Chapter 13: Learning

                Hunt swore angrily and applied the whip to his horse's side again. How dare…Logan was refusing to allow him access to the little slant-eyed slave? He'd show the uppity rancher. Just because the man bred horses and sold them for more money than Hunt could imagine, that didn't give him a right to refuse a favor, especially when Hunt had done him a favor.

                "'Ain't touched her'. Sure he's touched her. More than once, I bet, for all that they got separate beds in there. Man like John Logan don't avoid a whorehouse unless he's getting it somewhere else." He snarled.

                The moon was rising when he rode into the town limits. He was passing the house of the Railmaster (the man had finished his section of the railroad, taken his pay, and settled down right there in town) and saw the light on. A sudden thought made Hunt rein his horse in and stop in front of the Railmaster's house. "Hey!" he called. "Anybody home?"

                The Railmaster came out onto his porch, squinting. "Hey yourself,' he slurred, clearly inebriated. "Sort of late for a friendly visit, isn't it?"

                "Got some information for you," Hunt said. "'Bout that little girl John Logan took from you."

                The man's eyes sharpened, as did his voice. "Don't even mention him unless you got a way I can get her back," he threatened.

                Hunt nodded. "That's what I'm sayin,' he said. "But ya better move fast. I did a dumb fool thing buyin' freedom papers for John Logan's slave thinkin' he'd be so grateful for 'em he'd tell her to open her legs for me."

                The Railmaster opened his door wider. "Come in. Tell me what happened." Hunt climbed the steps into the house, and sat down on the chair he was offered.

                "I went out to John Logan's this afternoon when I seen you talking to the soldiers," he said without preamble. "Took some supplies since he hadn't come in a while, and I bought a copy of free papers to take to him. I thought maybe he'd let me spend some time with the girl in return for them papers; after all, she's still legally his slave, and she has to obey him in everything." Hunt snorted. "Was I ever wrong! Logan says he never touched her like that, and he threatened to shoot Little Hunt off if I ever touched her."

                The Railmaster looked at him as he poured himself another glass of whiskey. "Was the girl there?"

                Hunt shook his head. "Didn't see her there," he said. "But Logan got another bed in another room of his cabin, and it's short enough for the girl. And there's a chest at the foot of her bed full of women's things." He still remembered picking the tiny under drawers out of the chest and thinking about the girl wearing them. "She's probably visiting some Indian friends of his. I know he's got them, they visit him sometimes." He made a face. "You'd think if he's giving her to them redskin bucks he'd let a decent white man like me get at her before he frees her. But no." Hunt drained his glass sourly.

                The Railmaster leaned back in his chair, smiling. "Here's the thing, my friend. He can't free her. When I brought her into town I had the smith brand her as a body slave for life. Once she got branded there isn't no way she can be freed unless she heads up north to the Frenchies in Canada. The question will come up when they go in to file the papers, and they won't grant her freedom because she's branded. I don't think Logan knows that."

                Hunt grinned. "She's branded? She's a body slave for life? I can order her to open her legs, and she has to do it?"

                The Railmaster grinned. "If we play our cards right, my friend, I'll get her back and she's yours whenever you want her. All you'll have to do is come to my door and knock, and you can have her anytime."

                Hunt's eyes glittered. "Yeah. So how we gonna do it?" They bent their heads together to plan.

                Logan frowned as he rode up the next morning. For a moment he didn't see Jubilee. Then as his eyes wandered down to a group of Indian youths in the meadow beside the riverbank, he saw her. She was on Thunder, apparently racing some of the other boys and girls. Thunder was far in the lead and the gap between him and the next closest horse was widening. She reached the tree that was apparently the end of the race, and tagged it with her hand before turning around and heading back. Her happy laugh floated back toward him as she passed the two youths on her way back to where the other kids were gathered.

                She got there first, flushed and happy, and was immediately surrounded by a group of laughing girls. The boys hung back a little, glowering, but finally came forward and congratulated her too. One boy reached into his hair, took out a large, beautiful eagle feather, and stuck it in one of her braids. She laughed.

                Running Wolf walked over, turned to look in the direction Logan was looking in, and smiled. "Our girls got into an argument with the boys," he said. "That her horse would beat Little Bear's horse. He denied it, so she challenged him. She has won." He smiled. "The children have given her an Indian name. She is now Sky Eyes."

