Chapter 99

Upon my return to the Mead, Otter would not look at me when I greeted him. Abandoning the buckboard, I rode Long to the village. When I sat down with Cut Hand, he displayed an uncustomary unease.

“All right, what is it?” I demanded after reporting the results of the trial.

“That girl I told you about? Lone Eagle has taken to courting her.”

“What!” I brayed.

Lone Eagle was waiting on the porch when I got back to the Mead. “Wife,” he said sharply, seeking to establish his authority. “I need some of our horses. I would take another wife.”

I said nothing, merely seized his arm and flung him off the porch into the dirt. He scrambled to his feet and started for me but apparently decided better of it. I was seven years older but had him by some ten pounds. He halted, legs apart, arms planted on hips, looking so handsome in his outrage I could have taken him right there in the open.

“What’s the matter with a second wife!” he demanded.

“If you take a wife, she will be your onlywife.”