“You’re female.”
“What does that mean?”
“Women notice everything. It’s why men get in so much trouble.”
“Men get in trouble because they are men.” Winona kissed him full on his lips. “Now back to Evelyn. We both know how she feels about Dega. We see it in her eyes when she looks at him and hear it in her voice when she talks about him.”
“Could be it won’t last,” Nate said hopefully. “Could be I’ll be an old man before she thinks about taking a husband.”
Winona tilted her head skyward and pointed. “Look there!” she cried.
All Nate saw was blue, save for a puffy pillow of a cloud off in the distance. “What did you see?”
“A flying cow.”
Nate couldn’t help himself. He cackled, then forced a sober expression and said, “I take it that was your notion of a hint.”
“Was I too subtle?”
“My God, the words you use. Have you been reading my books when I’m not around?”
“Ne tsaawesunga baide suwai Degamawaku,” Winona said in Shoshone.
Nate struggled to recollect what tsaawesunga meant. “You do? You really feel good about Evelyn and Dega being together?”
“He is a good boy. Good in heart and good in mind. She has chosen as I chose you.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Nate said. “After all these years you’re telling me you became my wife because you thought I have a good heart?”
“I do not think you do. I know you do. You have the best heart of all the men I have ever met, red or white.”
“Shakespeare has a good heart.”
“It belongs to Blue Water Woman. And he is old enough to be my grandfather. I wanted a slightly younger man for my husband.”
“Slightly younger? Why, you wench, you.” Nate patted her posterior. “Let me put my horse in the corral and I’ll show you who is old.”
“In broad daylight? With our daughter in the cabin?”
Nate glanced up. “Where is she, anyhow? She should have been back by now.”
“Maybe she is brushing her horse.”
“Without being told?” Nate scoffed. He kissed Winona and tugged on the reins and made for the side of their cabin. “I’d better check on her.”
“I will fix a meal. If she has gone off to see Dega, don’t be mad. Young love does foolish things.”
Nate walked faster. He was willing to admit that Winona had a point, but he still wasn’t comfortable with the idea of his daughter being interested in a man, no matter how good the man’s heart might be. She was his little girl. She would always be his little girl. He saw her standing at the corral gate, and smiled. “There you are. We were wondering where you got to.”
Evelyn didn’t respond or move.
“What the devil has gotten into…” Nate began, and felt a chill ripple down his spine when a blunt triangular head rose a few inches off the ground. He snapped his Hawken to his shoulder and thumbed back the hammer but didn’t shoot. At that angle the slug might go through the snake and hit Evelyn in the leg. Slowly circling, he said quietly, “Don’t move a muscle. I’ll take care of our visitor.”
“Don’t kill it, Pa.”
Nate stopped. “Why in blazes not? It’s a rattler. One less won’t be missed.” He had seen two or three since summer began. One morning he nearly stepped on one on his way to the chicken coop to collect eggs; he had chopped off its head with his ax.
“It hasn’t tried to bite me.” Evelyn didn’t like snakes all that much, but she didn’t like to kill at all.
“It’s a rattler,” Nate said again.
“So? If it’s not bothering us, why must you kill it? It has as much right to live as we do.”
“Where do you get those strange notions of yours?” Nate took another step and had the shot he wanted.
“Please, Pa.”
“What if it sticks around and bites my horse or your horse or your mother?” Nate was glad Winona hadn’t heard him mention her last. He would be in for no end of barbed tongue.
“You don’t know that it will. You just want an excuse to shoot it.”
Nate lowered the Hawken. “That was harsh. I don’t go around killing for the sake of killing things. I only do it when it’s necessary.”
“Is it truly necessary now?”
Nate scowled. She had him. The snake wasn’t hissing or rattling or doing anything except stare at her. “All right. Shoo it off. But if you get bit, don’t come crying to me.”
Evelyn took hold of her rifle and bent and poked at the rattler. Instantly, it reared and its tail buzzed. She poked at it again and it retreated, whipping its body from side to side.
“Careful,” Nate cautioned.
“Isn’t he beautiful, Pa?”
Nate had never thought of snakes as anything but, well, snakes. This one was about three feet long with splashes of dark brown edged with black. Its vertical pupils lent its face a vicious cast, as if it couldn’t wait to sink its fangs into something. He would just as soon shoot it and be done with it.
Evelyn jabbed and took another step—and the rattler did the last thing she expected. It launched itself under her rifle at her legs.
Chapter Two
Nate reacted purely on reflex. He drew a pistol and fired from the hip. He didn’t think, he didn’t aim, he pointed and shot and the rattlesnake’s head exploded in a shower of gore.
Evelyn had started to recoil. Bits of snake spattered her arms and face and a piece of snake flesh flew into her mouth and partway down her throat. Gagging, she doubled over and nearly swallowed it.
All Nate could think of was how close she had come to being bitten. He put his hand on her shoulder and asked, “Are you all right?”
Evelyn couldn’t talk. She was coughing and hacking, trying to dislodge the piece. Her stomach contracted and she nearly vomited. She tasted bitter bile, and coughed some more, and the grisly tidbit shot out of her mouth and into her hand. “Lord,” she breathed, afraid she would be sick.
The headless body was thrashing about. In a fit of anger, Nate placed his boot on it and mashed it into the dirt. The body ruptured, spewing its insides. He kicked it away in disgust.
“Thanks, Pa,” Evelyn said.
“I told you. Rattlers aren’t to be trusted.”
Winona came around the corner wearing her apron, her rifle in hand. “Why did you shoot?” she anxiously asked.
Nate nodded at the viper. “Our youngest nearly got herself bit.”
Incredibly, the snake was still moving. Winona walked up to it and remarked, “Another rattlesnake? I saw a couple while you were away. And Blue Water Woman was saying how she’s seen more this year than in any year she can remember.”
“Maybe we should have a hunt,” Nate suggested. If there were that many rattlers around, they needed to be thinned out. “Kill as many as we can so we don’t have to worry about stepping on one in the dark.”
Evelyn was beginning to feel a little better. She uncurled and ran her sleeve over her mouth. “Can’t we leave them be? The only reason this one tried to bite me is because I was poking it.”
“We’ll talk later,” Nate said. He caught Winona’s eye and motioned. She immediately understood.
Gently taking Evelyn’s arm, Winona said, “Come inside, Daughter. We will heat water for your bath, and I will cook venison and wild asparagus for our supper.”
Nate stripped his bay and the packhorse and put them in the corral with the others. He had been in the saddle most of the day and could stand to stretch his legs. On a whim he walked to the lake. Out on the water ducks and geese paddled placidly about. A fish leaped clear and dived. An eagle glided down and rose up again, flapping strongly, a fish in its talons.