Broken Feather Read online

  Vanessa glanced at the door knob with the key protruding below it, as a shiver crawled over her skin.

  “I suppose it is suitable enough, even though it is not really my taste,” she murmured.

  “You probably like frilly things, but you will get used to it. This marriage opportunity came rather suddenly, and I wasn’t quite prepared to have a woman in my life so soon, yet it is a pleasant thought at the moment.”

  “It was totally a complete surprise to me,” Vanessa admitted.

  “However, I think it should suit the both of us. I will take good care of you, while you take good care of all my needs.”

  “You seem to have all the help you need. I mean a cook and men to take care of everything. I helped my aunt run a plantation, though, so I suppose running the household for a ranch won’t be much different.”

  “The household is run pretty smoothly by my cook and housekeeper. She and the cook are married, and live in the opposite wing of the house from my hired hands. The bedrooms on this floor are for guests, if we ever have any,” he informed her.

  “Goodness, then there won’t be a lot for me to do, except be a hostess when we have guests,” Vanessa said, wondering what he expected of her, or why he even needed a wife, except to have children with. The thought caused her to hesitate.

  “I’m sure you will find things to occupy your time,” he murmured, as he turned and looked at her, once the lamp was lit. “In the meantime, it is our wedding night. You don’t know how I have been anticipating this, ever since your father suggested I marry you.”

  I have not been anticipating it at all, Vanessa’s thoughts shivered through her, but she gave him a brave smile.

  “You are exceptionally, beautiful. I can barely believe it,” Jason breathed, as he stepped closer to her. “I must admit, I can barely wait to experience you,” he murmured as he pulled her down to the bed, unexpectedly.

  “I am sure there is time…” Vanessa started to reply, only she was distracted from finishing her sentence when Jason started pushing her skirts up around her waist. “Goodness, what are you doing?” she exclaimed, trying to push her skirts back down.

  “You must know…” Jason responded, as he pushed her farther up onto the bed. “A wife has certain duties to fulfill, other than being a hostess,” he informed her.

  “Yes, I know, but…”

  “Then why are you acting so surprised?” he asked as he started to position himself over her, moving her skirts out of the way to find the opening to her pantaloons and unfastening the front of his trousers.

  “I thought we were going to get acquainted,” she cried in surprise as he started groping for her.

  “That is exactly what I plan to do here. My need for you is overpowering, at the moment, and you are my wife,” he pointed out.

  “Are you telling me you can’t control your urges?” she asked, in astonishment.

  He didn’t answer her, though. Instead she could feel him crushing her beneath him. A moment later she was crying out in fear and disgust, and then pain as he took his right as a husband.

  Vanessa felt mortified, as she tried to squirm from beneath him to no avail. She kept thinking of how gentle Broken Feather had been when he had kissed her that first night in the tent. He had refrained from taking her like this though, and she was certain he never would be as demanding as Jason was now being, paying little attention to whether Vanessa was even enjoying it or wanting it.

  His breath came heavy and fast as he continued to seek his own fulfillment, while Vanessa lay helpless to prevent him. She considered it more of a rape than a consenting wedding night. She had barely consented to marrying him, she thought. Since she couldn’t stop him, she remained emotionless, allowing him his husbandly right, as tears escaped her eyes and trickled onto the spread of the bed. When Jason finally finished, she took in a relieved breath, and pulled away from him, but he grabbed her back.

  “I don’t know where you think you are going,” he said. “Go ahead and remove your clothes. Now that I have had my first taste of you, I will look forward to enjoying this night together.”

  Vanessa raised her eyebrows. “Certainly, you do not expect me to…”

  “Don’t argue with me, Vanessa. You are my wife now. That means that I own you. You will always be expected to do as I say.”

  “And my father insisted I would like you!” she spat. “You are not making it easy for me to enjoy this arrangement!”

