Chapter 7

Jake woke as the sun came up the next day. He had slept through the night and felt much better for it.

Sue was also up. Still wearing Jake's shirt, she had built a new fire on the remains of the old one and the coffee pot was standing close by.

She saw him moving. "Matzh," she said, pointing at the fire. Jake got to his feet and went to fetch one. Then he realised that he too was just wearing a shirt. Shrugging that off, he took a match from its tin and handed it to her.

"Than cue," she said, smiling at him. She seemed to be getting the hang of English quite well. Sadly, he hadn't heard her speak enough of her language to pick that up.

"You're very welcome," he said, smiling back at her, and he went off to check out the horses. They all seemed fine, and two by two he took them down to the stream to drink and then left them to forage for themselves on the grass around the clearing.

When he got back, Sue had fetched all the rest of the clothes from the bushes and had folded most of them. She was working the buckskins, her dress, her pants and his vest, to make sure they were supple. She handed his clothes to him, and he was quite relieved to put his underwear and pants back on. He felt normal again, although he did find himself also feeling a bit constricted by all the clothing, which surprised him.

Sue finished with the buckskins and put her pants on, although they were still a bit baggy as they were really too big for her. Jake expected her to put her dress on as well, and was quite looking forward to seeing her small breasts again, but instead she kept on the spare shirt she had been wearing. He was a bit disappointed, and then chided himself for having those thoughts.

She grinned at him as she fastened up her gunbelt around her waist. It was also still too big, but he saw that she now had two knife scabbards on her left hand side as well as the pistol on her right.

Once dressed, she was off into the bushes, leaving Jake to get his boots on. A bit later she was back, hair dishevelled again, clutching all her snares in one hand and two small brown animals in her right. She waved them at him and grinned again. "She's really getting over the horrors of two days ago," Jake thought, as she went off to skin and prepare the carcasses.

After having a good breakfast on some of the meat, and with the rest cooked for later, it was time to pack up and move on. Jake saddled the three horses while Sue put things away.

Remembering that a long day on the trail had seemed to affect Sue, who was riding bareback with just a blanket between her and her horse, he turned to her. "Why don't you try one of these today?" he asked, patting the saddle on the better of the two horses they had gained from the bandits. She looked at him, puzzled at first, and then not really sure that she wanted what he was suggesting.