Free The Far Side of Lonesome by Rita Hestand Page A

no white woman
with us…."
    Chief walked away, as though he didn't
hear him.
    "But…we cain't." Jeb hollered. The
chief kept on walking and soon entered his tent, as though the
matter were closed. "You don't understand…."
    Hoot looked from the woman to Jeb as
though Jeb had lost his mind. "He wants to give us the
woman?"
    "Well…we cain't take her…." Jeb shook
his head. Then realizing she spoke English he turned on the white
lady. "Beggin' your pardon ma'am, but we cain't be takin' you
nowhere….You see how it is. You got to see. It would just be
tradin' one problem for another…that's all. It's not that I don't
want to help, but…."
    The woman said nothing, just stared at
him, then hung her head.
    Jeb saw the look of defeat in her eyes
and hated himself for turning her down, but he had to make someone
understand….a Negro man couldn't take a white woman back to her
family. It was unheard of. Didn't the old Indian understand the
danger?
    "I told you somethin' was gonna
happen….I told you!" Hoot shouted.
    Jeb stood there, and suddenly
realized….they'd just given him a white woman!
     
    Just a little past Doan
Crossing, Texas
     
    “Jeb, I didn’t want to bring this up,
but you know we got a problem.” Hoot said in a low voice so as not
to be overheard. "And somethin's got to be done…before we get to a
town…"
    “I know….I just ain’t sure what we
should do about it…” Jeb replied, trying his best not to look over
his shoulder at the woman and baby behind them. The baby was
another surprise. He cringed at the thought that he'd let this
happen. He couldn't blame Hoot. Hoot tried to warn him, why hadn't
he listened?
    He shot her a look, sweat trickled down
the side of her face, but she didn’t acknowledge it, and she hadn’t
once complained of riding all day. He reckoned she'd suffered much
worse with the Indians.
    “We best be figurin’ something’ out,
don’t you think?” Hoot frowned at his friend.
    “I’m workin’ on it. We’ll talk to her
about it when we camp tonight. It’s a couple days ride ‘till we get
to a decent size town anyway. We can’t just dump her in the middle
of nowhere…” Jeb rasped.
    “Agreed, that’s for shore and certain.
So…you gonna talk to her?” Hoot's voice held more understanding
now.
    Jeb glanced over at his friend; Hoot
sat the saddle almost as though glued there. Jeb eyed him up and
down strangely until Hoot almost glared at him.
    “In all my born days I’ve never seen
you eye me like a side of beef before, what are you lookin’
at?”
    Jeb shook his head and spit to the hot
ground, “Nothin’ Hoot, not lookin’ at nothin’, I’m thinkin’, but
I’ll take it up with you later, when I've thought it through. Ain't
no use tallkin' it over until I think on it a while.”
    Hoot frowned, “Never liked it when you
did too much thinkin’. Down right spooky…that’s what it is.” Hoot
shook his head and scurried on in front of him as though ignoring
him a while. Jeb didn't mind, he needed to figure things out in his
head.
    Jeb knew Hoot was plumb put out about
this situation and he didn't blame him, but what on earth could he
do about it? The woman had come with them, and brought her baby
with her. Short of tying her up, he didn't know how he could escape
the fate. Saddled with her, he had to come up with something pretty
quick an he knew it.
    It gave Jeb a break. He eased back on
the reins and let his horse canter while the lady with the baby
caught up to him. He wondered how he should talk to her. She hadn’t
said anything since the Indians brought her to him. They'd brought
out the baby later and placed the cradle on her back. The chief had
stood at his lodge, looking, as though he'd lost something
precious. Why had he given her to them if he wanted her? It made no
sense. Obviously her or the baby was important to him, as Jeb saw
the look in the old Chief's eye.
    She had stood there, resigned, not
saying anything, not crying, just standing