                She saw him, and waved. A quick word, and she guided Thunder through the crowd of kids and raced up to him. Half of her hair was in braids, the rest flowed behind her in a midnight river. Except for the color of her skin and the shape of her eyes, you wouldn't be able to tell her apart from the other youths. "Having fun?" he teased her, tugging on one of her braids, the one with the feather in it.

                "Everything's so great," she gushed. "It's so much fun here, I wish I could live like this all the time. I have an Indian name now, too! They gave it to me. They call me Sky Eyes."

                Logan grinned. "I'm glad yer havin' fun." He said. "I got somethin'll make ya even happier." He dug the papers out of his shirt pocket and handed it to her. "Here ya go."

                She took it, unfolded the papers. Her eyes roved over it, and then she said, "What is it?"

                Logan blinked. "Ya can't read?"

                Her face went dark pink under her tanned skin, and she dropped her eyes. "No."

                Logan ruffled her hair. "Don't worry. I'll teach ya how ta read. But these're your papers. Yer a free woman soon's we get ta Jackson. I already signed off on 'em, so all ya gotta do is write yer name under mine." He saw her look. "Don't worry. I'll teach ya how ta write yer name. The readin' we can work on later."

                She bounced. "Can we go home now?"

                "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, we can go home now. Fact, we better go home 'fore Red Doe decides she don't wanna give ya back." He ginned at the Indian woman coming up with a bundle of things.

                "Just a few things a woman needs," Red Doe said at his look. "Nothing much. Remember what we talked about, all right, Sky Eyes?" she patted the girl's cheek as Running Wolf fastened the pack to the back of the saddle.

                Jubilee nodded, and Logan suppressed his curiosity. He'd talk to her bout it later. Right now he had other things he wanted to do. Like get to the magistrate in Jackson. "C'mon, kid. Let's get goin'."

                He told her about the visit the night before from Hunt, carefully editing out the part where Hunt had asked him to tell her to sleep with him. He'd never agree to letting anyone between her legs unless that was what she wanted. And it wasn't likely.

                They went home, and Logan took both horses into the yard.  She unsaddled Thunder, and he untacked Dark Star; then he led both to the horse pasture and opened the gate.

                Dark Star went through first, then sped off for the far side of the pasture as Storm saw the new stallion and came racing up, stiff-legged, his entire body tense. This new stallion was a definite threat to his herd, and he was prepared to defend it at all costs.

                Thunder reared, ripping the lead rope out of Jubilee's hand, ignored her shout, and lunged for the other stallion. They met in the middle of the field in a crash of heavy bodies and flying hooves. They rose on their hind legs together, striking out at each other with hard, flinty hooves, and Logan winced as he heard Storm scream in challenge to the other horse.

                Jubilee was suddenly ducking under the fence, and Logan moved just a bit too late to stop her. "Jubilee!" he shouted as he saw her running straight for the battling stallions. "God dang it, girl, do ya wanna get yerself killed?!" He started to scramble under the fence after her.

                She reached the stallions first, and grabbed Thunder's dangling lead rope. He heard her shout something at him, and saw her jerk hard on the rope. Thunder didn't like it, and laid back his ears as he snapped at her. She raised her hand and slapped him on the nose. Logan saw the horse back away, shaking his head, looking extremely surprised. Jubilee didn't pause. She stepped deliberately between the two horses, shouting something at both of them. Storm hesitated, as if fighting the lessons he'd learned about not attacking humans and wanting to go tear into his rival, and then obeyed instinct and stepped forward.

                A white blur streaked past Logan and into the middle of the corral. When he reached the group in the middle of the field, Snow stopped in front of Storm, teeth bared, snarling and growling. Storm stopped dead. Snow snarled, then gave a short, sharp bark. Storm turned around and loped for the far side of the pasture. Jubilee slipped the lead rope off Thunder's neck and was coiling it when Logan finally reached her. "Are you crazy?" he yelled at her as he reached out an engulfed her in a huge hug. "They could have killed you! If Snow hadn't interfered they might have!"

                She twisted her head up to look at him. "I scared you."

                "Damn right you did," he snapped as he hugged her tightly.

                "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I know how much you care about Storm, and how important he is. I just didn't want Thunder to hurt him."

