She started by him, intending to climb to the rocky perch overlooking the trail to watch Luke's approach, but Gold Elk held her back. "He is not hurt."
She laughed, relieved. "Then why do you look so upset? You should be happy. Like me." She started by him again, but he continued to hold her. She was getting annoyed. "What is wrong with you? Let me go."
"I should prepare you. I should tell you he is not alone."
"He has men with him? Some of the renegades have asked to come back into our fold?" She could think of no one else.
Gold Elk hated to tell her, for he was afraid of what it might mean for Luke to return with the woman, sure she was the one from the fort. Like the others, Gold Elk felt deeply for Sunstar and would be sad if she went away. "It is a woman."
Iris began to smile. She was not surprised. It was time for Luke to take a wife. And she was sure she would love her as he did. "Can you tell what band she is from? She is Comanche, isn't she?"
Some of the women had gathered to hear what Gold Elk was saying, and they gasped as one when he announced, "No. She is white."
Iris struggled with her own reaction. Dear God, surely Luke had not taken a woman captive. He would never do such a thing, not since his education at the mission school. She could not imagine his doing something so barbaric as to abduct anyone, man or woman.
Several of the younger woman, unmarried and daring to dream they might be chosen for the wife of their leader, began to wail. "Take them away until they can calm themselves," Iris said, snapping her fingers. She had enough to cope with without having to listen to them.
Gold Elk pointed. "Here they come."
Jacie now rode behind Luke on his stallion, clinging to him, arms about his waist. Peering timidly over his shoulder, she saw the women staring curiously, noting that while their hair was hacked off raggedly, their faces were meticulously painted, with red lines above and below their eyelids, some of them crossed at the corners. Their ears were painted red inside, and both cheeks had been daubed with a solid circle of orange and red. They wore drab, plain dresses of buckskin, and ankle-high moccasins.
But one of them, Jacie noted curiously, stood out and apart from the rest. She was wearing a beaded and fringed blouse of buckskin, a skirt with an uneven hemline that fell to her ankles, and low-cut moccasins. Unlike the others, her eyes were lined in yellow, and the painting on her cheeks was in the shape of a triangle. She heard the woman call out to Luke hesitantly and asked, "Is that your mother?"
"Yes." Luke dismounted, leaving Jacie where she was. "Stay here." He started toward Sunstar.
Iris could see the girl was indeed white, and also that she appeared to be quite pretty, her dark black hair framing a heart-shaped face, but she was too far away to tell anything else about her.
"Oh, my son, don't tell me you have taken a captive," Iris said worriedly when he embraced her. She steeled herself for his admission that he had when he did not step back but kept his hands firmly upon her shoulders.
"She came of her own free will, Mother."
A sigh of relief escaped her lips, and she chided herself for ever doubting him. Then the myriad of questions bubbled forth: "Where did you meet her? How did you meet her? And what is her name?"
Luke glanced over his shoulder long enough to make sure Jacie was obeying him and staying put. Then he took Iris's arm and steered her far enough away from the others that they could not be overheard. He could see Gold Elk anxiously looking on and knew he had figured out who Jacie was.
Iris was feeling apprehensive again, "What's wrong? Why aren't you introducing me to her? I want to meet her—"
"And you will." Luke cupped her chin, forcing her to meet his steady gaze. "But first I want to tell you her name."
His demeanor was making her uneasy. "Go on," she said.
"Her name is—" He drew a ragged breath and held it for a second, then said, "Jacie."
He tensed for her reaction, but she merely stared at him. The name did not register. It had been a long time, and there was no reason to make any connection—yet.
"That's a lovely name. And she's a lovely girl, as best I can tell from here. Take me to meet her. I'm happy for you, Luke. I really am, though I'm afraid there are a few who don't feel the same." She nodded toward the sound of young girls weeping over crumbled dreams.
