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“I can’t believe you said that.” Luther stormed across the cabin. “What’s wrong with you?”
Michelle was crying, like usual. Ever since they had returned from the rendezvous two weeks ago, she had hovered around the cabin, nervous and flighty. He had suggested having a picnic at the lake this afternoon, but Michelle said she was too afraid to go outside.
How had everything changed between them so fast? Michelle was acting like a helpless child, and it was grating on his nerves.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” she whined.
“Then how the hell did you mean it?”
She wrung her hands. “Please, try to understand. I have to leave. I have to get away. I can’t stay here anymore.”
Luther kicked a chair and sent it sailing across the room. “Tell me why.” Something had upset Michelle at the rendezvous, and he had a pretty good idea what it was. Everything had been fine until she met Black Elk.
“It’s because of what I am, huh? You’ve seen my father and now you know what I came from. That’s the reason, ain’t it? You’re ashamed to be with me because I’m one of them.”
“No. It’s not like that.”
“Then what? I can only think of two reasons why you’d want to leave. Either you’re leaving because you can’t stand me after seein’ what I am, or you were just pretending to care about me so I wouldn’t send you to Jed.”
“Pretending? How could you be so cruel?”
“Cruel? What about you? I come back from checking my traps and find you packin’ your trunk. You say you have to leave, you’re running off and you can’t live with me anymore,” he shouted, his voice cracking.
His heart had shattered into thousands of pieces when Michelle told him she was leaving. “After what we shared, I thought you loved me.”
Michelle’s timing couldn’t be worse. Black Elk would arrive tomorrow to continue their “talk.” What did he want? Ghosts from the past still haunted them.
He knew from the brief conversation they’d had at the rendezvous that his father disapproved of Michelle. Black Elk might try to convince him to send her away. But he might be too late—Michelle might be gone by then.
Luther swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to steady his breathing. He was always abandoned whenever he needed someone to support him. Maybe it would be better to be alone, then nobody could disappoint him or break his heart.
“If you wanna go, fine, go. I’ll give you money and see you get someplace decent.” He paused. “I won’t make you stay.”
“You don’t understand, I—”
“I know you don’t wanna stay here with me. That’s all I need to know, ain’t it?”
“No.” Michelle touched his shoulder. “I said I have to go away, not that I want to leave you. You didn’t let me finish. I never want to leave you, Luther. I love you. You have to believe me.” She smoothed his hair away from his eyes.
“But we can start over somewhere else. Let’s leave this behind and move on,” she pleaded. “You hate the people in town. You’ve got money now. We have the opportunity to get away. Please, Luther, let’s go.”
For a second, he considered it. They could pack up their supplies and be gone in a few hours. But that was the coward’s way out. As much as he dreaded it, he knew he had to face Black Elk in the morning.
“Why, Michelle? I thought you were happy here. Hell, you seemed fine until you met my father.” His voice came out bitter. “Admit it, just admit that’s why you wanna go. You don’t like seein’ what I really am.”
She shook her head. “I don’t give a damn about your father. He’s an Ojibwa, so what? I wouldn’t care if he was Cherokee. I’m not running because of him. I’m not afraid of him.”
“Who are you afraid of?”
“Roger.” She squeezed his shoulder. “I told you I saw him at the rendezvous. He’s going to find me and kill me. I dreamt Roger was here, at the cabin. Why won’t you believe me?”
He took a long look at Michelle. She was a mess. Her loose hair was tangled and knotted, and her eyes were red-rimmed from crying. She hadn’t been this upset since the night she’d run off into the woods.
And her tone of voice unsettled him. She sounded so certain—and so afraid. She had acted like this when she had warned him not to go to town. He hadn’t listened then, and he owed it to her to listen now. No matter how many times he asked what the problem was, she kept insisting she had seen Roger. Her story never changed.
“Are you positive it was him?”
“Yes, I’m as sure as I know the sun is in the sky. I’d know him anywhere. He was as real as you are.”
“How could Roger find you out here?”
“Through the fur company. My father and Roger both work for Hudson’s fur company. Roger was probably there for business, but who knows? He’s been tracking me. He found me in New Orleans. He’s determined to kill me.”
“Why? Because you ran off before the wedding?”
“No, that’s not why.” She paused. “I saw him do something.”
“What?”
Michelle sat on the edge of the bed. “It’s what gives me nightmares.”
Luther knelt in front of her and held her hand. “Tell me. I’ll listen, I promise.”
She licked her lips and took a deep breath.
“My father arranged the marriage between me and Roger. It was a business deal. My parents told me I was going to be a spinster. They said I was too headstrong and I needed a man to teach me my proper place. Roger would settle me and make sure I minded my manners.”
