He slid an arm around her waist and drew her next to him. They both gazed contedly into the moon-splashed water.
“This is a version of Eden,” she murmured, leaning her head against his shoulder. “How fortunate it is that you have found this wilderness valley for your people that has not, until now, known the hand of man.”
“It is a place that I hope is never discovered by whites,” High Hawk said.
“Yet there are two white people among your Pawnee,” Joylynn said softly. “I am one; Andrew is the other.”
“You are Pawnee now, but as for Andrew, I am not yet certain what he is,” High Hawk replied. “He is, of course, white, but does he now have the heart of a Pawnee? He has grown so close to my people’s shaman. If his friendship is pretense, I—”
Joylynn moved to her knees and knelt before him. She placed a gentle finger to his lips, stopping him from saying any more. She would not allow anything to detract from their private, wonderful moments.
“Not tonight,” she said softly. “Tonight is ours, only ours.”
He swept her into his arms and carried her back inside the tepee. There, he laid her down on the pelts, then made slow love this time, so that each of them could savor every moment of this magical night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
A month had passed since their night of lovemaking in the beautiful white tepee. The day was cool, the breeze somewhat nippy. High Hawk and Joylynn had just stepped from their lodge.
“Are you certain you feel comfortable letting Andrew leave?” Joylynn asked as she and High Hawk watched the former soldier walking with Two Stars.
“He has proven to be honest in all that he has said and done,” High Hawk said, still watching Andrew. “And the heavy snows of winter will begin falling soon. It is best that he leave now, or he will have to remain the winter with us.”
“Do you see anything wrong with him staying?” Joylynn asked as they started walking slowly toward Andrew. “He gets along with everyone, and he has such respect for the elderly.”
“It is the man’s talking leaves that bother me,” High Hawk said tightly. “The book that he calls his Bible. Too many children are showing interest in it. They gather around him as he reads from it. Our people’s God is Tirawahut. The children cannot ever forget that.”
“I believe he has chosen very carefully what he reads to them,” Joylynn murmured. At times she had stood close herself, listening. “What he reads are stories about children and their joy in the world.”
“I still see danger in the young man staying here,” High Hawk said.
“But isn’t there more danger in his leaving?” Joylynn asked. “What if he is made to tell where he’s been?”
“He has promised not to tell anyone, and I sense there is much honesty in his words and behavior,” High Hawk said. “His trust has been earned. It is time for him to return to his own world and seek his dream of becoming a preacher. He cannot fulfill that dream among my people. I will not allow it.”
Andrew had turned and seen them walking toward them, as had Two Stars.
They had both stopped and waited.
“I must do what my heart tells me to do,” High Hawk said, pausing a few feet from Andrew and Two Stars. High Hawk and Joylynn hugged Andrew in turn; then High Hawk placed a gentle hand on Andrew’s shoulder.
“Young brave, you have earned the right to your freedom,” High Hawk said. “You may go. Several of my warriors will accompany you down the mountain pass. When you are at the bottom of my mountain, you will be allowed to travel alone. You will have a horse and provisions enough to last until you find a white man’s town. But there is one thing I ask of you: Refrain from going anywhere near a white man’s fort. If you do, and the commander learns that you have been living among red men who ambushed soldiers, they will force you to tell them where our village is. I trust you enough now to know that you will not reveal such information.”
He looked at Andrew’s fringed outfit. It was made by Indian hands, yet he knew of some white scouts that wore the same, so he did not believe what Andrew wore would be a problem. His cavalry uniform had been burned long ago.
Andrew, seeming stunned by High Hawk’s decision, said nothing.
“Today you will leave,” High Hawk said. “It is important that you leave now in order to get off the mountain and find somewhere that you can call home before the frigid temperatures and snows of winter arrive. As you notice, today’s air is cooler than it has been. It is a warning of what is to come.”
Andrew’s eyes wavered as he looked at High Hawk, then at Joylynn, then at High Hawk again. “But I don’t want to leave,” he blurted out. “I am at peace here. I’m . . . happy. Can’t I stay?”
Two Stars spoke up. “This young brave has found a place among us, and I would feel a sadness inside my heart if he were to leave,” he said. “I understand why you are eager for him to depart. It is the Bible, is it not?”
“It is what he teaches from that Bible,” High Hawk said tightly.
“It is only a book, nothing more,” Two Stars said. “In it are words of his God. I have enjoyed hearing about it and being read to from it. But it has not altered my beliefs. Nor will it alter anyone else’s.”
“My Bible is precious to me because it was a gift from my mother,” Andrew said. “And it is my only possession. That is why I carry it with me at all times. If you allow me to stay, I promise not to preach from it.”
Andrew swallowed hard. “Please do not make me leave,” he said, his voice breaking. “My mother is gone. I am alone in the world. I feel that I have finally found another true home here. Can’t I stay among your people and live as one with them?”
Joylynn was relieved to know that this young man was sincere in every way toward the Pawnee.
She hugged him again, then stepped away from him and gazed into his eyes. “Andy, if you stay here, how can you become a preacher?” she asked. “You surely have the calling, for you know the Bible better than anyone I have ever met.”
