“Yes.”

“I’ll stay where they are then, as long as Colonel Hutchinson lets me in.”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“I’ve sometimes been a problem to him.”

“Now you tell me.  Not always opposites.”

“No, not always.”

<>

Ada had so many conflicting emotions running up against each other inside her that she couldn’t think straight.  He was a member of the tribes.  He wore silver in his ears and at his wrists, but also a uniform jacket.  And he’d just spent enough time kissing Charlotte that Ada felt like she wanted to faint.  None of it made any sense.

“Ada,” Charlotte said.  “This is Chace.  Chace Bridger Yellow Cloud.”

Chace held his hand out and Ada shook it but she was unsteady.  After what she’d seen, she felt strange and unnerved touching him.  She quickly took her hand back as if it had been burned.

“I can’t even ask anything.  It’s all too confusing.”

“I was up on the ridge that day,” Chace said.  “I saw you running.”

“You did?”

“I was trying to find where the rifles were, but you went across all of that.”

“Why were you there?  The old men looked so sad.”

“The old ones were sad.  One of them was my grandfather.  He wanted to go one last time to Washington and try to talk to the white people’s old ones about his land and how he wanted to keep it.”

“Did they go?”

“They did, and they took Ellis with them.”

“They took him because he lost his wife?”

Charlotte held her breath.  Chace might have just met his match.

“Yes.  They wanted him to speak for them.”

“And did he?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think they got their land back?”

“No.”

“But what does that have to do with you?”

“Charlotte’s father asked Ellis to get her safely to Fort Randall.”

“Paid,” Charlotte said.

“Paid Ellis.  With him gone, she couldn’t stay with the wagon train.  My grandfather said I was now the one responsible for getting her to Fort Randall.”

Charlotte didn’t see what was coming.

“My father died of the fever, but my mother drowned in the river crossing,” Ada said.  “I know it wasn’t his fault, but Captain Gray wasn’t there to save her.”

Chace never flinched.  “So many died and Ellis couldn’t save them.  No one could.”

“Your people?  This is what you’re saying?”

“Yes.”

“Then you know what it feels like.”

“Every day of my life.”

“It hurts.  You want to hate someone.”

“I tried that,” he said.  “It doesn’t work, so I have to find another way.”

Ada didn’t turn away from the truth in his eyes.

“Will you let me know when that happens?” she said.

“It just did.”

37

37

The guard on duty did a double take.

“Chace,” he said.  “Is that you?”

“Sergeant Brower.”

“You’ve been gone a long time,” the guard said, remembering.