Chapter 2

In her own bed, Dorothy pulled her cotton dress off. She did sigh slightly as this afforded some trapped heat to escape. Then she hefted the heavy woolen shift and flung it into her wicker basket; the sweat stains underneath the arm holes were quite unpleasant in appearance and quite unpleasant in aroma as well.

A daring thought entered her mind and Dorothy lay down on her bed, nude. She pulled just the thin cotton sheet up to cover herself, leaving the patchwork quilt bunched up around her mid-section. Then her hand wandered over her large breasts. Her hand twisted and tugged her right, then her left nipple. She repeated, pinching and tugging forcefully on her right nipple, pulling her large breast away from her torso.

Dorothy grimaced against the pain. Releasing her right nipple, she then pinched and tugged her left nipple.

“Ugh!” she grunted, enjoying the jolt of pain that coursed from nipple to belly.

Then she used both hands to pinch and twist and tug at her nipples. She gritted her teeth as she lifted her torso off of the straw mattress.

Her furry slit was already quite wet with her excitement as she reached between her legs. She now used her left hand to tease and torture her nipples, she used her right hand to run up and down her wetness.

“Ugh!” she grunted again.

Her thumb and forefinger found her pleasure bud and she gave it a cruel pinch. She shuddered as her pleasure crested. After her breathing returned to normal, Dorothy licked her fingers clean of her own essences.

Her last action was to slip her flannel nightshirt on. It would not do to slumber in the nude; supposed Nathan awoke and came into her bedroom, needing her?

In the morning, Nathan again expressed a desire to see his new friend, Tey Ogan. Dorothy tried to devise a way to distract her child as she used her button hook to fasten her leather boots. A visit to Robert’s house was suggested.

Sarah Elgin agreed to watch Nathan while Dorothy did her wash. The deal was, Dorothy would watch Robert while Sarah went to the mercantile that afternoon.

“And probably need you watch him tomorrow; need catch up on my own washing,” Sarah agreed. “Know you wouldn’t know, but having wash my husband’s clothes? Wonder I got time do nothing else, I declare.”

“I declare there is a place in Hell for women like you,” Dorothy thought bitterly as she returned to her home. “Yes, Mrs. Elgin, my husband did not survive the war. But at least my husband had the courage to actually go into battle.”

Dorothy was nearly finished with the bedding; a dunk into the wash bin with the harsh soap, a good scrub on the washboard, then a dunk into a second tub of clean water to get the suds out of the cloth, then a dunk into the third tub and a quick run through the wringer to squeeze the excess water out. Dorothy was sure she felt eyes upon her; she made sure that her dress had not bunched up, exposing her haunches before peering over her shoulder.

“Oh!” Dorothy gasped, seeing Kuy Neer and Tey Ogan standing and smiling at her. “You are here.”

“My little one wants to see her friend,” Kuy Neer explained, then glanced away. “And I want to see my new friend.”

“”Here, wait here, I will, he, Nathan is not here but I will fetch him,” Dorothy said, getting to her feet.

She quickly, efficiently pinned the sheets to the long strand that had been strung between a tree and a post. Then she gave Kuy Neer a quick kiss and bustled away.

“You not done already?” Sarah asked.

“No, no, but Nathan’s new friend is at the house asking for Nathan,” Dorothy said.

“But you still going mind Robert, right?” Sarah asked.

“Yes, yes, of course,” Dorothy agreed.

Robert whined and fussed so Dorothy agreed to take both boys. Sarah promised to be some time after the noontime meal to fetch Robert.

“Of course, so it will be my duty to feed him, eh?” Dorothy muttered as the two boys skipped ahead toward her home.

Upon returning to her home, Dorothy found that Kuy Neer and Tey Ogan had done much of her washing in her absence. Tey Ogan was delighting in working the wringer and Kuy Neer was a vigorous scrubber on the washboard. For a long moment, Dorothy watched as Kuy Neer’s buttocks flexed and strained as the Indian beauty knelt next to the first washtub.

