Tipaakke moved slowly beneath the windows, crushing young flower seedlings just transplanted by the gardener. Hugging the brick wall, he listened to the music and laughter, becoming angrier with each moment. How could he have been such a fool? How could he have been so wrong about her? Before this he had always considered himself a good judge of character. Fox tightened his grip on the handle of his knife, grabbed the edge of the sill and pulled himself up to look in the window.
"Tipaakke!" Mekollaan's urgent whisper came through the darkness. "Get down. They will see you." He reached from behind to tug on his brother's bare leg. "Do you want to die at the white man's hand?"
"They cannot see me. Let go. It is light in there, dark out here. We can see into the light. They cannot see into the darkness." He scanned the room of guests looking for Katelyn. He had never seen so many people in one place at the same time. Just the thought of being in there with so many bodies, the noise, and the bright lights made his skin crawl. They were dressed brightly, laughing and talking, dancing round and round in circles. So this is what my Katie-girl wants, he thought sadly.
"Do you see her, Fox?" Mekollaan stood beside his brother listening for movement outside. If someone caught them here, they would likely both be killed.
"No. I do not. There are so many." He rested his feet on the edge of the cellar sill, a foot off the ground. "Wait." His heart fluttered against his will. There she was, beside Henry Coward. In her hand she held a glass. She was laughing, her cheeks rosy. Tipaakke's eyes drifted shut for an instant. The pain that tugged at his heart was almost too great to bear. They were going have such a good life together, he and Katelyn. Their life had just begun, there were still so many songs left to sing. His face grew taut. But she had betrayed him. Here she was smiling, standing so near the coward that had been willing to sacrifice her life for his own. Suddenly, Tipaakke was very glad his people were moving to the Ohio. He had no desire to live among these vile people. He wanted no memory of the fox-haired woman who had captured his love. Easing back onto the ground, he turned to Mekollaan.
"So you have found her. Now how do we get her out?" He was beginning to lose patience. The white woman was not worth losing his life over.
"Let me think. Something will come. Manito has guided my life in many directions, but I always feel his hand on my shoulder. He will show me a way."
Katelyn glanced out the windows over and over again, but she could see nothing since the lamps had been turned up. She was really beginning to get nervous. Tipaakke and Mekollaan should have done something by now. Perhaps someone had caught them! No, Henry would have been informed, and he certainly wouldn't have been able to keep such a thing from her. His pleasure in telling her he had captured her Indian lover would have been too great.
Then Katelyn spied the doors that led to the garden. Maybe he was waiting for the chance that she might step outside! That made sense. But Henry had insisted she must stay at his side. "Henry." She tugged at his sleeve.
"Just a moment, love." He patted her arm, continuing to speak with the older man who stood leaning on the carved-stair banister.
"Henry." She tightened her hand around his sleeve.
"What is it, dear?" His voice was sickeningly sweet. "I'm speaking with Roger right now."
"I hate to bother you, but it's rather warm in here." She fanned herself with her hand. "Do you think I might step outside for a moment?" She lowered her eyelashes coyly.
Henry wondered irritably what she was up to. "I'll go with you in just a few moments."
"No, no," Roger spoke up, laughing. "Go." He gave Henry a wink. "Your young lady calls. Don't stay on my account; I remember what it was like to be young and in love."
Henry nodded gracefully and steered Katelyn toward the door. "What do you think you're doing?" He spoke through clenched teeth, a smile still on his face.
"I told you. It's too hot in here and all of these people are making me dizzy." Her voice was equally sharp. "If I don't get some fresh air I'm either going to faint or be sick on one of your nice friends."
"You are a vulgar woman, and you will find I don't care for vulgarity." He nodded to an elderly woman, giving her a boyish grin. "Good evening, Sally. You will save a dance for me, won't you?" The old woman laughed, covering her mouth with her hand as he passed by.
Pushing the door to the garden open, Henry waited for Katelyn to pass by. "We'll go out only for a moment," he hissed in her ear. "I cannot play nursemaid to you; I have guests to attend to. If you're going to be ill you will just have to retire early." He followed her down the brick walk.
