Chapter 13

After the ceremony we hit the trail. It was cloudy and overcast but we pushed on though it spit rain all day. We still had squads out scouting and one squad was protecting the wagons and freed slaves that we had separated from this last train. Among the wagons that we captured was the now usual twentieth century weapons, medicines, and tools. One of these wagons had several bundles of printed flyers.

The flyers were the typical white supremacy crap explaining why the mud people should be enslaved. It reminded me of some of the crap my father used to put out. My father was a bigot and maybe if my mother had 'the same attitude I would have been different. I had so little contact with my father that I boxed my moral compass based on my mother's beliefs. I had often wondered why someone as open minded as my mother would have ever been attracted to my father. I guess I would have to ask her sometime.

Sam started the morning by heaving her guts out. I have to tell you I laughed this morning, not at her being sick, but when she wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her buckskins and then looked at me with this doe eyed love look it was funny. Did I laugh out loud? With seven wives you bet your sweet ass I didn't.

Fifth day on the trail since the ceremony; Sam has been sick a couple of times but she's not as bad as some women. We found a good use for the flyers. There is something very satisfying about wiping your ass with all those lies. We have torn them into strips and we bury our waste so we aren't too worried about anyone reading any of them.

We caught up with the wagons that Josh had cut out this afternoon. We gathered the folks together and gave them the basic spiel of what the Band was about. It went about the way it always did. The former slaves stared in open mouthed wonder and disbelief at how one day they are on the same level as animals as far as rights go and the next they have every right their former male masters had save one, they couldn't enslave another human being. Women fell in two categories: open praise and abject fear. We had learned that some men required a bit of remediation before they would accept women much less slaves as equals. In the short history of the band only two men had needed a more lasting behaviour modification. We were about to meet numbers three, four, and five.

Mitch Taylor and his two brothers, Dean and Russ, began their opposition to their women being anything but chattel by an expletives filled tirade the likes of which I had never seen nor heard and considering my father, that was saying something. Included in this verbal barrage was the 'n' word followed by the biblical reasoning for their enslavement.

That particular tack had been tried once before. Moses Brown and his band of multiracial wagon fixers and blacksmiths had shown the man the error of his thinking. I know this since in my roll as healer I had had to patch the miscreant up after their discussion on the merits of slavery and women's rights, biblical and otherwise. It had taken the gentleman more than two months to fully recover from his painful erroneous opinions and according to his wife he was now the very model of what a Band husband should be. She had even rewarded his good behaviour by asking another female to join their marriages. But it was pretty obvious that the Taylor brothers were not going to change their minds so their fates had been determined at a council meeting. They either guessed at the verdict or someone leaked it which was unlikely. The next morning after they got drunk and they beat the hell out of their wives, the brothers had slipped away in the night. They had been unable to take their women with them and all three were scared to death that the brothers would slip back to camp to steal them away. The beaten and battered Taylor women were very surprised to find out that Two Bears had left with a hunting party to find them.

By the second day on their trail Two Bears knew where they were heading. Two Bears found them setting up to ambush our wagon train. I had just crested a ridge when I heard three shots ring out. I raised the alarm and rode in the direction of the shots. Two Bears was standing over the bodies of the Taylor brothers. Connie Stevens was comforting a young girl that I had never seen before. "What happened?"

Two Bears patted Connie on the back and walked up to me, "They grabbed that girl from a farm just up the valley after they killed her mother and father. They were about to rape her when Zoë spotted them."

Two Bears and I walked over to the bodies, "Where was Zoë when she took the shots?"

Two Bears pointed to a ridge that had to be at least quarter of a mile away, "She's right up there, do you see her?"

"Is she wearing her Ghillie suit?" Two Bears nodded, "I don't know why I'm looking, the last time she was ten feet from me and I didn't know she was there." Two Bears whistled and a bush about half way up the ridge stood up. "I rode right past her."

"Don't feel bad. She does that to me all the time," Two Bears laughed, "She's the sneakiest trooper we have and she's not even an Indian. We'll send a squad to bury the girl's parents and gather up her goods."

We turned to see Connie helping the girl onto her horse. "Let's head back to the wagon train." Red Hawk and my wives rode out to meet us. Christina Anderson, the girl that the brothers grabbed, had told us that she had no other family. My wives took her to see if they could find her a set of buckskins to replace her ruined dress.

Red Hawk and I were riding along at the front of the column discussing Mr. Black, something that meant we had nothing else to talk about, when a squad came riding over the hill coming toward us. I pulled out my binoculars, "It Little Wolf's squad and they have someone with them." We spurred our horses to a lope to see what Little Wolf had found. We had pulled our patrols back because of the increase in population. Having multiple squads roaming the countryside caused the locals to get nervous so now we were only patrolling ten miles out in front of us.

When we met Little Wolf came to attention and saluted, something all of the troopers had started doing a lot more lately. Rumour had it that Maggie had sat down with the Commandant and they had worked up a set of rules and regulations. What ever the truth was, the fact was all of the troopers had a military air about them that would have put the Marines to shame. The nine troopers in Little Wolf's squad had come to attention and saluted as Red Hawk and I stopped our horses in front of Little Wolf. The man with his hands tied to his saddle horn jumped when they came to attention. After Red Hawk and I returned their salutes Little Wolf handed me a satchel, "He's a courier for Mr. Black."

I opened the satchel and pulled out the letter and started to read it. When I finished I had a smile on my face, "Well, Mr. Black has heard rumours of the Comanche uniting. He is going to send one last shipment of arms. They left at the same time that this yahoo did three days ago."

