She glanced over at her husband, his attention upon the dancers with colorful shields. “I must go to sleep now, Wanmdi Hota. There is much work to do tomorrow,” she teased, slightly serious.
“Do you wish me to come with you?” he asked, his gaze mellow.
“Stay here and enjoy the fun if you aren’t tired,” she encouraged. “But I need some rest. Under your Eagle eye and wing, I will be safe and happy,” she added meaningfully.
“In the shadow of that smile and warmth, I must remain,” he teased, lightly stroking her silky hair.
“Perhaps you should for both our sakes,” she saucily agreed.
He helped her to her feet, then watched her walk to their new tepee to join their slumbering son. Running Wolf remarked, “You love her much, my son. It is good she was returned to us. Soon, all will be good again. I had a dream; Shalee will return. Watch over her closely; some dark shadow fell over her before she could see your face clearly. It was not the wing of my son,” he warned, that eerie sensation haunting him again.
The warrior’s expression waxed grave. “Her life is in danger, Father?”
“Sha. But the evil did not show its face in my vision.”
Gray Eagle’s somber gaze flickered to the tepee that held his wife and lingered there. “The Bird of Death feels cheated, but he will not fly away with my woman. I will challenge him myself. She is mine,” he vowed, angered by this new and intangible threat to his love.
A firm believer in dreams, Gray Eagle readily accepted his father’s dismaying words of caution. Many times his worried gaze shifted to their sleeping tepee, wondering from where this new peril would come, praying he would be present to defeat it.
Gray Eagle reverently observed the Shaman as he chanted before the Medicine Wheel, that sacred object that represented the forces and influences of life and the entire world. The center exhibited a buffalo bull’s skull, which exposed the imagery of the “blue tails” design. Brain-tanned hide was stretched taut over a willow hoop. The surface displayed attachments of hair, heart beads, fur, feathers, and trade cloth, all colorfully tinted with earth paints. There was significance to the four directions upon’its face: south, the innocence of mind and body at birth; east, enlightenment; north, wisdom gained during life; and west, meditation for selfexamination and understanding. All spokes radiated toward the center of the design: the heart and meaning of life itself, total harmony with self and nature.
Gray Eagle fingered his war shield. Pride and self-assurance flooded him. All knew the meaning of the “shooting star” design emblazoned upon his shield, a design that conveyed his superior strength, speed, cunning, and valor. A warrior must earn the right to paint his shield with this particular pattern; naturally, he had.
His concentration returned to the climax of this ritual. The celebration soon ended and the others gradually retired. The night passed swiftly and a glorious new day of adventure and promise began….
Chapter Fourteen
Shalee’s command of the Sioux language expanded and sharpened every day with the assistance of her husband and good friends. Under the gentle hand and genial eyes of Turtle Woman and Shining Light, her skills and knowledge of their daily chores also increased and were honed. Within two weeks after their arrival in the summer camp, she moved and lived amongst the Oglala easily and serenely. Soon, it was as if that fateful accident had never taken place. Bright Arrow’s vivacious mother had returned, as had Gray Eagle’s adoring wife. Others found delight and joy in the happiness that surrounded the life of their greatest warrior and future leader.
This season was a busy and vital one, and none realized how quickly and easily Shalee recaptured her lost knowledge and deft talents. She had been known for her keen mind, the apparent reason for her swift progress. Even Shalee did not realize she was working so accurately, because the tasks seemed natural to her. Yet, the strange dreams and haunting images frequently plagued her mind.
She allowed herself to believe her inexplicable experiences were the results of learning so much so hastily, inspiring daydreams or fanciful conclusions to things told to her. She hesitated to question her husband about such weird thoughts, for she did not wish to inspire false hopes in him. She also feared to learn that these things were illusions, hinting at some irreparable damage to her mind. So, she kept her unproven flashes of her past to herself, dreading to test them for accuracy and verity.
