Winter Love Part 21

The next building was the City Meat Market, then beside it a sign proclaimed "John Hurley-Loan Agent." At the north end of the street lay the disreputable part of the city where brothels, saloons, and dance halls that scarcely disguised their real purpose could be found.

Men of faint heart and decent women never ventured there, for drinking and prost.i.tutes led to arguments, fights, and guns. Fletch turned to look south of the gun shop.

There was a hardware store, a cigar and tobacco shop, a clothing store, and a meat and grocery store, the last building before homes took over.

On the side of the street where he stood was a restaurant, a boardinghouse, a Chinese bathhouse and laundry, and a two-story building with a doctor's office on the first floor and a lawyer's on the second. At the end of the street was a school, a church, and a cemetery.

Fletch knew this street and these buildings like he did the trees and cabins back at Big Pine. He had walked past them countless times the past three weeks in his search for Laura.

They had been useless walks, a waste of breath to question people if they had seen a tall, beautiful woman with a toddler looking for employment. He had met with negative shakes of the head.

Bleakness in his eyes, Fletch stepped down onto the dusty, rutted street. He was certain that Laura was not in Detroit and he didn't know where else to look for her. He would go home, rethink her disappearance, and hopefully come up with another idea of where she might have gone.

He refused to think that she and his daughter were not alive somewhere.

Taylor lifted b.u.t.terfly off his naked, sweating body and curled her against his side. As he stroked her damp, long black hair he said, "We can't go on this way, b.u.t.terfly, me sneaking over to your village, you slipping over here after everyone has gone to bed. I worry about you being out in the woods after dark."

b.u.t.terfly grew very still. Was she now to hear the words she had dreaded since the first time they'd made love beneath a tall pine? Had the moment come when Taylor would say it was time to end their relationship?

She held her breath, waiting to hear the dreaded words. But a long silence ensued before Taylor spoke again, and stunned her speechless.

"I think it's high time we got married, b.u.t.terfly. I am several years older than you and I want to make sure that you will be provided for when I'm gone."

b.u.t.terfly released her breath in a soft flutter. Never, ever, had she expected Taylor to voice the wish to marry her. Dare she hope that it would be the kind of wedding white folks had... in their church? One that was legal in all ways? The government wouldn't recognize an Indian ceremony.

When she was so long in responding, Taylor gave her hair a gentle tug and asked, "Don't you want to marry me, b.u.t.terfly?"

b.u.t.terfly raised up on an elbow and leaned over Taylor. Looking gravely into his eyes, she asked, "Will we be married by your white preacher? I will not have you called a squaw man."

Taylor gave a robust laugh and hugged her to him. "Of course Preacher Stiles will marry us."

b.u.t.terfly kept her cheek on Taylor's chest and her words were smothered as she said, "What will the village people say? Will Fletch be angry with you? And Laura? I feel strongly that she should be with you again."

"I don't give a d.a.m.n what the villagers say, they can rot in h.e.l.l for all I care. It was their vile gossiping that ran Laura off. Fletch and Laura won't care. They've known about us all along." Taylor heaved a long sigh. "I do hope you're right about Laura and little Jolie returning to us. I wonder if Fletch has found any trace of them."

"In time he will find her, I'm sure of it."

Taylor kissed the top of b.u.t.terfly's head, then stared up at the storage room's ceiling. "I'll talk to Reverend Stiles tomorrow and set the date for our wedding. Sat.u.r.day is three days away. Will that suit you?"

"That will be fine," b.u.t.terfly answered and rolled over on her back. "So as not to have hard feelings with my people, we must have an Indian ceremony also. They would feel slighted if we did not."

"I can understand that. You and Chief Muga decide on the day."

"You are so kind and thoughtful, Taylor." b.u.t.terfly stroked her fingers across his chest.

Taylor caught her hand and moved it down his bare stomach to where there was the beginning of an arousal. "Should we celebrate our coming nuptials?" he whispered hoa.r.s.ely, then climbed on b.u.t.terfly's willing body.

The stallion blew softly as Fletch pulled him to a halt in front of the church. He had been ridden all day without a rest in Fletch's sudden desire to get home as soon as possible. A thought had entered his mind that something was happening there, maybe that Laura had returned to Big Pine.

What was going on in the church house on a Sat.u.r.day? he wondered, then thought that Hunter O'Hara and Agnes Morse might be getting married today. He swung to the ground as people started coming out of the small church.

The men looked pleasant enough, but the women, with the exception of Maida, Justine, Agnes, and Big Bertha, looked as though they had been eating green grapes. "What has displeased Big Pine's society group?" he asked himself as he stood at Buckskin's head.

And what was Pa doing with b.u.t.terfly hanging on his arm as they followed the other people outside? Had his father finally decided to let everyone know of his a.s.sociation with the Indian woman?

