Rose's Pledge (30 page)

Still seated with his Indian maiden, Robert gave a light laugh. “Looks like she’s been doin’ fine so far. Course, on the other hand, there’s the problem of restockin’ an’ such. Plus I don’t see them boys out at the Virginia an’ Ohio lettin’ a woman run the place, when it comes right down to it.”

“Well …” That was so true. How would she? An idea slowly surfaced. Rose took a deep breath and averted her gaze from him to Nate. “As it happens, a pair of trappers came through a few days before you arrived, and they told me representatives of the company would be here any day to check on things. And I thought …” She glanced at Robert. Noticing he was talking quietly to the girl, Rose drew a breath and stepped nearer to Nate so she could speak softly. “I thought if you two would stay on till they leave, you could pretend …to be …my husband.” There. She’d said it.

Nate clamped a hand on her shoulder and pulled her closer, his mouth agape. “Did you say what I thought you said?”

Rose had no idea how she suffered through Nate’s snickering and teasing. The maddening frontiersman was having a lot of fun at her expense. Granted, it took awhile for him to see the logic behind her scheme, but once she explained her reasoning, he was quick to come around—even if he did have a mischievous gleam in his eye. Surely he did not imagine he could attempt anything untoward during their little deception. In any event, she was more than glad to have
her protector
back again …along with Robert Bloom, of course.

She got up from her seat on the flour sack. “I’m sure the three of you must be hungry after paddling all day upriver in such cold weather.” She moved toward Nate with an impish smile. “Here, let me have
our
baby. You need to bring in your pelts before one of the villagers takes a liking to them.”

“You’re right about that.” With no indication that he’d noticed her suggestive statement, Nate rose to his feet and handed Jenny to her. After shrugging into his warm outer garment, he headed out.

Robert also came to his feet, and so did Shining Star. He turned to the lass and spoke quietly in her language first, repeating the words in English. “Stay here.” He gestured toward Rose. “With Miss Rose.” Obviously he was attempting to teach her some basic English, which Rose appreciated.

The Indian girl sank back down onto her seat and looked timidly at Rose. “Wi’ Mi’ Rose.” She checked back at him with a tentative smile.

“Oui-saw. Good girl.” He cupped her cheek in his palm and smiled into her eyes.

Observing the loving expressions passing between them, Rose felt a twinge of envy and, for a brief moment, felt like crying. But she’d been doing quite enough of that of late, she reminded herself, and sloughed off the emotion.

Robert grinned over at her. “I’m sure Star’d be happy to hold the baby while you tend to things.”

“If you’re certain. I could put Jenny in her little pen.”

He shook his head and spoke a few words to the lass, and she got up. As Star approached Rose with her arms outstretched, he threw on his fur robe and started to leave. But reaching the flap, he stopped and turned. “Rose, what you really need is a cradleboard like Indian mothers use. Babies love ‘em ‘cause they never have to be left with someone else while their mothers work. I’ll see if I can trade some squaw outta one.”

“Thank you,” she said in her most polite tone. Having given Jenny over to the Indian girl, Rose pondered the concept of cradleboards versus a cloth sling. She’d noticed babies strapped to their mothers’ backs and thought the stiff contraptions looked too restrictive. Yet the wee ones all seemed happy, snuggled and warm inside their little cocoons. Perhaps Jenny would feel more secure in one. She glanced at the little one and saw her smiling and toying with one of Shining Star’s braids while the lass sang softly in her ear.

Nate came back in on a blast of winter air, his arms straining with the weight of a large bundle. “Where do you want these?”

Rose quickly dragged a couple of crates away from the side wall. “Put them here. ‘Twould be best to keep them separate from the others.”

Dropping them with a thud, Nate bent over and pulled out what appeared in the dim light to be a beaver pelt. “Feel how thick this is, Rose.” He held it out to her.

She smoothed her hand over it. “Oh yes. Very prime. A lovely pelt.”

“Aye. We only traded for the best. That wasn’t the main reason we went tradin’, though. We heard rumors that one of the tribes had a secret silver mine, and we were hopin’ to get our hands on some of that silver we heard about. Enough to satisfy even ol’ Eustice.” Taking the beaver hide, he caressed her cheek with the silky fur. “Almost as soft as your skin.”

Gazing up at him, Rose couldn’t move. There was such passion in his eyes it made her knees feel weak. She couldn’t believe how easily she fell beneath his spell.

Robert strode in just then with his arms filled with furs, and the tension lightened noticeably. Rose moved out of his way. “Put them there with Nate’s.”

He dropped the load onto the first pile. “Did I hear Nate mention the silver?” He stepped nearer to Rose and grimaced as he pulled up a sleeve, displaying a bracelet. “One of the two we managed to get our hands on.”

She gasped. “Then you did find the silver mine.”

Both men laughed, and Robert elaborated. “Mighty strange, the way a story gets started an’ grows into somethin’ a whole lot bigger an’ better with the tellin’.”

Smiling and frowning with confusion at the same time, Rose was all too aware that Nate had yet to take his eyes off her. She hoped her idea of pretending they were husband and wife before the fur-company officials wasn’t giving him any more improper ideas. She found it difficult to focus on his partner’s words.

“Turns out,” Robert continued, “the bracelets came from Spanish Mexico. Been traded here an’ there till they made it up to the Ohio Valley. All that way. Ain’t that somethin’?”

“It truly is,” she responded. Still feeling Nate’s eyes on her, she steeled her emotions and faced him.

