Bought Love

Chapter 7

Peeta

"You want to go to the reservation?" Katniss asks, very surprised.

"Your family needs to know about the baby," I say.

"My family sold me to your father!" She says. "They don't deserve to know anything about me or this baby. I may have fallen for you, I may be having your baby, but that doesn't mean I've forgiven them for treating me like property." She looks so upset, it hurts. I knew this would make her upset, but I hadn't realized how bitter she still was about all this.

"It wasn't all of them," I say. "Just your mother. The others, they must care about you." She looks down at her feet. "We're leaving next week. This is probably the last time you'll see them."

"Not if the Union Soldiers keep pushing them," she says. "If the Dog Soldiers can't unite, they will have to follow the trail of tears West." Tears run down her cheeks and she looks down at her rounded belly. "Our child has blossomed with the spring. I do not wish to wilt it with the hatred between your people and mine."

"Your mother was white, and you turned out fine," I say.

"I turned out to be a halfbreed who was teased all her life, who had to fight all her life to prove her worth to the tribe," she says. "And they still let my mother sell me." She shakes her head. "No Peeta, I just can't. It's too painful."

"But what about Prim?" I ask. "Don't you want to see your sister?" She sighs and looks at me.

"My sister was the only thing I ever truly cared about after Crowfeather's death," she says. "And I never even said goodbye."

"All I'm asking is for you to go there for an afternoon," I say. She reluctantly nods and plays with the end of her braid.

"Saddle our horses and I will gather some food for our lunch," she says. I nod and kiss her cheek.

"I love you," I whisper and she nods.

"I love you too," she says and I gently touch her swollen abdomen before going out to the barn. I check on Little Cloud and her new calf, who we are going to sell so we have some money in our pockets. Rocky, sticks his head out of his stall and snorts at me, flicking his black and red mane. He stamps his foot impatiently while Betsy, my brown speckled white filly, just patiently watches. But I guess I can understand his restlessness. Katniss hasn't taken him out for nearly a month. The only sunshine he's gotten is out on a picket line. I walk over to him and stroke his nose.

"Don't get agitated, buddy," I say. "She's gonna take you out today. But you gotta be careful. She can't balance as well as she used to." I open his stall and get to work on putting Katniss' riding blanket and braided halter before putting my gear on my own horse. Looking at the blue roan, with just a blanket and slim halter around his nose, I can't help but wish she'd used a saddle. But it's something I've learned not to fight her on.

Betsy knickers softly and raises her head to look where Rocky had been staring as Katniss walks in, a small pack slung on her shoulder, her deep wine colored dress brushing her bare feet. She smiles at me and walks over to her horse. He lays his head over her shoulder and she wraps her arms around his neck. She clicks to him and he kneels so she can climb over his shoulders and onto his back. She holds tight to his mane as he stands and laughs, patting his shoulder. She turns to me and sighs.

"You ready?" She asks. I nod and take Betsy's reins as I open the door so Katniss can ride out and shut it before mounting my own horse. I follow Katniss as she leads Rocky towards the Cherokee reservation at a reasonable pace considering she's nearly four months pregnant.

The first thing I see is the smoke rising from the middle of the camp and I hear the soft, hearty voices of the women singing. Katniss stops just above the valley and I stop beside her.

"It is just as I remembered," she says. "The women working in the field and my mother down there with White wing in the medicine tent. And it, they don't even seem to miss me."

"It's been nearly a year," I say, "I'm sure  they have just adapted. She nods and let's Rocky ease his way down the hill. She gets about half way there when I see a young girl who doesn't seem to fit with her pale hair and eyes runs out of one of the tepees and up the hill.

"Katniss!" She calls, "You're home!" Katniss stops her horse and slides off his back as her sister reaches her. The young girl wraps her arms around Katniss as she embraces her sister. They talk softly to each other and then Katniss looks back at me. She beacons for me to come over and I ride Betsy down to where she and Prim wait. I dismount my horse and stand hesitantly back.

"Little Duck," Katniss says softly. "This is Peeta."

"The man mother sold you to?" She asks, looking horrified. Katniss shakes her head and gently touches the girls shoulder so she looks at her.

"Mother sold me to his father," she says. "Peeta had nothing to do with it."

"But you are carrying his child," she says.

"Of my own free will," Katniss says. "I'm carrying the child of the man I love, my sister. Not of the one who treated me like property. I've accepted him as my husband. He is your brother now."  Prim looks at me curiously.

"You promise?" She asks.

"By the time I knew anything, they were already forcing your sister into her wedding garments," I say. "I promise, I never intended for your sister to be treated as she was." She smiles and runs up to me, wrapping her skinny arms around my waist.

"Welcome to our family," she says before pulling away and taking my hand in her tiny one. "Come on, let me show you around our homelands."