by Linda Bridey
His laughter echoed off the river canyon as he remembered how clumsy she’d always been and all the times he’d had to catch her or had heard her say “Ow!” when she bumped into something. She dropped things, banged into people, and her sentences sometimes jumbled together when she was nervous. His ribs hurt from laughing so much by the time the memories were spent.
Then they turned more serious. The conversations they’d had about marriage, the first time they’d kissed in the little thicket in back of Auntie’s house, and the night they’d first made love; these thoughts crowded his mind. He remembered how happy he’d been the night they’d sat on the swing and he’d asked her to marry him. How beautiful she’d looked in the moonlight.
Swiftly the feelings of love changed to fury as images of Zoe’s mother, Dana, entered his mind. The things she’d said to him and how Zoe had refused to come with him to camp, or to cut her mother out of her life. Raven remembered enduring almost a month of agony over Zoe’s loss before Auntie had given him Zoe’s address and told him to go to her.
Confusion joined anger inside him because it didn’t match up with what Zoe had told him on the day they’d gotten married by the preacher. He remembered the night he’d asked her to elope and she’d refused because she wanted a church wedding.
Zoe found Raven out on the rock ledge and smiled as she looked at the way he looked in the moonlight dressed in only his loincloth. It caught the planes and muscles of his body and she felt hunger for him. His shoulders looked tense and she wondered what he was thinking about, why he had run off.
“Raven?” she called to him.
When he turned to her, she saw the hard, angry look on his face and she knew in that instant that he remembered everything. She stopped her forward progress and waited for him to speak. He saw the stricken look on her face and he knew that she could tell his memory had come back.
“When were you going to tell me?” Raven asked as he took a few steps towards her.
“I was trying to wait until we knew for sure if your memory was going to come back. You kept telling me not to tell you anything about before you were hurt,” she replied.
Raven nodded. “Yes, I did tell you that. We never eloped, Zoe. You lied to me on our wedding day.”
Zoe swallowed. “No, I didn’t. Not really.”
“How can you say that? You did, Zoe,” Raven said.
She came closer to him. “Raven, think about it. I’d accepted your proposal already and then the next night, we made love for the first time. Maybe we didn’t live together, but we almost did. We spent as much time as we possibly could together and planned our wedding. At the time, I thought that a formal wedding was necessary, that our marriage wouldn’t be valid without a license stating we were married.”
“Right. I remember it clearly. That’s what I’m saying. We didn’t elope because you wouldn’t marry me without being in front of a preacher or having that damned paper,” Raven said.
Zoe smiled a little. What he said wasn’t funny, it was the way he said it that amused her. As his command of the English language had come back, a strange thing had happened. He’d begun to use contractions more in his sentences and swear words had entered his vocabulary. He didn’t use profanity a great deal, but it, and his new sentence structuring, was humorous to those around him.
“I know,” she said. “Please let me explain. After you lost your memory, I had to play along, to make you and the army think I was your wife, so that we could get you away from that fort and back home. Then we didn’t want to tell you that we weren’t married until we had you here. But along the way, I realized that I didn’t care about a piece of paper or if we had a big church wedding. All I cared about was being your wife. If it weren’t for the legal issues, I wouldn’t have bothered at all with any kind of wedding. We’d have come home and started doing exactly what we’re doing now.”
Raven thought back over the events of the past several months and saw that what she said was true. They hadn’t exactly lived together, but almost. Maybe it was close enough to call it elopement, maybe it wasn’t. Did it really matter so much to him now? They were married and happy. Wasn’t that what was important?
Zoe saw the frown on his face and grew flustered. She said, “How was I supposed to say to that we sort of eloped, but we didn’t exactly, that we had made love even though we hadn’t eloped and it was more than I ever dreamed of and how I felt so close to you and then my mother arrived and became a mad woman and it was a disaster and the church never happened and we didn’t have a preacher and I ran away and left my heart here with you and I was down there and then Mike came and you were hurt and you didn’t know me and then we had rings and were married and here we are?”
By the time her scrambled speech was done, Raven’s shoulders shook with laughter and his anger had dissipated.
“How was I supposed to say all of that?” she asked him plaintively.
Raven laughed. “You just did.”
“Don’t laugh at me! It’s been hard, you know. You didn’t know who you were, who I was, who anyone was, and you wouldn’t let anyone tell you anything. You know, even without your memory, you’re bossy. And stubborn. And maddeningly handsome.
“Losing my memory would have made me ugly?” he asked as he closed the distance between them.
“Of course not. I just meant even though you didn’t remember me didn’t stop me from wanting you or thinking about you that way,” she said as Raven put his arms around her waist.
“That’s good for me. I’m glad that you were still attracted to me, because I was very attracted to you. We did not need a church wedding, but I was happy to marry you. I don’t regret it at all, Zoe. I owe you an apology.”
“What for?” she asked.
