Feather in the Wind by Madeline Baker Read Free Book Online Page B

forced to lie in the hot sun for hours with the flies swarming over him, eating him up.
    Other punishments included being trussed up to a caisson wheel, or having a man strung up by his thumbs, wrists or arms. Sometimes a man was gagged, then tied so he couldn’t move. This was called “bucking and gagging”.
    The most common offenses were drunkenness and desertion. Susannah could understand the grounds for both. The men worked hard under arduous conditions for little pay.
    Once, she had overheard several of the soldiers singing as they worked. The words, sung with feeling, had made her smile. “ A dollar a day is damn poor pay, but thirteen a month is less! ”
    She sighed as the men were dismissed.
    What the heck was she doing here, and how was she ever going to get home?
    Brow furrowed in thought, she began to pace the floor when her eye was drawn to the feather. Lifting it up, she ran the tip over her chin, marveling at its smooth texture.
    Of course, she thought, the feather was the answer. She had been stroking it and wishing for her dream man. And somehow, she had been thrust back in time.
    A rush of excitement swept through her as she sat down on the sofa and slipped the loop over her wrist. Closing her eyes, she ran her fingertips over the edge of the feather.
    “Home,” she murmured. A quick mental image of Dorothy clicking the heels of the ruby slippers together darted through her mind. “I want to go home…”
    She woke with a start. Had it worked? A quick glance around told her she was still in the past.
    With a sigh of disappointment, she stood up and stretched the kinks from her back. Had she really expected it to work, really expected to be whisked back to her own time? And yet, if it wasn’t the magic supposedly contained in the feather that had brought her here, what had?
    Hardly aware of what she was doing, she left the hut and made her way toward the guardhouse, thankful that the guard was inside. She could hear him snoring softly.
    He was waiting for her. She felt a peculiar flutter in the pit of her stomach when she saw his face at the window.
    She felt herself smile and wondered what there was about this man that made her feel warm inside. Home. The word whispered in the back of her mind.
    “Hi.”
    “ Hau .”
    Susannah smiled. That was one word she did understand. She had heard it in practically every cowboy movie ever made.
    “I don’t know why I keep coming here,” she said with a shrug.
    He didn’t know why she came either, but he was glad for her company. He loved the slightly husky sound of her voice, the way her dark-brown eyes met his, open and honest. The other white women at the fort looked at him as if he were less than human, as if he were some repulsive creature that walked on two legs, yet had no sense, no feeling.
    “ Tanyan yahi yelo ,” he murmured softly. I am glad you came.
    “I wish I could understand you,” she said. “I wish you could speak English.”
    He let his gaze move over her face, thinking how beautiful she was. Who are you , he wondered. Where have you come from?
    “It’s a pretty night, isn’t it?” Susannah mused. “The sky seems so much bigger here than it did at home.”
    Home. Sadness dragged at his heart as he wondered if he would ever see his home, his people, again.
    She lifted a hand to brush a wisp of hair from her face, and he saw the feather dangling from her wrist.
    He reached through the bars and took hold of her hand.
    Susannah tried to pull away, but his grip was like iron, holding her fast. “Let me go!”
    In a quick move, he slipped the rawhide loop over her wrist, then released her hand.
    “Give me that!” she exclaimed. “It’s mine.”
    He shook his head. “ He mitawa .” It is mine.
    Susannah frowned. “Damn, I wish I knew what you were saying.”
    He smoothed the edges of the feather and she had a quick mental image of the photograph she had seen of this man, of the eagle feather tied in his hair. Could this feather