Serena was alerted when she heard the solid thumping of boots echoing eerily along the hallway. The sound was coming toward her door. Gulping, she stopped jerking at the chain and sat very still. The latch moved. Her breath jammed in her throat, her hands automatically covering her baby.
Kingston slowly walked into the room. He held a half-empty bottle of whiskey in his hands. His eyes glittered in the firelight. With the heel of his boot, he quietly shut the door.
“I thought,” Kingston said, slurring his words as he walked drunkenly toward her, “I could go to sleep tonight. But I haven’t been able to sleep since you came.“ He stopped, tipped the bottle up to his mouth and took a long swallow. Placing the whiskey container on the dresser, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, all the while staring at Serena.
Kingston’s eyes finally focused and he walked with deliberation toward her. She sat in terror. He smiled savagely, savoring her fear. “Damn you for being so beautiful,” he snarled as he reached out and clamped his hand into her thick, shining hair. “You’re a witch. An Irish witch.“ He saw her wince, cowering as he examined her hair in his large hand. “Your hair reflects you. You’re wild. Untamed. I thought I could keep my hands off you until that brat’s born, but I can’t.”
“Please,” Serena begged softly, pulling away from his threatening presence, “don’t hurt my baby. Don’t hurt her, I beg you….”
Kingston studied her upturned face. “You hurt my son. Why shouldn’t I hurt your brat?”
She could smell the nauseating odor of whiskey on his breath and tried to move away, but she was trapped between the post of the bed and him. Her heart pounded wildly, and she fought back tears. “I swear, I never came back and set fire to your cabin! I didn’t kill your son! I love children! I could never hurt a child, no matter what their color or race!”
He eyed her swollen belly. “I don’t believe you,” he snarled. He captured her chin between his thumb and index finger. “I’m taking you here and now, witch. I can’t stop thinking about you, about what we had. I want it again. I couldn’t care less about that brat in your belly. Now, stand up and take off that robe.”
Serena jerked her chin out of his grip. She tried to push Kingston away as he advanced upon her. Fighting him with all her strength, she felt him grab the collar of the robe. It ripped sickeningly, and Serena tried to cover her exposed breasts. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him lift his hand to strike her. The side of her head exploded with light and pain, and she felt herself falling backward into the bed. His groping, hurting hands were all over her, and weakly, she tried to push him away. The taste of blood filled her mouth.
With a shriek, Serena raised her foot and lashed out. Kingston grunted from the blow, which threw him backward off his feet. He crashed to the wooden floor. Serena shakily pulled the robe closed, ignoring the pain radiating up through the left side of her face.
Just as Kingston struggled to his knees, Serena saw the door open. A cry tore from her. Wolf moved silently inside the room, his knife drawn. In one smooth, unbroken motion, he kicked Kingston’s legs out from beneath him. Wolf pinned Blackjack to the floor and held a knife to his neck.
“One cry and I will slit your throat,” Wolf hissed. He glanced toward the bed. Fury raced through him as he saw blood flowing from Serena’s nose and mouth and realized that Kingston had struck her. He pressed his blade against the man’s sweaty flesh. “You dared to touch her?”
Kingston’s eyes bulged as he felt the sharp knife slit his skin. Blood began to trickle down the side of his neck. His breath was ragged as he stared into the hardened features of the Lakota warrior. “I—I—”
“You are going to die,” Wolf said.
“No!” Serena cried. “No more killing, Wolf! He’s got the key to my cuff. Get it! Please, get it!”
Wolf hesitated, his stare black and impenetrable. “You touched my wife. No man hurts her and lives to speak of such a foul deed, Kingston. Give me the key she speaks of.”
Wolf eased the knife just enough for Kingston to dig frantically into the pocket of his trousers. Then, he took the key from the miner and turned toward her. “Can you free yourself, Cante Tinza?”
Gasping, Serena nodded. She caught the key midair, and, with trembling fingers, unlocked the iron cuff. “Let me get into my dress, Wolf.”
“Hurry,” he urged. “There is not much time.”