The warriors and braves were preparing for the spring buffalo hunt. It was decided who would go on the critical hunt and who would guard the camp. The women who would accompany the men were selected and told to make ready for this task. Children were informed of where to stay while those mothers were away. The ever impending threat of lethal conflict with the whites and Bluecoats was gravely debated. An aging chief, Running Wolf would remain in the camp to be responsible for his people. Gray Eagle and White Arrow were chosen as leaders of the two groups of hunters.
All plans made, the hunters met in the ceremonial lodge to ask for the guidance and protection of the Great Spirit for their vital venture. Prayers and chants were sung in stirring voices. Prayer pipes were smoked to entice the breath of Wakantanka to speak with them. Peyote buttons were ingested to invoke the spiritual presence of the Great Spirit and to allow Him to instill His messages within the Indians by way of hallucinatory visions. Bodies and hearts were purified through prayers and sweatings from the tightly enclosed lodge, which steamed from the large fire in its center over which a soaked skin of water was positioned. Following their purification ritual of fasting, praying, and sweating, the warriors and braves returned to their tepees to refresh their spirits and bodies before their departure early the next sun.
Unknown to Gray Eagle, Shalee was presently enduring a demanding and weighty experience of her own. Having leisurely enjoyed the weather and beauty of nature before starting her chores of gathering firewood, fetching water in the skins, and washing clothes in the river—the others had completed their daily tasks and returned to the camp—Shalee was humming a song she recalled from childhood as she worked.
Suddenly a spleenish voice snarled accusingly, “You did it, didn’t you? They think you’re so sweet and innocent, but you’re vindictive and hateful! You just can’t stand having me around, can you?”
Shalee glanced up at the antagonistic face of Leah Winston in total bewilderment, then flushed with anger at her nasty and perplexing remarks. “I haven’t the vaguest idea what you’re talking about, Leah. But I suggest you calm yourself and guard your vile tongue. Aren’t you forgetting I’m not a white slave; I’m the wife of Wanmdi Hota,” she crisply rebuked the sullen and aggressive Leah.
“No, I’m not forgetting anything! You’re the one who doesn’t know anything,” Leah mysteriously hinted, reeking of animosity.
“I know enough to tell me you had better watch your step here.”
“You don’t say! Or what, Princess Shalee?” Leah snapped contemptuously.
“Or you won’t be here much longer,” Shalee threatened.
“I think you’ve already taken care of that problem, haven’t you?” the other woman purred sarcastically. “I must really have you worried. What’s the matter? Afraid I might steal your man after all?”
“I’ve heard enough, Leah. Shut up and return to your chores.”
“You’ve heard enough?” Leah taunted disdainfully. “Before Running Wolf sells me today, you’ll hear plenty more.”
“Sells you today?” Shalee echoed in astonishment.
“Don’t play innocent with me! You’re behind this malicious sale and we both know it!” An air of sinister malice exuded from her.
“You’re wrong, Leah. It’s true I want you gone, but the, decision was Running Wolf’s. Considering your behavior and hatefulness, your surprise at his action escapes me.”
Irrationally driven to enmity and desperation, Leah scoffed, “You know why he wants me gone, don’t you?”
“I presume it’s because of your malicious attitude and possibl
y your unforgivable flirtation with his son.”
“Flirtation? You’re teasing or just plain crazy! He wants me gone before I’m showing! Damn their concern for their bloody honor!”
“Showing what?” the naive Shalee inquired.
Leah’s chilling laughter distressed her. Was the girl going insane? Was she dangerous? “Showing with the son of Gray Eagle. Hasn’t he told you yet? You can’t give him another child, but he doesn’t want my half-breed bastard either! I told you he was a savage! What civilized man would sell his own child? I suppose he also withheld the news you’re unable to give him another child. Didn’t you wonder how it was possible to mate with him every day for four years after Bright Arrow’s birth and have no more children? You’re barren now, Shalee!” she shrieked at the stunned, white-faced Shalee. “One day he’ll want more children and take another wife.”
