My Kidnapper Wears a Feather in His Hair

Chapter 3

“Ella dear, could you please go fetch some fire wood for breakfast tomorrow?” Katie asked, already washing her face before bed.

Ella stood for a second, thinking. “What if there’s something out there? Shouldn’t I have an escort?” She asked, thinking entirely about her Indian than any wolves or snakes. Ella was sure that if she were to see the mysterious figure again she’d stay longer than she had the first time; and she wasn’t sure what would happen.

“Oh dear, you’re right! Well go along an’ ask Theodore, would ya?” Ella nodded reluctantly, her body filled with lassitude from her entire trip thus far. She wasn’t sure she’d be better off with Teddy’s constant talking than just going alone.

She slowly walked over to the wagon Teddy shared with another older man. He was laying on the ground, his back resting on the large wagon wheel, his hat pulled over his face. “Thank God.” Ella thought. Now she wouldn’t have to pretend to be interested in any conversation that she didn’t have the energy for.

Slowly, she turned and crept away so as not to wake him.

“Well hold up there! Ella, wait!” Teddy’s voice abruptly broke through the quiet night air and Ella winced. She stood where she was, still facing away from the circle of wagons. Teddy was at her side in a second and smiling, too happy for the time of night. “What’d ya come all the way to my wagon here for?”

“Think of an excuse, anything,” Ella thought to herself. “Tell him you were taking a walk!”

“I was—“

“I know what you were doin’.”

Ella’s mouth still hung open, her words still on her tongue. Realizing she looked like a loon with her mouth hanging wide she closed it and stood up straighter.

“You do?”

“Yep. And there ain’t no sense in tellin’ me anythin’ but the truth, because I already knows what you were up to’s.” Teddy said, his smile widening even farther.

“Well would you like to tell me what I was doing, walking over here late at night?” Ella asked. She was genuinely curious.

“Well of course I will!” Teddy visibly puffed up his chest and stood up pole-straight. “I’ve always had a thing with the ladies, seems they can’t just stay away from me. They’ll be pawin’ all over me like I was a bitch in heat. Yeah, Ma used to say it was my southern charm. It’s that, and my darn good looks that gets ‘em. My charm’s the bait and my looks just reel ‘em in like fishin’ for catfish. Back home, I courted a new gal every month! But we lived on a farm in a small town so’s we didn’t have too many women folk. But still, there was Lucy, and Elizabeth, and Becky, and LuAnne and—“

“That’s a nice story Teddy, but that’s not why I came to see you.”

Teddy’s face and stature fell slightly. “It’s not? Gosh, an’ here I am, describing all my courtin’ and my devilishly good looks to ya…”

“Um, yes. Well. I came to see if you would help me to find some firewood for the breakfast fire tomorrow.” Ella almost asked if Teddy would escort her, but she didn’t want to seem like she needed help. She didn’t, really. She was only asking to humor Katie.

“Well sure! You know, back home in fall we’d have to cut down at least 4 dozen trees before December, or else the snows came and we wouldn’t have no fire wood…”

Ella and Teddy walked away from the firelights and into the moonlight. She blinked a few times for her eyes to adjust, then kept on her way. Ella could see a few trees in the distance, but they seemed too far away to walk to at this time of night. And Teddy was making her head start to ache.