Free The Far Side of Lonesome by Rita Hestand

Chapter One
     
    Summer 1870
    Indian Territory
    Jeb saw her out of the corner of his
eyes, but the Chief was sitting just across from him, and he
couldn't just gawk at her, a white woman in an Indian camp didn't
surprise him, it just caught him off guard. He'd learned long ago a
lot of things just weren't his business. The woman glanced his way,
but she was shaking her head and arguing about something. The woman
was with a group of squaws and there was much commotion among them.
He got a brief glimpse of light brown hair, flowing over long
limbs, buckskin and a conversation that stirred.
    Chief Long Feather had listened to
their woeful tale this morning of needing to trade horses as theirs
were in such bad shape. A horse was a prize to an Indian and to
trade for one was unheard of. However, Jeb and Hoot had been
dealing with this Chief for several years now and never had a bit
of trouble. Most of the time things went smoothly.
    Jeb thought about the woman for a
minute. Dressed like an Indian she must have been here a while, and
yet this was the first visit he'd seen her. He wondered at that.
Shawnee rarely raided any longer, so what was she doing here in
this camp. He needed to trade for horses, and not put his nose
where it didn't belong, he told himself silently. But his curiosity
kept him eyeing the squaws.
    "We better get our tradin' done and get
out of here, Jeb," Hoot glanced at him, with a sobering
expression.
    Jeb saw the haunting in Hoot's eyes and
knew he was spooked about something. They'd been partners before
they even grew up. Hoot usually had a feeling about things like
that too, Jeb conceded but they needed new horses, theirs had
traveled over a long trip and were road weary. They couldn't go on
with them and they darn sure didn't want to sit in the middle of an
Indian village for the winter. He supposed they could walk the
horses but that would mean new boots and no one to trade with for
that.
    The old chief smiled at him and Hoot
jumped. Jeb knew that Hoot was spooked but what he didn't
understand was why?
    It was a hot day, the wind barely
moved, the camp sat among a few scattered pines along the trail and
shaded most of the morning.
    Jeb crossed his legs and sat like the
old chief, staring him down for long moments. "We gonna do our
tradin' then we'll get. Our horses won't hold up to get us back to
Texas…you know it as well as I do. There's bound to be somethin' we
can do for them or give them that would be a good trade. Our
blankets, our knives, something."
    "I jest have this feelin', Jeb." Hoot
explained trying to calm his nerves down but unable to.
    Suddenly the chief looked at Jeb, his
wrinkled old face turning into a smile."We trade, we give horses,
but you must take ich-que back with you."
    Jeb had no idea what the old man was
talking about but as long as he got the horses, he saw no reason
not to trade. "Sure we take ich-que back…"
    "What's a ich-que?" Hoot
asked.
    "Don't matter, we'll take it, so's we
can get out of here and have fresh horses." Jeb smiled at the old
chief. "No use arguing."
    "Jeb…maybe you better find out what it
is, first…" Hoot frowned at his long time friend.
    "It don't matter I told you, we got to
have fresh horses." Jeb said firmly.
    After smoking the pipe with the chief
Jeb started to get up. That's when it happened.
    The squaws brought her out and
practically shoved her in his face, the white woman he'd seen in
their camp.
    Jeb staggered, holding the woman up and
then looking into her face. She was lean, and long limbed, and her
hair was braided like theirs now, but her hair was such a light
color of brown, and her eyes blue, like the sky. She looked into
Jeb's face and frowned.
    Depending on how long she'd been here
how white she was, Jeb quickly realized.
    Not understanding what the commotion
was about he turned to the chief in question.
    "ich-que…" the chief
repeated.
    Jeb's eyes grew big and rounded on the
woman like daggers. "Oh…naw…now we cain't be takin'