Anna woke slowly and was very disoriented when she finally opened her eyes. She was lying on a soft feather bed in an unfamiliar place. The room had only one small window providing light to let her know it was nearly dark outside. Her whole body ached and every pain announced itself as she sat up and looked around. The room was plain but it had the biggest bed in it that she'd ever seen, much less slept in. There was a round table near her and she could see the money and the little bag of gold the large man had given her. Tears started forming in her eyes before she could hold them back. He had been kind to her--not many people had since her ordeal began.

She rubbed her throat. It was still unbearably sore. She wasn't sure when she would be able to talk again. A fragrant aroma caught her attention. She heard noise in another room and stood up slowly. Her stomach growled noisily, letting her know that it was indeed food cooking that she smelled. Anna put the money in the pocket of her ruined skirt. She might need that if she had to make her own way home.

When she opened the bedroom door she was surprised to see the huge man she only knew as Blackie. He knelt on one knee in front of the fireplace, stirring a blackened pot that was the origin of the delicious-smelling food.

He turned towards her before she'd taken two steps. He smiled at her. Anna tried not to let him see her nervousness. She was incredibly grateful to this bear of a man. He had saved her life in more ways than one and he didn't even realize it. She watched him covertly. His size put her in awe--it had the moment she had laid eyes on him strolling heatedly into the saloon. He had black hair and blue eyes. His face was square--almost craggy from exposure to hard work and the sun. He had a set of arms and shoulders on him that went unrivaled by any she had ever seen. The sleeves had been torn off his shirt--or were ripped away by the bulging muscles. She wasn't sure.

"Come on in. Have a seat." He motioned to the table and began filling a bowl of some kind of delicious-looking stew. Her stomach growled again, right on cue.

Anna sat down. She looked around for a place to wash her hands. She was filthy--filthier than she had ever been in her entire life. There was a basin for a sink and a pitcher of water, so she went there to wash her hands. As she sat back down, she saw a writing box on another table in the corner. There were a lot of items jumbled on that table like books and papers and looked unused. Anna ran to it, gesturing wildly.

He looked at her and shrugged. She took that to mean it was okay for her to get what she wanted. Anna opened the wooden box and grabbed a piece of paper. She took it out and found a steel point pen. Excitedly, she rummaged in the box and found a bottle of ink that was still liquid. She took all of her treasures back to the table, dipped the pen in the ink, and began to write.

My name is Susannah Tremaine. I live in Union City. I was kidnapped four days ago. My brothers will be coming to find me. We need to contact them quickly, if possible. The kidnappers will be looking for me too and it might not be safe.

There was so much more she would write once he understood the gravity of the situation. Like the danger they faced because she was sure the kidnappers wouldn't want to give up the possibility of receiving the ransom. If not for the interference of the drunken old man she would still be in the outlaw gang's hands. He had slunk away with her in the early morning hours while they slept, to obtain more booze, and encountered the card game. He had actually tried to sell her first for money to buy booze!

Eagerly she handed him the note as he set her bowl of stew down in front of her, placing a spoon beside the bowl. He sat down across from her on the other side of the table with his own stew. That chair was sturdy and made for a man of his great size. He looked at the note.

Anna didn't see any expression on his face. Finally he laid the paper between them. "Sorry, I can't read. Not a lick."

He couldn't read?

She couldn't talk.

Oh, what a dilemma!

She was nearly crushed with the weight of disappointment. The tears started falling again. She was just so tired and wrung out emotionally.

"Now, don't cry. Everything will work out." He tried to reassure her. "You are safe here and you can stay until you know what it is you want to do. Since you can write, we can mail a letter to your family. The townsfolk take turns going round about to Canton for the mail."

She nodded that she understood. She was grateful, although it would take forever for her brothers to get the letter. She wondered if they would get it at all. She would write more than one and mail them at different intervals.

She knew her brothers; they were undoubtedly tracking her even now. She would stay here where it was safe and let them come to her. If they didn't find her first, the letter would be waiting for them when they returned home. It was a good plan.

Anna picked up her spoon and began to eat. Luke tore a big piece of bread off of a loaf and handed it to her. It hurt her throat to swallow so she had to take small bites and use the utmost care, dunking the bread in the stew to soften it.

"I know it isn't exactly genteel dinner conversation, but I thought after supper I could bring the tub in for you--if you would like to take a bath and get cleaned up." He didn't look at her when he said it.

Anna knew she must look like something the cat would drag in, usually dead. She appreciated the thought more than he could know.

When he did look up, she nodded her head yes.