Luke could feel Jacie's eyes boring into his back and knew she must be wondering what was going on, why he was taking so long, how his mother was reacting to the news. "Her name is Jacie," Luke repeated, more firmly this time, firing the words like bullets, wanting to get it all said as quickly as possible, "She came here from the east to look for her mother, who was taken by Indians more than eighteen years ago. Her father and her brothers were killed. Only she and her aunt, her mother's sister, survived. Her aunt raised her as her own child. Her aunt's name was Violet; she died not long ago...."
But Iris was listening no longer. His hands fell away from her, and she stepped back as if in a trance.
Jacie... Violet... The names fought to rise above the great roaring within, as she walked toward where the girl sat on the stallion, staring with apprehension.
And in that crystallized moment, everything around Iris faded like the mist at sunrise, and in its place, the past came rushing back, bold and bright—her precious baby, given to her sister to nurse. They had walked away from the wagons to disappear among the rocks and waist-high saw grass. She could see it all so clearly once more. And then came the screams... the awful screams... the gunfire, the hacking of tomahawks and knives and the shrieks of the dying amidst the fire and smoke. A nightmare of long ago, only now it was back but different than before, because all was not lost. And with a great halo of realization bursting all around her, Iris Banner knew that her world had not ended at that scene of carnage all those years ago, because she had only to look into the young girl's eyes to know that she was actually looking inside her very own soul.
"My baby. Oh, dear God, it's my baby..." She was barely able to speak past the swelling of her heart that filled her bosom and squeezed her throat. She held out her arms, tears streaming down to smear the painted red triangles on her sun-bronzed cheeks. Her lips trembled, sobs bursting forth as she cried hoarsely, "Jacie, my baby. It is you. Oh, my precious darling, you're alive. You didn't die. You didn't die."
Jacie blinked, shock momentarily imprisoning her in a velvet cocoon. But then she came alive, and with a scream of joy scrambled from the horse and leapt upon her mother to wrap her arms about her. "I don't believe it. Sweet Jesus, I don't believe it. This can't be so...."
And then they were clinging together, crying together, and Luke motioned to the other women to go back to their tasks, to grant Sunstar and Jacie privacy in their golden moment.
He went to where Gold Elk stood frowning.
"Why did you bring her here?" Gold Elk angrily demanded. "You know she will take Sunstar away."
"Neither of them are going anywhere," Luke was pleased to be able to assure him.
Gold Elk's brows rose sharply. "You are going to make the young one stay? She will be kept against her will?"
Luke gave him a hearty pat on the shoulder. "You ask too many questions. You're worse than a woman. Now go help the men with their hunting and tell them to hurry, because there's going to be a wedding."
Gold Elk let out a loud whoop of joy and ran to his horse. Placing his hands on the animal's rump, he vaulted onto its back, then took off in a cloud of dust. He could not wait to tell the news. Not only had Sunstar found her daughter, but their leader had found a wife.
Still clinging to Jacie, crying unashamedly, Iris started to lead her to the privacy of her tepee, but Luke took Jacie's hand and said, "Mother, let me have a word with her first, please."
Drawing her to one side, he quickly explained why he had lied to her before. "It was selfish, I know, but I love her, too, Jacie, and I didn't want her to be taken away, only to be hurt back in your world."
Jacie could understand that but w
as hurt herself to think he had planned to send her back without her ever knowing the truth. "It will take me some time to forgive you for almost letting me leave.”
He laughed then, playfully tweaking her nose. "Why do you think I was out there waiting for you, little one? If you hadn't come back, as I was hoping you would, the settlement of Nacogdoches would have had a one-man Indian raid that night, because I assure you I would have turned savage and ridden in there to find you. Then my mother would have been mad at me for taking a white woman captive. Don't you know now I couldn't let you go, Jacie?" he asked tenderly.
She felt warm all over, glowing with more happiness than she ever dreamed possible. She wanted to throw her arms around him and kiss him again and again, and he was likewise having difficulty holding back from embracing her, but neither dared with the women watching from a distance.
"Go now," he told her, their locked gaze conveying secret messages of desire. He wanted her and Sunstar to relive the past eighteen years as quickly as possible so they could begin the rest of their lives—together.
