In the Face of Danger Read Online Free Page A

should put your mind to the problem. I’d be ready to listen to good advice,” Ben said.
    His grin was teasing, and Megan smiled back, but Emma said firmly, “Megan, I haven’t told you about the room where you’ll sleep. There’s a trundle bed in it, with a quilt pieced in a wedding ring pattern, all blues and reds. My mother made it for me when I was a child.” Shegave a little bounce of excitement. “I know! We’ll plant sunflower seeds under your window. Have you ever seen a sunflower?”
    Megan shook her head, and Emma said, “Sunflowers grow wild in Kansas during the summer. They’re tall, with gold faces the size of dinner plates. When you wake each morning you’ll see them shining in at you like a row of bright suns.”
    In the distance Megan saw a small group of people coming in their direction. There were two men on horseback, and there was something dragging on the ground behind one of the horses. Other people walked beside the horses. Their clothing was strange, and as they came closer Megan could see that two of them were wrapped in blankets. The black hair, the dark skin—Megan gasped and clutched Emma’s arm. “Indians!” she whispered. Mike had enjoyed terrifying the younger children with bone-chilling tales of Indian massacres. Megan had known that Indians lived out West, but she had never expected to see real Indians up close.
    “They’re traveling from one place to another, just as we are,” Ben said evenly, but Megan, close beside him on the wagon seat, could feel his muscles tense.
    “It looks like a family,” Emma whispered. “Are they Kaw, do you think? Or Osage?”
    Megan’s eyes were drawn to the rifles held in slings at the side of the saddles. “W-will they t-try to kill us?” she managed to stammer.
    “Not this group,” Ben reassured her. “As I said, they’re just travelers like us.”
    “How can that be?” Megan asked. “Mike said that Indians are savages, and they shoot arrows at people and cut off their hair, skin and all, and leave them for dead.”
And steal children
, she thought, but this was too terrifying to say aloud.
    “There’ve been Indian wars, and there are more to come, I’m afraid,” Ben said, “but there are plenty of Indians who want only to be left alone to live in peace.”
    The traveling group was close to them now. Ben touched the brim of his hat and held up one hand, palm out. One of the men on horseback held his right hand up in the same gesture.
    “Peace,” Ben murmured.
    Megan tried not to stare at the fringed and beaded jackets and leggings, the blankets wrapped around the women on foot and the old person peering out from the horse-drawn sling. Megan glanced into the eyes of a girl, probably close to her own age, that were as black as her hair. There was no expression on the girl’s face, not even curiosity, and Megan wondered what the girl might be thinking.
    The taller woman suddenly called out something. One of the men on horseback wheeled his horse and reined him in directly in front of the Browders’ wagon, blocking their way. Unable to go forward, Ben halted his team.
    “What do they want?” Emma whispered. She clutched Megan’s hand so tightly that it hurt, and Megan knew Emma was afraid.
    “I don’t know,” Ben said in a quiet voice. Megan saw him glance quickly at his rifle, which was on the floorboards near his feet.
    The woman spoke to the man again, then turned and stared greedily at Megan.
This is what the gypsy meant
, Megan said to herself.

4

    M EGAN CLUNG TO Emma, so terrified that for a moment she felt faint. Her ears buzzed, and pinpricks of light flashed before her eyes, blinding her. Megan was so sure that the Indian woman wanted her it took a few moments for her to realize that the Indian man on horseback had spoken only one word: “Food.”
    The Indian woman’s gaze moved from Megan to the wagon bed, and Megan sighed with relief, slumping against Emma. The woman had probably been as curious about