Kirk gave Jolena a frown over his shoulder. "We're in for one bad storm," he shouted over the loud thrashing of the leaves overhead as the wind suddenly began whipping through the trees. "It's going to hit us head on. There's no way to get away from it."
"Is there anything I can do?" Jolena asked, glancing around her as the canvas cover of the wagon began to strain against the bolts that were keeping it in place.
"Go to the back and tie down the cover as tightly as you can," Kirk shouted. "Close the front opening also, or everything we own might get blown away or soaked. Then all we can do is sit tight and ride this one out."
Jolena nodded.
She crawled to the back of the wagon and tied the canvas down as tightly as possible. She went from bolt to bolt, testing them, glad to find that they were all tight and snug.
Then she stared at her journals and the delicate specimens of butterflies spread out on the wagon floor. To make sure they were not harmed, she covered them with sheets of canvas that they had brought along just for this purpose.
When she felt that everything was secured as well as possible, she turned and stared at Kirk again, then at the empty seat beside him, wondering if she wanted to ride out the storm at his side or within the canvas walls of the wagon.
Fearing being alone during the storm, she chose to sit outside with her brother. She rushed to the seat and sat down, then turned and drew the canvas together behind them and tied it securely in place.
She clung nervously to the seat, her eyes darting around, trying to find Spotted Eagle. He was usually there, close to her wagon. But this time he was missing. He was probably going from wagon to wagon, checking to see if everything was readied for the storm.
Two Ridges was still there, riding a little behind her wagon. A strange coldness seemed to seize her when she found him staring at her, his eyes shadowed as everything became dull and gray with the approach of the storm.
She could not put her finger on what troubled her about Two Ridges. It was not only that he had been too cowardly to save her from the fall over the cliff. She had felt the same way before her accident. There seemed to be something about him that tugged at her soul, as though perhaps she had known him in another time, another life.
It was not the same feeling that she had about Spotted Eagle. Somehow he had appeared in her dreams, becoming real to her before she'd met him.
She had known nothing of Two Ridges until she first laid eyes on him. Yet since that first eye contact, something had been there, troubling her and seemingly haunting him as well.
Fear gripped her as another menacing bolt of lightning lit the trees with its silver light, followed by a fast roll of thunder. She gripped the seat with her fingers as the menacing black clouds raced overhead with enormous speed, pushed by tremendous winds that were curling the tree tops.
Then the rain began falling in torrents, the wind lashing the rain against Jolena's face. She screamed as the trees began swaying jerkily, threatening to hurl down their branches.
''Get inside the wagon!" Kirk shouted, wiping water from his face with the back of one hand, while with his other he tried to keep the wagon steady as the mules reared and brayed.
Spotted Eagle was suddenly there on his magnificent stallion, grabbing the reins from Kirk, steadying the horses. "Get inside out of the rain!" he shouted at Jolena.
The rain had blown her hair and plastered it against her wet face. She gathered it in her fingers and parted it, yet the rain was coming down in such blinding sheets that she still could not see Spotted Eagle clearly.
She nodded and turned to untie the leather thongs that held the front canvas of the wagon in place, but stopped and stared up at the sky as the storm abruptly stopped. It was as though someone had waved a magic wand in the air, ordering the sky to clear.
Jolena turned back around, and as she combed her fingers through her drenched hair, she gazed slowly about her. As the sun broke through, the colors of everything seemed brighter, the air was fresher, and the birds sang cheerfully.
The leaves of the trees were coated with a film of water, and as the air grew slowly warmer, white vapor formed in the tree tops, drifting idly upward to the clouds. The forest looked as if a thousand campfires were smoldering below the trees.
Jolena started to step down from the wagon, then stopped and screamed when her gaze fell upon something that had been uncovered at the side of the path by the hard, pelting rain.
Spotted Eagle slid quickly from his saddle and rushed to see what was causing Jolena's alarm. He stopped and his jaw tightened as he gazed down into a grave, from which the dirt had been washed away slowly through the years.
His eyes wide with curiosity, Kirk leaned around Jolena trying to see, angry to find that his view was being blocked by Spotted Eagle. "What was it, sis?" he asked, gazing over at her. "I'm not sure," Jolena said, a shiver racing up and down her spine as she returned his studious stare. "It… it looked like a baby."
