As she took in more of the sight of blood and torn bodies and severed limbs, Nicole felt ashamed that she had rejoiced at first. Sickened, she turned away.
"Fire your rifles!" David Cooper yelled. "Shoot, shoot, shoot! Keep them on the run. And shut that d.a.m.ned door."
"Let me at the port, Maw," Tom demanded.
The rifles banged away, sounding puny in Nicole"s ears after the roar of the cannon. Finally Cooper ordered an end to the shooting.
"If we let "em drag their dead out of here, they may be in a mood to leave."
Nicole waited in dread, wondering whether the Indians would come again.
The sunset rays pouring through the ports on the west side of the blockhouse slowly faded, leaving the main room dark. People lit more candles. David Cooper directed the reloading of the cannon.
The group in Raoul"s office were singing hymns again, and many people sitting around the hall joined them. Nicole sat beside Pamela Russell on a bench and took her hand, and soon Pamela began to talk quietly. She told Nicole things about Burke, the books he enjoyed reading, his favorite dishes, jokes he used to tell her.
"I always envied you, Nicole, with so many children. We wanted children so much, and we never got any. And now we"ll never--"
Nicole tried to think of something to say, but everything that came to her sounded foolish to her mind"s ear. Looking at Frank standing by a port, she thought, _I have been blessed, and Pamela hasn"t been. But why?_ That had to mean something. She couldn"t think what.
"It helps me, when life is hard, to believe that G.o.d has a plan," she said, patting Pamela"s hand. "His plan is like a painting that"s so big we can only see dark spots or bright spots without knowing what it all means. But I think one day he"ll take us up with him, where we can see the whole picture and understand it."
"Nicole," Frank called. She gave Pamela"s hand a squeeze and went to see what Frank was looking at through the rifle port.
Even at this distance she could hear the roaring of the flames. Sparks shot up past the palisade, and a red glow filled the sky.
"They"re burning the town," he said. "Our home is gone. Our shop."
She turned back to see Pamela, sitting on the bench, a lost look on her pale face. She thought of the people who had not managed to reach the shelter of the trading post. She put her arm around Frank"s waist and pressed herself against him.
"You and I are alive and all of our children are alive," she said. "G.o.d has blessed us."
16
Yellow Hair
"Wolf Paw has come back!"
White Bear felt a hollow in his stomach as the cry ran through the camp.
Wolf Paw had vowed to bring death and destruction to the pale eyes such as they had never known before.
Before he left, Wolf Paw had held a ritual dog feast to insure success.
He had hung one of his own dogs from a painted pole by its hind legs and disemboweled it alive, asking Earthmaker"s blessing on the war party.
Then his wives, Running Deer and Burning Pine, had cooked the dog and served bits of the meat to the braves and warriors who would follow Wolf Paw on this raid. If he would choose one of his cherished dogs to be sacrificed, what would he do to the people of Victor?
For days White Bear had held himself rigid, hardly able to eat, lying awake at night, waiting for Wolf Paw"s war party to come back. What horrors would he have to face now?
Women and children ran to surround the returning braves and warriors.
White Bear saw Iron Knife on horseback towering above the crowd, his huge arms lifted triumphantly. From each fist dangled a scalp. Beside him was Wolf Paw, a blue cloth, stained red with blood, wrapped around his left shoulder. Wolf Paw"s right hand was raised high, gripping three long hanks of hair with disks of white flesh hanging from them. More braves rode behind them, also holding up scalps. Scalps, scalps, scalps.
White Bear staggered. He could not take his eyes from them. The hair was of many different colors--light brown, gray, dark brown, black. Some of the locks were very long, and must have been taken from women"s heads.
Could Wolf Paw be holding Nicole"s hair, or Frank"s? Could it be Grandpapa"s?
Heart pounding, White Bear forced himself to push through the crowd. He heard cattle lowing and horses neighing in the distance. Questioning shouts and cries of greeting.
A scream of agony froze him. A woman"s voice. And then another, from another part of the crowd, piercing his eardrums. And still more screams. He realized what was happening. Women were learning that their men had not come back.
Scalps and screams. Wolf Paw"s gifts to the British Band. White Bear worked his way past women calling out anxious questions.
He suddenly came upon his mother leading a wailing pregnant woman out of the crowd.
"She heard that her husband was killed, and she has gone into labor,"
Sun Woman said, her face hollow with her own pain. White Bear squeezed her arm briefly as she pa.s.sed him.
When he got close to Wolf Paw he saw a bound woman"s body draped face down across the back of the brave"s gray pony.
She wore a ragged blue dress. Her feet were bare, dirty and covered with scratches. She did not stir. From this side of the pony White Bear could not see her face. A sickening suspicion gripped him, and he hesitated, not wanting his fear confirmed.
Wolf Paw, frowning down at him angrily, was still wearing his yellow and red war paint, faded by the ride of several days.
"I raided the town where you lived, White Bear. I took forty head of cattle and twenty horses from your pale eyes relatives."
"I am glad to hear of the cattle," said White Bear. "Our people are starving."
Wanting, and not wanting, to know who Wolf Paw"s captive was, he walked around the brave"s horse for a better look at the bound woman.
"We killed many pale eyes," Wolf Paw said. "They will never forget Wolf Paw"s raid. Tonight we will have a scalp dance for the warriors who have become braves."
White Bear stopped walking. People he knew and loved on both sides had died; he had to learn which ones.
After a moment he collected himself. "And will you dance for the braves and warriors you did not bring back?" It was a cruel thing to say, but Wolf Paw deserved it. Wolf Paw did not answer.
White Bear had to fight himself to keep from crying aloud in anguish. He no longer had any doubt who the captive woman was who hung head down over the spotted pony.
One yellow braid was still tied with a blue bow. The other had come undone, and loose locks of blond hair hung down, almost brushing the ground.
He bent to see Nancy"s unconscious face.
Coming up beside him Redbird asked quietly, "Do you know this woman?"
"Yes," he said. It all came back to him--last summer at Victoire, the meetings on the prairie, that night in the cornfield beside her father"s house when she had begged him to "know" her. Had he missed her? Yes; he had to admit that. Did he love her? He was not sure, but, happy as he had been with Redbird, he often thought of Nancy and wondered if she still longed for him as she had when he left her.
How, without hurting Redbird, who stood next to him watching as he stared down at Nancy, could he explain what this white woman meant to him?
He reached out to untie the rope looped around Nancy"s back that held her to Wolf Paw"s horse.