Red Hawk looked at the troopers in Little Wolf's squad, "We better send Josh to check it out."

I was shaking my head, "We're drawing a lot of attention. Word is going to get out about a force the size of ours. I think should we leave two companies with the wagon train and take the train that's coming and then move as fast as we can on Mr. Black."

Red Hawk nodded, "Council meeting tonight," he said and then turned and headed back to the train. We were near a pretty good creek so Red Hawk called for an early end of the days travel and announced the need for a council meeting.

The council met under a cottonwood. Red Hawk deferred to me so I explained what I was worried about. As soon as I sat back down the vote was called for, it was unanimous. Red Hawk went to the centre of the circle and called everyone together. After explaining what the council had decided he asked if anyone had anything else to add. When no one spoke up he called for a moment of silence. The one thing on my mind and I'm sure everyone else's was how many names would join the list of Troopers on constant vigil. Red Hawk dismissed the meeting and Troopers went to prepare for the next day, all praying that they would not be the ones left behind.

When I rode up to Beth's wagon my wives mobbed me. Beth, Sam, Prissy and Fran would have to stay with the wagons since they were pregnant but that didn't mean that they would like it. I knew they weren't going to like it but I asked that they all stay with the wagons. Just as I expected, Jana was in my lap shaking her finger in my face, "If we don't go you'll go and do something foolish. No, some of us are going with you. No arguments!" Then she gave me a toe curling kiss that left me with my buckskins getting tight.

"That's one way to win an argument," I said as I ran my hand up under Jana's blouse to squeeze one of her small firm breasts.

"Don't get her all horny before supper," Beth admonished.

I leaned over and looked at the wet spot already forming on Jana's buckskins, "Too late." I grinned. I stood up, grabbed Jana and threw her over my shoulder, and headed for the wagon. At the ladder I dropped her to the ground, "Up you go." I didn't have to ask her twice. Mae and Mia were right behind me and they scampered into the wagon stripping off buckskins as they went. Jana, Mae and Mia were all safe. One of the things we had found out was that all of the girls that were being sent to the Van der Wahl's whore house had been given birth control implants from my time. When some of the other women in the group found out about them they asked to have them and, since Mr. Black had seen fit to send several cases of the Norplants, there were quite a few women on the train with implants and big smiles. By the time I had followed Mia up the ladder Jana was naked and spread eagle on the bed. I slipped my shirt off and stuck my face in Jana's sex.

Jana's first moan was followed by Beth using her best impression of a snake oil hawker saying, "Popcorn, get your front row seats now," followed by a bunch of giggles.

It only took a few minutes for Jana to pop off. Mae and Mia had removed my pants and a warm wet mouth was busy on my cock. As soon as Jana came I was pushed up on the bed and rolled over on my back. Mia slid her light chocolate brown body down on top of my cock and groaned when she bottomed out. Mae took a seat on my face and I was busy trying to send her to the moon. By the time the four of us had cum once the rest of my wives had stripped off and climbed in bed. Beth moved her very pregnant body up and rubbed my nose with her puffy neither lips. As I wrapped my lips around her extra large clit I ran my hands over Beth's swollen tummy.

We played through supper and as my tummy started growling I was starting to think it had been a bad idea. A "Yoo Hoo!" from outside put us all in a mad scramble for our clothes.

I pulled my pants on and slipped outside, "Hey Mom, Elizabeth."

"When your bunch didn't show for supper we were afraid you'd been Jana'd," Mom said with a laugh.

"Hey, that's mean," Jana complained.

Beth was easing her pregnant body down the ladder, "And who was the first one out of their clothes?" Jana made a 'who me' face and we all laughed.

"Well we brought you some b and b's," Mom sat the Dutch oven full of Buffalo and beans on the grate of our campfire. And Elizabeth handed me a towel covered basket full of biscuits. We fell on the hot food like we were starved. After we had eaten we sat down to talk about who would go and who would stay. In the end there wasn't much to argue over, Beth, Prissy, Fran, and Sam were all pregnant and Mae's ribs were still too tender to spend the time in the saddle that we would be spending. Mia had been practicing hard every day so she could go when the time came to look for her mother. Mia and Jana would go with me and Beth reminded them that they were to take care of me and keep me from doing anything stupid. Jana said she was pretty sure that she would need more help so don't be surprised if they didn't show up with another wife or three. I just put my head in my hands and moaned.

Broken Knife and his wives, Lucy and Marie, walked over and he and I sat down and went over what we knew of Mr. Black's operation. Through interviews with the different drivers we knew that Mr. Black had moved his operation from St. Jo across the river to the Kansas side. Since we really didn't know what the wagon train would be like, so we decided to go ahead and take five companies, the Commando Company, the Artillery Company, and 1st, 3rd, and 5th Horse Companies. There would be some angry Company Commanders but there was just not a way to move eight hundred cavalry three hundred miles without someone getting very excited. The last thing we needed was to have the troops at Ft. Leavenworth get interested in our current operation.

When we had made up our mind I whistled officer's call and five minutes later all the Company commanders were there waiting to hear the good or bad news. I was just about to make the announcement when one of the pickets called out "Rider coming." Over the months that we had been on the trail we had developed a set location for the wagons in the circle. Based on a clock, the twelve o'clock position was on the North side of the circle. From twelve o'clock position to the three o'clock position was where the leader's and Council member's wagons were located. The wagon that acted as our headquarters was marked by the Band's flag that flew from a pole mounted to the wagon. This meant that any time in any camp a rider could ride straight to Red Hawk's, or in this case, my wagon.