“I can practice my kindness and caring amid the Pawnee people,” Andrew said. “I do not have to actually preach. It is my love for God that is important. I can spread that love amongst the children as I would if I were a preacher.”
Joylynn saw him glance at a pretty young woman of about his age. The girl blushed and lowered her lashes bashfully.
Joylynn smiled and gave Andrew another hug, whispering into his ear that she knew the true reason he wanted to stay. As she stepped away from him, she saw how he blushed and nodded at what she had said.
Seeing that Joylynn seemed so impressed by the young man, and so trusting of him, High Hawk placed a hand on Andrew’s shoulder. “I give you my blessing to stay, if that is what you truly wish to do,” he said, looking at the pretty young girl. Although it had happened quickly, Rose had most certainly become the object of Andrew’s deepest affection.
High Hawk did not resent their obvious feelings for one another. Had he himself not been drawn into loving a white woman as quickly as it seemed that Andrew had grown to love Rose, and she him?
“I also give my blessing on your feelings for one of our Pawnee maidens,” he said, surprising not only Andrew, but also Joylynn and Two Stars.
They both stared in disbelief as Andrew flung himself into High Hawk’s arms and thanked him over and over again.
High Hawk stepped away from Andrew. He gazed into his eyes. “Now, I would not be all that thankful yet, for Rose has a father and he is the one who must give the final blessing,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “And you must pay a bride price for the girl, even if you are now only wishing to court her. What do you have to offer her father?”
Andrew’s eyes widened; then he took his Bible from his rear pocket and nodded toward it. “I will give her father my Bible, for that is all I have left, and it is, as you know, very precious to me,” he said softly, looking up at High Hawk.
Joylynn’s heart seemed to skip several beats when she saw what Andrew wanted to us
e as his bride price. She, too, looked guardedly at High Hawk, and found it hard to read how this young man’s suggestion had struck him.
High Hawk had only moments ago spoken against the Bible, and here the young man was ready to use it to win a Pawnee father’s approval.
High Hawk was speechless for a moment. He gazed at the Bible questioningly, then into Andrew’s eyes. He knew how this young man felt about his talking leaves; Andrew’s willingness to give away his Bible said much about his feelings for Rose.
The more High Hawk thought about the matter, the more he believed Andrew’s suggestion would work on his people’s behalf. If one of the Pawnee had possession of the Bible, it could not be used to persuade his people to believe what was written on its pages.
“Ho, as I see it, the Bible will be gift enough,” High Hawk said. “Go now if you wish. Offer it.”
“Truly?” Andrew said, swallowing hard.
“If it is your choice to part with your only possession, one that you care so much for, then so be it,” High Hawk said. “Go. Do not delay your talk with Rose’s father.”
Andrew glanced over at Rose, whose eyes were filled with eagerness and love, then gazed into High Hawk’s eyes again. “I’m a little afraid,” he said. “What if he turns me down? He has no idea how I feel about her. When he learns of my feelings, he might forbid me ever to see Rose again.”
“You will never know unless you ask,” High Hawk said. But in his heart he was glad about what was happening, for he no longer had to worry about Andrew telling white people things that could harm the Pawnee. When he had made the decision to bring Andrew among his people, it had been a hard one. Yet he now knew that it had been a wise one!
Rose came up to Andrew and shyly gazed into his eyes. “Come. I will go with you,” she said softly. “Ahte is home now, with Ina.”
Touched by the young people’s obvious affection for each other, Joylynn took High Hawk’s hand and stood with her husband and Two Stars. She watched the two go to Rose’s tepee. She could see Andrew’s hands trembling as he held the Bible while Rose called her father’s name outside the entrance flap.
When the flap was thrown aside, Rose’s father’s large frame filled the opening. His eyes narrowed angrily as he gazed from Andrew to his daughter, and then at the Bible in Andrew’s hand.
Andrew gulped hard as he gazed into the dark eyes of Brown Horse, who had yet to say a word.
“Sir, I have come to offer you my Bible as a bride price for your daughter,” Andrew finally said, his voice trembling. “It is my most prized possession. I hope that you will accept it, knowing that it is of great value to me, yet I am willing to part with it in order to court your daughter, and then marry her.”
Brown Horse stared at the Bible again, then suddenly stepped back from the entrance flap, closing it between himself and the world outside.
Joylynn covered a gasp with her hand. She could see how devastated Andrew was at the brusque way he had been treated, and the refusal of his gift.
His feet seemed frozen to the ground, his eyes still on the closed flap, while Rose clung to his arm, sobbing.
High Hawk was at a loss as to what to do, for he had never seen any of his warriors treat a young man in love so callously.
High Hawk supposed it was because Brown Horse’s daughter had brought a white man to his tepee. And, too, he had probably been mortified by the offer of the talking leaves, something that held little value to him.
High Hawk stood his ground as Joylynn rushed over to Andrew and Rose, looking at each with a quiet apology in her eyes, even though it was not she who had wronged these young people.
High Hawk waited for Joylynn to say how she felt, then he himself stepped up to Andrew and Rose, his eyes troubled. Was it possible that this rejection would cause Andrew to have hard feelings, not only for Rose’s father, but for the Pawnee people as a whole?
