Free The Legend of the Bloodstone by E B Brown

patted the wound with a clean cloth. Maggie held her breath as he reached around her for the bowl of healing salve and then smeared it over the wound. What game was the bastard playing? She felt like a toy, twirling aimlessly at his mercy.  Motionless and silent, she waited as he replaced the bandage with a fresh one and secured it around the sensitive skin of her shoulder.
    Maggie did not expect the pile of clothes that l anded in her lap, and she startled at the quick motion.  A soft, dry white doeskin dress lay in her lap along with a pair of small white moccasins, decorated with a delicate pattern of red and black beads.   She slowly turned to look at him and was surprised to find him standing near the fire, a frown on his lips and his blazing blue eyes fastened on her.
    “Change your wet clothes. I will prepare our meal.”
    She held her wet dress up with one hand and clutched the new one with the other.
    “I-I’ll change when you leave.”
    He closed the distance between them in three strides, snatching a fur from the bed and wrapping it around her shoulders like a cloak. He grabbed the white dress from her. She noticed his hands clenched and he trembled, and she could see he struggled to contain his temper.
    “Change now, woman,” he growled. “Or I will do it for you.”
    She returned his challenge by glaring back into his seething blue depths, then snatched the dress from his hand and turned her back to him.  She heard him stalk away, but even knowing he was across the room still sent shivers down her spine as she let her wet dress fall to the floor. She managed to keep the fur wrapped around her as she stepped into the dry dress, but waited to face him again. 
    She felt the flush of her skin and hated herself for her weakness. Naked skin was nothing special to the Indians, she knew from her observations over the last two days.  Women went topless more often than not, or had a flimsy fur shawl wrapped around their shoulders to cover bare breasts. Maggie was grateful for the modest dresses Teyas gave her, but she was aware that she was much more covered than any of the other young women.  She struggled to be so confident, as Winn obviously expected, but she failed miserably. 
    Maggie sat down across from Winn at the fire, keeping the thick fur around her shoulders as they ate.  He took a few bits of food from each bowl and passed it to her, keeping his eyes on hers as he slowly chewed.
    “Your wound looks like it heals. You are lucky.”
    She refused to meet his eyes as she ate and nodded in response.
    “Thank you…for helping me. I can’t reach it very well on my own,” she murmured.
    He rested one hand on a bent knee and lay back onto an elbow, studying her as she finished her meal.  She stole a glance at him over the rim of her cup as she drank, seeing a bemused tilt of his head and a furrowed brow which seemed distinctly non-threatening.
    “Women of your time, they have no need of men?” he asked. He twirled a piece of straw in his fingers as he waited for her response.
    “Women take care of themselves is all I meant.  They don’t need a man to tell them what to do, or to look after them.” She took another sip from the cup and watched as he struggled to find his words.
    “No husbands? The men must be weak to let women behave that way,” he declared, tossing the straw into the fire. She smiled despite herself.
    “We still like men, and women do marry. But it’s not necessary to have a man, it’s just…nice. “
    “And you? Did you leave a man in your time?”
    “Yes,” she said, although she believed she would regret baiting him in such a way when she saw his body tense and his jaw clench. “My grandfather.  I feel like I left him. He died last month, and I’m not there now to put flowers on his grave…or to take care of the farm.  But a boyfriend? No, there is no one.”
    His tense demeanor relaxed at her explanation, and he met her tentative smile with a wry smile of his