We'd gotten about halfway to the boulder and woman when she noticed us.
"Leave me alone!" She screamed as soon as she saw us approaching.
Jack started to answer her, but I stopped him, saying, "I might have more success if I go from here alone."
Jack and Joe had no argument, so I left them there, going ahead alone.
I'd started to move towards the prisoner at the tree again and at the same time I started to talk to her. "Just relax, the men are staying away so you and I can talk."
The woman said nothing in response, but stared at me intently as I approached her.
"That's better." I was talking quietly as I walked the last few yards to her. "Hi. I'm Sandy."
"Sandy? It is you! But I thought...."
I stood looking at her for a while before I recognized her through the dirt and mud. When I did finally recognized her, I said, "Lisa, right?"
"Yes, I'm Lisa." Her voice was quiet and reserved, full of wonder.
"What did you think?" I asked.
"I, we, thought you were dead."
"Good. If the counsel thinks I'm dead and gone, they won't be looking for us." Lisa just stood and stared at me then shifted her gaze to the men, standing a short distance away, and back again. "I'll tell you all about it in time," I continued. "but first there's some business to take care of."
"Business?" Lisa repeated.
"Yes. Business. You have a choice right now. You can agree to our terms, join us, and live; or, you can tell us to leave, and we will. If you tell us to go, you'll be on your own with little chance of survival. If you join us, you'll be treated well but in return you'll be expected to service the men's needs. For that, you'll be protected and cared for. If you say yes, I'll signal those two men, and they'll come free you. If you say leave, I'll leave you here as you are, and so will they."
Lisa didn't say anything, she just stood and looked at me, then the men a short distance away, then back again. The questions in her mind, visible on her face.
"Lisa, say yes. Please. At least you'll be alive."
Lisa looked back and forth again, then said, "Yes."
I smiled and said. "Thanks, I'm tired of being the only woman in the world!" then turned and waved Jack and Joe to us. They slowly walked to where Lisa and I waited.
Lisa had been nervous as the proverbial "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" when Joe and Jack approached us, but she nearly passed out from the fear when they drew out their knives and went to work carving their way through the thick rawhide collar on her neck. While the two men worked slowly and carefully on her collar, I told her how it had been for me when these men had found me here. After a while Lisa relaxed, and held her mass of Auburn hair out of their way for them, while she and I talked about what had happened since I'd been banished.
"You were pretty lucky to have had this bunch find you here first." Lisa remarked, when I'd finished telling about their finding, and taking me with them.
"Almost as lucky as you are." I returned, "At least you get to take a bath, and have a choice of who will enjoy your, ah, equipment."
We laughed about that, stopping the work on her collar while she shook. Jack said, "We could just leave you two here for now, and come back when your done telling jokes. Now hold still, will you!"
"My name is Lisa."
"It'll be dead if you don't hold still while we get this thing off you!"
Lisa held still, very still.
I asked, "The baby, was it yours?"
"Yes. they took it with them." Lisa's voice held anger, and fear at the same time.
"I've got a baby girl." I told her.
Lisa's eyes grew large with wonder, "Really! Where is she?"
"Just over there." I said, pointing the forest to the east.
"You left your baby alone in the forest?" Lisa was shocked.
"No. She's not alone. I left her with the other three men I'm with."
"Other three!"
"Yes. This is Jack." Jack nodded at her in response, while he held her collar for Joe to work on, "and that's Joe." Joe stopped carving while he smiled and nodded his response, then went back to work. "There are three more waiting out of sight over there, and they are probably inspecting you in detail through that spyglass of Terry's."
Joe lifted his knife from Lisa's collar laughing. "You don't have to tell all our secrets!" he was kidding, smiling, relaxed and comfortable to be around. Jack and Joe traded jobs, going back to work on the collar. Lisa sort of covered herself as best she could from the possible perusing spyglass.
"Lisa." I was teasing. "if you've got it, flaunt it!"
Lisa blinked back at me, then understood. "I guess modesty it out of place!"
"Still the master of understatement." I said to her, then to the men, "How much longer?"
"Not much, maybe by morning." teased Jack.
We were silent for a while, the men busy at Lisa's collar. After a while Lisa asked, "Who are the others?" she motioned towards the forest.
"Besides Jack and Joe, here, there are Lance, Terry and Jason."
"Is that all?"
"Isn't that enough?"
"I don't know, is it?" Lisa was grinning wickedly.
"Sometimes, no. At other times, it's five too many!" Lisa and I were laughing again, but this time she managed to hold herself still.
"How are they?" Lisa was asking mostly to tease the two men.
"Not bad, after I trained them."
"Shit!" Joe remarked. "Women are full of shit." He was addressing Jack.
"They'll be full of something else before the day is done." Jack's voice was light, carrying humor.
"Oh, is that a threat, or promise?" Lisa winked at me when she said it.
"Neither, it's fact." Joe spoke absently, concentrating on the collar.
Lisa raised her eyebrows at me. "I thought you told me I'd have a choice."
"Only about who is first, second, third, and fourth." I replied.
"Aren't there five?" Lisa asked.
"Yes, but I plan on Keeping one for myself!"
Lisa looked at me for a while, then asked, "Aren't you the one who cried "Foul" when Geoff and I tried to pair off, so to speak?"
"Yes." I replied, "and I'm sorry I did that. I was wrong."
Lisa accepted the apology with a small smile, but that was the end of our conversation until later, when the collar was cut, and we were at a small cooking fire making dinner for all seven adults in camp.
Shortly Jack announced, "Done. We can go now."
The four of us walked quietly eastward to where Lance, Jason, and Terry waited with the horses and Mary.