Tears dripped down her cheeks, and she blotted her eyes with her skirt. “I hated him. He was cruel to me, and we fought all the time. I told my father how dreadful he was, but he didn’t care. My mother told me to learn to live with it.” She frowned. “Roger’s rich parents threw a party for us a week before the wedding. I didn’t want to go, but I was forced into it. I had a bad dream about it the night before.”
“Go on.”
“Everyone at the party kept telling me how lucky I was and how happy I’d be when I was Roger’s wife. I was determined to talk to Roger and call the whole thing off. I found him sneaking out of the house with two of his friends. They were drunk. Roger yelled at me to go back to the party.”
Michelle paused. “But I didn’t. I followed them to the far edge of the property, near a creek. I hid behind a tree about twenty feet away. Another one of his friends had a girl there.”
Luther stood and grabbed the whiskey off the shelf. He sat next to Michelle and offered her the bottle. He had a feeling her story was going to get a lot worse. “Take your time.”
Michelle took a long drink, then continued, her voice flat and emotionless. “There was enough moonlight so I could see what they were doing. The girl’s hands were tied behind her back and they had stuffed something in her mouth so she couldn’t scream.”
She pursed her lips. “At first I thought she might be a whore they bought, but then I realized if she was a whore, they wouldn’t have needed to do all that.”
“Yeah, I guess not,” he muttered.
She swallowed another gulp of whiskey. “They... took turns with her. I knew I should help her, or do something to make them stop, but I couldn’t move. I was petrified. I knew if they found me, I’d be next. I closed my eyes and prayed it would be over soon. The next thing I knew, the girl was running for the house.”
Michelle paused for a second, then blurted out the rest. “Roger chased her down and stabbed her.”
Luther gasped.
“Roger and his friends dragged her body into the woods. I waited until they had gone back to the house before I moved. I couldn’t stop shaking. That poor girl was dead and I didn’t try to help her.” Michelle burst into tears and collapsed against his chest.
He held her tight and rubbed her back as she cried. “Shh, it’s over. You can’t blame yourself. There was nothing you coulda done to stop them. They would have hurt you, too. What happened next?”
“I was numb, frozen. I went back to the house. Everyone was happy and having fun at the party. Roger tried to talk to me and I ran upstairs and locked myself in a bedroom. I must have blacked out because I woke up at home the next morning. When Roger came to see me I told him I wouldn’t marry him. He said I had no choice. We argued, and I threatened him.” She bit her bottom lip. “I said if he didn’t call off the wedding, I’d tell everyone that I saw him kill that girl.”
“You didn’t!”
Michelle nodded and wiped her eyes. “Yes, I did. I thought I could scare him, but it didn’t work. Roger took out his little silver pistol and... It’s horrible, Luther. You don’t want to know.”
He squeezed her hand. “Tell me, darlin’. I wanna hear everything.”
“Roger put the gun to my head and said nobody would believe me. He’d tell people I had gone mad and have me locked away. He promised if I ever ran off, he would hunt me down and torture me until I begged him to kill me. He’d make me suffer worse than that girl did.”
“Dear God,” Luther whispered.
“I pretended to agree, but I knew if I married him, I’d be dead within a month. I didn’t have much time to make a plan. A few days later, I stole all the money I found in the house and left. I’ve been running ever since. My nightmares are about what happened to that girl. I know Roger meant every word he said. If he finds me, he’ll kill me.” She bowed her head. “Now you know why I’m so afraid, why I wanted to leave.”
Luther hugged her tight. “Oh, my poor Michelle. I won’t let anyone hurt you, I promise.” He kissed her temple. “You’re safe here, darlin’. Even if that was Roger at the rendezvous, how could he find you up here?”
“You don’t know him. He’s got ways, and he’s rich. What if he paid someone to track us? You don’t know what he’s capable of.”
“Yeah? Well, he don’t know what I’m capable of. You’re my wife and I ain’t gonna let anyone hurt you. If he shows up here, he’ll be the sorriest son of a bitch to ever walk the earth.”
He rocked Michelle in his arms. “I’m sorry I said those foolish things, but I was scared of losing you. When you told me you were leaving, I almost died. Do you forgive me?”
“Of course.” She kissed his cheek. “And I’m not ashamed of you or your father, but he doesn’t like me.”
“Yeah? Well, he don’t like me much either.” He chuckled. “But he’s gonna be here early. Why don’t you come outside and help me gather kindling and clear the yard? The sooner we get our chores done, the sooner we can get to bed.”
“Why? Are you tired?”
Luther nuzzled the side of her neck. “No, but I am eager for us to get to bed.” He winked. “I can think of plenty of things to do besides sleeping.”
