I began to awaken. My vision was blurred, my head swam and throbbed with pain, and for a moment, I had no sense of time or place. Nor did I consider any physical aspects of my very being as I lay there, attempting to gain some measure of conscience. As if struck by a lightning bolt I heard the yelling of men, the savage war cries of the enemy and the whistle and crack of shot and rifles. I sat bolt up.

“Captain Davidson! Captain!” quickly I was aware of a soft, cool rag being wiped across my face and gentle hands easing my shoulders back down into what had turned out to be a very soft bed. A bed? How in the hell did I wind up in a bed? It seems like years since anything other than a cot, a tent or the open ground had been my place of rest. Where was I? Who is this? My head slowly rolled to the left. I began to focus now. Things were becoming clear. Next to the bed sat a woman. A handsome woman with dark hair pinned back tightly. An older woman, how old I could not say? Out here on the plains, life has a way of accelerating time far beyond what normally would progress back east. She wore a white cotton simple dress. I began to take stock of the situation. I was in a house. I was in a bedroom, in fact. Pictures of people I did not know hung on the walls, a dresser complete with simple fineries and even thin curtains hung from a glass pained window. Simple striped wallpaper decorated the walls. The sun was shining brightly outside. The woman was making soothing sounds. I could not disseminate a word until I recognized my name.

“Lieutenant Giles? Lieutenant Giles, it is ok. You are safe now. My name is Mary and I have been taking care of you. You were wounded, do you remember?”

Mary? I don’t know anyone named Mary. Where the hell was I? I was wounded? I don’t remember.

“Do you remember the fight with the dog soldiers? It is ok now. They are gone. You and your captain and the men drove them away. You were injured. I am Mary. You and your men were protecting my family and property.”

“How long have I been here?” I mumbled as the haze began to clear. Thank God the pain in my head was beginning to subside slowly.

“Three days. You haven’t been awake all that much. I bet you are hungry. I have some simple soup. Would you like some?” Now that she mentioned it, yes. Yes I was very hungry. I nodded. She feed me the first spoonful of what might have been chicken in broth. Hell, it could have been dog or horseflesh, I could not tell. Both are good in a pinch anyways.

“Where is the captain? My men?”

“Your men are fine. Most of them are posted around my property. Sergeant Truman is in charge. He is a very nice fellow. They are fine.”

“Captain Davidson?”

“Your captain took a detail back about twenty miles to Ft. Sedgwick, to get supplies, reinforcements and get my daughters to safety until the uprising is fully quashed. I stayed here with you as there was no serviceable wagon in which to move you.”

Now it was returning to me. The dog soldiers. Merciless band of renegade Indians having no loyalty to any particular tribe, therefore never feeling any need to observe any treaties or bounds of decent conduct that impaired their own interests. Most of the tribes feared them. Dog soldiers usually comprised mostly of Cheyenne but could include some of the best warriors from any the Sioux nation or neighboring bands. Supposedly they got their name from the French word for dog, “Chien”, the original name given to the Cheyenne. This may or may not be true. They were responsible for the most savage attacks upon white settlements, farms, and rail or coach stations, even cavalry troops if they felt they had the upper hand. Often they did. This was a savage war here. Make no mistake; a war is what it was, too. Still, it seemed on the army and the settlers knew it was on. Back in Michigan, there was not a soul who wanted to hear of it. There were no great victories to be won, no triumphant returns for the frontier soldier. Not like there was in the late war, anyways. People either thought we were simply murdering innocent women and children and these peaceable children of nature or they thought maintaining a active army in time of peace was offensive and a grand waste of money to begin with. When I returned from my last furlough home, I had pretty much given up the dream of ever returning. Home no longer existed for me. My home was with my troop now. Reality was a blazing summer sun, snakes as thick as the flies, winters so cold as to be nearly unbearable and most of the time, the boredom so stupefying you could cut it with a knife. Female companionship was nearly non-existent.

