Juniper shot her sister a grin, and on her other side, a soft chuckle drifted from Riley. She and her sisters stopped at their own lodge to leave their saddles and freshen up a bit while Riley went on to his camp.
The coyote pup had been sitting atop Lorelei’s saddle as she carried it, but now the animal jumped down and stretched, then trotted around the lodge sniffing, as if finding all kinds of new smells. Had someone come in while they were gone? She glanced around the place. “You don’t think people bothered our belongings, do you?”
Faith plopped down on the ground and lay back on the flattened grass where she stretched her bedding at night. “Why would they want to? All we left behind were a bunch of clothes. These men have no use for women’s undergarments, I’m sure.” She sprang up to a sitting position as fast as she’d flopped backward. “Let’s go eat. I’m starved.”
If only a bit of Faith’s boundless energy would rub off on Juniper. She shook out as much of the dust and wrinkles from her skirts as she could. “Wash your hands in the water basin before we go. All of you.”
As she straightened, she glanced at Rosemary and saw that her sister had been watching her. Juniper tilted her head. “What is it?” Was she thinking they should stay here instead of going to Riley’s camp to eat?
Rosie studied her another heartbeat, and when she spoke, her voice held an unexpected seriousness. “It’s been a while since we’ve discussed the rules we set for ourselves beforewe started on this journey. It might be good we take time to recall them. Especially the one about not allowing an attachment to form with any of the men here.”
Heat flared up Juniper’s neck. Were Faith and Lorelei staring at her as Rosemary was? She did her best to keep her nod casual. “You’re right. We can’t be too careful here.”
Rosie returned her nod, then finally looked away, allowing Juniper a chance to catch her breath. She really did have to be careful not to grow attached to Riley. He was such a good man, but they’d formed these rules in advance so none of them would be swayed in the moment. There had been wisdom and sound reasons for each commitment they’d made to one another, though for the life of her, she couldn’t remember those reasons now.
“Let’s go.” Rosie motioned them toward the door flap.
One by one, they stepped through the lodge opening to the warm night air outside. Juniper eyed the coyote pup walking at the end of its leash and harness. “I hope he doesn’t squirm out of that and run. The last thing we need is to stir up camp chasing him down.”
Rosemary sighed. “Sounds like the place is already stirred up.” The volume of male voices certainly seemed louder than when they’d entered their lodge minutes before.
The four of them stood listening for a moment. Voices and conversation rose around them, along with the occasional shout or burst of laughter. In the distance, a group chorused a drunken song. There were so many men here, and their voices layered on top of one another to make quite a hum.
Rosemary must have decided there wasn’t a particular danger right now, for she waved them all forward towardRiley’s camp. Juniper fell into step at the end of the line, and they all kept to the shadows until they approached the welcoming circle of light illuminating Riley, Ol’ Henry, and Dragoon. Jeremiah sat with his back to them but turned as she and her sisters stepped into the glow.
All the men stood at their arrival except Ol’ Henry, who waved instead. “Pardon me for not standing to greet ya ladies. My joints are makin’ it hard today. We’ll be in for a rain by morning, I think. Pull up a log and grab yourself some meat.” He pointed with the stick in his hand at the food sizzling on the rock they used as a frying pan.
Rosemary moved in to take the log nearest Jeremiah, allowing the four of them to sit side-by-side around the fire. Juniper ended the row of sisters by sitting with Faith on her left and Riley on her right. He was already using the tip of his knife to spear slabs of meat and lift them onto plates. “These started cooking when I first got back to camp, so they should be ready now.”
She took the two plates he handed her, and passed one for Rosie and Lorelei to share, then held the other for Faith to eat from as well. The meat needed to cool before they could pick it up with their fingers, but its aroma tantalized her insides, stirring her hungry belly to life.
“Riley says you gals have seen a bit more landscape than you planned these last couple days.” Dragoon sat with his knees bent, one hand wrapped around the mug that rested on his leg.
Rosemary answered, of course. “We did. I’m sure he can tell the story best.”
The three men turned expectantly to Riley, and Juniper slid a glance at him from the corner of her eye. Did he mindbeing put on the spot? But these were his friends, and he knew this tradition of storytelling far better than they did. He would keep their secrets, she had no doubt about that anymore.
He held a chunk of meat in the air, speared at the end of his knife. Probably letting his cool as well. “Well...” He drew out the word in the manner of every good storyteller. “We found the Gros Ventre tribe as we expected, two valleys north of here.”
As he outlined the details of their journey, she watched the other men. They seemed to be soaking in every word, maybe picturing where they’d been and who they’d spoken to. Likely these trappers all had traveled to those same locations. Riley said nothing of all the horse tracks they’d seen in the valley, nor of the way the last two groups they questioned had clammed up when they’d mentioned Steps Right.
He did, however, become a bit more animated as he mimicked the Peigan chief’s straight-to-the-point solemnness and the way his grandson’s hand kept shifting toward his tomahawk. “They had nothing new to tell us in our search, so I figured we’d best get out of there while we still had everything we came with.” The grin he sent Juniper and her sisters was clearly a show for the rest of the men, but it still did something funny to her insides.
That had been happening a lot when he looked at her, especially when the dimple pressed in his right cheek. And was it her imagination, or did his gaze hover a half heartbeat longer when it touched her, his eyes softening the tiniest bit?
But then he turned back to the men with a nod. “And that’s about all there is to tell.” He left out the meeting with White Horse and Singing Water completely.
Riley had been talking so much, he hadn’t had a chance to eat even a bite yet. He lifted the meat to his mouth but paused just before biting into it and raised his focus to the others again. “Any rabid wolves come into camp while we were gone?”
Juniper sucked in a breath, and Lorelei let out a tiny whimper.
“Rabid wolves?” Faith sounded almost eager.
Ol’ Henry chuckled, then poked a log with his stick, pushing it deeper into the flames. “That’s a saying we’ve taken up that’s kind of a way of asking if anything unusual happened. It started back in ’33 when we actually did have a wolf come into camp. Sneaky thing she was. Crept in three nights straight, attacking folks, darting back and forth in the darkness so we couldn’t get a clear bead on her. Finally, Skeeter plunged a knife into her just as she bit him. We’d suspected all along she’d been taken with the hydrophobia. When men started coming up sick and foaming at the mouth, we learned the truth. In all, twelve men were bit. All twelve died, as far as we know. Six of them here in camp. The other six wandered off into the plains and were never seen again.”
A somber quiet settled over them as Ol’ Henry’s voice faded away. Even the volume of the camp around seemed to have dimmed. A weight settled in Juniper’s belly as her mind tried to form images of the chaos such an event must have created. Men running from the creature, the booms of guns trying to stop it. Then all those dead bodies stretched out. Men who would have been vibrant and lively only days before. Men who may have families back East, waiting for their return, eager for a letter carried back with the furs onthe supply wagons. Had friends of the deceased sent notes back instead, sharing the sad fate of sons and brothers, husbands and fathers?
Her throat ached. She could have lost her own father that way when he’d come West two decades before. Lorelei and Faith would have never been conceived, for they were born after his return. The months he spent in this land were still such a mystery, but at least he’d returned home to his wife and daughters. Had he left part of his heart here with Steps Right? The idea soured the food she’d just eaten.
