When had she forgotten her life with Wolf? When? The word caromed through her, in the same way the thunder rolled and growled across the sky. The sun was blotted out by the approaching clouds, and Serena realized with a gasp that after all those moments spent in darkness she had almost ceased to exist. Now her breathing became ragged as she felt the first stirrings of anger—of outrage—at what Frederick had done to her. Her hand tightened around the wood of the gate and she felt slivers press into her flesh.
Staring wildly up at the dark, roiling mass of clouds now covering more than half of Father Sky, Serena realized that Frederick had kept her a prisoner in many ways. He had brainwashed her. The wind was cooler, and was slapping against her in gusts now. So many memories of her love for Wolf came back, a trickle at first, but now a rushing river moving through her. How could she have forgotten him? And Wakinyela! Her daughter! The baby created out of their love for each other. Her hands pressed hard against her breast, Serena bowed her head, sobbing in earnest.
Her senses were coming alive once more. She smelled the fragrance of rain in the air as it caressed Mother Earth. A new strength flowed through Serena, and she shakily got to her feet. Her skirt was plastered against her body as she stood in the face of the storm. Slowly lifting her hands skyward, she remembered Wolf telling her that those who possessed thunder-being medicine could feel the tingling in their fingertips as they reached toward the sky.
The rain began. At first, there were large plops exploding against the dry, parched earth. Then smaller drops, but more rapid, soaking into her hair and the dress she was wearing. The rain was cooling against her face as she lifted it to the sky, reminding her that life goes on, that it is a never-ending cycle. Standing within the fury of the storm, drenched to the skin, Serena allowed the cleansing rain to further heal her.
For half an hour, Serena stood there as the world around her darkened, the lightning danced close to the farm, and the thunder split and rolled through the dark, angry halls of clouds. Wolf had thunder-being medicine. Serena knew that with her heart and soul. Once she had seen him give a rain ceremony. He had lifted the pipe he carried to Father Sky, chanting and singing. An hour later, she watched in amazement as the thunder beings approached with a storm that brought badly needed water to the tribe.
The storm was her friend, Serena realized humbly. It was a symbol of her reawakening, of her coming out of the depths of hopeless despair. She had been cruelly subjugated, just like an animal, into living and thinking a certain way—Frederick Gent’s way. The water trickled down across her face, and her lips formed a soft smile. She was alive! Alive!
As she turned and looked toward the cabin, Serena understood that she was not only alive, but free. Free to decide what to do with her life. Gent could not keep her any longer, she realized with a feeling of euphoria. She could go home…home to Wolf, to the Lakota people, where she belonged. Serena didn’t want to remain in a white world where men treated women like animals. Her husband and her children were in the Dakota Territory, and, Great Spirit willing, she would return there.
Serena moved at last back into the barn, unaware that her clothes were wet and clinging to her body. Her steps grew hurried as she crossed the muddy barnyard to the porch of the cabin. It was as if her mind had escaped a huge, dark trap from the past nine months of her life, and she thought not only of escape, but of having the courage to make her way back to Wolf and her children.
Opening the cabin door, Serena hurried to her room. She had only a few meager items to pack, and no money at all. But that didn’t matter.
“Where have you been?“ Frederick demanded as he moved to the entrance of her room, barring any escape.
“Getting soaked by the thunder beings,” Serena replied over her shoulder. She took a shawl that she’d made, placed her other dress into the folds and rolled it up into a bundle.
“Thunder beings?“ Gent scowled. “What’s this? You weren’t ever to mention any of those Injun words again, girl.”
Serena turned, her eyes narrowed and somber. “I’m leaving, Frederick.”
“What?”
She tensed and saw his face turn red, an indication of his temper. “I’m going home, and you can’t stop me short of shooting me in the back. I’m going home to my husband and my daughters. Now, stand aside.”
Camille peeked around her husband, her face white. “Serena! You can’t go! That’s crazy!”
Serena’s stomach was tied into a knot because she knew what Gent was capable of doing to her. She slowly approached him. He was tense and hunched over, as if he were going to attack her.
