Zach chuckled, then sobered. “Why do you suppose Toad needs to see my pa so bad?”
“Him have problem with foxes.”
“What?”
“That what him say. Him have foxes in chicken coop. Which strange because he not have chicken coop like you and your father do.”
“It could be he wasn’t talking about real foxes and chickens.”
“Then why him say that?”
“Maybe it was his way of saying there’s trouble brewing.” Zach grew thoughtful. “You say that you took women there to work for them?”
“Me do, yes. Why?”
“Because chickens is another word for hens and hens is another word for women.”
The white tongue was so bewildering, Chases Rabbits despaired of ever learning it well. But he didn’t miss the most important part. “Trouble for women? What kind of trouble?”
“How about I go back with you in Pa’s stead and we find out?”
“Toad want Grizzly Killer, but maybe him make do with you.” Chases Rabbits pursed his lips. “You not be like last time and kill everybody?”
“That depends,” Zach King said.
Chapter Fifteen
“I will not put up with much more,” Flute Girl declared.
“Why have they done this?” Spotted Fawn wondered.
Raven On The Ground didn’t have an answer. She went over what had happened in the hope it would make sense. Toad had taken her into the small room. He was trying to tell her something when the door opened and in came Geist. Geist had been mad, and walked up to Toad and hit him. Incredibly, Toad hadn’t done anything. An Apsaalooke warrior would have pulled a knife and killed Geist; no man of their tribe ever let himself be struck with impunity.
Geist and Toad had argued. The whole time, Petrie pointed a rifle at Toad. The insult to Toad was monumental. He was their leader, their chief, yet they treated him as if he were an enemy.
Geist had Dryfus ask her in sign what she and Toad had been doing. She answered honestly that she thought Toad had brought her in to talk until he hugged and kissed her. Dryfus asked what they talked about. She answered that she hardly understood a word Toad said.
For some reason, Geist became amused. He pointed at her and clapped Toad on the shoulder, and called him a “horny bastard.” Whatever that was.
Toad acted sheepish, like a child caught taking food when he shouldn’t.
Petrie had lowered his rifle and looked at her, smirking.
Then Geist had Dryfus bring her to the lodge she shared with the other women. She did not want to be inside and had tried to go back out, but Dryfus closed the door and was still out there, refusing to let any of them leave.
“I will stab him and we will take our horses and go,” Lavender proposed. She alone among them wore a knife on her hip.
“That is too drastic,” Raven On The Ground said. She clung to the belief that there must be some sense to it all.
Just then the door opened and in strode Geist, followed by Petrie and Dryfus. Geist smiled and had Dryfus sign that if there was anything they needed, they had only to ask.
Raven On The Ground decided to get right to the heart of the matter. Question, she signed. You chief?
Geist and Dryfus talked, and Dryfus signed that Geist was.
Raven On The Ground asked why no one had told them.
Dryfus answered that the whites thought the women knew. He also signed that Geist was sorry about how Toad had acted toward her.
Flute Girl raised her hands and her fingers flowed. She told the whites that the women were tired of doing nothing. That if the whites wanted them to work, they should have them start. Otherwise, the women were leaving.
Geist bid them all sit in a half circle on the floor. Then he sank down with Dryfus on his left and gave a long speech, which Dryfus translated in sign.
Geist was happy the four of them had come. He was especially pleased at how lovely they were. Crow women, in his estimation, were some of the most beautiful he had ever seen. He went on for so long about their faces and their hair and how they wore their dresses that Spotted Fawn turned to Raven On The Ground and grinned and whispered, “Maybe he is in love with one of us.”
Through Dryfus, Geist explained that he was a businessman, like Toad, but not in the same business. The trading post was not his main interest. His real business, Dryfus signed, was women.
“Women?” Lavender repeated out loud. “What can he mean by that?”
Geist launched into a long speech about how he had heard a lot about the Crows before he came west to the mountains. How he had been informed they were a handsome people, and how he had first listened with great interest to an old trapper who related a custom of theirs. Was it true, he had Dryfus ask, that visitors who spent the night at a Crow village were allowed to have a woman?
Raven On The Ground answered with her fingers, Yes.
Did the visitors have to pay for the women?
Raven On The Ground signed that they did not.
Geist told them that the whites did not have such a custom. That so far as he knew, neither did any other tribe. Only the Crows. He thought it wonderful, and had Dryfus sign as how he had been doing the same thing for a long time.
By the looks on their faces, Raven On The Ground could see that her friends were as puzzled as she was. Question. You have many wives?
Not any, Geist replied. The women he gave to other men were not his, but women who wanted to give themselves on their own, as the Crows did. And here came the best part, he excitedly had Dryfus relay—the women were paid for being with a man. Some of the money was then theirs to keep and spend as they chose.
Flute Girl signed the thought that was uppermost in Raven On The Ground’s mind—what did any of this have to do with them?
Geist smiled broadly and had Dryfus sign that he had invited them to the trading post not to sew and cook, as he had told Chases Rabbits, but to sleep with men and be paid for it.
Raven On The Ground began to suspect the white man wasn’t in his right mind. We would never do that, she indignantly signed on behalf of all four of them.
Why not? Geist had Dryfus sign. They had already admitted that Crow women slept with other men, so why not be rewarded for it with trade goods or money?
To begin with, Raven On The Ground explained, the white men needed to understand a few things. Once, her people had been as numerous as the blades of grass on the prairie, many thousands of them, a strong and prosperous tribe able to hold their own against any enemy. But war and disease took a heavy toll so that now there were only about two thousand Apsaalooke, only eight hundred of which were men. Because of the disparity, most warriors had two or three wives. When a stranger visited their village, it was considered nothing at all for a wife to spend the night with him. But unmarried maidens were never offered, and Raven On The Ground, Spotted Fawn, Lavender, and Flute Girl were maidens.
Geist scowled. So you wouldn’t sleep with men for money?
To think we would is an insult, Raven On The Ground responded.
“We were lured here falsely,” Flute Girl said in anger. “This white man tricked Chases Rabbits.”
“We should leave this moment,” Spotted Fawn said.
Raven On The Ground agreed. She informed the whites that they were departing.
No, Dryfus signed at Geist’s command. You are not.
We are free to do as we please, Raven On The Ground told them. She was angry now, too.