“You and your men did a wonderful job,’ Mary was explaining, ‘ you managed to kill maybe four or five, wounded twice that number and drove them away. They have not returned since.”

“Are my men…”my voice trailed off.

“Fine. Private Dunn, I am sorry to say, was killed and scalped. You were attempting to reach him. You are very fortunate, Lieutenant. A ball actually went around your skull, opening up a terrible wound, but failed to penetrate the skull. You did lose a lot of blood, Lieutenant. Either you are fortunate or have the hardest head I have ever seen!” Mary laughed. I looked at Mary. Yes. I was not wrong. Beautiful brown eyes, very fair skin and a smile that literally could light the heavens. I was feeling much stronger suddenly. It had been a long time since I had been this close to a white woman. That is not disparaging to squaws, but it is simply a statement of fact. She finished feeding me.

We talked at length. She told me she had two daughters, ages ten and twelve. Captain Davidson thought it was best to evacuate them to safety for the time being. He was probably right. We had all seen what happens to girls even younger if Indians captured them. It was not pretty. That was thing out here. Horrible crimes begat horrible crimes and it was a cycle that seemed never ending and somewhere in the middle was the army, attempting to keep the peace. The white settlers would find a station house of men scalped, skinned, or otherwise brutally tortured and the women made captive and subjugated to the vilest outrages. Even the babies were not sparred. I have witnessed infants with their heads smashed against trees for crying too loudly. Of course, enraged by this, often posses would set out, not really caring if they found the right perpetrators or not, and brutalizing old men or women in some fashion as revenge. Rarely did they find the right band or fight the warriors. Then they would scream for help from the army, as they were themselves now targets of retribution. The settlers would detest us one minute, plead for assistance the next and the Indians themselves might do the same if they were under attack. Meanwhile back east, everyone seemed blissfully ignorant. Fennimore Cooper even wrote a poem. “Lo! The poor Indian!” Hence, when speaking of Indians, we referred to him as ‘Lo’ or “Mr. Lo”. But I digress. We talked a little more. I drifted back to sleep.

I awoke that night, with no light but the moon shining through the window. Mary slept in a chair next to me. Did she ever leave my side? What brought on this devotion from this woman? I had learned Mary had been married until three years ago. Their property, fifty miles north of our present position had been attacked. Mary and her children had nearly been captured. Mary had been severely brutalized by several of the warriors before her own children, until her husband had returned with a group of men he had taken to town for supplies. They had managed to fight off the renegades, but in doing so, Mary’s husband had been killed. She was now nearing forty with two small children alone in this hell on earth. She probably belonged back east. But she said this was her home now. I asked her no more of that question. They had moved closer to Ft. Sedgwick, hoping it would offer more protection. Where she had the money to make this property so fine, I did not ask more of that, either.

I looked at Mary for what must have been twenty minutes. I was really developing feelings for this woman, though she was nearly old enough to be my mother, which I suppose, she could have been, as I had only recently turned twenty five. I felt a lot older than that, to be honest. Several years of cavalry campaigns in this wasteland will do that to a man. I began to fantasize about being with a woman like that. Helping her raise children. Taking care of the farm. Maybe try ranching. I had no wife or connections back home. My parents were in Europe traveling. They had little use for a son in the army. Could I really leave the army and the only life I knew now? Could I be happy living in a domestic setting? My mind kept playing out the possibilities. Yes, she was older, and I am sure it was raise eyebrows back east, but I had no intentions of returning anyways to the confinements and false barriers erected by so-called civilization. If I hated the west for its barbarous nature, I loved it as much for its beauty and freedom. This is a place a man could start fresh.

Mary had her hair down now. It was long, well past her shoulders and dark. Her face, while aged slightly from the sun and way of life, was still beautiful. Her breasts heaved against her soft cotton nightgown. I looked down. She was barefoot. Her feet looked so delicate, as did her hands. Then it dawned on me! It struck me so hard as to make me ashamed! She was in that chair because I was occupying her bed. This would not do at all. I saw my uniform hanging on a wall hook, my pistols and Spencer carbine next to my tall boots. I sat up slowly as not to wake her. I should be down with the men. I am feeling well enough now. I sat up in the bed. Then I heard her soft voice in the darkness.

