Joanie’s sleepy gaze met Gray Eagle’s when he touched her shoulder.
“The sun has been up for hours,” the young man said softly.
Sitting up, she looked around and asked, “Where’s Beth?”
“Somewhere about. She is safe.”
“Oh.” She glanced up at him and smiled. The scout had become a familiar, secure sight. He was always there to give her cold water when a relentless spasm refused to ease. He would offer her small sips of lobelia tea, and soon the cough would temporarily ease.
Extending a hand, he helped her to her feet. “Come. I have some lunch for you.”
“I’m not hungry. I’m afraid I don’t have much of an appetite.”
“I have noticed. You are small, like a baby bird.”
She smiled shyly and he kept her hand in his as he led her through camp to the main fire, where a steaming plate of meat awaited her. After helping her to a seat on a pallet, he brought a gourd filled with water and placed it beside her. “Eat.”
Smiling, she took a bite of the meat and found it quite tasty. “Where are the others?”
“Around.” As he made himself comfortable beside her, she studied his tall, lean frame. His nut-brown skin was taut and firm from hours in the hot sun. His long jet-black hair was secured with a leather scrap. He wore bearskin pants, but his broad, muscular chest was bare in the heat of the day.
No wonder the camp maidens couldn’t keep their eyes off of him. Joanie struggled to concentrate on her meal. “It’s not like Beth to wander away.”
“You will be together shortly. I checked on Trella, and the baby is doing well this morning. It won’t be long before the little one can leave the wet nurse.”
A long silence stretched between them. Joanie picked at the meat, her appetite lacking as she tried to think of another topic of conversation. “You scouted for the South?”
He nodded.
“Exactly what does a scout do?”
He met her curious gaze. Leaning closer, he whispered, “We scout.” A glint of humor filled his eyes.
Color heated her cheeks. “And by ‘scout’ you mean…?”
“We were actually called ‘pickets.’ We were responsible for keeping our unit from ambush on both the front and rear flanks.” He smiled, meeting her gaze. “My position was that of raven spy.”
“Raven?”
He pointed to his neck. “From this day forward, Joanie Jornigan, you will know us when you see us, and recognize us if you see us on the trail. I’ll be scouting the front with this tied around my neck.” He tugged on the raven-feathered choker circling his dark throat. “My brother scout will have a strip of wolf skin tied to his neck. He is scouting the rear. Another will be wearing fox skin around his neck, and he will be watching our left.”
“But…the war is over.”
“So it is said, and yet there are battles to be won.”
“You speak flawless English.”
With a flash of even, white teeth, he nodded. “My mother was white; my father, Cherokee. My mother taught me both the white man’s and red man’s ways.” He paused to look at her. “You said you were educated?”
She nodded. “Somewhat. My mother was a schoolteacher before she married my father. Because my illness wouldn’t allow me in the fields many days, mother taught me at home.”
“And your father?”
She lifted a piece of meat to her lips. “He worked for my uncle Walt in the cotton fields.”
“Was he an educated man?”
“No. Not Pa. And because we lived in Uncle Walt’s shanty, and he didn’t care for books, when he caught Ma with one he would rip it into pieces with his meaty hands and make her burn it. Women with knowledge were dangerous, he always said. No woman on the plantation would ever learn to read or write, but Ma defied him by teaching me.”
The hue of his eyes deepened. “I value books as priceless treasures.”
“You learned this from your mother?”
Nodding, he said softly, “Now that the war is over, I wish to fulfill my mother’s desire and become a doctor.”
“A doctor?” Joanie had always wanted to be a nurse. She knew it would never happen, but it was a nice dream.
He met her eyes. “It is my desire also. To help my people.”
Joanie drank in the exciting thought. Money was always scarce in their home, and from what she’d read, an education—the kind Gray Eagle was talking about—would be very costly.
“I have a friend,” he said, as though he read her thoughts, “whose father owns many plantations, and he has agreed to sponsor my education.”
“How soon will you start?”
“Soon. When I return home.”
“You have known and fought with Pierce and Preach?”
He nodded. “I met Pierce many years ago, and though we ended up fighting for different sides, we became friends. When word of the war’s end finally reached us, Pierce and I agreed to ride home together. We bumped into Preach along the way, and he decided to join up with us.” He shifted. “You are weary. You should rest and not talk. The coughing will start again.”
Joanie knew he spoke the truth, though she felt as though she could talk to him all day. But the exhaustion deep in her bones was even now pulling her back to sleep. They made their way back to the lodge where she and Beth were staying, and he helped her settle again onto her pallet.
He was kind, and his medicine made her body relax. A sense of calm floated over her, and she was barely aware when he drew up the light blanket. She felt the warmth of his eyes on her—a gentle, caring warmth.
A welcome tenderness.