“For the way I treated you the night everything went wrong. I shouldn’t have expected you to choose between me and your mother, no matter how mad she made me. I was wrong, but I couldn’t see past the anger I felt. You were my fiancée and I expected you to side with me and to obey me no matter what. It was wrong of me and I’m sorry,” Raven said.
“Thank you,” Zoe said, “but I owe you an apology, too. I should have come to talk to you the next day once things had calmed down. I let pride and embarrassment get in the way of working things out with you. If I had come to you, you would have never been hurt. I’m so sorry for that.”
Raven saw tears gather in her eyes and embraced her tightly. “Shh. Don’t cry. It’s not your fault. There was no way for anyone to know what would happen. I could have come talk to you, too. Too much pride can be a very bad thing. I thought I’d learned that lesson watching others as I grew up, but I don’t think I learned it well enough.”
Zoe said, “Me, neither.”
Raven drew back a little and looked down at her and said, “Maybe we’ve learned our lesson now?”
She smiled. “I hope so.”
“Me, too,” he said. “Do you know what I still want to learn?”
“What?” she asked.
“How a person can get their foot stuck in a swing like that. I think you must be very talented to be able to do that.”
She smacked his arm and then tried to leave, but he wouldn’t release her.
“Can you get stuck like that only while wearing boots or can it happen barefoot?” he continued.
She struggled harder, but succeeded in only creating about an inch between their bodies.
“Or maybe only when it’s raining and someone is running down the street?”
“Raven! Let me go. Why is it you won’t let me ever storm off properly?”
“Or maybe you only get stuck when there’s a handsome brave running in your direction?”
“Raven!”
He put a hand over her mouth. “Shh! You’ll wake someone and I don’t want that to happen.”
“Why?” she asked from behind his hand.
“Because I want to make love with you here,” Raven said with sudden desire smoldering in his eyes.
“Here?” she asked softly when he moved his hand. “But we did that earlier.”
“Do you remember your bride price? You promised that we would work extra hard at making a baby,” Raven reminded her as he picked her up and knelt with her in his arms.
She smiled. “I did say that, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.” He laid her on the grass and sprawled out beside her.
“Ok. We’ll do that on one condition.”
He frowned at her. “What? There is no ‘condition’. That’s what you promised me.”
“You can’t mention the swing incident any more tonight. That’s my offer,” she said.
“Ok,” he agreed and then kissed her.
It was a heated kiss that left Zoe weak and wanting. Raven flattened her hand against his chest. “Do you feel that?”
She smiled. “Yes,” she answered as his heart moved rapidly against her palm.
“That’s how you know if someone likes kissing you or not.”
She laughed and said, “Shut up. Just keep kissing me.”
Raven did as he was told and his heart was not the only one that beat fast under the moon and stars that night.
Epilogue
As August faded to September, Reckless hated to see fall come because it meant that his diving season would soon come to an end. However, Raven was happy to see autumn approach. He prayed to Wakan Tanka every day to send bitter cold early in the season so that Joe’s pond would freeze over that much sooner so he could see Zoe skate again. He kept telling everyone how beautiful her skating was and when they complained that he told them too much, he feigned memory loss, which drew even more groans of protest.
There were some things he never remembered, such as the night he’d been forced to fight or die, but he didn’t mind that particular gap in his memory. The other things that were a blank to him bothered him, however, so he started giving everyone homework. Whatever came up that he couldn’t remember entirely, he made them write down their memory of it. Sometimes it helped him recall the event and sometimes it didn’t. Either way, he enjoyed reading it or hearing about it. He was a little more forgetful about things, but not the things that mattered.
He often forgot to take a store list Zoe had given him, and consequently forgot to buy half the things he was supposed to. Sometimes he didn’t remember that he was supposed to be somewhere at a certain time, or something that might have happened the day before, but no one got truly put out with him about these things. After all, it was a miracle he was alive and that his memory had come back as well as it had.
He and Zoe continued to work extra hard on making a baby. Raven was especially diligent about this and when Zoe said they’d already worked on it that day, he would say, “Did we? I forgot. We’d better do it again so I remember.”
Yes, he was not above using his memory loss to his advantage. Because of his forgetfulness with store lists, he usually pawned off shopping onto his father, who had no such trouble. Black Fox grumbled that not only did he have two bossy wives, but also a forgetful son. He also said that he should just open up his own store out where they were so he didn’t have to go into Dawson for groceries all the time.
No store was built in the camp, but it did grow. Two Dwyer cabins stood in the clearing; one Raven and Zoe’s and the other Joe and Lacey’s. Raven had insisted on them building a cabin after Zoe had tripped over her own feet one night in their tipi and almost landed in their active fire pit. He also made her be very careful around any other fires as a result.
Minx convinced Charlie that they should have a tipi in the camp, as well. He got used to it and came to enjoy staying there. By the time summer was over there were a total of ten tipis that stood along with the cabins. Black Fox told Dean that he should move his tipi to the camp, but Dean said he like his tipi where it was.
