Chapter Seven
Brown eyes stared off into the darkness. Before he was two years old, Ezra Starr had learned to be quiet at times when he didn't understand what was taking place. His mother was no longer beside him, and though he was comfortable and warm, he feared something was wrong. He listened, and when he heard nothing, he slowly ventured out from under the blanket that covered him, looking around the room. He knew he was in a room in a house. He had been in rooms before.
Turning over on his stomach, he dangled his feet and legs off the side of the bed, and when he didn't find the floor, he let himself slide until his feet touched something cold and hard.
Quietly, he toddled over to the door and tried to reach the knob, rising up on his toes and stretching his arm over his head, but he couldn't quite reach it. At that point, the two-year old gave into his age, sat down on the floor next to the door and began to softly cry.
Hoss had just emerged from his own room and was walking down the hall when he heard a quiet mewling. He listened at the door of the guest room and realized the whimpers were coming from near the floor. Squatting, he reached up to the door knob, turning it and slowly opened the door a crack.
There in the narrow opening were the two wet, brown eyes of a cherub's face peeking out. Little Ezra had held his breath and now let it out in an almost silent sob.
"It's alright little fella," Hoss whispered. "Is your mama there with you?"
Ezra sucked in another quiet sob and shook his head, but the knowledge that his mother was gone, and that he was facing a stranger made him crinkle his nose and eyes. Unable to hold his fear in any longer, his eyes closed, his mouth opened and a child's cry filled the hall.
Reaching in, Hoss took the child in his arms, and when he stood, Ezra slowly quieted, looking at the big man's face, a kind, almost childlike face much like his own. He looked around them in amazement. He had never been this high up off the ground.
"How 'bout you and me go find Mama?"
Moving his thumb to his mouth, Ezra nodded.
Adam and Rachel came through the front door just as Hoss reached the bottom of the stairs. When Ezra saw his mother, he flung himself forward, reaching as far as he could for her.
Rachel pulled him from Hoss's arms as she glared up into his face.
"Now, Ma'am, don't go getting' mad at me. I heard this little fella cryin' at the door. We was on our way to find you."
Looking back at her child and wiping the tears from his face, she examined him closely. Satisfied he wasn't hurt, she stepped around Hoss and started back up the stairs.
"Rachel?" called Adam. She stopped, turning her head slightly. "Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes."
"I must dress him," she replied and continued up the stairs.
"That Ezra's a cute little thing, ain't he?" said Hoss, watching Rachel carry the baby up the stairs and around the corner.
"He is; a cute little blonde baby."
Looking back at Adam, Hoss furrowed his brow. "What's his hair got to do with anything?"
"I have a feeling the fact that he's light-skinned and blonde has something to do with why she left her reservation."
"Why do you think that?" asked Hoss, walking toward the dining table.
"Think about it, Hoss. Wouldn't most white people be suspicious of an Indian woman carrying around a white child, even if he just looks white?"
Hoss lowered his voice. "You don't suppose she stole Ezra, do you?"
"No," said Adam, wincing. "But what if someone accused her of stealing him?"
Rachel came back downstairs dressed more warmly than when she had arrived. Ezra, too, was dressed to withstand the outside cold with his feet and legs wrapped in soft leather, fastened by thin straps crisscrossing over his feet and around his legs, and wearing a brushed leather tunic with a fur-lined hood. Sitting quietly at the breakfast table, Rachel looked from her son to the window and back. Heavy snow had started to fall.
After watching her for a few minutes, Adam said, "We should wait until this snowstorm is over before we head up into Paiute country."
"No," Rachel answered emphatically, but with worry on her face. "I do not wish to stay here another night." The others at the table looked up from their plates, and Rachel bowed her head. "It is not that I am not thankful to you for sharing your home and your meals with us, but I…I must go."
Adam wanted to ask why she felt she had to go, but he knew she wouldn't give him an answer, especially in front of the whole family. "Travel will be difficult in this storm."
"I have traveled through worse. If you do not want to go, I will understand."
"Then you'll wait?" Adam asked hopefully.
"No. I will go alone."
Exasperated, he countered, "You're giving me no choice. You and Ezra are not leaving here alone in the middle of a snowstorm."
"Then we will wait for you in the barn," said Rachel, standing. "I must finish packing my cart."
Lowering his forehead into his hand, Adam clenched his jaw and took several deep, calming breaths before he spoke again. By that time, Rachel was on her way to the front door. He stood, walking after her. "Rachel, you can't pull that cart all the way to the Paiute encampment. It'll get stuck in the snow. You'll never make it."
She stopped at the door with her hand on the latch. "You have done nothing but tell me what I cannot do. If this is all you can offer, I do not want your help." Opening the front door, she stepped through.
"Rachel, wait," he said, but too late. The door had already closed.
