In The Great Quiet – Laura Vogt (1)

He tried to look at the wound on the back of his arm. “I can do it.” I leaned against my cedar-plank table. “Alright.” “I’m more worried about your sewing ability.” He scrutinized an overdress tossed over a crate. “There’s nothing wrong with my garments,” I said. “Sure. Just the occasional holes and missing buttons.” He closed his eyes. “You don’t sew. Someone did it for you back home.”

How in Sam Hill had he noticed that? I was careful to cover rips whenever I went into town. And furthermore: What had happened back in Kansas didn’t matter anymore. “This is my home.” “Then you’ll need to learn.” “You offering to teach?” He gestured to his satchel. “I have some thread and a needle.” His bag was organized and smelt faintly of oil and nutmeg.

I opened a tin, assuming it held thread. Inside rested a jagged piece of ice-blue lace and a miniature of a delicate, blond woman. I flushed and snapped the tin shut. “Stop nosing about.” He studied me, his gaze on the bones of my wrists. “Don’t flatter yourself.” Though soaking wet and injured, he seemed comfortable sprawled about my cushions.

I found the needle and a spool of white thread, then sat beside him and cleaned his wound with a strip of daisy-printed cotton. He didn’t wince or grimace, but I glimpsed pain in his taut posture. Blood spilled across the fabric, soaking the flowers. My unbound hair fell forward in the gap between us, and candleflame lit the room’s hollows.

I bit my lip. I shouldn’t ask. “Saw a portrait of a woman.” “Mmm.” I wrung out the cloth in a bowl of water. “You married?” He frowned. “You think I’ve been hiding some wife in my cabin all this time?” I braided my hair.

His gaze followed my hands as they flicked down to the ends. “That’s not really an answer,” I said. He closed his eyes. “Not now.” I poured whiskey over the needle and dug around the muscle of his shoulder. He clenched his fists but otherwise showed no reaction. So did he have some wife back in the Dakotas?

A flock of children? Course it wasn’t my business, but sakes alive, perhaps he could’ve mentioned them. His skin was slick with sweat, his gaze curving along my temples, across my cheekbones. I wiped my neck above my gown with a cloth, tried to grasp the bullet. Finally, it plopped out and pinged in the dish. I sighed, fear seeping out, some relief easing back in. If I could stanch the blood, he’d probably be fine. I cleaned his wound, threaded the needle, and pressed it through his ripped skin, rendering fairly uniform stitches.

He said nothing of the gunfight or the woman. And I didn’t mind overmuch. I was okay with secrets.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Lake Union Publishing, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Lake Union Publishing are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. Material from Land in Her Own Name: Women as Homesteaders in North Dakota by H.

Elaine Lindgren used by permission of North Dakota State Press. John Joseph Mathews material from Wah’kon-tah: The Osage and the White Man’s Road (University of Oklahoma Press, 1981) used with permission by the Mathews family. John Lewis Solomon quote via original public domain letter, dated 1879. EU product safety contact: Amazon Media EU S. à r.l. 38, avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg [email protected] ISBN-13: 9781662535307 (paperback) ISBN-13: 9781662535314 (digital) Cover design by Richard Ljoenes Design LLC Cover image: © Mary Wethey / ArcAngel Images; © Em Levesque, © hanshan97, © YRABOTA / Shutterstock OceanofPDF.com for the women my grandmothers the women of my Hays family OceanofPDF.com Contents HISTORICAL NOTE AUTUMN: September to November 1893 Caldwell, Kansas: Boundary Line of Oklahoma Territory September 16, 1893 It begins with the earth.

CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN: Oklahoma Territory—November 27, 1893 CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN WINTER: December 1893 and January 1894 Earth CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Oklahoma Territory—December 22, 1893 CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN: Osage Nation—January 2, 1894 CHAPTER TWENTY CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE CHAPTER THIRTY MIDWINTER: February and March 1894 Earth CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: Oklahoma Territory—February 7, 1893 CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: Osage Nation—February 11, 1894 CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE CHAPTER FORTY CHAPTER FORTY-ONE CHAPTER FORTY-TWO SPRING: March and April 1894 Earth CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: Osage Nation—March 21, 1894 CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE CHAPTER FORTY-SIX CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: Nash, Oklahoma—April 4, 1946 Minnie Leveretta Hoopes .

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This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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