"I'll stay outdoors and give you your privacy until you let me know otherwise." He resumed eating.

It was so quiet Anna could only hear the crackle of the fire and an occasional slurping noise. She suspected she was making most of them.

By the time supper was done, Anna had finished two bowls of stew and the chunk of bread he had given her. Luke put the dishes in a big wooden tub that was obviously for washing dishes. Then he went outside and it was only moments before he brought in a great big wooden tub lined with beaten metal. He set about pouring bucket after bucket of water into the big tub while he had several pots of water boiling on the fire.

Back and forth he went, outside for the water, then back inside to dump it into the tub. It wasn't long until the tub was full with warm water. He gave her a bar of homemade lye soap and a towel. Then he went in the bedroom and carried out a heavy wooden square chest as if it weighed nothing. "There are clothes in here that might fit. You can go through it." He set it down. "Help yourself."

It was then that Anna saw the tear in his shirt and the blood that had dried on it. She had thought the bullet had missed him, obviously it hadn't.

Her natural concern had her going to him. She pointed to his wound. She wanted to take a look at it and see how bad it was.

"It is nothing." He lifted one side of his mouth crookedly.

It was something if it had bled like that. Anna placed her hand on his arm when he would have turned away. She pointed again for permission to look at it.

He shrugged and lifted that side of his shirt. There was a long gash in his side where the bullet had grazed him. It wasn't deep. He had been lucky.

Anna looked around for something to clean it with but she was a little distracted by his bright blue eyes and the tantalizing glimpse she saw of his tanned skin. His stomach was firm and muscular. Every bit of him must be muscular.

He pulled the shirt down. "I'll get my own bath after you have gone to bed and take care of it then." He left, shutting the door.

She frowned. He was a grown man but he should at least have cleaned it before now. Anna quietly slid down the bar that secured the door. She didn't think he wasn't trustworthy but she wanted to make sure of her privacy.

She quickly stripped down and stepped into the tub. It was sheer heaven. The water was just the right warmth and she let it wash over her skin as she sank down into its embrace. It helped her sore and achy muscles. She dunked herself and got her hair wet enough to wash it. It took a while for the lye soap to make a good lather but once it did she scrubbed and scrubbed her scalp and washed her hair. She dunked herself again to rinse it.

Anna then quickly set about washing every square inch of her body--twice. She ignored the bruises that she saw. There were so many. She was lucky she had escaped with only bruises. She could very well have been raped, possibly even killed. When she was done she just lay back and let the relaxing water refresh her weary soul. Had she been at home she would have had scents to add to the water and floral scented soap for her hair.

When her brothers located her, heads were going to roll. She could tell them where to find the men who had kidnapped her. One of them even worked for them! They had grabbed her when her brothers were off checking on the springhouse that they had built over the creek to help keep their foods and staples cool so they would last longer.

Spring Place, her home, was a growing, thriving ranch. Their father had won a goodly-sized parcel of 490 acres in the land lottery of 1805. He had added to it considerably since. He was one of the few white men to settle in Georgia before the white people were even organized enough to think about having the Indians removed. It wouldn't be long and the Indians would be forced to move further west. The removal of the Indians bothered the Tremaine family, because they knew it wasn't all about the westward expansion of the country--it was all so greedy men could steal and resell their land.

Anna thought fondly of her two brothers. The first and oldest was Lance. He was half Cherokee Indian. His mother had been a full-blooded Cherokee maiden that her father had married--or lived with--she was never sure about that. Moon Feather hadn't lived but a day or two after Lance was born. His Indian name was Long Shadow. His mother had named him for the long shadows that had crawled across the room during the agonizing hours of childbirth.

Her other brother, older than herself by several years, was Rex. She and Rex looked like their mother with golden blonde hair and blue eyes. She, too, had died young, being taken by typhoid fever when Anna was but six years of age. Her father, Ben, had never remarried and had died just three years ago. She missed her father and the wisdom that he always seemed to have in abundance. If he were still alive she was sure he would be fighting on the Indians' behalf, politically and otherwise.

Once the water started growing cold, she got out and dried her hair the best she could. Then she wrapped the towel around her body and started rummaging around in the big wooden chest. It was full of women's clothes. There on top she saw a hairbrush. She laid it on the table to use later. She found a nice pink cotton blouse and a rose-colored skirt that fit quite well. She felt almost human again as she wrapped the towel around her hair and then went and opened the door. It was so dark outside she couldn't see anything. The moon wasn't giving much light this night.

"Over here." She heard him say and then saw movement by a tree. He'd been sitting down, leaning against it.