"Baby?" Kirk gasped, paling.
Kirk continued sitting there as Jolena stepped down from the wagon and went to Spotted Eagle's side. She covered her mouth with a hand as she stared down at the tiny remains of the body in the grave. It was lying curled up as if it were still in the womb. Its blanket, which seemed to have been made of turkey feathers, was rotted.
Spotted Eagle knelt down upon one knee and began shoveling mud back onto the tiny thing. "It is Pueblo," he said solemnly. "Turkeys were in many ways sacred to them. To bury a child wrapped in turkey feathers was to give it wings to the land of the hereafter."
Seeing the buried infant catapulted Spotted Eagle back into time to the day when he heard about Sweet Dove's death and the fate of her newly born child. He was grateful for the white people who had found the child and cared for her as though she were their own. But for them, that child might have seen the same end as this child lying in this shallow grave.
Perhaps she would still have been alive when her father found the body of his wife, yet the chances were the child would have died by then. Without nourishment, and lying exposed beneath the beating rays of the sun to any four-legged animal that might pass by, the child's chances of surviving would have been slim. "How lonely the baby looked," Jolena murmured, having been saddened deeply by the sight of the infant. "It must have broken the mother's heart to have to bury her child so alone. I could not bear it if a child of mine died."
"This child has been dead for many years," Spotted Eagle said, shoveling the last pile of mud onto the grave. "Her mother is surely now dead, also. Perhaps her grave is also nearby. We shall never know."
Wiping his dirty hands on the thick leaves of bushes, he turned to Jolena, not caring that Kirk was near enough to hear him.
"We will have many healthy children," he assured her, ignoring Kirk's loud gasp and not seeing Two Ridge's glower as he sat on his horse just behind the wagon. "And ther
e will be no graves necessary for our children. Nor for their mother. I shall stay at your side while you are birthing. Never would I send you away from our village to give birth to your child alone."
Jolena's eyes widened with horror. "Are you saying that some Indian women leave their villages to… to have their children?" she asked, shocked at the thought. "Why would their husbands allow it?"
"It is not for me to say the wrongs or rights of another man's customs," Spotted Eagle said, rising to his full height and placing a gentle hand on Jolena's cheek. "But for us, when the time comes, we want only what is safe for you and the child. Never will I allow anything to harm you." Aware that more than one set of eyes were on her and Spotted Eagle, Jolena could feel her cheeks becoming hot with a blush. She flatly ignored Two Ridges' steady gaze, but she gave Kirk a sideways glance. Her eyes wavered when she saw her brother's irritation with Spotted Eagle for having spoken so openly about children.
Jolena quickly changed the subject. "I'm cold," she said, hugging herself with her arms. "I'd best change into dry clothes." She looked Spotted Eagle up and down. His buckskin clothes were so wet they looked as though they might be his second skin, embarrassing her when she lowered her gaze to that part of his anatomy where he was so very well equipped.
Smiling awkwardly, she shifted her gaze quickly back up again, yet discovering that she had not lifted her gaze upward fast enough. There was a quiet amusement in the depths of Spotted Eagle's eyes.
Before she had the chance to turn around and climb into the wagon, she felt Spotted Eagle's eyes on her, also rediscovering her body with their heat as they roved over her, where her wet skirt and blouse clung sensually to her curves and the generous mounds of her breasts. It was as though everywhere he touched with his eyes he lit small flames, causing a gentle passion to rise within her.
Knowing the dangers in this, since they were the center of attention now that everyone had returned to their wagons and were waiting for Spotted Eagle's command to continue on with the journey, Jolena turned her back quickly to Spotted Eagle and began to climb aboard the wagon.
But her breath seemed to lock in her throat when Spotted Eagle's hands were suddenly there at her waist, helping her.
She wanted to cry out to him that this was not the time for him to touch her anywhere!
She felt as though she was ready to melt right on the spot, and she feared that her feelings were too vivid in her eyes and in the way she was so rapidly breathing.
One more quick look over at Kirk told Jolena that he was perhaps at the end of the limit of what he would allow between her and the handsome warrior. She was afraid that they soon would come to blows, and that was the last thing she wantedtrouble between the man she had grown up with and the man that she loved, with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life!
