Lorelei and White Horse both listened intently, their rapt attention seeming to give the man fresh vigor for the story.
“I found a storehouse o’ food wrapped up in leather bundles, and a piggin of water. Plus all these little satchels of dried leaves crunched up small, and roots and dried berries. Looked like the doings of a female, but I couldn’t tellwhether she be from the tribes, or an ol’ mountain healer like I used to know back in Kentucky.”
“Did you meet her?” Lorelei’s voice strained with hope. The sound made Tanner’s own body want to charge into the mountains and find this Native woman himself to bring back to her.
The man shook his head. “I waited till after dark, but no one ever came. Climbed up two more times after that while we stayed camped in that valley but never did see her. Looked like someone had been there both times I went. Charlie an’ Gabe both meandered that trail lookin’ for her too. Gabe swore he saw a woman with long white braids standin’ up near the top one time. She had a light shinin’ all around her like an angel. Or maybe like a ghost. Charlie wouldn’t go back up after that, but I planned to. ’Ceptin Hezekiah Leflin’s group came through about that time and said a new tradin’ post had opened. We was fresh out o’ tannin’ salt, so we packed up and headed this way.”
The man nodded to show the end of the story, but then his gaze took on a faraway look. “It sure was strange, seein’ that place made up jest like a little house, but I’m half-inclined to believe Charlie. Only a specter woulda been able to hide away like that. Charlie can be silent as a warrior sneakin’ up on an enemy camp, and he still didn’t catch sight o’ her, ’cept that one time she looked like she was glowin’.”
Tanner’s gut twisted. Could the fellow be a few pennies short of a dollar? He’d not thought about that when he brought the man to Lorelei and White Horse. Hopefully he wasn’t giving them false hope.
Lorelei’s voice pulled him from that thought. “Did yousee any clothing there? Something that would tell us for sure whether the occupant was a man or a woman?”
Adams shook his head. “I didn’t riffle through the things, ’cept to peek inside a few o’ those pouches. Mostly looking for salt, actually, seein’ as we were so low.” He glanced at Tanner and rushed on. “I’dda left somethin’ for a fair trade. I wouldn’ta just stole someone else’s supplies. Didn’t find none nohow.”
White Horse spoke now, the deep rumble of his voice drawing their attention. “How far is this mountain?”
Adams pointed beyond the Sioux camp. “About two peaks over. You can’t see it from here, but there’s a little creek that flows and a line o’ cedars at the bottom of the mountain. You can’t miss the goat trail climbin’ up.”
A shout came from the front of the trade room, where the man’s friends were loading supplies on their horses, and he glanced that direction. Then he gave Lorelei an apologetic look. “Reckon I better go get m’ things or they’ll be leavin’ me.” He backed up two steps. “It was right nice to meet you folks.”
He nodded to Tanner. “Glad to have you and your missus here, Mason.” Then he glanced at White Horse. “You too, young fella. You’ns take care.” With a wave, he spun and half hobbled, half trotted around to the front of the fort.
Silence settled in his wake, but Tanner didn’t have time to talk yet. He motioned to the gate. “I need to get into the trade room and keep an eye on things until they leave.” He didn’t want to miss the conversation about the man’s story if he could help it, though. As he stepped through the gate, he motioned for them to follow him. “Will you come into the trade room to talk?”
He made sure his gaze encompassed White Horse and Lorelei both, but just in case she no longer felt comfortable there, he added, “Or if you’d rather not, we can just go to the back door so I can hear if I’m needed inside.”
Lorelei fell into step behind him. “We can come into the trade room to make our plan.”
Relief slipped through him, though perhaps he shouldn’t be so eager for her to go against her sister’s wishes. At least he could make sure she wasn’t in the building before he allowed any customers inside.
As the three of them filed into the trade room, he moved to his favorite peephole in the front wall. The trappers had loaded their supplies, and Adams was just climbing aboard his mule. The group would be riding out soon. He’d wait until they left to open the trade room door again. For now, they needed privacy.
He turned to Lorelei and White Horse.
The brave met his gaze squarely. “I go to find the woman. She is my mother. I know this.” He pressed a hand to his chest over his heart. Then he glanced at Lorelei. “My mother has root for Juniper’s sickness. Help with baby.”
Lorelei straightened, her voice growing hopeful. “She has an herb that will help my sister?”
White Horse nodded, then turned back to Tanner. For a long moment, their gazes held, the brave’s eyes questioning whether Tanner felt capable of looking after things in White Horse’s absence. Not once in the week and a half since he and Lorelei had come to the post had White Horse left. Not even to hunt.
Tanner nodded. “I think you should go. I’ll stay near your lookout spot every chance I get.”
“Should I go with you?” Lorelei turned a worried look to the brave.
He shook his head. “I return by morning. If I find her, I will bring the root back, then take you and your sisters to her.”
She nodded, but lines formed across her brow to show something like worry, or maybe disappointment. She’d said she and her sisters came west to find this woman.
“If your mother will come back here with you, it would be an honor to have her as a guest,” Tanner offered. Whatever he could do to help unite them, he would.
White Horse nodded, and once more his gaze held Tanner’s. The man’s eyes turned harder than before, and they seemed to hold a warning. Tanner guessed this had nothing to do with his mother—likely more to do with conducting himself with propriety around Lorelei.
Tanner gave a tiny nod, just enough to make it clear he would do everything in his power to protect this woman, even from himself.
White Horse seemed to accept the response, for he finally looked away. But then he turned to Lorelei. “Your sister is wise. Do not come to trade room.”
Perhaps the brave hadn’t accepted Tanner’s answer as well as he’d thought.