He walked to her out of the darkness and Anna had a hard time not flinching. She wasn't scared of him per se but she was nervous around men right now for obvious reasons.

Anna went and pulled a chair in front of the fire and sat down to brush out her hair. It would dry quicker there.

Luke didn't bar the door again. He turned to her and looked surprised at her appearance. She couldn't know how much better she looked now but she knew she felt better.

"Lord have mercy! Soap and water never did me that much good." Luke noticed her hair was a nice golden blonde color, not brown as he had thought. He swallowed, hard. She was a looker, with delicate features and almond-shaped blue eyes. He hadn't been expecting that or his own immediate reaction to her.

Anna smiled at his backhanded compliment and would have said thank you if she was able. She never realized how important it was to be able to talk to communicate. She hadn't even been able to ask for help when she needed to. She knew people saw her plight and ignored it, preferring to remain uninvolved. Things might have been different if she had been able to talk.

Anna thought he might empty the tub but it only took her a moment to realize he was heating water to add to it. He would use the same water to bathe in. There was something very intimate about that and the thought made her blush.

She wandered over to the writing table again and looked at the books sitting on it. There was a leather-bound family Bible. Someone who lived here had been able to read, even if this man couldn't. She picked it up and opened the brass closures. She flipped it open.

The first entry read Josiah Campbell married Mary Smith. June 6th in the year of our Lord 1800.

The second entry was a birth. Luke Campbell born Dec 12 in the year of our Lord, 1802.

The third entry was a birth as well. Sarah Campbell born May 16 in the year of our Lord, 1804.

The fourth entry was sad. Mary Smith Campbell went to be with the Lord on Dec 31st in the year of our Lord 1812. Age 32.

The last entry was the worst and tugged at her heartstrings. Sarah Campbell taken by the Indians on Dec. 31st, in the year of our Lord 1812. Age 8.

Anna looked up as Blackie said. "My folks."

Judging by his age, he had to be Luke Campbell. The clothes she wore must have belonged to his mother. Indians had taken his sister and had killed his mother when he was ten years old. There was no mention of what became of the father, Josiah. She smiled at him sadly to let him know she understood what happened to his folks.

"Since you can read, you can understand why I don't abide by redskins." There was bitterness in his voice that she could hear quite clearly. Anna wanted to tell him that not all Indians were bad. In fact, most of them were peaceful. They lived in log homes and tilled the land. They were every bit as domesticated as the white man. Her own brother was half-Indian. She loved him dearly even if he was reserved at times. Anna understood the differences he felt. She had observed how badly some people treated him, because of those differences. There was no way to talk to him of these things, not right now. She might never get to talk to him about them. She could very well be gone by the time her voice was back in good working order.

He was mixing something in a tin cup. He handed it to her watching her curiously. She raised her eyebrows as if to ask what it was.

"I am no doctor. It is just a little whiskey with honey mixed in for your throat. I suspect you aren't a mute but only incapacitated right now. Am I right?"

Anna nodded and smiled at him. She accepted the cup and held it between her two hands.

"Why did your pa sell you for a grub stake? The very idea is..."

Anna was already shaking her head no. That wasn't what happened. That was only the story the old man concocted to make it seem that he had the right to bet her on a hand of poker. She took several swallows of the warm liquid.

"I see. Did that old man take you against your will?"

Finally someone understood. She nodded vigorously.

"You probably have family looking for you."

Yes! Her mind screamed as she nodded excitedly. He might not be able to read or write but he could reason with the best of them.

"While you finish your drink, perhaps you better be writing that letter to your folks. They will be worried for you. We can take it to town first thing in the morning so it goes out in the next pouch."

Anna gratefully slipped into the chair at the table at which they had eaten, and he brought her more paper and the pen and ink. She finished off the drink. It did soothe her throat. She wrote the letter, folded it and sealed it with sealing wax she found in the box, then addressed it to Rex and Lance Tremaine at the Spring Place Ranch, Union City, Georgia. She just hoped they got it soon.

The whiskey was making her sleepy all over again. She'd gotten so little sleep in the last few days. She stood up and signaled she would be going on to bed. Then realized she had taken his bed. Anna went back to the room and found several blankets. She would use those and sleep elsewhere, but where? He already let her know he was going to bathe. There were only two rooms.

He seemed to realize her dilemma. "You take the bed. I'll sleep out here." He took the blankets from her and she took note of his great size again as he was standing so close to her. Anna smiled at him gratefully and went in the bedroom and closed the door. He was a very kind man.