Edward James.

“I apologize for my sister,” Edward James said, seeing by Swift Horse’s demeanor that he knew of Marsha’s accusations. “Marsha is mistaken. Marsha, tell him that you’re mistaken,” Edward James said, turning pleading eyes to her.

Finding this so unbelievable, that both her brother and Swift Horse could be so blind and unreasonable, Marsha gave them each an angry stare, then spun around and stamped away. Just as she reached the door that led into the living quarters, she took a look over her shoulder.

Her knees weakened and she felt as though she might vomit when she found One Eye glaring at her with the same contemptuous look that he had given her on the day of the massacre.

Breathless, almost fainting, she hurried into the living quarters and slammed the door and leaned against it. She felt trapped. She must go for help. Someone had to believe her. One Eye must be taken into custody, or she was a woman staring death in the face. And so was her precious brother.

She grabbed a cloak, swung it around her shoulders and tied it, then fled through the back door. She mounted her white mare, White Cloud, and rode away through the forest toward Fort Hill. Surely those in authority there would believe her.

Oh, Lord, she thought to herself. They must believe her, or she didn’t have that much longer on this earth. She knew that One Eye would kill her.

She thought about Swift Horse. How could he be this deceived by such a man as One Eye?

Chapter 8

The Devil had he fidelity,

Would be the finest friend—

Because he has ability,

But Devils cannot mend.

—Emily Dickinson

Determined to get One Eye behind bars, Marsha rode hard on her horse. Her golden hair was flying in the wind behind her, and the skirt of her dress had blown up, fluttering now past her knees. The coolness of the autumn day’s breeze caused her cheeks to burn as she continued on her way.

She snapped the reins against the rump of her steed, sending her white mare into an even harder gallop. “Giddyup, White Cloud!” she shouted. “We can’t let the man go into hiding again! The nerve of him! How could he mingle with everyone as though he is innocent of all wrongdoing?”

She smiled almost victoriously when she thought of how he had behaved when he first caught her looking at him across the room at the store. A keen knowing, intermingled with fear, flashed in his eyes. At that moment he knew that he had been caught, yet...

“Yet then he just glared at me,” she cried. “He didn’t flee.”

She now knew why. He felt confident enough in depending on both Swift Horse and her brother to speak in his behalf.