I dug a comb out of my pocket and dragged it through my tangled hair. My hairpins were all long gone, but I pulled the hair back from my face and started to unlace one of my boots. Maybe I could cut off part of the shoestring to work.

Kaya saw what I was doing. He consulted with one of his brethren and in a moment brought me a suitable length of rawhide, which worked wonders. “Thank you,” I told him, which he passed on to the owner.

I wanted to take off my boots and stockings and stick my feet in the warm water, but someone brushed dirt over the campfire. I felt a moment of fear again, the earlier fear, but it passed. The Nez Perce who had comforted me handed over a blanket. It must have been his own, but I was not about to insult him by refusing it. I nodded and smiled, well aware now that until I got myself out of this fix, I was going to do a lot of nodding and smiling.

I wrapped myself in the blanket and lay down as far away from everyone as I could, and not appear impolite. Kaya sat cross-legged by me, saying nothing, but I had questions.

“Tell me something, Kaya. That man…”

“His Heart Is Brave,” he supplied. “He has a strong name.”

I knew that would never be my name. Granted, I felt better, but there was nothing about this situation that reassured me. “His Heart Is Brave mentioned a daughter back in camp. This isn’t the whole group?”

“Oh, no, no. Maybe there are six hundred of us, maybe more.” He rubbed his chin. “After Big Hole, maybe less.” He stopped talking, but this time I waited for him to continue. Maybe I was going to learn something about manners. “We are only the decoy.”

“Decoy?” I began to get that sick feeling all over again.

“Yes. Haven’t you noticed how much dust we have been raising?”

“Well, no.” I hardly thought it worth mentioning to him that my mind had been otherwise occupied all day.

“We are counting on the soldiers and scouts to follow us instead of The People.”

“What people?” Kaya must have thought I was an idiot.

“Our people. Liz, for some weird reason known only to them, French trappers named us Nez Perce.” He chuckled. “No one pierces their nose in this nation. Oh, well. We are Nimiipuu, The People.” He patted the ground. “Go to sleep. We’ll start early in the morning.”

I lay down and wiggled a bit until I found a good spot. Kaya lay down not close but not far, but between me and The People. Poor man. He felt responsible that he had got me in this fix, I know he did.

Before I drifted off, I had another question. I tried to open my eyes, but that didn’t happen. What a long day this had been. “Kaya, where did you learn English?”