  “Don’t worry, you will get used to it, eventually, and once you conceive my child, I will lighten up on you a bit. The ranch takes up a lot of my time during the day, but during the night I should have some enjoyment at having a wife, and I have always longed for an heir.”

  Vanessa merely stared at him.

  “Don’t just sit there. Do as I tell you, unless you wish me to do it for you,” he said, narrowing his eyes at her.

  Vanessa began removing her dress, and as she did so, she realized he was also removing his own clothes. She felt a little shocked. The closest she had come to seeing a man without clothes, was when Broken Feather wore his breechcloth. Now her eyes widened, and he laughed at her, which made her look away.

  “Don’t be frightened. I don’t mind you looking at me, he said as he began parading around the room in front of her. In fact, I enjoy it. Only you haven’t removed all of your clothes yet. Don’t keep me in suspense,” he smiled. “I can’t wait to look upon your beautiful body.”

  As soon as her clothes fell around her feet, Jason was picking her up and putting her back upon the bed. His eagerness to touch her and fondle her had not changed from his first assault, only this time there were no clothes to hamper his progress. Vanessa closed her eyes, willing it to be over, realizing he had not kissed her once, or even mentioned any feelings he may have for her. It was plain that any desire he had for her was based on his physical need for a woman’s body, and he wasn’t even trying to gently introduce her to what he expected of her. He touched what he wanted, explored her body however he wished, and proceeded to take her at his whim. This time, his efforts lasted longer, making Vanessa wonder if he would ever tire.

  When Jason finally collapsed on top of her, he now seemed entirely spent, and Vanessa listened as he started to snore. She pushed him off of her, feeling the ordeal was over with, and she could take a relaxing breath. Vanessa was thinking she would just leave the room, but when she glanced at the door, she saw the key was gone, yet hadn’t remembered when he had removed it from the door. It must have been when she was getting undressed, and he was traipsing around the room, she decided. Now there was no escape, so she merely pulled the spread back and crawled under the covers.

  Just as Vanessa was starting to fall into a dream, she was awakened by the feel of Jason’s hands on her again, as he pulled the spread away. He situated himself behind her, and was pulling her up against him, eager to continue from where he had left off earlier. Before she could complain, or even consent, Jason was clutching her to him in his iron grip to prevent her escape from his demands.

  Once again she endured his requirements without complaint knowing she had little choice, totally shocked that he would press her for submission so many times in one night. And he wanted her to submit completely in ways she had not expected or imagined. Yet if she even started to complain, he merely laughed and continued with whatever he requested she comply to.

  At that moment, Vanessa vowed that she would make Broken Feather take her away. She refused to spend another night under the same roof with Jason, whether she was married to him or not!

  After the third assault, Jason fell immediately asleep. She knew he must be more worn out than she felt, since he had been making all the effort, while she remained listlessly accepting it. Since he seemed to sleeping so soundly, she decided to rummage around to see if she could discover what he had done with the key. The lamp was still lit, and cast shadows on the wall, causing a deeper gloom to wash over her. Jason didn’t need a wife, he needed a woman’s body to occu
py himself with, she told herself, angrily. She was beginning to hate her father as much as she now felt she hated Jason, for putting her in this position.

  Vanessa checked the pockets of Jason’s trousers, but did not find the key there. She wondered if maybe he had pushed it under one of the pillows, but discovered she was wrong, when she investigated the theory. It had to be there somewhere, she thought frantically, as she started to get dressed, thinking she would continue to look for the key, once she had her clothes on again. It was as she was putting her shoes on, that she realized he had dropped the key into one of her shoes, and she retrieved it, tiptoed out of the room, and locked the door from the outside, putting the key down the front of her dress, laughing to herself.

  However, Vanessa did not know which room Broken Feather was in, and she was not going to wake up anyone to discover where he was, so she went out to the barn, and crawled under the tarp on the wagon, falling asleep almost as soon as she found a comfortable place to lie down.

  Broken Feather was awakened by a commotion going on in the house, and then someone was flinging open his door.