“You foolish woman,” he growled, “you’re going nowhere. You owe us a year of your time. You have to work off—”
“Kingston paid you to keep me. Consider the three months as a reward. Now, get out of my way!” Serena shrieked. She ducked beneath his arms and escaped into the living room of the cabin.
“Hold it!” Gent roared. He turned and grabbed Serena by the arm. “The devil’s got your tongue again, girl. What you need is to get him beat out of you. Camille! Get my belt! Now!”
Serena lurched away from Frederick, slipping her hand out of his grasp. She knew without a doubt that if she didn’t get away Gent would place her in leg irons once again and bolt the chain to a wall. Worse, he’d throw her into that dark, windowless room. Desperation fueled Serena’s bid for freedom. But she tripped over the hem of her skirt, and fell to the wooden floor.
“Come here!” Frederick bawled, leaning over to grip her by the shoulder.
With a scream, Serena rolled away from him. She lost her bundle, but that no longer mattered. Leaping to her feet, she ran for the front door. The rain was pummeling the roof of the house, and she could hear the wind rising to almost a humanlike howl. Lightning bolts struck so close to the cabin that she flinched. But they didn’t make Serena detour from her race toward the door. She heard Frederick’s heavy, booted feet thunking across the floor behind her.
Just as she reached the door, it was flung open. There stood Wolf in his deerskin shirt and leggings, his black, braided hair hanging down his chest. Serena stopped short, her eyes widening enormously. She heard Gent give a shout of surprise. Camille screamed.
Serena felt dizzy as she stared at Wolf, who filled the doorway with his powerful presence. Was she seeing things? Was her desperation so great that she imagined him in the doorway? His face was thinner, leaner and harder looking. His mouth was a single line, curved in at the corners, as if he was experiencing pain. In his right hand was a rifle, and water was dripping from its barrel onto the floor.
She saw Wolf raise the rifle and aim it past her at Gent.
“Drop the belt,” Wolf ordered the huge, red-faced wasicun.
Frederick’s mouth fell open, and he allowed the thick leather belt to fall from his hand.
“Wolf?“ Serena’s voice was shaken, unsure.
Without looking at her, he held out his left hand in her direction. “Come, Cante Tinza.”
Rattled, Serena stared in disbelief. Frederick’s face was turning a plum color, and the blue spiderweb lines on his nose were standing out against his red flesh. Camille had her hands across her mouth, and her eyes were huge with fear as she stood frozen at the doorway. Serena’s gaze moved back to Wolf, to his tall, overwhelming presence. “Y-you’re real?“ She had spoken Lakota without realizing it, the language slipping from her lips with such ease.
Wolf’s mouth barely lifted at the corners, his gaze never leaving Gent. “I am, Cante Tinza. I am not some ghost. Was this wasicun going to hurt you?”
“Yes. I—I was trying to leave.”
“Leave?”
“Yes,” Serena rasped, tears filling her eyes. “Oh, Wolf, I was going to come home. I was going to try and make it back to you and Wakinyela and Dawn Sky.”
The corners of his mouth deepened. “Then come, we must go. I have two horses out front. What of this wasicun? Does he have a rifle?”
“Yes.”
; “Then get it. Take any food that you think we can use and bring it along. I will hold the wasicuns here while you do that.”
With a bare nod, Serena hurried out of the room and ran to the kitchen. Hands shaking badly, she stuffed three loaves of freshly baked bread into an unused flour sack. Canned goods would break, so she left them. Fortunately, Frederick liked smoked ham and bacon, so she put several pounds of each into the sack. Her heart kept hammering. And her head kept saying, Wolf is here, Wolf is here. But how?
Serena retrieved the rifle and several boxes of bullets from the Gents’ bedroom and then ran to the living room, being careful to stay away from Frederick, who was breathing raggedly and curling his fists as if he wanted to kill Wolf.
“I’m ready.”
Wolf nodded. “My two best buffalo runners are with me. You mount Wiyaka. I will come then.”
“Don’t hurt them, Wolf.”
“Did they hurt you?”
Serena had seen enough violence. “He did, but it isn’t his fault. He, and later, she tried to convert me to their religion and make me stay in the wasicun world.”