Chapter Fifteen
The afternoon was ending. Dull and red, the sun was lowering in the sky. The campfire blazed low, and the aroma of coffee wafted through the air. The expedition had stopped earlier than usual to make camp for the night because everyone needed to dry out their belongings that had gotten wet during the torrential rains and winds of the storm.
Jolena had crept away from the others, seeking privacy enough to take a bath in the river, although she feared being alone enough to have sneaked Kirk's pistol out of his holster after Kirk had removed it while he was changing into something drier and more comfortable for the long hours of night that lay ahead of them. She didn't expect that he would miss the pistol until tomorrow, when he dressed for travel again. And she didn't expect him to miss her. She had set up her tent and closed its flap, making a pretense of already having retired for the night.
She knew the dangers of setting out on her own in this untamed land, yet deep down inside herself she realized that there was someone who had not missed her escape from the campsite.
Spotted Eagle.
She even suspected that he was following her.
She smiled to herself, pretending not to hear his moccasins stepping on a twig, creating a crackling sound that broke the silence.
The river sparkled through a break in the trees up just ahead of her, and Jolena hurried her pace, a towel thrown over her left arm and a bar of soap in the front right pocket of her skirt. The pistol was heavy in her left hand and she now felt foolish for having brought it. She had known that Spotted Eagle would follow her. She had made sure that he had seen her path of escape from the campsite.
Her smile faltered as she thought of Two Ridges. She had looked for him, too, before leaving the campsite, but he had been nowhere in sight. Somehow, she just could not find it in herself to trust him.
A strange foreboding filled her. All the while she had been confident that Spotted Eagle was following her. Could it have been, instead, Two Ridges? Spotted Eagle could have had other reasons for entering the forest behind her. Perhaps he hadn't even seen her.
Fearing this possibility, Jolena stopped short and swung around, her eyes searching the deepening shadows behind her, praying that the man she loved would be therenot Two Ridges!
As she waited for the person who was following her to show his face, her pulse raced. Her forefinger sought out the trigger on the pistol. The longer she had to wait, the more nervous she became.
She found herself slowly lifting the pistol, holding it up as a man might do, taking steady aim. She pulled back the lock with a flick of her thumb, her knees weak.
When Spotted Eagle finally came into sight, Jolena sighed with relief and slowly lowered the firearm.
Spotted Eagle eyed the pistol warily, then shot his gaze up, locking his eyes with Jolena's. "And who did you think was following you besides Spotted Eagle?" he asked. "I have never seen you carry a firearm before."
"That is because I found that I was not only foolish, but trusted too easily," Jolena said, her heart hammering within her chest as Spotted Eagle came closer.
She wondered if this strong desire for him would ever lessen. Just looking at him dizzied her.
Spotted Eagle stepped up to her and reached slowly for the pistol, then gingerly took it out of her hand. "It is good that you are learning to be cautious," he said, nodding. "But still you did not answer me about who you thought was following you. You were ready to shoot whoever it was. Tell me. Who has made you feel threatened?"
Jolena felt awkward, knowing that her fear of Two Ridges was thus far unfounded. Except for eyeing her in that strange way, he had not actually given her cause to be afraid of him.
Not wanting to cast blame until she had just cause, Jolena cast her eyes downward. "At first I thought it was you," she said, slowly moving her eyes upward again. "But when you did not make yourself known to me, I began to worry. That's why I decided to ready my gun, in case I was being stalked by someone who might harm me."
Spot
ted Eagle gazed down at her with frowning eyes for a moment longer, feeling that she was not being altogether truthful with him. Then he shrugged. There was no reason for her to evade the truth. There was no one near in this forest except those of the expedition. He did not see any of them as a threat to her. If so, Jolena's white father would not have chanced allowing such a person to accompany his daughter on such a journey.
"Say something," Jolena said, smiling weakly up at him. "Did I do something so terribly wrong?"
Spotted Eagle placed a hand on her cheek, his doubts melting away as he smiled slowly down at her. ''No," he said tenderly. "You did everything right. It was wise to carry a firearm while you were away from the others. I cannot condemn you for thinking ahead to what might happen while you are taking a bath in the river."
"How did you know what I was planning to do?" Jolena asked, laughing softly. "Are you not only handsome and intriguing, but also a mind reader?"
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