“Tey Ogan,” Dorothy called out. “Look who came to see you.”

Tey Ogan squealed happily and came to where Nathan and Robert stood. Quickly, the three formed a game of tag and ran about the small rear lawn, shrieking and squealing.

While the children played, Kuy Neer and Dorothy completed the wash. Then Dorothy poured the water onto her small vegetable garden.

“Coffee?” she asked Kuy Neer.

“Yes,” Kuy Neer agreed.

At the small kitchen table, Kuy Neer grabbed Dorothy’s hands, inspecting the woman’s fingernails. Then she pulled a small stone from her bag and gently began to buff Dorothy’s fingernails. She smoothed away Dorothy’s chipped, rough edges.

After Kuy Neer finished smoothing out the roughness of Dorothy’s fingernails, Kuy Neer gently caressed Dorothy’s face with her own fingernails, wordlessly showing Dorothy why she had tended to Dorothy’s fingers. Wordlessly, Dorothy gently caressed Kuy Neer’s face. Then the two women kissed.

When Beauregard had kissed his wife, it was always with the tinge of whiskey or beer on his tongue. His face bore a permanent patina of whiskers; Beauregard could not manage to grow a full beard. His lips were often cracked. His kisses, like his words and his touches were always harsh.

Kuy Neer’s lips were soft, moist. Her tongue tasted of honey. Her fingers trailed from Dorothy’s face to Dorothy’s heavy breasts. Kuy Neer’s touch was soft, gentle.

Dorothy felt that familiar warmth beginning in her loins, that tingle she felt when she pleasured herself.

“I could feel that we are friends,” Kuy Neer whispered and kissed Dorothy again.

“Momma I’m hungry,” Nathan announced and the two women pulled apart.

Dorothy nodded her head and got to her feet. She placed a heavy cast iron skillet onto the stove and dropped a pat of lard into the pan.

Kuy Neer and Dorothy made quick work of whipping together corn meal, wheat flour and eggs and milk. Dorothy quickly diced up green peppers and onions as well as a large hunk of salted pork.

At the stove, Kuy Neer stood to Dorothy’s left, watching as Dorothy scraped around the edges of the heavy pan, thoroughly wilting the onions and peppers. Then, with a nod from Dorothy, Kuy Neer poured the corn meal batter into the sizzling skillet.

Dorothy draped her left arm around Kuy Neer’s waist. Kuy Neer draped her arm around Dorothy’s waist.

Then Dorothy began to lightly scratch Kuy Neer’s exposed flesh with her newly smoothed fingernails. Kuy Neer shivered, then sighed.

Dorothy grew bold and dipped her hand underneath Kuy Neer’s buckskin blouse. She could feel the undersides of Kuy Neer’s large breasts. She could feel the sweat underneath Kuy Neer’s mounds of flesh.

Again, Kuy Neer shivered, then sighed. She turned and the two women kissed softly.

“I do feel that we are friends,” Kuy Neer whispered.

“This is always the difficult part of skillet pie,” Dorothy said, trying to wedge the spoon underneath the nearly cooked dough.

“Let me,” Kuy Neer said, taking the spoon from Dorothy’s hand.

Seemingly without effort, Kuy Neer managed to flip the pie over. The pan gave a loud hiss and then quieted.

Dorothy sliced the pie in half. One half, she then divided into three wedges, the other, she divided into two wedges.

“Nathan, Robert, Tey Ogan,” Dorothy called out.

Each child was made to wash their hands in the kitchen sink, perched on a stepstool. Then the three children and two women sat at the kitchen table.

Sarah had said she would come for Robert after the noontime meal. It was actually growing closer to the evening meal when Sarah Elgin finally did amble up.

“The shadows grow long; we must leave,” Kuy Neer said sadly as Sarah and a whining Robert left.

“Please do not go,” Dorothy begged. “Nathan says you live where the two rivers join; that is too far.”

“Tey Ogan is remembering where we used to be,” Kuy Neer smiled. “We are above the stables now.”