Fletch skimmed his eyes over b.u.t.terfly and thought that she was truly a handsome woman, tall and regal-looking. Her raven black hair, worn in two braids, lay in stark relief against the white buckskin tunic with bright beadwork around the neck.

And look at Pa! Fletch grinned. He hadn't seen him wear his suit in years. A person would think it was he and b.u.t.terfly who had just got married, he wore such a wide smile.

When the men gathered around Taylor, shaking his hand and slapping him on the back, Fletch said in a stunned voice, "By G.o.d, it is his wedding." He wanted to whoop with laughter. The old man had gotten up the nerve to marry the woman he had loved all these years. That accounted for the sour looks the women wore, especially Widow Louden. She'd had her eye on Pa ever since mother Marie pa.s.sed away. To lose out to a heathen Indian must be a bitter cup to swallow.

Fletch shouldered his way through the men who stood around the bride and groom, and with a wide smile held his hand out to Taylor. "It's about time you married the prettiest woman in the area," he said and then turned to b.u.t.terfly. "Welcome to the family, b.u.t.terfly." He smiled as he leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

The new bride blushed with pleasure, then quickly sobered. "Did you find any trace of Laura?"

Fletch looked from b.u.t.terfly to his father, who waited anxiously for his answer. "I'm sorry, Pa, but I found nothing. I went over every inch of Detroit. She's not there."

All the happiness left the newlyweds' faces. They wished they didn't have to attend the party that Maida, Justine, and Bertha had arranged for them at the tavern. b.u.t.terfly slid her arm in Taylor's and said softly, "She will return, husband, I feel it in my heart. Let's go to the party and pretend to have a good time. The two young women and Big Bertha have gone to a lot of trouble for us."

"You'll be there, won't you, son?" Taylor asked as Fletch started walking toward his friend Red. "I'll be there." Fletch grinned. "I wouldn't miss the chance to dance with the bride."

After Fletch greeted his trapper friend, Red asked if there was any news of Laura. When Fletch shook his head, Red said, "Your friend Red Fox was here looking for you yesterday. He said you should come to his village as soon as you return."

"Maybe he has news of Laura." Hope built inside Fletch.

Red shook his head. "I asked him that. He said no, that it was another matter he wanted to talk to you about."

Fletch would have liked to stay longer at the wedding party, where the three women had prepared an abundance of food and the drinks were a gift from the groom. But Milly Howard had grabbed on to him the moment he walked into the tavern and had clung to him like a burr, her eyes flagrantly inviting him to take her to bed. Her rubbing up against him, her coy looks, only made him wonder what he had ever seen in her.

Finally, in desperation, he gave Red the high sign to come help him. When the trapper came and dragged a reluctant Milly onto the dance floor, Fletch slipped out the door and into the storeroom, barring the door behind him. He was taking no chances of Milly sneaking into bed with him.

He would be sleeping in the storeroom from now on, giving his father and b.u.t.terfly the privacy they deserved. He undressed and stretched out on the narrow cot his father had slept on over most of the winter. He said a mental prayer that Laura and his daughter were safe somewhere, then fell into a deep sleep. It had been a long and tiring day.

Elisha stamping around in the store awakened Fletch the next morning. He rubbed his whiskered jaws thinking wryly that Pa had made sure he could spend as much time as he wished in b.u.t.terfly's arms today.

The position of the sun shining through the window told Fletch that it was around eight o'clock. Knowing that Red Fox wanted to see him, he rolled out of bed. It must be something important since his friend had come looking for him. It wasn't the Indian's habit to come to the white man's village.

Fletch's sudden entrance into the store star-tied the old man frying bacon and eggs on the potbelly stove. "You scared the bejesus out of me, Fletch," Elisha complained, picking up the fork he had dropped to the floor. "I didn't know you wuz in there."

"I'll be sleeping in the storage room now... for a while at least. Would you mind adding some bacon and eggs to the skillet? I'm half starved."

Elisha nodded and said, "Coffee is ready if you want some."

"Sounds good." Fletch reached for a cup beneath the counter. "I haven't had any decent brew for over three weeks."

"What do you think about your Paw gettin' married again?" Elisha asked, slapping a plate heaped with bacon and eggs on the counter.

Fletch sluiced the soap off his face, then picked up a much-used towel to dry off with before answering. "I think it's high time he made a decent woman out of b.u.t.terfly. She's a fine woman."

"Some of the wimmenfolk around here don't have your sentiments," Elisha said, digging into his breakfast.

Fletch gave a short laugh as he pulled his plate to him. "I'm sure that won't bother Pa and b.u.t.terfly one whit."

Elisha chuckled. "If Taylor hears anyone badmouthin' his new wife he'll tell them to go to h.e.l.l and refuse to sell them anything."