Shocked speechless, Shalee gaped at the baneful creature making such horrible accusations. At last, her speech returned. “You’re a liar! I might be naive, Leah, but not that dumb! You’ve never slept with Gray Eagle! How dare you speak such terrible lies! Get out of my sight!”
“How dare you force him to sell me just because you can’t stand the idea of another woman giving him a child when you can’t! You’re afraid he’ll want me and the child, aren’t you?” Leah challenged deceptively, knowing Shalee lacked the knowledge to refute her claims.
“There isn’t any child!” Shalee debated confidently.
“When my belly grows fat and round, will you still deny its presence?” Leah gloated cheerfully.
“If you are pregnant, the child isn’t Gray Eagle’s!” Shalee shouted.
“I’m a captive here, Shalee. How could I possibly sleep with anyone in secret? I live with Running Wolf, an old man. Gray Eagle is the only man I’ve spent any time with. In light of my condition, I don’t need to relate what happened while we were alone!” she spitefully contended, a shade of mocking reproach in her scathing tone.
Shalee’s gaze automatically and uncontrollably slipped to Leah’s stomach. The loose garment prevented a hint of what was beneath it. “Why don’t you ask your faithful and honorable husband what we were doing when the message arrived of your miraculous survival? Ask him what happened another night in his tepee while Bright Arrow was sleeping at Talking Rock’s! Ask him what happened near the river the day you coldly rejected him! Ask him why he visits Running Wolf’s tepee when the old man isn’t there!” she boldly and wickedly insinuated.
Leah’s guileful charges were ignored in light of a slip she had recklessly made. “How do you know I rejected him that afternoon? Is that why you followed him to tempt him with your whorish ways?” Shalee dropped a brazen hint of her own.
Leah’s face showed her shock before she could quickly conceal it. “What did you expect after he had me in his power? You know how irresistible and persuasive he can be! How can any woman ignore him after having him? He addicts you like some potent drug. I won’t deny I want him. I’ve desired him since the first minute I laid eyes on him! But now that you’ve come back, he doesn’t need my body anymore! But I still crave his! I can’t help myself!” she wantonly confessed. “I’m carrying his child, and there’s nothing you can do about it! At least wait until the child’s born, then take him to live with you and his father,” Leah cunningly entreated, softening her words.
“I don’t believe a word you’re saying,” Shalee argued, dread helplessly washing over her, a flicker of doubt revealed in her eyes.
“It will be easy to prove no other Indian has touched me! Hate me if you must, Shalee, but think of the innocent child. He deserves to be free, to live with his father.” Leah feigned concern for the illusionary child.
Shalee rubbed her aching temples. Her mouth felt like cotton. Tremors raced over her chilled body. Gray Eagle hadn’t lied to her about Leah; he hadn’t! Without her awareness, she twisted her hands over and over in her lap as her respiration became erratic and beads of moisture dotted her upper lip and forehead. But how else could Leah be pregnant? Why would she speak such claims if she couldn’t prove them?
“If you doubt me, Shalee, ask him,” Leah challenged, viewing the wavering of Shalee’s confidence. “What kind of man would deny his own flesh and blood? Even if he tries, the truth will be revealed in his look of guilt. No matter, the truth will show itself very soon,” she remarked, caressing her stomach as she smiled dreamily, wishing her words were true.
Such a lie would be easy to disprove, so why was Leah so confident and bold in her daring and dangerous assertion? It couldn’t be true; it couldn’t! But what of those strange currents between them? What of the way he had allowed Leah to taste his flesh? “You’ve been after him all along, haven’t you? Even before I disappeared, weren’t you? We’ve never been friends! You lied to me! You’ve done everything you could to cause trouble between us! You’re despicable, Leah! While he was grieving for me, you tempted him and taunted him with your likeness to me and with your sluttish skills! If he yielded in a moment of weakness and agony, you are to blame, not him.”
“No matter who is to blame, Shalee, an innocent child shouldn’t suffer for our lust for each other! Can you honestly be so cruel and selfish? Please don’t send me away until the child is born and you accept him as your own,” she coaxed the wide-eyed girl.