"Go back to your guests if you like, I'll just get some air and then come back in." She tried to sound casual. Where was Fox? Could he see her?
"Oh, no, minx," Henry reached in his coat for his snuff box. "I told you. You won't be left alone until the child is born."
"Henry, someone will hear you."
"What do I care?" He stepped up in front of her. "I don't much like your games, Katelyn. I told you to keep your mouth shut."
She took a step back. The smell of whiskey was sour on his breath. She thought she had seen him drinking from a small silver flask. "I don't know what you mean."
He dropped a hand on her shoulder. "Suddenly you don't look faint to me." He toyed with a fat curl that dangled down the back of her neck. "Madame St. Claire did a superb job on your hair. You are the prettiest woman here . . . even in your deplorable state."
She tensed at the feel of his hand on her neck, but she didn't push him away. She wanted to be very careful. If he got mad he would take her back in and lock her in her room. Then how would Fox find her? Where was he? "I told you, Henry . . . " She stuttered a little. "It was hot. I felt faint. My condition."
"Well, you'd better get used to it, because once we've gotten rid of the little red bastard and we're properly married, I intend to keep you just this way." He wrapped his arm around her waist pulling her tight against him.
Katelyn turned her head away, but stood her ground. In a few minutes it would be over and she would be in Fox's arms again. Please, she prayed, please let him come soon.
Tipaakke crept slowly around the back of the house to where the light shone through the open door. Then he spotted them. He was tempted to put an arrow through the man's back, but he was an honorable man and honorable men did not shoot another man through the back, not even if he deserved it, not even if he was the enemy. Tipaakke waited for his brother to come up behind him. For a moment they both stood watching the coward caress Katelyn.
"Are you sure, you want to do this?" Mekollaan whispered.
The Fox nodded. "I will have my child."
"How do you want to do this? Do we kill him first and then take her?" He slid his knife from his moccasin. "He would be an easy shot with the bow from here."
"Wait." Tipaakke put up his hand. "I want him to see me. I want him to know who spills his blood. I want him to know why."
His brother's voice sent chills through his spine. "Fox, it will do no good. It will change nothing."
"But I will feel better." He nodded evenly. "You take Katelyn and get her out of here, no matter what happens." He turned and took Mekollaan's hand in his. "Promise me that no matter what, you will take her back to the village. Even if I die, I want my child to live among our people. Do what you will with her." He shrugged his shoulders. "Kill her if you like."
"I could not put her life before yours." Mekollaan held Tipaakke's hand tight in his own.
"Promise me."
Hawk stared into his brother's eyes. He could not deny him. "I promise."
Giving Mekollaan's hand a squeeze, he dropped it. "You go around to the rear. I will meet him head on."
"Someone might see you."
"We will be here and gone before anyone notices. Trust me." Tipaakke watched his brother disappear behind the monstrous boxwoods.
Katelyn caught sight of Tipaakke first. Her pulse quickened as she riveted her eyes to his. Over Henry's shoulder she saw the ey
es of a man she didn't know. What was wrong? She wanted to cry out to him, but with one quick motion of his hand, he warned her to keep silent. She saw no love or warmth in his dark eyes, only the cold calculations of a killer.
Silently, Tipaakke walked through the garden, his head held high, his knife poised in his hand. Had she no shame? There she was, caught in her lover's arms, being caressed by him at this very moment, yet she did not hang her head.
Henry's breath caught in his throat at the feel of cold steel knife at his throat. "What the hell," he breathed, turning slowly to face the Indian. At the sight of the crazed red man, his bottom lip began to tremble. "You bitch," he hissed at Katelyn. "I'll kill you for this."
"Silence!" Tipaakke warned in his perfect sing-song English. "Speak again, white coward and I will spill your blood on the stone." He looked up at Katelyn, his eyes as cold as the knife he held. "Step back."
"Fox, what's wrong, I'm so glad to see you . . . " The words spilled from her mouth as she rushed to his side.
Before Tipaakke could think, his hand came up to strike her hard on the cheek. "I said get back!" he ordered.
