Free Woman of Courage by Wanda E. Brunstetter Page A

she’d stoically taken on the life that was dealt her. Yet Buck had noticed that there were other times when Jim silently looked at his Indian wife with respect and admiration. Maybe he talked to Mary that way only when Buck was around, trying to prove something. What, he didn’t know. Maybe he should ask, but knowing Jim, he’d probably get mad, and it could ruin their friendship. No, he figured this was one of those things that was better left unsaid.
    Jim turned to Buck and leveled him with a look that could have stopped a pack of wild horses dead in their tracks. “Well? Why’s there a white woman lyin’ on my bed?”
    Buck quickly explained how he’d found her and said he’d seen no sign of anyone else.
    “Humph!” Jim grunted, folding his muscular arms across his chest. “She had to be with someone. No white woman in her right mind would be up here in the mountains all by herself.”
    “I’m sure she was with someone, at some time,” Buck countered. “But there was no sign of anyone else, and since she was hurt and needed help right away, I wasn’t gonna stick around to see if somebody showed up. The way she was bleedin’, I couldn’t take the chance. So I gathered up her livestock and things and brought her and everything else over here.”
    Mary filled Jim’s cup again, and after blowing on it, he took a drink. “Couldn’t ya have taken the woman back to your place?” he complained. “Did ya have to bring her here?”
    Buck lifted his hands. “Didn’t think it’d be right to take her to my dinky cabin. Besides, Mary knows about healin’ herbs and such. The woman probably woulda died in my care,” he added. “What would you have done? Left her there to die?”
    Jim stood and began pacing. “Well, she can stay till she wakes up and is feelin’ better, but then she’ll have to go!”
    “Go where?” Buck questioned. “I just told ya, I ain’t takin’ her to my place; it wouldn’t be right.”
    Jim stopped pacing and tapped his foot, while raking his long fingers through the ends of his full beard. “Guess we’ll take one day at a time for now. When she’s well enough to travel, one of us will have to take her to the nearest fort, and they can decide what to do with her.” Jim lumbered across the room and got the big iron tub. “Mary, would ya heat up some water for me? I need to wash up.”
    Mary nodded and went to the stove.
    Buck, grinning inside, was glad that Jim had relented and would let the woman stay so Mary could nurse her back to health. He had an inkling, though, that it would be him taking the woman to the fort, not Jim. Since Mary was with child, Jim would no doubt use that as his excuse to stay put, but Buck couldn’t blame him for that.
    “Well, I have one more trap line to check before I head back to my cabin,” Buck said, rising from his seat at the table. “Thanks for the coffee, Mary.”
    It was the first time today that a hint of a smile passed across Mary’s lips, yet she said nothing.
    Buck gave Jim’s back a quick thump. “I’ll be back in a few days to check on the white woman.”
    Walking toward his horse, while whistling for his winged brother, Buck wondered if Jim was softening a bit because he was on the verge of becoming a father.

C HAPTER 10
    A s Mary opened the cabin door to breathe in the cool mountain air, she placed her hand gently against her stomach and smiled. The babe had been active today, kicking in her womb almost every time she moved. Jim was outside chopping wood, and she’d been busy cooking and cleaning, so some time outdoors felt good.
    After several minutes, Mary meandered back inside and headed into the small room, partitioned off from the kitchen by several deer hides that had been sewn together and draped over a thick rope. Noting that the cabin had grown chilly, she headed for the lofty stone fireplace at one end of the room. Nearby sat two split-log chairs, and a black bearskin rug covered a good portion of the floor.