  “Where is she?” Jason was bellowing at him.

  “What are you talking about?” Broken Feather asked, noting the uncontrolled anger that emanated from Jason’s face.

  “That little bitch, locked me in my room, and I had to wake the house by pounding on my door, so the housekeeper could bring a skeleton key to unlock my door! Now she is nowhere to be found!”

  Broken feather leaped to his feet, and grabbed Jason by the collar of his shirt. “What did you do to her to frighten her off like that?” he demanded. “The only reason she would lock you in your room would be to prevent you from coming after her or touching her. You have frightened her away, and when her father hears of it, he will…”

  “Unhand me, you black bastard!” Jason bellowed, pushing Broken Feather’s hands away. “I didn’t do anything to her that any other husband wouldn’t have done. Apparently she doesn’t like her position as a dutiful wife!”

  “She was a virgin! What did you expect?” Broken Feather scowled.

  “You need to track that woman down and bring her back,” Jason demanded. “She is my wife and I have rights! Her father has no say in how I treat my wife. I didn’t hurt her. She was just too squeamish and was a little naïve about her wifely duties. She’ll settle down once she accepts her place as my wife. After all, she agreed to the vows…honor and obey… Besides, she may have conceived and can’t be trying to escape with a baby in her belly! On top of that, there are Comanche in the area, it is not safe. You are supposed to be a tracker, so do your job and bring her back.”

  Broken Feather shrugged. “You are right. If anyone can find her, I can,” he agreed, but did not mention anything about bringing her back if he did find her. “I’ll get right to it,” he said, pulling on his clothes and heading out the door.

  When he came down off of the porch, Broken Feather scanned the ground and could clearly see Vanessa’s small footprints, mixed with bigger footprints and they were leading straight to the barn. He wondered if she had taken one of the horses, but it didn’t take him long to realize she was hiding in the wagon. However, he merely hitched the horse up to it, and led it out of the barn.

  “I think she is headed back towards the fort,” Broken Feather lied to Jason who was standing outside the barn waiting for him. “I saw her footsteps leading in that direction. How long do you think she has been gone?”

  “Sometime early this morning, I think,” Jason stated.

  “Then she hasn’t gotten much of a head-start. It shouldn’t take me long to track her down.”

  “Maybe I should send someone with you,” Jason suggested.

  “I work better alone,” Broken Feather muttered. “Besides, if I run into any Comanche, I speak their language. They don’t seem to like white people very much, so your hired hand would just make it more difficult if that happened. If the Comanche have her, it would be easier for me to talk them into releasing her, if I was alone.”

  “Fine, then. Good luck!”

  “I am sure I will have good luck,” Broken Feather stated, smiling to himself, as he whipped up the horse. He had no intention of ever bringing Vanessa back, even though all of her trunks were still on the front porch, but there was nothing he could do about that.

  When Broken Feather had gone about a mile from the ranch, he pulled the wagon over, and pushed back the tarp. “You want to remain there, or come up and ride on the bench with me?” he asked, smiling down at Vanessa as she looked up at him with her blue eyes brimming with tears.

  “You knew I was here?” she asked in amazement. “You are not going to take me back are you?” she cried suddenly.

  “If I wanted that, I would have exposed you as soon as I knew where you were. What did he do to you to make you run away from him?”

  “Oh, Broken Feather, it was horrible. He no sooner got me to his bedroom when he was all over me, before I even knew what was happening. Then he made me submit to him in such disgusting ways, not only once but several times. I could not look forward to a future like that, where someone believes I am merely there to satisfy their most base desires!”

  Broken Feather’s brows pulled together, at the mere thought of what she was claiming, and he wanted to go back and beat the man half to death for his treatment of her. It made his heart ache to even think of what she had to go through with her first experience of a man.

  Vanessa was on her knees in the wagon bed, throwing her arms around Broken Feather’s neck, sobbing into his shoulder, as he stood beside the wagon. He lifted her up out of the wagon and sat down with her in the grass beside the road, holding her in his lap and rocking her.

