Swift Horse

She gazed at the lock on that door, then shrugged and left it undone, for she knew that no one ever entered the store without her brother being there. Sighing, Marsha went and sat down in a rocking chair before a softly burning fire in the fireplace. She lifted the crochet thread and placed it on her lap, then plucked the hook up and began crocheting, which she planned to do until she went to bed.

Her thoughts turned to Swift Horse and just what he might be planning in council. Hopefully it did all have to do with the one-eyed man. She expected him and his warriors to go on a search party for him, and when they discovered that there was only one evil one-eyed man in the area, they would give in and know that it was Swift Horse’s pretend friend, One Eye.

* * *

Alan Burton shifted nervously in his saddle, then grinned when he saw Edward James hurry from the front door of the trading post and head in the direction of Soft Wind’s cabin. Alan had heard about her mishap, and smiled at his own good fortune. He could count on Edward James leaving his house every evening to be with Soft Wind as she recuperated, which left Marsha alone and unprotected.

He edged his horse closer to the clearing and watched Edward James until he went into Soft Wind’s cabin, then he rode out into the open, took his horse to the darkest side of the trading post, and dismounted. He secured the reins on a hitching rail, then after stopping long enough to look over his shoulder, he hurried into the store.

He smiled wickedly to himself at the foolishness of Edward James’s truly believing everyone was too afraid to cross the threshold of his store because it was said that if they were found there, their life wouldn’t be worth spit. Edward James would either shoot them on the spot, or capture them and take them to Fort Hill to hang.

Knowing that Edward James would be occupied for a good amount of time, Alan knew that he had the time to do as he wished tonight, and that was to take the lovely woman away and back to his home.

Edward James and Swift Horse might see him as the prime suspect for such an act since he had made such an issue over having saved her life, so he knew that his home would be the first place they would search when they discovered she was gone.

He had that problem solved. He had a room at his house that no one knew about, where he kept his money and valuable pelts. The room had no windows, and the only way into the room was a door that he had cleverly hidden behind a chifforobe that he kept wedged up against it.

“Yep, she’ll be mine,” he whispered to himself. He hoped by the time they gave up on finding her, he’d be long gone, for he had made an important decision the very night he had saved the beautiful woman.

He was going to leave these parts.

He was sorely tired of fighting with the Creek for land that he needed for his cows. He would go elsewhere. He would make a new beginning and he would have the most beautiful woman in the world finally accepting her fate enough to marry him. She would have no idea where he had taken her, so she would have no idea how to escape.

* * *

Marsha had just sat back down to resume her crocheting after having stopped to prepare herself a cup of hot tea. While waiting for it to cool, she rocked slowly back and forth, her crochet work on her lap, her eyes on the softly burning fire. She smiled as she thought of the wonders of the day.

“Swift Horse . . .” she whispered, even loving just the sound of his name as it came across her lips, lips that he had claimed today more than once in wondrous kisses.

A noise in the store caused Marsha to stop rocking and her hands to go to the arms of the chair. She started to get up to investigate, but smiled to herself when she heard nothing else.

Humming a soft song now, she resumed rocking, and felt a contentment she had not known for so long as she lifted her crochet work.

When she heard footsteps and then the door opening, Marsha smiled and didn’t look up. “Big brother, did you forget something?” she asked softly.

“I’m not your big brother, but, yeah, I forgot something, all right,” said a voice that was not Edward James’s. “I forgot you.”

Marsha dropped her work on the floor, everything scattering at her feet, and before she could scream, Alan had placed a gag in her mouth, then tied her wrists together.

“Come with Daddy,” he said, laughing throatily. “We’ve some unfinished business, don’t you know? You owe me, pretty lady. And I’m here to see that you give me everything that I ask of you.”

Frightened terribly, Marsha could only see through a blur of tears as Alan Burton half dragged her toward the back door.

He held her tightly around her waist as he unlocked both locks, laughing at how she tried to kick and fight her way loose, then took her outside, where for a moment the moon fell down upon her and illuminated the fear in her eyes.

* * *

One Eye was on his horse in the dark shadows of the forest. He was watching all of this go down, then laughed to himself. Alan Burton had just done the tricky job of abducting Marsha Eveland for him. All blame would be cast on the cowkeeper, for One Eye knew that Swift Horse was the cleverest tracker of all Creek clans and he would trace his way up to the cowkeeper’s ranch.

Of course, One Eye was a clever tracker, as well, and knew just how to hide the tracks he had made while watching the abduction taking place, and also those that he would make while going to the cowkeeper’s ranch.

No one would ever suspect One Eye, and finally he would be rid of two nuisances in one night—the cowkeeper and the woman—and all evidence would point to it having been the cowkeeper who killed the lady, and the lady who killed the cowkeeper while trying to defend herself.

He laughed to himself as he started following Alan Burton and Marsha.

Chapter 19

Another time mine eye is my heart’s guest,