Some of the women obediently and hastily erected Luke's tepee for him, then brought him food and drink. He ate his fill of deer stew and turnips, then wearily sank onto the bed of thick blankets of soft rabbit fur and fell asleep, dreaming of how good it would be to awaken later with Jacie beside him.
* * *
In the mellow glow of the small campfire burning outside the open door of the tepee, Iris drank in the sight of Jacie and thought surely she had to be dreaming. Holding the locket and its daguerreotype, she listened to her daughter's story, then said, "I can understand and forgive why Violet did what she did. She and Judd hadn't been getting along, and she was afraid he wouldn't want to stay married to her once he found out the baby they had both wanted for so long was born dead. With no one to know any different, I suppose it was all too tempting not to go through with such a deception.
"But how were you able to find me?" she went on to ask in wonder. "You had nothing to go on except the story of how I ran away from the fort all those years ago."
"Enough about me," Jacie said, laughing. "Tell me why you did run away. No one could understand."
And Iris obliged, explaining that she had felt she had no reason to go back, and how she had come to feel she belonged with the Comanche, loving Luke as her own son, and yes, she admitted, she had begun to care for Great Bear as well.
They talked on, the hours slipping away. Jacie told all about Mehlonga, how he had made sure she got to Bird's Fort, and finally about the horror of being abducted by Black Serpent.
Iris's face went cold. "Did he... hurt you in the a way a man can hurt a woman?"
"That was his intention, but I poisoned him before he could."
"But how?"
Jacie described what she had done with the morning glory seeds, how Mehlonga had taught her about them along with other herbs and potions.
Iris was impressed. "You must take after my father and me, with your interest in medicine. And there's so much more I can teach you, but..." She fell silent to think how they had talked of nothing but the past, with no mention of the future. She did not want to speak of that just yet and asked, "What about your life back in Georgia? I want to hear everything. As beautiful as you are, you must have many beaus. Maybe even a husband?"
"No husband," Jacie said.
"But a beau?"
Jacie nodded and told her all about Michael, intending to finish by explaining how she now knew why she had never been able to tell him she loved him, but her mother interrupted, "If he had asked you to marry him, why would he let you come on such a dangerous journey by yourself? Why didn't he come with you?"
Jacie lowered her eyes. "I didn't tell him."
"I see," Iris said quietly, at once understanding how Jacie had known Michael would not have condoned her search, and, no doubt, would not want anyone to hear of such a scandal, much less about her mother living with Indians.
Jacie suspected her mother was afraid she was going to ask her to go back with her and sought to allay her fears. "None of that matters, because—"
But Iris would not let her continue, deciding to settle the matter once and for all. "Listen to me, my child," she said in a rush. "I am glad we found each other, but do not ask me to return with you, please. These are my people now. I don't belong back there. But you do. So I want you to stay for a visit, as long as you like, and then Luke can take you to a settlement to begin your journey home. But let's just enjoy each other for now and not waste time arguing about my leaving, all right?" Oh, she hoped Jacie understood. Leaving was out of the question, and never would she expect Jacie to give up her own life for her.
"Mother," Jacie tried again, "you don't understand. I just told you how I realized that I could never tell Michael I loved him because I didn't, and I never will, and—"
"And he sounds like a wonderful man," Iris cut in again, smiling to show she approved. She held up the diamond and amethyst necklace Jacie had shown her. "He gave you this. A man who gives a woman something so fine has to be generous. You will learn to love him. He will make you a good husband."
"I'm sure he would, but—"
"He's probably worried sick about you. And why did you bring this, anyway?" She admired the necklace. "You might have lost it."
"I didn't know I was bringing it, Mother," Jacie said quickly, wanting to take charge of the conversation so she could tell her about Luke. "A child put it in there without my knowing, thinking I could sell it if I didn't have the money to get back home, but that isn't important. You have to listen to me. I'm not leaving you—"
"Yes, you are," Iris insisted. "Now please, let's don't spoil our time together arguing about it."