“You expect me to take your child as mine?” Shalee shrieked in disbelief.
“Why not? You’re married to his father! If I keep him, he’ll be a despised slave like me. Irregardless of who his mother is, the son of Gray Eagle should have his rightful place at his father’s side! Besides, you’re half-white; Bright Arrow is also a half-breed.”
“How dare you insult my son! Tell me, Leah; who did you cunningly seduce in order to pull this repulsive trick? You may have tempted my husband, but you never seduced him. I’m certain you tried many times, tried anything no matter how despicable; but it never worked. I know,” she suddenly and smugly claimed.
“You know nothing! You’re afraid he’ll want me to replace you once he looks into the face of his newborn son. You’re afraid he’ll want more sons, and you can’t give them to the noble warrior.” Leah didn’t need much to formulate her assumption, for Shalee hadn’t given birth to another child in four years.
Shalee sought to end this nightmare with a bluff of her own. “Even if there was any truth to your claims, which there isn’t, why would Gray Eagle be tempted to keep your son when I’m carrying his child? What man in his right mind would permit his wife and his whorish mistress to give birth simultaneously?”
“My child would be born before yours, seeing as I became pregnant first.”
“Still, would he allow the birth of your bastard to overshadow the imminent birth of his second heir? You see, dear Leah, I’m not barren after all.”
“I don’t believe you,” Leah shrieked, her fury rising at this defeat. In the heat of her hatred, Leah had birthed a tragic ploy.
“Ask him, if you dare,” Shalee challenged, smiling triumphantly.
“I won’t let them send me away! I won’t be treated like some animal! You know how slaves are abused! How can you let them do this thing?”
“You bring it upon yourself! You had a good life with us. You chose to throw it away. You chose lies and hostility. Blame yourself!”
“If I must, I’ll kill you first,” Leah threatened wildly. “When you’re gone, he’ll turn to me again.”
“Get out of my sight!” Shalee screamed at her, then delivered a stunning slap across her face, sending the unprepared Leah backwards to fall to her seat.
Leah sprang up and crouched like a tiger about to spring upon its victim. “You’ll pay for that!” she warned. Just as she was about to lunge at Shalee, White Arrow grabbed her arms and painfully imprisoned them behind her back.
Both women looked at him in astonishment, wondering from where he had come. “Wanhinkpe Ska?”
He spewed forth wrathful words upon Leah, then asked Shalee if she was all
right. Shalee smiled and nodded, then thanked him. “Pidamaye.”
He smiled at her, intensifying his hold upon Leah until she grimaced and cried out in pain. He suddenly flung her to the ground and kicked her, calling her names. Leah appealed to Shalee for mercy and help. Shalee glared at her, then turned and walked toward camp, leaving her to the furious warrior’s mercy and punishment.
Shalee had gone only a short distance when she recalled her possessions. She halted and went back to fetch them, without even glancing at the whining Leah. Leah had threatened to kill her; perhaps a harsh punishment would make her think twice before attempting another vile ruse or thinking lethal dreams. Besides, something was going on inside her head. She needed to be alone.…
Shalee carelessly deposited her burdens in the middle of the tepee and went to sit upon her mat. She covered her face with her hands, rocking to and fro. She must relax her body and mind to allow it to roam where it willed. So many images were crashing into the dark barrier of her mind, images that demanded to destroy it, images that demanded to be seen clearly for the first time since her injury. A crack had appeared in the dam of her memory the moment Leah had mentioned children; it had widened with every word she spoke afterwards. There was no doubt in her mind at all now; Gray Eagle had not and would not sleep with Leah.
“Shalee?” Gray Eagle called to her, dreading her state of mind. White Arrow had brought Leah to him and his father; he had related part of their argument near the river. Leah would be punished, but what damaging lies had she told to his beloved wife? Why was Shalee acting so strangely? What had that wicked girl said and done to his love? “Shalee?” he tried to capture her attention once more.
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