Shedding the torn robe, Serena slipped the elkskin dress over her head. By the time she had gotten her moccasins and leggings on, Wolf had locked the miner’s wrist in the iron cuff and had placed a gag in his mouth.
Wolf was satisfied that Kingston was no longer a threat. He placed the knife back into the sheath and moved to his wife’s side. Gripping her by the arms, he saw the terrible damage to her face.
“He did this to you?”
“Y-yes. Oh, Wolf, you came,” and Serena threw her arms around him and sobbed.
Holding her tightly, Wolf glared back toward the miner. “I would never leave you, Cante Tinza. Did he touch you otherwise?”
“N-no, but he was going to rape me.“ She gulped unsteadily, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. “If you hadn’t come when you did, he would have.”
Wolf’s mouth thinned. “Cante Tinza, the horses are tied in the woods in back of his house. Kagi waits with them. Move carefully from the house. I will meet you there soon. Now, go.”
Serena jerked a look up at Wolf’s harsh features, and then over at Kingston, who lay there with unadulterated fear in his eyes. “Wolf, what are you going to do?”
“Something that he has coming to him, my woman. Now go. I do not want you here to see it. Leave.”
Gripping his arm, she cried, “Don’t kill him! They’ll just come after our people again, Wolf.”
“I know,” he soothed, devoting his attention momentarily to her as he guided her to the door. “I will not kill him.”
“Promise?“ Serena quavered.
“I vow to allow him to live. Now, quickly follow the hall to the rear door. I have knocked the man who guards that door unconscious. Mount Wiyaka and wait for me. Keep Kagi with you. Do not allow her to show herself.”
“A-all right,” Serena said. She glanced quickly down the hall and then slipped out the door. What was Wolf going to do to Kingston? Barely able to stand, Serena leaned heavily against the wall and made her way to the door in the dark. She quietly opened the latch, and could see snow beginning to fall. Thick flakes floated silently from the sky. She carefully descended the icy steps, hurrying once she was on the snow-covered ground.
Serena located the hobbled horses amid a forest of pine trees no more than twenty feet away from the rear of the log cabin. Kagi was on a leash that was tied to a nearby pine. The wolf whined and leaped to her feet, wagging her brushy tail wildly in greeting. Serena’s hands trembled so badly that she could barely unknot the leash to free Kagi. She whispered to the wolf while she unhobbled the horses. Wiyaka nickered gently in greeting, and Serena climbed unsteadily into the saddle. Wolf had brought along a large bull buffalo robe that not only covered the saddle, but could be brought up around her head to protect her from the freezing cold and snow.
Just as Serena pulled the robe over her head, she saw Wolf leap off the stairs and run silently toward them. She handed him the jaw cord to the other horse. He leaped lithely into the saddle and adjusted his robe over himself.
“We must ride now,” he whispered, reaching out and gripping her hand. “If you begin to feel badly as we ride, tell me.”
“Y-yes. Oh, Wolf, let’s just get out of here!”
“We go home, my woman. Come.”
* * *
Wolf grew worried. The snow worsened, nearly blizzardlike, and the winds howled around them as they wended their way through the sentinels of pine. The horses stumbled, slid and moved along in the dark at a steady walk. Serena kept falling behind, and he knew that Wiyaka wasn’t a lazy walker. He pulled up and waited for her. She was bent forward, her head
bowed.
“What is it? The child?“ he asked.
Serena bit down on her lip to stop from crying out. “Wolf, I think I’m in labor. It’s too early. Too early….”
Wolf couldn’t stand the ragged cry of her voice. Dismounting, he approached Wiyaka. “I will ride with you. Are you in much pain?”
“Horrible pain. It started at Kingston’s cabin earlier,” Serena explained as she lightly touched her belly. “I’m worried I’m going to lose her, Wolf.”
He saw the fear in her tear-filled eyes. “No,” he rasped. He mounted Wiyaka, and his arm moved gently around Cante Tinza. “I talked to the birthing women, and they said with this kind of ride you may come a few weeks early. They said that if you go into labor, I should find a place to stay and help you birth the child myself.”
Exhaustion made her dizzy, and Serena relaxed completely within Wolf’s embrace. “I—I’m just so tired, Wolf. I hurt, and all I can do is cry.”