“Besides, if the kids are down here with you, that means Tessa and I get to use ours up there,” he said and winked at his spirit brother.
Black Fox said, “We really have become brothers, haven’t we?”
Dean nodded. “Yeah, we have.”
Black Fox said, “In Lakota culture, brothers sometimes share their wives.”
“What?”
“It’s true. What do you think about that?” Black Fox asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“I think you already do that now,” Dean said. “Tessa cooks for you, and she’s even bought you clothes sometimes.”
“True, but I go to the store for her, I fix things in your house because you’re too busy, and I watch your children. Shouldn’t I get more reward than that?”
His meaning dawned on Dean. “You try that and I’ll shoot you, Lakota chief or not! Besides, I don’t think she’d be interested.”
“Don’t you?” Black Fox asked with a knowing chuckle. “You might be surprised.”
Dean had just glared at him and stomped off. At home that night he informed Tessa that Black Fox was not to fix anything around their house anymore. Tessa just laughed at him.
Although there were only a certain number of living structures in the camp, it was full of people on some evenings. Various friends and family were regular visitors. Music often filled the air. Joe and his band or some of it would sit on the small porch of their cabin and perform. Once in a while they got enough alcohol into Marcus so he would sing some harmony with Joe.
Lacey didn’t have Jake to dance with since he was running the bar, so she danced with Owl and even taught the chief some dance steps. Black Fox bore the ribbing he received with good humor and kept torturing Dean by asking Tessa to dance. She accepted his invitations and Dean scowled the whole time they danced. Wind Spirit looked on and laughed.
Not to be outdone, Dean figured he could fight fire with fire. He taught Wind Spirit to dance and informed Black Fox that he had the chief beat in the wife department since Sasha Walker was also one of his women and with the addition of Wind Spirit he now had three wives to Black Fox’s two.
Dean’s family members and friends marveled at the change in his personality when he was in camp and Jack said, “I keep tellin’ ya that as soon as you get him away from the ranch, he’s a different person.”
Even though there was no need to, many of those who had always been regular visitors to the camp always let out either their own personal call or the low whistle used by those who were friends of the tribe. They felt it was a way to pay respect and keep the spirit of the camp alive. Homage was paid to He Who Runs and Eagle Woman by placing large stones in a circle around the site where their tipi had stood. No tipi was ever erected on that spot.
The Lakota who had come home from the reservation became regular figures in Dawson. Black Fox enjoyed going to Bradbury’s General Store to shop even though he pretended to be annoyed about having to go. Katie was not the only child enamored of the chief. There was often a group of children that accompanied him around town, which pleased him immensely.
He might intimidate adults sometimes, but not the kids. When school was in session, he would sit with them at recess and tell them stories. He also asked if they were working hard at their studies. Claire often remarked that he was more influential at getting the kids to do their homework than she was.
Sometimes he went to the Watering Hole and liked to play unofficial bouncer. There was never a time when he had to become violent. He would simply go over to the table where trouble was occurring, cross his arms over his chest and stare at the culprits until they stopped their bad behavior. This amused the bouncers and Jake kept trying to recruit him as one.
Joe hired Moose and Hawk to help work the land he wanted cultivated and work with some of his horses. He added them to his collection of very brave braves and taught them how to play poker. Squirrel and Wind Spirit were highly sought after to make moccasins and beaded jewelry for people around the area. They showed the children how to make these things and to everyone’s surprise, D.J. and J.R. enjoyed doing this type of work and were good at it.
All kinds
of competitions took place from horse and foot races to archery and target shooting and, Joe being Joe, instigated a lot of betting. They didn’t always bet money. Sometimes it was for favors or services.
Raven continued to work both of his jobs and Zoe went back to playing with the band. Though he’d had misgivings about it, Raven became accustomed to living in a cabin and he liked the sound of the rain on the roof. He also liked sleeping in a bed, but on occasion, he and Zoe slept in one of the tipis of the people who only stayed there part-time.
There were times when Zoe and Raven sat out late at night by the fire. Usually they sat in such a way that they could put their hands over each other’s heart to feel the steady beats beneath their palms.
One night Raven asked Zoe, “Do you feel that?”
She smiled. “Yes.”
“That’s how you know I love kissing you, but it mostly tells you how much I love you and always will.”
Zoe kissed him softly and pressed his hand firmly against her chest. “Do you feel that?”
“Yes,” he said holding her gaze.
“That’s how you know how much I love kissing you, but also that you are the love of my life, and that I’ll always belong to you.”
He smiled and held her closer. Zoe sighed and laid her head on his shoulder, content to sit with him, knowing that for all time, their hearts would beat as one.
The End
******
Click here to read the next book in this series (Westward Joy: Book 16)
Rachel returns to Dawson after running away amid scandal and shame. Will Foster is the main reason she comes home. Instantly, they are attracted to one another, but jealousy and anger may pull them apart as the holiday season approaches.
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