Her manners took wings and flew away the second the marshal stood in front of her with the flask. She yanked it from him, opened it, and guzzled the refreshing liquid down her throat. She coughed and stopped drinking.
“Whoa. Easy there.”
She stared at him for a short moment and then continued drinking. And then she coughed again.
“You’ve got to take it easy or else you’re going to choke,” the man said with amusement but Olivia paid him no mind. She went on drinking and coughing. When she was sure that she was satisfied, she finally lowered the container from her lips.
The man smiled at her and her breath caught in her throat.
“Are you sure you’ve had enough? I have more water in the saddlebags.”
She shook her head. Avoiding his gaze and ashamed of the uncouth way she had behaved, she said, “Thank you for the water.”
He nodded and asked, “What’s your name?”
Without thinking, she replied, “Eyes Like The Sky.”
“What?”
Twin red spots stained her cheeks. “I mean, Olivia. Olivia Foster.”
“Olivia Foster,” he repeated as if he was trying to see if he had ever heard of it. Then he shrugged and said, “In case you didn’t hear me the first time, I’m Adam Lancaster. I’m the new marshal in these parts.”
Olivia thought for a moment how awesome God was. Not only did He send her a helper, but He also sent someone who would see her safely back to her Indian tribe.
“Thank you for coming to my aid, Mr. Lancaster,” she quietly remarked.
He nodded. “Please call me Adam.” His eyes searched her face. “What happened to you? You appear to have walked for miles if the state of your moccasins is anything to go by.”
Olivia’s gaze dropped to her shoddy leg covering and she flushed. How dreadful she must look to him with her disheveled hair flying all over her head, her dirty dress, and body. Suddenly conscious that she would be reeking as she hadn’t taken her bath in two days, Olivia shifted back a little.
Her blush deepened when she saw that Adam raised enquiring brows at her slight movement.
“I need to get back to my Indian family,” she muttered and bit her bottom lip.
“Indian family?”
“Yes. Cheyenne Indians. There’s a reservation. I can’t tell you how far it is from here because I have been walking for two days and don’t know where it is precisely. Our chief is Standing Tree.”
Adam scratched his head and stared at her as if she was going crazy.
Olivia wasn’t surprised. She was a white woman dressed in Indian attire and talking about the Cheyennes as if they were indeed her people.
But she didn’t define family from the color of the skin or race. They were her family because they had shown her love and acceptance. They could have left her for dead when they happened upon her in the forest eight years ago. But they took her in and nurtured her into the woman she had become.
Even though they gave her a Cheyenne name, they had allowed her to not only keep her English name but to teach some Indians her language and talk to them about God.
So, she was ready to defend them and call them her family to whoever cared to listen.
After pondering what she had said for a while, Adam said, “I need to know more about this Indian family of yours. What happened to them? Why are you here alone?”
Olivia groaned inwardly. She was ready to tell him all that he needed to know to help her get back to the Indians, but she was too famished to talk much.
Instead of answering his questions, she asked one of her own. “Do you have any food in your saddlebags?”
He grinned with understanding. “I sure do.”
Rising swiftly, he walked back to his grazing horse. Olivia waited in anticipation of what would be like a feast to her, no matter how small. Her stomach rumbled with eagerness and she placed her hand across it.