Wolf eyed the belt on the floor, and glared into the man’s purple face. “Tell him not to follow us. If he does, I will kill him.”
Serena went to stand next to Wolf. She still couldn’t believe he was here. Perhaps her mind was making it up, as it had those many months in the darkness of that one room.
Gulping, she switched back to English. “Frederick, Wolf says not to follow us. If you do, he’ll kill you.”
Camille gave a frightened cry and fainted.
Frederick turned around and looked down at his wife, who lay on the floor, her flesh pasty in color. Angrily, he turned toward them. “You’ll never get away with this! I’ll have the local militia come after you! They’ll find you and kill this redskin!” he said as he pointed angrily at Wolf.
Joy flowed through Serena as she realized Wolf would protect her no matter who came after them. They were in great danger, but if Wolf had been able to track her down and find her, then she knew that they could also return safely to the Paha Sapa.
“Don’t follow us,” she pleaded. “I don’t belong here, Frederick. Don’t you understand that?”
He glared at her. “You’re a white woman! You ain’t no Injun! You skin’s white!”
Swallowing hard, Serena lifted her left wrist that bore the long, thin white scar from the ceremony that had made her one with Wolf. “Do you see this, Frederick?”
“Yes. What of it?“ he snapped irritably.
“Many years ago, Wolf cut my wrist and his own. Our blood mingled.“ She looked up at Wolf’s harsh profile, tears in her eyes, her voice raspy. “What you don’t want to understand is that I love this man with all my heart—with my life, if necessary. I’m going home to my children, Frederick, and to live with them and my husband.”
“The devil’s got you, girl!” he roared.
Serena smiled slightly as she moved to Wolf. She could smell the dampness of the deerskin he wore, and his male scent. It stirred her senses and touched her heart as nothing else ever could. “Frederick, did you know that the Lakota don’t have a devil or hell in their belief? The Great Spirit is a loving presence, not one to be feared like your God. No, I believe in goodness, in respect and love toward others. I don’t need your devil. And as for hell, you put me in one by keeping me a prisoner in that room for so many months.“ Anger tinged her voice. “I hope you rot in your hell, Frederick. You’re a cruel man with no heart.“ She turned and left.
The rain was beginning to cease, the worst of the storm having passed eastward, leaving everything cleansed in its path. Serena gave a cry of joy as she saw Kagi tied with a rope to the saddle of Wiyaka. The wolf whined and leaped happily toward her. She leaned down, hugging the wolf and crying. Untying Kagi, Serena mounted Wiyaka, who also nickered her own kind of greeting to her.
Wolf backed out of the door, his rifle still trained on Gent. He glanced over his shoulder. Cante Tinza had brought the dark bay gelding up to the porch and held the jaw cord out to him. He saw hope burning in her eyes, and he lithely leaped into the saddle. Taking the jaw cord from her fingers, he kept his gaze trained on the door to make sure Gent didn’t come charging out.
“We ride west, into the woods,” he told her. Wolf desperately wanted to embrace Cante Tinza, to taste the sweetness of her lips, but he didn’t dare. They were in great danger, and he knew they must ride long and hard to leave Gent and the militia behind. Her hair was cut off, which angered him. Who had done this to her? Probably the wasicun. Bridling his anger, he dug his heels into his gelding.
For three hours they traveled nonstop deep into the woodlands of Ohio. The sun had come back out. Wolf looked up and pointed to Father Sky. “Look.”
Serena followed his hand. Above them, bright and beautiful, was a rainbow. “A good sign?”
“Yes,” he agreed. “We stop.”
The horses were tired, their flanks heaving from the galloping and trotting they’d done hours on end. Serena dismounted. Her legs felt rubbery because she hadn’t ridden a horse in nearly a year. She leaned against Wiyaka for a moment and watched as Wolf dismounted.
Wolf came around and eased between the two horses. “Come here, my wife.“ He opened his arms and saw her lips draw into a heart-melting smile. With a groan, he took her weight, his arms going tightly around her.
“Oh, Wolf,” Serena sobbed. She buried her head against his chest, holding him as tightly as she could with her womanly strength. “I missed you. I missed you so much!”
