Cole fell back and gazed at the youngster cowering in front of him. During his frontier life he had witnessed many deprivations, experienced the very worst that human beings are capable of doing to one another, but this … The senseless murder of an infant was beyond anything he could accept. Curling his hand into a bunched fist, he glared towards the boy who sat, lips quivering, staring into the ground. “The girl. Adeline?” The boy looked up. “I think she’s in the church, yes?”
He nodded. “She told me she would meet up with her companions here, that it was all planned. She’s an Indian and so are they.”
“A raiding party. And a damned clever one at that. They duped me, that’s for sure.”
“Duped you? I don’t understand.”
Before he could expand further, a great eruption of shouting from out