“Hush, Cante Tinza, you have gone through much alone. I got here as quickly as I could. I sensed you were in danger when Kagi started howling the first night of our hunting trip.”
She shut her eyes, trying to black out the pain from her aching jaw. “I thought I’d never see you again,” she sobbed, and pressed her hand to her eyes. “I was so frightened for our baby. Kingston was going to give her to a wet nurse as soon as she was born, and then he was going to sell her to a slave trader. Now, I worry he’ll come after us. I can’t travel fast, Wolf. I’ll slow us down, and—”
“Be still, my woman. Your talk makes you weaker. Conserve yourself. Kingston will not follow us.“ Wolf guided Wiyaka through the gray dawn of the forest around them. Soon daylight would come, and with it a chance to seek refuge.
Serena twisted a look up at Wolf’s hard, shadowed features. She’d never seen him look so cruel as now. “Why won’t he?”
“Because he will not be able to walk, much less ride for a number of months.”
“What are you saying?”
Wolf stared down at her. “He killed a part of you when he raped you, Cante Tinza. And he was going to rape you again even though you carried our child. Among my people, we do not forgive a man who does this to a woman.”
Her eyes widened. “What did you do to him, Wolf?“ Serena’s words came out in a terrified whisper.
“I gelded him as I would geld any horse.“ There was satisfaction in his voice. “No longer will he hurt you or any other woman.”
“Oh, no,” Serena cried, her hand pressed against her mouth.
As they rode Serena dozed between sleep and wakefulness. Each time Wiyaka slipped it jolted her, causing pain to race through her. She tried to keep from crying out, but finally, in her exhaustion, she couldn’t help it. The fear of Kingston’s men following them was real, even if he was incapacitated. Everything became a nightmare for Serena. Kingston’s furious face haunted her each time she closed her eyes. Only Wolf’s arms gently holding her kept her from going insane with the pain and terror of their escape.
“We are here,” he whispered near her ear.
Serena dazedly raised her head. The snow was falling so heavily it was like a white curtain. The snow-covered pine trees looked like shadows. “Here?“ she mumbled.
Wolf dismounted and took Cante Tinza into his arms. “The cave,” he told her with a slight, weary smile. “There are many caves in the Paha Sapa. During the winter, when we must hunt, we stay here.“ He walked carefully through the nearly knee-deep snow toward a huge opening that was partly covered by trees and thick, snow-covered brush.
Much later, Serena sat with her back against the cave wall, wrapped in the thick, warm robe. Her pain came and went like ripples of water through her body. She had lost track of time since contractions began savaging her. She was barely even aware that a warm fire burned in the center of the dry cave.
The cave was huge, and consisted of several rooms. A large store of dried grass that had been picked in the summer fed the two horses, which remained hobbled in the outer room. In the second, more protected room, or cave, there were bladder bags filled with not only dried deer meat, but rich buffalo meat. Cooking utensils were nearby, and Serena watched as Wolf set up housekeeping. It was almost as if they were home in their tepee.
“The stew smells wonderful,” she admitted.
Wolf glanced over at her. Cante Tinza’s flesh was pale and drawn across her cheekbones and there was darkness beneath her eyes. He worried about her, still angered over the swelling along her left cheek and jaw. “Soon we will eat.”
With a slight smile—slight because it hurt to talk due to the blow by Kingston—Serena whispered, “I’m not really hungry.”
“I want you to try to eat, my woman, to keep up your strength. Soon our baby will come, and you must be strong.“ Wolf stirred the kettle suspended over the fire. The draft in the series of caves drew the smoke deep into the underground darkness. He knew that no one would find them. They were safe. Leaving the fire, he laid out several wool blankets. The pallet would become the place to birth their child.
Serena dozed off and on for more than an hour until she felt Wolf pull her gently into his arms. He spoon-fed her the rich buffalo broth that he had flavored with wild onions. She lay in his arms, his back providing comfort from the hard, cool wall of the cave.
“Enough…“ she whispered, and closed her eyes, tired beyond belief.