He kissed her damp hair, her flushed cheek and finally sought and found her waiting lips. Crushing her mouth against his, he drank deeply of her, feeling her heat, her taste. She was shaking badly in his arms, and he laughed huskily as he tore his mouth from her wet, full lips. There was such joy in her green eyes, joy that danced in eyes with flecks of sunlight deep within them.
“You are my life,” he whispered against her mouth. “My life, my heart. I could not let you be taken from me, Cante Tinza. I could not.”
With a muffled sound, Serena clung to Wolf, kissing him repeatedly with wild abandon. His mouth was strong and cherishing against hers. “I feel as if I’m dreaming,” she said with a little laugh, near hysteria. “All those months in that dark, cold room—I thought I was going crazy. I dreamed you were there with me. I remember talking to you. Oh, I talked out loud so much that first month or two….”
He framed her face with his hands and saw the haunted look in her eyes. “What do you speak of, my heart? What dark room?”
With a sob, Serena closed her eyes and absorbed Wolf’s strength. His hands, callused and large, felt steadying to her unstable emotional state. “Frederick cut off my braids and cut off my necklace made of our hair,” she choked out. “He threw me into a dark room. I don’t know for how long. I only know it was months. It was so dark, and I was so cold. I was so lonely. At first, all I remember is my mind going crazy. I’d be sitting on the floor wrapped in my blankets and I’d see you appear to me. I’d talk to you. I’d cry. I was so worried for our babies, for you.”
Closing his eyes, Wolf felt her pain. He rested his brow against her hair. “The wasicun tortured you.“ Now he wished he had killed the man. Cante Tinza was a woman who blossomed out on the land because she was close to Mother Earth. Wolf couldn’t begin to imagine her being kept in a dark room for months. Gently, he began to caress her short hair, which was badly in need of being combed. Her tears ripped at him as he began to realize the cruelty she’d endured.
“I—I gave up, Wolf. I surrendered,” she babbled. “After a while, my mind seemed to snap. I felt empty. I had no memory of you, or of our daughters. It was then that Frederick took off my leg irons and let me walk freely around his farm.”
“Leg irons?“ His eyes narrowed with fury.
“Y-yes. The Army put me in them after they captured me. Oh, Wolf, I tried to escape so many times. Once, I got a half a day away from the Army wagon trai
n, but they found me. I was so close to escaping.“ Serena closed her eyes and whispered, “They put me in chains just like Kingston had. I wore them until this spring, when Frederick finally let me out of the room.”
Grimly, Wolf caressed her cheeks with his thumbs, taking her tears away. “Kingston is dead.”
Shaken, Serena gazed up to his hard, lined face. “Dead?”
With a slight smile, pleasure in his voice, Wolf said, “The day after the Army captured you, I rode into Kingston’s mining camp. I found him asleep in his bed. I held a knife to his throat and he told me everything.“ Touching Cante Tinza’s wrinkled brow, he smoothed it with his fingers. “Kingston told the Army of your whereabouts with us. He lied and told them that we had captured you. He gave them money to give to a family who would keep you for a year to make sure you stayed with wasicuns.”
“But—how did you know where I was?”
“Kingston’s black woman showed me a letter he had written to this man named Gent. I could not read it, but she read it for me. She came from Kentucky and knew where Ohio was, and where this area near the river was.”
Serena shut her eyes and collapsed against Wolf’s strong, steadying body. His arms were tight and protective around her as she sagged against him. “I don’t see how you got here.”
Wolf smiled faintly as he ran his hand gently up and down her damp back. “Kagi was my eyes and ears. She often alerted me to wasicun patrols. I also had to avoid other tribes, and she kept me safe from them. She will do the same on our way home. We will ask her to keep us out of the way of our enemies.”
Sniffing, Serena eased away from Wolf just enough to gaze up into his dark, warm eyes. “It will be so dangerous. The Army will come after me, Wolf.”
“Yes, but if we are careful, we can avoid them.”
The future looked hopeless to Serena. “Frederick could notify the Army post near the Paha Sapa. They could come and get me again. I would put the tribe into more danger.”
Brave Heart Page 24