A one-sided grin emerged, and he rejoined the conversation. “Aye, and us paddlin’ up one stream after another, like we was Ponce de León, searchin’ for his fountain of youth.”

So that’s why they were gone so long. Rose looked from one grinning face to the other then decided to get their minds back on business. “Since Mr. Smith, may God rest his soul, has passed on, ‘tis only right you should have all the profits from your venture. I have the bills of lading from the goods he purchased and the record of the items you took with you, so when the furs are taken to the company, it should be quite easy to figure.”

“That’ll help make up for the trouble we had,” Robert muttered.

“What trouble?” Her heart skipped a beat.

“Nothin’ to speak of,” Nate blurted. He slid a significant glare to his friend.

That really piqued Rose’s curiosity.

Nate’s expression eased to one more innocuous. “Well, now. That’s mighty nice of you, givin’ Bob and me the profit. Speakin’ of ol’ Eustice, did he treat you decent after we left? I told him I’d—well, let’s just say I told him to be nice to you.”

Another bittersweet memory came to the fore, and Rose smiled. “Thank you. But I must say, once little Jenny Ann came to us, Mr. Smith became a different man. No matter how bad he felt or how his stomach pained him, he loved playing with her. We spent nearly all our time together after she came along—mostly here in the store, with him teaching me the business.” Remembering her treasured book, she pulled the slim volume from her apron pocket and held it to her breast. “This New Testament was his. We read from it quite a lot, particularly toward the end.”

“Well, I’ll be.” Nate’s smug expression vanished.

Robert, however, looked pleased. “You have a copy of the scriptures!” His gaze veered from her to the Indian lass. “That’ll make things easier. I won’t have to rely on just the verses I know when I talk to Star about the Lord.”

Seeing the delight in the man’s demeanor, Rose appreciated the tenderness, the innocence of their new love. She glanced at Nate to gauge his reaction to his friend’s comments. But there was no shared joy in his expression. He looked more like a cornered rat. It was her turn to give him a smug smile.

Chapter 26

N
ate and Bob left Shining Star settled in with Rose and the baby in Rose’s wigwam and headed for the Shawnee council lodge, as Red Hawk had requested earlier. Nate’s insides felt pleasantly sated after enjoying Rose’s delicious cooking. It had been ages since he’d downed such tasty eggs and side pork—especially with the added treat of fluffy biscuits slathered with butter. Eustice certainly knew how to pick a cook! He stifled a grin at the ridiculous notion. Cooking was only one of Rose Harwood’s many fine attributes.

As he and Bob reached the lodge and entered, most of the talking ceased between the villagers assembled in the immense ninety-by-fifty-foot structure. Always amazed by the size and spaciousness of a longhouse, Nate surveyed the toasty interior with interest. A sturdy framework of thick, upright poles, interlaced with a series of thinner poles, was overlaid with sheets of flattened elm bark. Shafts of waning daylight slanted through a number of smoke holes in the roof and cut through the gloomy, smoky interior, glinting off a grisly collection of scalps displayed on poles like trophies. Nate observed that though many sported black Indian hair, several were blond, red, and assorted shades of brown. Even a couple of gray ones. He caught a troubled breath, inhaling a blend of tobacco, wood, earth, and Indian.

Because of the cold weather, all the fire pits along the length of the lodge were ablaze, and what smoke didn’t rise to the smoke holes above mingled with that coming from several long, decorative pipes making the rounds.

It appeared every man in the village had come to the gathering, along with several women who sat on pallets behind the circle of men. Obviously everyone wanted to hear the latest news.

Red Hawk motioned for Nate and Bob to be seated between him and another chief named Barking Dog.

While lowering themselves down onto the packed earth floor, Nate tried not to show his amusement over the second chief’s name. He wondered if, as a boy, the chief had gone around barking like a dog, or had he merely teased the mangy camp dogs into incessant yapping? Judging from the rapid rate at which the man spoke, Nate guessed the first assumption was correct.

A pipe came his way, and Nate took it and drew a few puffs then passed it on and settled into a comfortable position. He knew from experience he and his partner would be here for quite some time, with Bob doing all their talking.

As always, conversation began with the polite blather regarding health, how the hunting and fishing had gone this fall, and the usual inane pleasantries. Then Bob’s expression turned serious, and he leaned forward. Nate knew the important subjects had finally come up.

In seconds the men sitting around the circle began muttering in low tones to one another, their expressions sober, often bordering on sullen.

Nate decided it was high time he started learning enough Shawnee to make out the gist of what the Indians were discussing. He elbowed Bob. “What’d you say to them?”

He angled his head Nate’s way. “I told ‘em about the scores of canoes we saw beached where the Scioto River merges with the Ohio. An’ that when we sneaked up on the camp, we saw almost as many French soldiers there as Indians.”

Red Hawk frowned and said something to Bob. Nate managed to catch the word
Miami
.

His pal gave a negative shake of his dark head and made a correction. “Mostly Seneca.”

The others present relaxed visibly. Nate surmised it was because several of those gathered around the fire happened to be Miami braves.

An interminable hour or so dragged by before Bob finally stopped conversing with the leaders and turned to Nate. “We can go now.”

Nate resisted the urge to rub his numb backside as he stood with his friend to shake hands with the men nearby. Then, smiling and nodding, he and Bob took their leave.

As they left the village and covered the short distance to the trading post, Nate drew in a deep breath of fresh air and let it slowly out. “Prob’ly if I took time to learn some Shawnee, meetin’s like that wouldn’t drag on so.”