Chapter 5

I just could not get those dogs to round up the mules and horses. They would not leave me out of their sight. The man who sold them to me had said they were trained and he hated to part with them. They had come with him all the way to Texas and there were times he said that the dogs were able to keep him from even having to fire a shot. Smart move. I wondered why so few were ever seen except on a farm or ranch. I soon had a good idea why when they ate enough food to keep five grown men alive. They were expensive to keep!

Meal time that night had me and He Who Laughs Loud both confused. Soaring Eagle told me he wanted to cook one of the dogs. I think he and she were joshing me so I played along. “Well Ma’am, I don’t know how they are going to feel about losing a buddy; but if he thinks that way, I guess we better let him try. Ask him, though, where he wishes his remains to go. Them dogs look hungry, too!”

The belly laugh from both of them was all it took for that subject to never come up again. Food for the night came from the packs. We found a ton of pemmican on one too, this got split up and some went on one of my mules too. Neither of them ever had coffee, eggs and bacon so I contributed some for breakfast the next day.

Now ‘What to do’? I was about to attempt my first ever set up of that new fangled tent. Never even got far enough to get to the mule. I was told, in no uncertain terms by the Princess, to ‘get sleep fur from horse, we sleep’ as she began to remove what little she had on. My mouth as well as my eyes dropped. My reaction was pure male and she, like any dutiful Indian female would, came to help me undress too. He Who Laughs Loud was saying something like he was going to check around and guard a bit, showing why he got his name. My question on where she was going to sleep was soon answered as soon as she got through inspecting me for what must have been a new experience to her.

Hell, Hell, Hell! How was I supposed to fight in an Indian War, now? She done ruined any idea of that happening. I suppose I could and would kill if I had to, but being with her now, made it hard to think of a good reason to be the aggressor. When we got the fur out and she put her arms around me with the fur over us, I was a lost man. Lost! Lost! Lost in those eyes, her long silky hair and that lean, perfect body. I don’t remember, have I told you she was beautiful? I ended up touching and feeling every part of her. One time, while I was stroking her cheek her eyes opened up a bit and I saw her, in the moonlight, looking back at me. It was like a pool I wanted to jump in. It was not a ‘White Eyes’ and an Indian Princess. It was just two people, two near lovers, uniting and ignoring what each other’s world might think. Damn, Damn, Damn! So this was what Love is, I guessed.

The cold nose and a wet tongue almost got me going until I felt and heard three deep sighs and the plopping down of the dogs around us. Great, just what any romance needs: ‘guard dogs’.