Wolf placed the bowl and spoon aside. He caressed her mussed hair. “You did well,” he praised her in a low voice, as he put his arms around her.
“I’m so tired, Wolf, so tired. I want to sleep so badly.”
He pressed a kiss to her hair. “Then sleep, my woman, for I will hold you safe.”
The slow pound of his heart beneath her ear was soothing, and Serena surrendered to his low voice and the strength of his arms holding her, until she slept despite the labor pains. His large body provided her with a warm haven against the continuous draft.
Wolf felt Cante Tinza slowly relax, and soon her breathing was soft and shallow against his neck. He continued to slowly stroke her matted, damp hair with his fingers. His eyes burned with the fierce fire of anger toward Kingston. He should have killed the wasicun, but he had listened to Cante Tinza’s pleadings to spare his life. With a sigh, Wolf knew that Kingston, once recovered, would come after them. More than likely, in the spring.
His brows drew down as he caressed her cool cheek. Kingston might be too injured to ride, but he could send his miners after them. Somehow, Kingston knew which band of Lakota Cante Tinza lived with, and he could strike them again. Once she had their baby, they would have to get back to the camp as quickly as possible. Perhaps he should ride ahead to warn the chief so that they could move the camp and not remain a target of Kingston’s rage and revenge. He should have killed the wasicun….
Wolf rested his mouth against Cante Tinza’s hair and closed his eyes. His heart mushroomed with such fierce love for his wife that he wanted to howl like the wolf that lay at her side, proclaiming his love for her to the world. Every once in a while as she slept, she would draw up, like a taut bowstring, and then gradually relax once again. Wolf knew that the labor pains were coming closer and closer together, and that they had become more powerful as the hours of the night moved on toward dawn. He prayed to White Buffalo Calf Woman to make Cante Tinza’s birthing swift and easy. He prayed for a sign that his prayer would be granted, for he knew of women who had died in childbirth, and he couldn’t lose his red-haired woman. He just couldn’t.
* * *
Serena awoke to a sharp, tearing pain moving down through the center of her body. Gasping, she tensed, her eyes flying open. She felt, more than saw, Wolf.
“Easy, my woman,” he murmured, stroking her hair. “Soon our daughter will come into my hands, into our world.”
Serena blinked and realized that gray light was filtering into the chamber. With Wolf’s help, she sat up—the pain was too intense and gutting for her to lie on the wool pallet. “
Is it daylight?“ she whispered in a sleepy voice.
“Three hours ago.“ Wolf smiled and pointed to the floor near the opening. “Look, White Buffalo Calf Woman has answered my prayer. A mourning dove flew into the cave just as light broke the hold of the night. She paced back and forth, cooing and calling, but did not leave.“ He smiled down at her from his kneeling position. “This is a very good sign. Your birth will be swift and easy, my woman.”
Serena saw the small gray-and-tan mourning dove bob its head back and forth as it walked in a circle at the opening between the cave’s first and second room. She gave a small laugh and gazed up into Wolf’s face. “She shouldn’t be here. They’re afraid of humans.”
“But—“ Wolf gestured “—the bird was sent by White Buffalo Calf Woman.”
“How beautiful,” Serena whispered. The wonderful sight took her mind off some of her pain.
Wolf caressed her hand. “I prayed for a name.”
“You did?“ She slipped her hand over Wolf’s, the cramplike pain coursing through her abdomen.
“Yes. We shall call our daughter Wakinyela, Mourning Dove.”
With a sigh, Serena said, “It’s a lovely name, Wolf.”
“You approve?”
“You’re the medicine man. Why would I dispute what a medicine person would call our baby?”
His laughter was low and rich. “You slept well, nearly half the night. Do you feel rested? Hungry?”
Just being in Wolf’s presence buoyed Serena. She realized that her love for him was eternal. Her smile slipped as she held his dark, searching gaze. “Yes, I feel stronger. But I don’t want to eat.”
Grunting, Wolf stood and faced her. He knelt in front of her. “Early this morning, your water gave way,” he said as he pointed to the damp blankets beneath her. “Our daughter will come soon.”
Brave Heart Page 18