"Mother, please. Be quiet and hear me out."
She spoke so sharply Iris's eyes went wide.
"I'm trying to tell you something very important," Jacie said, heart full to bursting, "I'm not leaving you, not ever—because I'm not leaving Luke."
It dawned then, and Iris felt fresh tears welling.
"I love him," Jacie went on, "and I believe he loves me. Don't you see? He didn't tell me about you, afraid I'd try to take you away, so he took me where I could make my way home, but I knew I couldn't go. I stopped thinking about finding you then. All I wanted was to be with him. He knew then it was meant to be, just as I did."
Iris knew Jacie meant every word she spoke. She knew also that Luke would never have allowed her to believe he loved her unless he did. Still, despite the glow on her beloved daughter's face, Iris had mixed emotions over her embracing the Comanche world, for she remembered the difficulties she had experienced. And she did not know her daughter, could not be sure she had the mettle necessary to endure.
Jacie could see her doubts and beseeched, "Please be happy for us."
"I am, my darling, I am," Iris assured, "but so much has happened, I am dizzy to think. Let's sleep and talk in the morning. I want to hear what Luke has to say."
Iris made her a bed of buffalo skins at the rear of the tepee. With yet another hug and kiss, they said their good-nights.
Jacie settled down to dream of even more happiness to come. She dared not sneak out to find Luke, did not know where to find him anyway, and, finally, wearily, she slept.
She did not hear the knife as it sliced through the skin wall of the tepee, was unaware of what was happening until the warm hand pressed down on her face to smother any sound she might make and strong arms reached for her to render her helpless in the darkness.
Chapter 25
Terror bowed to a thrilling rush as Jacie heard Luke's husky whisper against her ear, "Be quiet. I don't want to wake anyone." Lifting her, he carried her quickly through the opening he had cut in the tepee wall.
Jacie clung to him, arms around his neck, as he moved swiftly in the night. Only when they were inside his tepee, set back from the others at the edge of the camp, did she scold, smiling as she did so, "My mother isn't going to be happy about your cutting the tepee."
"I'll mend it tomorrow." He set her on her feet. "Besides, I had no choice. I couldn't just storm through the door, and I knew you wouldn't know where to find me even if you did muster the nerve to sneak out.
"And this night, little one," he added, "I knew I had to have you." Gently, he drew her body close to his and began to caress her wordlessly. He could feel her flesh start to quiver before she pressed her head against his bare chest and rendered a small sigh of surrender.
Jacie closed her eyes to shut out any thoughts of the dazzling events of the day. Later she would marvel at the miracle of reunion with her mother, but this was here and now, and she wanted only to languish in the bliss of being possessed by the only man she had ever loved—the only man, she now knew, that she ever would.
It was uncanny, the strong, irresistible bond that had grown between them. Not only of the flesh but mind and heart as well. When he drew her down beside him, as he was doing now, deftly, quickly removing her clothing, his clothing, till naked flesh clung to naked flesh and desire burned hotly, brightly, every sense, every nerve, became raw with yearning. But there was more. Much more. And albeit subtle, it was there all the same, that driving need for each other, the hunger for contentment found only when they were close again.
He planted light kisses along her cheek and neck, pausing to nibble at her ear in a way that made her undulate her hips with pleasure, delighting in the feel of the soft rabbit fur against her bare skin as she did so.
Mellow light filled the tepee from the glow of the watch fire just outside. How beautiful she was, Luke reflected, feasting upon her bronze-gold body, the magnificent black cloud of hair, so thick and lush, like curtains on each side of her face as she gazed up at him with the radiance of desire in her mysterious lavender eyes. To realize that this woman, of all he had known, possessed the power to hold him a captive of her heart was overwhelming. He knew now, beyond all doubt, that he could not live without her. From the moment of their first meeting, Jacie had crept every so subtly, secretly, into the core of his being, until without warning, he knew he was helplessly in love with her.
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