Katelyn's hand flew to the mark on her cheek as she stumbled backwards from the force of his hand. Tears welled in her eyes and came spilling down her cheeks. "Tell me, my heart," she murmured in Algonquian."
"Mekollaan," Tipaakke snapped. "Keep her quiet!"
Katelyn turned to see Mekollaan coming up behind her. He grabbed her by the wrist, jerking her roughly to his side. "Silence, woman! You walk that narrow line between life and death."
Henry stretched his neck, craning to see Katelyn. "Is that all you want," he spit. "Take her! She's worthless."
"You were unwise to take what was mine." Tipaakke held his face only inches from Henry's. "I will take her. I do not need a coward's consent." He pressed the knife's blade to his neck, watching the thin line of red appear. "But first you will pay."
Henry flinched, squeezing his eyes shut as he felt the knife's bite. Petrified, he prayed for death to come quickly. He had no stomach for blood. He knew he would not be manly beneath the savage's torturous knife. "Then kill me!" he managed.
"No, Fox! Don't kill him! Please." A part of her wanted to see Henry die for all he had done to her, but it must not be by Fox's hands. She didn't want their love soiled by another man's death. She wanted no regrets. Besides, it was like Tipaakke had once said. Sometimes it was harder to live than to die. If Henry's life was spared, he would be haunted by memories for the rest of his life.
"You beg for your lover's life, do you?" Tipaakke's lip curled cynically. He felt as she had stabbed him with the knife and now held it in her hand, twisting and turning. But he would not let her see the pain.
"No!" Katelyn shook her head violently. She didn't know what was wrong with Fox. Why was he saying these horrible things? He knew she hated Henry. "Tell me what's wrong," Katelyn implored. "Speak to me, Tipaakke Oopus." She struggled to pull away from Mekollaan as he wrapped his arm around her waist and secured her against his body.
Tipaakke stared at Katelyn in indecision. His dark hair blew in the wind making a striking picture.
"Fox, sometimes it takes a greater man to let a man live than to kill him." Her voice wafted through the air, mingling with the sound of music and laughter coming from the big house.
Henry tried to speak but Tipaakke held him tighter, running the flat edge of the blade against his neck. "Speak and that will be the end of you." He uttered the words viciously.
Katelyn was frightened. She had never seen Tipaakke act like this. What had happened to make him so cold? She could tell by his eyes that he was still contemplating what she said. "Let him live. Whatever I have done wrong is between you and I." She didn't know what she'd done! If only he would speak to her rather than glare with those clouded obsidian eyes. "I am going with you. There is no need to kill him. He is not worth the effort it would take to wipe his blood from your knife." She spoke half in English, half in Algonquian, as she often did with him.
Tipaakke loosened his hold on Henry Coward slowly. The man could barely breath for fright. He would not admit it to Katelyn, but she was right. A man did not kill out of anger. She had betrayed him, not the white man. Henry had only accepted what had been his to begin with.
Katelyn wiped her tears with the back of her hand, watching Tipaakke's every move. She didn't know why Henry's life was suddenly so important to her. Maybe it was not so much Henry she was concerned with, but Fox. It was important to her that he be the kind of man that could walk away from something like this and go on with his life.
"It is not for you that I let him live," he told her. "I will soon be the chief of my people. A chief does not take lives unless he must." He stared at her. A part of him still wanted to take her in his arms . . . She had lost weight, but beneath the English trappings he could make out the faint outline of her thickening waist. "I release this man because I do not wish to carry his cowardly soul on my belt."
Mekollaan began to back his way through the trimmed boxwoods, pulling Katelyn with him.
Slowly releasing Henry, Tipaakke tucked his knife in his belt. "Go, coward," he whispered, then turned his back on him to follow his brother.
"No, Fox!" Katelyn screamed, an instant too late. Horrified she watched as Henry's fists came down on the back of Tipaakke's neck. It seemed that time suddenly stood still as Fox's body crumpled to the ground and Henry began to scream at the top of his lungs, calling to those in the house.