                Logan sighed. "I swear my heart almost stopped," he grumbled.

                Jubilee looked at the three pastures. "Look, if you put Storm and half of the mares in the mare pasture, and Thunder and half of the mares in the other one, and leave the mares in foal in the third one, then they won't fight over whose band it is, because each stallion will have his own girls. Do you think that would work?"

                Logan stared at her in astonishment. It was a neat solution to how he was going to establish a line of Thunder's foals in the herd. He grinned. "Smart kid. Yeah, that'll work. Let's do that."

                It took most of the rest of the day to separate the herd into two groups, and run them into the separate pastures, but it was well worth it. Storm did give Logan a dirty look when he saw some of the mares in Thunder's pasture, but a few lumps of sugar eased the transition for both, and as the sun went down Logan and Jubilee went into the cabin, tired but happy.

                Logan made a hearty stew while she changed and took care of her nightly business. It took a bit longer this time than usual, and he was about to ask her why when he saw the pack Red Doe gave her open on her bed. There were a large number of clouts in there, and as he looked at them Logan realized they were the Indian version of what women wore during their monthlies. He grinned as he returned to his cooking. She was a woman now, not a girl. Well, he'd been expecting this to happen soon; her tunics had been getting a little tight across the chest lately. He also understood why Red Doe had given her the elaborately decorated tunic; among the Indians, a girl becoming a woman was a cause for celebration. He smiled.

                After they were done dinner Logan took a burned stick and a piece of burlap, and gestured her over. She watched intently as he wrote out the alphabet on the smooth floorboards in front of the fire. "This is the alphabet," he said. "These twenty-six letters, in different combinations, make every word in English language." He proceeded to name each letter, waiting for her to say them after him. She repeated each letter obediently.

                He had her memorize each letter, surprised at how quickly she learned them. She was a quick study. Then he rubbed out the writing on the floor with the piece of burlap, and wrote his name on the floor. "What's this letter?" he asked her, pointing.

                "An 'L'," she said.

                "This one?"

                "An 'O'. That's a 'G', that's an 'A', and that's an 'N'."

                He smiled. "All right. Put the sounds together. Just like beads on a string." Jubilee fingered the beaded necklace Red Doe had given her, and smiled.

                "L-l-l, oh, ga, nnn," she sounded out carefully, then repeated the sound. She looked up at him, delighted. "That's your name!"

                "Sure is," he said, equally delighted that she'd figured that out already. "Try this." He wrote her name on the floor.

                "G…no, that's a J, so it's 'juh'," she frowned. "Juh, oo, bbah, ll, ee," she said. "That's my name. Jubilee!"

                "Got it!" Logan clapped his hands together. "Doin' good, kid. Try this." He wrote out her full name on the floor, and she puzzled over it for a few minutes.

"Jubilation Lee," she finally said, smiling. "That's my full name."

He wrote her name again, this time using lowercase letters after the capitals, and then had to explain lowercase letters. She seemed to have trouble with that concept. "I don't understand," she said, frustrated. "Why do they have to have two of the same letter? If they both sound the same, why does each one look different? Like 'A' and 'a'.  'C' and 'c' look alike, and 'O' and 'o', but 'D' and 'd' don't look alike, and 'I' and 'i' look different too."

Logan shook his head. "I don't know why, kid, we just do. Ask Webster why there are two of each letter."

She frowned. "Who's Webster?"

"He wrote a big book that has all the words we use in it, and what each word means. It's called a dictionary." He saw her puzzled look, and shook his head. "It's okay. Never mind."

She looked at the paper she pulled out of the Indian medicine pouch around her neck. "When you signed the bottom with your name it doesn't look like the one you wrote here," she said, puzzled. "Can you teach me why this one looks so much prettier?" she pointed to the paper.

"Prettier?"

"Well, this one's got all kinds of curlicues and curves, and this one," she pointed to the floor "looks like sticks. I want to write like this, all the pretty curves." Logan glanced at his signature. He wouldn't call it pretty, but…he shrugged and taught her how to read and write cursive.

They kept at it long into the night, he surprised by her tenacity, and he got a piece of wood for her to practice writing her name on before she finally signed her name to the bottom of the document, in shaky but legible script, at the bottom of the page that would set her free.