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“Yummy,” I muttered, picking a hard piece out of my teeth. “I swear the first thing I’m going to do when I get back to my own—”
“Get down!” Bryant yelled as he jumped across his saddle and tackled me to the ground with a painful oof.
An arrow zipped through the air, stabbing the ground two feet in front of my face.
“Holy guacamole!” I yelled, crouching further beneath Bryant’s body. “Who’s shooting at us now?”
Growling, Bryant jumped up with clenched fists.
“Dammit, Black Crow! You almost hit us!” he called out.
Three Indian men emerged from the dense forest, lowering their bows. The taller and brawnier of the trio with two feathers sticking from his long black hair lifted his bronze chin
“My aim must be off,” he remarked. “I will do better next time.”
“There had better not be a next time, Crow, or I’ll snap that good bow of yours in two.”
The Indian ignored the threat, arching a brow at me as I cautiously stood and scooted behind Bryant. “You have a new woman.”
“I’m not his,” I protested.
“She’s a friend,” Bryant said at the same time. “Have some manners, if you can manage it.”
Black Crow grunted as he gave me a sour once-over. “She is ugly and has no hips. Why do you have her?”
“Hey, you’re not so hot yourself, bucko,” I indignantly answered.
All three Indian men widened their dark eyes, then looked at each other in question.
Right, the women of this time rarely spoke their mind so forcefully, particularly to a man. And I did have the tongue of an adder when properly riled.
The smaller man whispered something to Black Crow who eyed me again with a squinting assessment.
“Tree says she could dig a good garden with her very big hands. How much for her?”
“Hey!” I spat, fisting said man hands.
“She’s not for sell,” Bryant said.
Black Crow’s cohort nudged him in the ribs and whispered something else. He nodded and said, “One goat and my good knife.”
Bryant’s brows hiked. “The one you made last winter with the long blade?”
“You wanted it.”
“Well now, I do want it then,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “But I don’t need a goat. I could use a few more of Dove’s baskets for the cabin though. Three should do it, in my estimation.”
“Bryant!” I squealed at him.
Was he actually considering bartering me for..?
Both Crow and Bryant kept even expressions, but it was the other two snickering hyenas that clued me in that they were joking.
“Ha, ha, very funny,” I retorted, shoving Bryant’s bicep.
Bryant’s lips twitched. “Callista McEwan, meet Black Crow, war chief of the Snoqualmie tribe, along with his brothers Bear-that-growls and Tall Tree.”
“I’d like to say that it was a pleasure to meet you all, but I’m having second thoughts about that,” I grumbled. “Please tell me that your village is close by.”
