The Savage

Summer smiled ruefully. “I feel so ignorant of Comanche ways.”

“I could teach you, if you care to learn, señora.”

“I would indeed be grateful, especially if you would tell me about my husband.”

“What do you wish to know?”

She had so many questions, she didn’t know where to begin, but before she could frame the first one, an ancient Comanche woman entered the tent silently.

Short Dress immediately rose to her feet, and Summer did likewise. The Mexican woman performed the introductions with great deference to the old woman, before finally murmuring to Summer, “This is Peena Waihu, Wasp Lady.”

Not knowing what else to do, Summer curtsied politely, which elicited a giggle from Short Dress, but absolutely no response from the silent Wasp Lady. Her form was unimposing, small but plump, yet she possessed the same fierce black eyes as her two grandsons, the same hostile stare of a wild panther toward humans, or a Comanche toward whites. Finally she stepped forward and grasped Summer’s hand, inspecting the palm intently.

“Payutyukatu!”

Summer looked questioningly at Short Dress.

“She says you are too soft to be the wife of her grandson.”

Biting back the retort that she had never asked to marry her grandson, dismissing the fact the Lance held the same contempt for her softness, Summer forced a smile. She didn’t want to antagonize his grandmother by arguing, especially if the old woman might have some influence over the decision to search for Amelia.

“I am strong enough,” she replied pleasantly.

Wasp Lady returned a scoffing look. “We shall see,” Short Dress interpreted. “My grandson does not appear to have made a wise choice.”

Summer raised her chin. “Tell her I am the wife he chose.”

“How many horses did Sharp Lance give for you?” the old woman barked.

“Why…none,” Summer said, taken aback by the question. When Wasp Lady smiled in grim triumph, however, Summer felt the need to elaborate. “My family owns many horses and did not need more. Instead Lance offered money.” Which was true, if stretching a bit. Lance had been determined to use his own money to ransom her sister. “Furthermore,” Summer added staunchly, “he risked his life to save me from two evil men who attacked me.”

For the first time since entering the tepee, the old woman’s expression softened. “Yes, that is good.” She added something else in Comanche, then turned abruptly and left.

Summer breathed easier, until she asked what the old woman had said.

“Tomorrow I am to test your boast of being strong.”

“What…does that mean?”

“You must work with me, perform the tasks of a Comanche woman.”

“I don’t imagine I shall be very skilled.”

“Sí, but I dare not defy her,” Short Dress said uneasily. “Wasp Lady has much power.”

Summer gazed thoughtfully after the old woman. “I thought females were not regarded highly by the Comanches.”

“Yes, that is so, but Wasp Lady makes good medicine.”

Their conversation was interrupted just then by the return of Short Dress’s sons, who raced into the tent and stopped abruptly at the sight of the strange white woman. The boys were perhaps ten and eight, but already possessed all the swaggering arrogance of men twice their age, she realized at once. Refusing, however, to be intimidated by youths half her own age, Summer set out to charm them.

With Short Dress acting as interpreter, Summer told them about her family’s horse ranch, embellishing only a little on her brothers’ adventures when they were younger. By the time their mother ordered them to bed, the two boys seemed to have gained a marginal respect for the white visitor.

Both Short Dress and her two sons went quickly to sleep on their pallets, but Summer remained far too tense to follow suit. Instead she settled on her own pallet to await Lance’s return, and listened to the unfamiliar sounds of the Comanche camp.

Once or twice she thought she heard voices raised in anger, but it was hours later before Lance quietly entered the tepee.

Summer was sitting on her bed of buffalo robes, her arms wrapped around her legs, her chin on her knees, but she immediately lifted her head. “What happened?” she demanded, forgetting to whisper.