Beginning Chapter one

With the words “I didn’t fall in love with an Indian, I fell in love with a man named Jasper” running through his mind, all Jasper could do was stand there spellbound.

What do I say now, Jasper wondered? She says that she loves me, these being Historical Ramance Novels, and I should have known how she felt a long time ago. Even though I wouldn’t admit it even to myself I really did know by her actions and concerns for me that she really did love me, but it wouldn’t be fair to Julie for me to say that I love her, these being  Slave Stories, and I am still a runaway Slave. I really didn’t want it to happen, but I’m sure that I have fallen in love with her.

“If you really are in love with me it is really not at all fair to you and I really never intended for it to happen since I cannot commit myself to a life with anyone now, but I’m sure that I have fallen in love with you,” Jasper said.

Why did I say that, Jasper was thinking? But he had little time to think about what he had said because Julie grabbed and kissed him and was clinging to him with both arms around his neck as he remembered her doing a few times before.

            While she was holding him so close and tight he was remembering other times that she acted almost the same way and he was wondering at the time why she always seemed to have reasons to be close and touch him.

  The first time they had touched each other except for casual touching together when she would sit by him when he was studying, was on Christmas Eve and he felt as if he had goose pimples. He had always wondered why she sat so close to him. After all they were only good friends and it seemed a natural thing to do while she was pointing out something in the book that he was studying. But she didn’t really have to lean on him to show him something, because he was usually already looking at the place she pointed out and reading the lesson.

            Then when they were looking for the Christmas tree and she slipped on the side of a frozen hill and he grabbed a limb with one hand and his other arm reached around her waist, these being Historical Romance Novels, pulling her tight to him as he pulled her to safety. After he had held her tight to him for some time and he became embarrassed from holding her so tight and started to step back she still had her arm around him and was holding on as if she were afraid that she would slip again.

            Then when the bull elk stuck his head through the opening between the trees so close that they could almost touch him, she grabbed him around the neck and was holding on and pressing so close to him that it embarrassed him again. When the elk was gone and they looked into each other’s eyes while they were so close he thought that he could detect a desire for him to do something and he thought that he knew what it was. He knew that he wanted to kiss her so bad that he was having problems controlling his emotions, but he was afraid that she would resist and that would tear him up to think that he read the wrong message that she was obviously conveying with her eyes.

            Then when they were having the Christmas party at the camp that they had spent the winter in waiting for the snow to melt and he walked under some mistletoe that someone had placed over the door, everyone said that Julie put it there. Whether or not she did, in order not to embarrass her he had walked to where she stood and leaned over and kissed her. Then suddenly, right there in front of everyone, including her parents, they were passionately kissing and she was holding onto him when he began backing away.

            Then he looked at her parents expecting to see shock and disapproval on their faces but they both had big smiles on their faces as if they both knew what was going to happen; if they didn’t approve, they certainly didn’t disapprove very heartily. 

“I have known that you loved me for a long time. You may not have known it but I’m sure that you loved me before you kissed me last Christmas. Or should I say that we kissed each other?”

“I wouldn’t admit it but I knew that I loved you when you slipped while we were looking for the Christmas tree and we clung to each other so long.”

***

Jasper got into the wagon and they started toward the assay office. He had been in the one in Sacramento and knew how to exchange gold for money so when he had exchanged enough for his present needs he had the man to put the rest into sealed bags for storage. He had never taken it out of his saddlebags where it had been in several small bags and he noted that some of it had leaked out. One of these days I’ll wash the saddlebags and pan out the small gold, he thought. Then he remembered that no one had seen all of his gold before and he was thinking that he might have been foolish to take it all out there. He would sure be glad when he got it to the bank and in the vault where it would be safe.

Jasper worried all the way to the bank. When the man had put the gold in bags and sealed it he had made a comment about him having a lot of gold. Suppose he knew a gang that would meet them and try to take it. He knew that he could draw fast enough and shoot accurately enough to take care of a man or two but he would have no chance against a gang. Suppose the man driving the wagon had ideas of robbing him because he knew there was a lot of gold involved. He would watch his every move until he was in the bank.

Then he thought about how foolish his thoughts would sound if someone could read his mind. First he was worried because he didn’t trust banks and then he couldn’t wait to get to one.

“This is the bank that I was telling you about. Remember to ask for the manager. Like I said I have known him for many years and I know that he will treat you right.”

When Jasper went into the bank it was strange to him and he stopped just inside the door and looked around the room. It was a large room with no windows at the back and only one at the front. After being outside in the sunlight it seemed a little dark to him until his eyes were dilated so that he could see well.

He saw a man inside of a little square room with a window facing him. That must be the teller, he thought. I will take the man’s advice and ask him if I can talk to the manager. He had started walking toward the window when he heard a bell ringing and he looked right into the barrel of a shotgun. Then when he looked to his right he saw another gun pointed at him.

What have I gotten myself into this time, he wondered? I came into a bank to leave my gold and they take it away from me.

 ***

Jasper stepped out on the platform between coaches and looked to the left just as something cold pressed into the back of his neck. He didn’t have to wait to be told to raise his hands; he raised them automatically. He had felt the same cold feeling once before when the man with two guns, the same two guns that he then possessed, pressed one of them to his head. That night he remembered very well. It was the night that he was taken from the wagon train by the three crooks that were trying to return him to the plantation for the reward. And it didn’t feel any better then than it did the first time.

“You get off the train,” the man behind him said in broken English. “You go around in front of the train.”

He had no choice. He went around the front and had to go around a few short logs and some brush that had been piled on the track but was then scattered around the area. He noticed that the cowcatcher had been crushed but there seemed to be no other damage. Oh well, he thought, they will get the few dollars that I have on me and if they check the luggage they will get my gun, but the train can still take us to Saint Louis.

The first inkling he had that he may be in deeper trouble was when they brought his luggage from the train.

“Man there says this is your trunk. Is that true?”

“Yes, that’s my luggage.”

“You have fancy clothes. What tribe are you from?”

So they think that I’m an Indian like they are. They will soon let me go, he thought. What would they need me for? They already have my possessions so what else could they want?

“I’m from a tribe many miles from here to the south. I have been out west and they gave me a free ticket and I’m heading home.”

He noticed that they had come prepared. Aside from their riding horses they also had a string of packhorses that they were loading with the spoils they had gotten from the train.  They had buffalo skin bags they were putting things in and he noticed that they tied his suitcase on a packhorse with the other things.

They brought him a horse and the one who could speak English told him to mount up and stay behind the packhorses. He was a young man, about Jasper’s age with the typical Indians black hair and dark eyes. He was naturally darker than Jasper but burned even darker from the sun and temperature that would sometimes be a hundred degrees as Jim had said. He wore the typical buckskin clothing that most Indians wore when they didn’t wear a breechcloth. That’s good Jasper thought, maybe they will pay no attention to me and I can lag behind and leave like one of the men did when he was a captive before. But no such luck befell him. When they moved out toward the mountains that he could see ahead of them the one who could speak English fell into position alongside him and stayed there every minute as they progressed. He tried talking to his captor but at first he could get no comment from him.

Finally the Indian spoke and once he started he couldn’t seem to quit. Maybe he was like Early Flower was when they first met. She had said that she liked to speak English and since no one except Running Deer could speak it she liked talking to Jasper.

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