"Do you know if Pa went to the preacher and had his marriage to Laura annulled?"

"Yeah, he did. Had it all done legal like."

"I guess there was a lot of talk about that." Elisha laughed. "The ole gossipers like to have talked their tongues off, buzzin' back and forth between each other's cabins."

If I find Laura and bring her back here, they'll really have something to talk about when they find out Jolie is my child, Fletch thought as he pushed his empty plate away and prepared to leave the store.

Twenty minutes later he was astride a rested Buckskin and riding toward the Indian village.

Fletch was ready to take the fork that led to the Indian village when he saw Red Fox riding toward him. He reined in and waited for the Indian to reach him.

"I can see in your eyes that your trip to Detroit was fruitless," Red Fox said as he pulled his pinto up next to Buckskin.

Fletch nodded. "I found no trace of Laura." He studied his friend's face. "I can see that something is bothering you, friend. Is one of your family ill?"

Red Fox peered off through the trees as though looking a long distance. "Those of mine in the village are all well," he finally said. "It is the welfare of Little Fox that bothers me. Night before last I had a dream of him. It was so vivid I know that he is in trouble. I want you to go with me to Isle Royale to help me look for him."

"Of course I will go with you, but are you sure it wasn't just a dream and nothing more? The lad has another week before his month is up."

"It wasn't an ordinary dream." Red Fox shook his head. "I could see my son too clearly. His limp body was lying at the foot of a pile of boulders. There was blood all over his back."

"All right then, let's get going." Fletch turned the stallion around and Red Fox led off, heading toward the lake trail that Laura and Little Fox had taken a little over three weeks ago.

Chapter Twenty-Four.

Laura's mind was in a turmoil as she bent over Little Fox and felt his brow. She hadn't slept at all well last night, her brain buzzing with the dread of what lay ahead of her.

She had never been to a city before and had no idea what Detroit would be like. She had heard stories about it, some of them not very pleasant. Some claimed it was mostly made up of brothels, saloons, and gambling halls. It was said that cutthroats roamed the streets and that no man, woman, or child was safe from them.

How in the world will I find employment there? she worried, finding Little Fox's brow cool and sitting down beside him. Last night after she and Spotted Horse left the boy long enough to grab a bite of supper, she had gotten up the nerve to approach the old man about selling some more of his furs and lending her enough money to enable her to get to Detroit.

"But why would you want to go to that bad place when you have a fine cabin here and a fine garden coming on?" The old man had looked at her in amazement.

"As you know," she had answered, "I am acquainted with the lad. His name is Little Fox, son of Red Fox and grandson of Chief Muga. A week from now when Little Fox doesn't show up at his village, Red Fox will come looking for him."

"Are you afraid of this brave?" Spotted Horse had watched her closely.

"No, I am not afraid of him, but he will tell his friend, a man I don't want to know where I am. It is very important that I get away by the end of the week. And I would greatly appreciate it if you don't say where I've gone."

"You are making a mistake, Jolie's mother. You are running to meet trouble. Why don't you wait and see if something doesn't happen before it gets here?"

"Believe me, Spotted Horse, trouble will get here. I know from experience with this man. I must get away as soon as possible."

A deep sadness had come over the old man's face. "I had thought to spend my remaining years here on the island with you and Jolie. And who will teach the little one wisdom and patience? She has no father to do that, and her mother has little of either one. I do not know what will become of the little white-haired papoose."

"Jolie will be all right, Spotted Horse. If I find that I can't make my way in Detroit, I promise you I'll come back here." She had waited a moment, then asked, "Are you going to lend me the money?"

"I will, of course, get you the money," the old man had agreed, though reluctantly, then added, "I hope I am not doing wrong in helping you go to such a place."

And so the old man had gone off to the post this morning to sell more beaver pelts.

Laura gave a start when she noticed Little Fox looking wide-eyed at her. "What are you doing here, Laura?" he croaked.

"I live here now." She smiled at him. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel weak and hungry, and my back hurts."

"I imagine that it does. Do you remember being attacked by a bear, being clawed by him?"

The boy shivered. "I'll never forget it. If the dog hadn't come along and scared him off, the beast would have killed me."

"He almost did. An old Indian named Spotted Horse saved your life with his roots and leaves."

"Where is he? I must thank him." Little Fox raised his head and looked around. "Where is Jolie ? Didn't you bring her with you?"

"Of course I did. She has gone on an errand with the old Indian."

A worried frown grew on Little Fox's brow. "How much longer do I have before my month is up?"

"One day short of a week."

"Do you think I can travel by then?"

Laura shook her head. "I'm sorry, little friend, but a week from now you'll still be very weak. You lost a lot of blood."

"But my father will be worried if I don't return to the village on time."

"I know he will, but you know that he'll come looking for you, so don't fret about it."