“The stables? The smell! No, no, please, please stay,” Dorothy pleaded.

Nathan and Tey Ogan continued to play with Nathan’s toys while the two women cooked the evening meal.

“I like them…” Kuy Neer whispered as Dorothy’s hand again travelled underneath her buckskin blouse.

Thus saying, Kuy Neer grabbed Dorothy’s wandering hand. She placed it onto the nipple of her left breast and pinched Dorothy’s fingers quite firmly onto the hard nub. Kuy Neer shivered as Dorothy squeezed and twisted her hard nipple.

“Mm!” Kuy Neer grunted into Dorothy’s mouth.

“Yes, Kuy Neer, we are friends,” Dorothy agreed, showing Kuy Neer that she was pinching and twisting her own nipple through the bodice of her dress.

“Oh!” Dorothy gasped and shuddered as Kuy Neer leaned forward, captured Dorothy’s other hard nipple in her teeth, and gave a sharp bite.

“I will get you for that,” Dorothy playfully warned and kissed Kuy Neer.

“I tremble with fear,” Kuy Neer playfully sneered.

After the evening meal, Kuy Neer wanted Dorothy to comb and brush her dark hair. Dorothy bade Nathan to also brush Tey Ogan’s long dark hair.

“Oh!” Kuy Neer giggled when Tey Ogan gave Nathan a soft kiss, lips to lips when he declared he was done.

Then Tey Ogan began to brush Nathan’s long blond locks. Dorothy knew it was past time to have Mr. Nelson, the town barber shear Nathan’s long blond hair. Dorothy however, could not bring herself to do so. Every time Dorothy would dress Nathan, put his hard shoes on his small feet, and then take his hand to bring him to Mr. Nelson’s, her tears would begin to fall.

“Next week,” Dorothy would then promise herself.

Tey Ogan giggled when Nathan was stripped and then dressed in his sleep shirt. In her native tongue, she told her mother it looked as if Nathan was wearing a dress.

Nathan also giggled when Tey Ogan’s buckskin clothing was removed and one of Nathan’s sleep shirts was draped onto Tey Ogan. Tey Ogan wiggled and shimmied about, enjoying the feeling of the long gown.

Dorothy was pleased to see that Tey Ogan knelt and said prayers, just as Nathan prayed. She didn’t understand the words the Indian child used, but Tey Ogan did finish her prayers with ‘Amen!’

Kuy Neer then recited the proud heritage of the Ridge tribe, their adversities as they travelled from a territory north, where the snow never thawed, the mythological beasts they had to slay in order to claim the land they now occupied. She spoke of the heroic, brave women that used their cunning to guide the brash boastful men of their tribe. These women managed to guide these men to doing their will, always allowing the men to believe that it had been the man’s decision, never suspecting that they’d been duped.

“Much talk, much boasting, much promises that disappear with that day’s sunset. Women do not boast, they do not promise, they use their heads instead,” Kuy Neer finished her story as the children slept.

In her bedchambers, Dorothy turned the kerosene lamp wick down so that it softly illuminated the small room. She then removed her leather boots, then shimmied out of dress and woolen shift.

Dorothy shivered as she stood, nude in front of Kuy Neer. Kuy Neer looked at Dorothy’s full, heavy breasts, pale in the dim lighting of the lamp. She looked at the large, hard nipples that dotted the large breasts. She looked at the pale belly, with slight paunch that led down to a sparse thicket of crinkled red hairs capping a plump mound.

Dorothy’s inner lips peeked through the carrot orange sprigs, plump and wet. Kuy Neer felt her own inner lips beginning to plump, to become slick with moisture. She flung her buckskin blouse to the floor, then loosed the knot at the side of her hip and allowed her buckskin flap to fall to the floor.

“Oh! You, do Indians not…” Dorothy asked, looking at Kuy Neer’s hairless mound.

“Pluck it,” Kuy Neer admitted, lifting her arm, displaying her hairless armpit. “We do not like hair on our bodies; it is not needed.