"Indians! Indian attack," Henry screamed. "Help me! Help me, someone!" He ran in circles, leaping up and down.
Then Katelyn felt herself being dragged away. She struggled, beating Mekollaan on the back when he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. "We can't leave him! They'll kill him!" She watched the people pour from the house, carrying pistols.
"Silence, woman." Mekollaan ordered in Algonquian. "You have done enough harm."
"But you can't leave him. Let me go, put me down. He is your brother, your blood. Help him!" She beat on Mekollaan's bare back, kicking her feet.
"Stop struggling. I will take you into the woods and then I will go back for him." He dropped into English so she would understand as he ran into the forest.
Katelyn watched Tipaakke's image disappear from sight. He still had not moved from where he lay. Running through the woods, Mekollaan carried her on his back. When he'd thought he'd gone far enough, he stopped, dumping her unceremoniously to the ground.
"Why did you leave him?" She demanded, watching, stunned, as he withdrew a piece of leather cord from his pouch and started to wrap it around her wrist.
"I promised. Now cease talking or I will knock your head from your shoulders." Mekollaan was furious. He should have known something like this would happen! Tipaakke had had nothing but poor luck since the day he had found the white girl! She was evil, bad magic. But he bound her tightly to the tree. "I will return. I must try to get my brother. Keep silent or I will put an arrow through your back."
"I don't understand what I've done!" Tears threatened to spill again. "Tell me what you are talking about, Hawk! I love Fox, we are going to be married. I would do nothing to harm him. I would give my life for him." She wiped her eyes with her hand, ashamed of her tears. "I would do anything to be lying in that garden now instead of him."
"I do not wish to hear your white man lies. You owe me no excuses. I have always known what you were like, what all white women are like. How can you say you have done nothing when we caught you in the coward's arms." He checked to be sure the knots were secure. "He was taken by the Mohawks, tortured, and here you came, running back to your white dog." He spun around to go.
"No, you're wrong, you've got it all wrong!" she called after him. "They took me. I tried to get back. They forced me!" she sobbed.
"Silence, or you are dead," came Mekollaan's voice from a distance.
Katelyn sank to the ground, sobbing. Why had everything gone so wrong? How could Fox suspect her of caring fo
r Henry? She despised him, he knew that! And now, because of her, they might kill him. Pulling off the heeled green-leather slippers, she threw them as hard as she could. She hated these clothes! She hated Henry! Yanking at the pale-green lawn, she gave up on the buttons at the back and began to tear the gown from her body. In a frenzy, she shredded the cloth, throwing it as if its touch might burn her skin. Once the gown was gone, she began to work at her hair, pulling the bone pins from her hair. She was not satisfied until every curl was unpinned, every bow was thrown to the ground and tromped on. Removing the useless underthings, she could finally breath again. The only thing she wore now was a wispy, thin shift, woven of the finest cotton.
Mekollaan moved through the forest like one of the Heavenly Father's other creatures of the woodland. He ran in silence, ducking and leaping so that he barely moved a branch or leaf, he barely left footprints in the soft earth. Fear raced through his veins driving him faster as he neared the Bullman plantation. He felt guilty for leaving his brother behind. But he had promised! And the word between two Lenni Lenapes was sacred.
By the time Mekollaan reached the garden and crawled on his hands and knees through the boxwoods, the white men had rolled Tipaakke over and were beginning to tie him up. There was a great confusion with men shouting and women squealing as they tried to get close enough to see the savage.
Mekollaan cursed Katelyn over and over again as he watched the white men pull Tipaakke to his feet and make him walk. With so many men it would be impossible for Mekollaan to get his brother out of there! At least he was alive. He was beginning to regain consciousness as the armed men poked and prodded him along. What was that Henry Coward saying? It was difficult to hear through all of the commotion.
"He, he is the one," Henry shouted. "He kidnapped Katelyn and killed my servant." He was beside himself, shaking in his boots. "Look what he's done to me." He stretched his neck for everyone to see. "The red bastard tried to kill me."
"Hang the savage!" One of the party guests shouted from the crowd.
Forbidden Caress Page 31