“Where are you going, Lieutenant? I did not release you from my care yet!”

I laughed softly. My heart leapt. I wanted to tell her what I had been contemplating, but she would think I was a fool. Who was I to think I could have the love of such a woman as this? Especially after all she has been through.

“I have occupied your bed too long, Mary. You need your rest and I should be down with the men.”

“Is that was is bothering, you, lieut…Lieutenant? What is your first name?”

That was a completely unexpected question. “Micah. Micah Morgan Giles.”

“Well, Micah Morgan, you better get back in that bed this instant or shall I reopen your head wound for you?” I had to laugh. She was probably the woman to do it. Then came another revelation I had not noticed till just before this. Under the sheets I was completely naked. Where were my underclothes?

It was as if she had read my mind completely. “I suppose you want those nasty old garments back? Sorry, Micah Morgan. I could not wash them clean. I disposed of them, and besides,’ she said with a wry smile, ‘how was I to wash you with underclothes on?”

“You washed me?” the thought paralyzed me for a moment. After all, that meant she had seen, well, everything! No woman had ever seen me since my mother. I was not married.

“You don’t think you got clean by yourself did you? Besides, I rather enjoyed it, if you’ll permit me to be so bold. And it was apparent you did as well. You are put together rather well, are you not Lieutenant?” Mary arose. “Get back in that bed now. Are you really so afraid of offending me by taking up my one sole bed?” I nodded. “Lay down!” she commanded. Mary began to speak as she walked to her dresser.

“You became rather, how should I put this, excited? Yes, that is the word. You became excited when I washed you the first time, though you were completely unawares.” I just looked at her, now comprehending what she was telling me.

“I haven’t used my cologne in years!” she said, and dabbed some on her neck from a bottle. She inhaled her own scent. I could smell the lilac trace from across the room. “Anyways, I hope you don’t think ill of me, really. It has been years since a man occupied my bed, and I know it was very un-lady like of me, but after all this, I just decided it was a offering meant for me.”

“What are you saying, Mary?” I asked. She turned around. “I decided to relieve you of some stress. You responded well. In fact I decided to relieve you three or four times.”

“Relieve me of stress?” I think I knew what she was saying, but this was an arena of talk I had never entertained with a lady before. She looked at me thoughtfully.

“Please don’t think hard of me. Out here, I have learned to be forward and forgo the usual courtesies we left back east. Besides, Micah Morgan,’ she looked at me and approached the side of the bed. “I only used my hand, but it was very enthralling. Now that you are feeling better, I want my side of the bed back!” with those words, in one motion she lifted her nightshirt over her head and let it drop to the floor. I was completely stunned. I didn’t know what to say. Never in my young life had I heard such a bold woman. I could hear names she might be called back east, but those thought quickly evaporated as I looked up and down her tall slender naked form. She was nearly perfect in my eyes, though I had not experienced the female form undressed before. Small brown nipples capped her soft and full breasts, while neither small nor large. Her belly, while not like a younger woman’s still had good form and her hips were wide and accentuated by a dark patch of thick dark hair where her long legs met. She bent over, pulled back the sheet, and slide under the covers. Without a word she rolled her long body on top of mine. Her soft hands found my shoulders and her warm lips pressed against mine, forcing them open with her tongue. I kissed her back and pressed her breasts to mine. I was growing excited rapidly. She reached down and began to stroke it and laughed. “You really enjoyed this, though you don’t remember this!” I bet I did! My hands went for her breasts and I rolled her over. I began to suck on her nipples as if I was a baby again. She responded with the most tantalizing moan.