  “What are we going to do now, Vanessa? If I take you back to your father, you know he is required to send you back to your husband. You are legally married to Jason.”

  “I will never go back!” she whimpered.

  “So what do you suggest?”

  “While I was hiding in the wagon, I was trying to think about what I should do, only you will have to agree to it as well,” she began.

  “You know I will agree to anything you ask of me,” he told her, holding her tighter.

  “It would mean you would have to leave the army, and never tell my father what happened to you.”

  Broken Feather frowned. “Go ahead,” he encouraged. “I was thinking of leaving the army anyway, but I had planned to let your father know.”

  “If he knows, he will put a stop to it,” she insisted.

  “Put a stop to what?” he asked.

  “Well, you said you always wanted to be a farmer. I have a Plantation in Louisiana and no one to work the fields. If you came with me, you could help me get the plantation up and running again. We could get some sharecroppers to work the land as well. I would feel safer if you were there with me, than trying to do it all on my own. I just need you to agree to it, though.”

  Broken Feather held Vanessa from him, and looked down at her. “Are you asking me to be your partner, or your servant?” he asked.

  “I can’t afford to pay a servant, and you certainly cannot become my partner, since the plantation also belongs to my father. However, you can pose as my servant, since even if I could make you my partner, it never would be accepted by the gentry in the area anyway. You know how they feel about black people not deserving of the same rights as white people.”

  Broken Feather was silent. He wondered if Vanessa was intending to take advantage of his good nature, and his obvious love for her. After all, he was part black, and being Indian was just as bad. The law would never accept him, and if Vanessa was not willing to openly accept him either, he would be more like her slave than any kind of partner to her on any level.

  “I know what you are thinking,” she murmured hastily when he didn’t reply. “I shouldn’t ask this of you, but I don’t know of any other way. I would be willing to pay you as soon as the plantation started bringing in enough money. Only Jas
on may try to come after me. Maybe you can make him believe that a Comanche took me and killed me or something.”

  “If you are believed to be dead the plantation will go to your father,” Broken Feather said.

  “Yes, I suppose if he believed I was dead, it would revert to him.” She paused and sighed, her face falling. “Only if he discovered I am alive, he will force me to go back to Jason. When Jason tells him I left, he will know exactly where I would go, and one of them would come looking for me. If they discovered you are with me, and had brought me back, it might go bad for you.”

  “You could come with me to Mexico,” Broken Feather suggested.

  “I can’t live with the Indians,” Vanessa mumbled. “My only other choice is to go back to Jason,” she sobbed.

  Broken Feather’s heart fell, thinking she would rather go back to Jason than go with him to Mexico. Perhaps she didn’t feel the same way about him, as he felt about her, he decided.

  “Where do you wish me to take you then?” he asked at last, losing all hope that Vanessa would ever accept him completely, the way he hoped she would.

  “I don’t know. I need to think about it. Let’s go find a place to camp, and in the morning, I will make up my mind.”

  Broken Feather shrugged, deciding to leave it up to Vanessa since it would be up to her in the end anyway. He lifted her up, and helped her onto the wagon bench, and then started in the direction of the river, which he knew was not far away. They rode in silence, neither brave enough to say what they were truly thinking. By the time they reached the river, it was midday. Broken Feather climbed down from the wagon and helped Vanessa down.

  “Do you want me to fix something to eat?” he asked, as he busied himself taking supplies out of the wagon.

  “I am too tired to eat. I barely got any sleep last night, for Jason pawing me every moment he could. Just set up the tent. I want to rest.”

  When Broken Feather finished setting up the tent, Vanessa crawled inside, and Broken Feather followed her. He, too, had barely slept the night before fighting off thoughts of Jason being with Vanessa, and it had been worse than he had imagined, according to what Vanessa had confessed. He wanted to comfort her in some way to let her know not all men were like Jason, when it came to pleasing a woman.