“Are you sure you’re all right? Here. Let me take the rest of this wood.” He swept the wood she carried into his arms before she could protest, then looked down at her, his eyes searching her face. “You’re still frightened.”
Of course she was frightened. How could he not be? Unless... “Did the Indians want to take both of us captive, or just me?”
“Tlingit. They were Tlingit men, and they needed only one captive. They wanted you.”
“Me?” She stared up at him. “Does that mean you tried to barter yourself away as a captive so they would let me go?”
He let out a laugh, low and rich. “If only it were so simple, but no. I didn’t even ask. They wouldn’t have taken me. I’d be able to escape too easily. Besides, my family trades with their village.”
“So the Tlingit men knew who you were?” She wasn’t sure whether that made everything better or worse. “Then why did they want me? Was it because of my hair?” She reached up to finger one of the red locks.
Mikhail nodded toward the tracks they’d left in the snow on the way in. “I’ll tell you as we walk.” This time, he gestured for her to go first, then fell into step behind her.
“A lawman shot a man from their tribe last week.” His boots crunched softly in the snow. “They sent a group of five men to Sitka to negotiate with the governor, and afterward they went to a bar. From the sound of it, people were drinking a bit too much, and there was a brawl. The Marshal got called to break up the fight. He did so by firing a gunshot, but the bullet ricocheted.”
“And a Tlingit man died?” She glanced over her shoulder at Mikhail. He still made walking through the woods seem far too easy.
“Yes. The Tlingit believe that if one of their clan members is killed, compensation needs to be paid for the loss of life. If compensation isn’t paid, then the tribe is honor bound to take compensation in its own way.”
“Does that mean they wanted to take me to replace the man who was killed last week?”
“Yes. And it didn’t hurt that the youngest brave needs a wife. He was quite enamored with the color of your hair.”
“He was...?” Her words trailed off, and a shiver traveled up her spine. Just what would have happened if the youngest brave had insisted on keeping her?
“I freed you by offering to pay their asking price of two hundred blankets and a pail of beads.”
Bryony stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face him. “You did what? Where are you going to get two hundred blankets? Am I even worth that much?”
A faint smile tilted the corners of Mikhail’s mouth. “Don’t make it sound difficult. My family owns a trading company, remember? And the various tribes are always wanting textiles of some sort. The only fabric they can make on their own is from fur and animal hides. It’s nice for cold weather but can get unbearably hot come summer. I told them to meet me in Wrangell in three weeks, and I’d have their blankets.”
She started walking again, her steps slower. “And if you don’t bring their blankets?”
“They’ll find a way to take revenge.”
That caused her to stop walking all over again. “Meaning they’ll capture another white person?”
“Either that or kill one. It depends on whether their village has use for a captive.” His answer was so calm, so matter-of-fact, that it made her chest tighten. Wasn’t he bothered by what he’d just admitted?
But he didn’t seem to be. He just caught her gaze and shrugged, as though bargaining for a person’s life was as routine as haggling over a bag of flour.
She, on the other hand, felt as if she’d fallen into some kind of pit that had dropped her into another world, or perhaps even another time and place. One where people bartered over lives rather than the price of flour. “I’m surprised they trust you enough to bring the blankets.”
“Had I been a stranger, they probably wouldn’t have, but as I said, my family trades with them. They know where to find us if something goes wrong.”
“So had I been with any other guide...” She didn’t finish her sentence. The thought was too disturbing.
Mikhail nudged her. “Hey, you did a good job back there. You were brave, you didn’t break down in tears, and you let a stranger take a lock of your hair. A lot of women wouldn’t have handled themselves the way you did. And now the problem has been solved. There’s nothing to worry about anymore.”
“Nothing to worry about? What if another group of Indians finds us? What if the next one won’t let you negotiate? What if I end up—” She clamped her mouth shut, because while she might have staved off her tears in front of the Tlingit warriors, she was ready to let them burst now.
“Stop.” He set the pile of wood down and wrapped an arm around her again, tugging her back against the warmth of his chest. “I already agreed to compensate the clan for the man who died. They won’t ask us to pay the price a second time.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very.”
She shook her head, still not certain she understood everything Mikhail had just done for her, only that he made it all seem trivial. But saving her from a life of captivity—from forced marriage to a strange man from a different culture—wasn’t nothing.