“Micah,’ she whispered, ‘let me show you what a good lady should not do!” with that she slid down the length of my body and grasped my phallus with one hand firmly, causing it to stand straight up, and much to my shock and amazement, she opened her mouth and inserted my rock hard member deep between her lips. She began to suck slow, long and hard. Up and down the length of the shaft. She came to the head and kissed it tenderly, flicking her tongue against the pee hole. She laid it back low against my body and with one hand massaging my scrotum sac; she began to lick up the underside of my now throbbing cock, licking the length of the vein. She was bringing me to the point of no return when suddenly she stopped. No! I wanted to scream. I was so close! I had never felt such pleasure.

“Micah, I want you to give me a baby.” My head spun. “That is how you will pay me back. I want a son. Give me your son!” She nearly commanded this. “We can do as you like, and I will do that for you as much as you like after your seed is planted in my womb. Is that a deal? I don’t expect you to marry me, for you probably think I am an old woman and not a very nice lady, but the fact is I have no husband, I am not getting any younger and I want a baby. You are you, you are strong and you are vital. I like your intelligence and mind. You recover from wounds fast and you are a warrior. All that I want to flow in the blood of my last baby.” I was beyond the pale of reasonable contemplation now. She still held my very erect member in her hand.

“Mary, no deal.” Mary looked stunned and sat up. “What?” she nearly shouted as I thought maybe the men outside could hear. “What? Why not? I am not good enough for you, is that it? Not one of your elegant whore incognito puissant ladies, you son of a bitch! I should have known you would be a stuck up hell-bent damn officer soldier boy who thinks he is the cats meow, but you are really just a…” Mary really could put some of my sergeants to shame! Crude as she was, I knew I had found what I was looking for. The west was freedom if was anything, and I was now determined to run free. I roughly grabbed her hair and rolled her onto her back forcefully and kissed her hard on the mouth. Firstly, it served to shut her up. She began beating my back with her fists, but quickly gave way to her nails dragging up and down my back. Secondly, it allowed me now to speak. I broke the kiss, sat up and grabbed her hands placing them at the side of her head. For emphasis, I pressed my still very hard cock against that mound of dark hair. I wanted to regain some measure of control.

“You, Mary, are hard and tough woman. You are plotting things, such as having a baby out of wedlock with an officer of the United States Army. You took liberties with me in my state of unawares. You cuss like a sailor. You are completely outside the bounds of acceptable lady like standards. I should think my parents and decent company would be mortified to meet you and there is no way I could introduce you to decent folks!” I stared at her firmly, and then I smiled. She looked at me hard with eyes that could have cut through me faster than any braves tomahawk might have. “I wont have this at all. If I am to give you a baby,’ I paused for effect. “I expect we shall do the right thing and be married when we get back to Sedgwick. It’s the only proper way dignifying a officer and a gentlemen and his lady.” Mary stared at me for a moment. I stared back. Suddenly, she smiled. “Yes Micah, I will marry you! I have given up finding someone out here in this..” I stopped her with a kiss. I knelt between her long legs. I raised them to my shoulders and placing the head of my still virgin penis against her very wet vaginal lips, I entered my now wife to be until all my member was engulfed inside a haven of warm satin, tight muscles and wetness that flowed from her opening as if Versuvious had ruptured again. I guided the long length in and out, from stem to stern, and with each thrust in, harder and faster until I could feel the head pounding against the deepest crevices inside of her writhe ring body. She was moaning and whimpering with catlike cries and thrashing her hips forward to meet my every thrust. I raised her legs even higher.

“We don’t want to waste a drop of my seed, do we?” “No baby, no. Give it to me. Give it me! Cover me…’she was rolling her head from side to side and violently clawing at my arms.

“I am going to put a baby in you, Mary!”

“Please, baby, please,…awwwwww”

I exploded. I felt my balls completely empty with shot after shot of my fluids as they coated a woman’s womb for the first time. I collapsed in a sticky mess upon her and kissed. We made love all through the night into the morning. She showed me some things I had only heard of, something’s I never dreamt of. That night, all thoughts of dog soldiers were far away from me. I could now look forward to returning to Ft. Sedgwick with a smile.