Andrew had been publicly humiliated. He had been denied his right to court and marry the woman he loved, and denied in the worst way possible.
“Young brave, do not despair because Brown Horse has rejected your bride price,” High Hawk said as Andrew slid his Bible back inside his rear pocket. “Many bride prices are turned down until the one the father thinks is enough is finally brought to him and accepted. Andrew, a true bride price usually comes in the form of a beautiful horse.”
Andrew’s eyes brightened, hope suddenly in them again. “I will hunt and find a wild horse and tame it,” he said in a rush of words. “I will bring it back for Rose’s father. Surely he will not turn it down.”
“Your plan is good,” High Hawk said. He nodded toward his own corral. “Come with me, young brave. I shall loan you one of my steeds for your hunt. I will give you what is required to capture a proud, wild steed. And there are some in a valley yonder. I have seen them.”
“In which direction is this valley?” Andrew asked anxiously. “I will go there.”
“I shall point your way to the valley,” High Hawk said, pleased to be a part of this scheme that would keep Andrew among his people.
Andrew turned to Rose and took her hands in his. “I shall return soon, and your father will not be able to refuse my second bride price,” he said. He hugged Rose as she flung herself into his arms.
“Go and return soon,” Rose said, tears spilling from her eyes.
“I shall,” Andrew said, then stepped away from her. He walked briskly to High Hawk’s corral, where he was given a muscular roan.
“I shall place my best saddle on the horse and give you a rifle in case you are threatened by a mountain lion,” High Hawk said.
After Andrew was mounted and ready, with High Hawk’s rifle slid inside the gunboot at the side of his horse, Joylynn was filled with a sudden apprehension. The sight of this young man on a horse again, and with a rifle in the gunboot, caused her to fear the outcome of this moment. Was it possible her husband was trusting too much?
She knew why he was going so far to please this young man. He hoped that by doing so, his trust in Andrew would be rewarded again, that Andrew would return with a beautiful horse on a rope behind the stallion.
Rose hurried to Joylynn’s side. She wiped tears from her eyes as she gazed up at Andrew. “Come back soon,” she said, stifling a sob behind a hand. Joylynn sensed that even Rose had some doubt of ever seeing Andrew again.
Joylynn stepped closer to High Hawk, tempted to tell him of her fears, but she knew that it was best not to question his judgment, authority, or his trust, certainly not in front of the many people who had come to watch Andrew’s departure.
“Rose, I will see you soon!” Andrew said, pride in his eyes.
As he rode away, Joylynn saw Andrew reach back and pat the Bible in his pocket.
That gesture made her almost certain that she would never see Andrew again, not unless he returned with a whole cavalry of men to do what they had been prevented from doing earlier.
She slid a hand into High Hawk’s and clung to it, hoping he could not feel the sweaty coldness of her palm, or divine the deep worry inside her heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
A growing number of bald eagles, casting massive winged shadows over the icy water of the stream, marked the first days of November. The mammoth birds buzzed the flocks of geese and ducks gliding overhead, on their way south to warmer weather, then circled back.
Having heard the commotion, Joylynn and High Hawk stepped from their tepee just as several eagles settled down onto the limbs of the willow trees. Others stood on the ice, while some were roosting already for the night on outstretched limbs of the fir trees and ponderosa pines in the shadows of the deep, dark canyon beyond.
Just before sunrise they would lift off and wing toward their feeding grounds.
With wing spans as wide as eight feet, the bald eagles were strong and agile fliers.
“The heavier snows will begin any day now,” High Hawk said as he gazed at the thin layer of snow on the trees and ground that had fallen during the pr
evious night. He slid an arm around Joylynn’s waist, drawing her close to his side. “And Andrew has never returned, as he promised. Even now my warriors are searching one last time for him.”
“I doubt they will find him,” Joylynn said softly. “When you handed him that rifle, I saw a look in his eyes. It was the look of someone who has been given a second chance at life.”
“I did not see that look,” High Hawk said thoughtfully. “I truly believed him to be a man eager to do what he could to win the woman he loved. But I was wrong. He has been gone for many sunrises now. It does not take that long to find a horse suitable to be offered as a bride price.”
“He might have loved her, but not enough,” Joylynn said, her voice drawn. “Poor Rose. Her heart is broken.”
“And Two Stars,” High Hawk said, sighing heavily. “He trusted Andrew more than anybody. He fears that our people will see him as a foolish old man who trusted too much, for he showed even more trust than I.”
He lifted the entrance flap and stepped aside so that Joylynn could enter the warmth of their lodge.
“Everyone loves Two Stars so much, and all know of his goodness. No one will hold it against him that he put such trust in someone who spent many hours with him, speaking of Tirawahut,” Joylynn said. “Andrew did truly seem interested.”
“There have been no signs of Andrew anywhere,” High Hawk said, bending to one knee and lifting a log onto their lodge fire.
Then he sat down beside Joylynn and gently placed a blanket around her shoulders. “We will have at least the winter months before he can return with armed soldiers to try to kill off my people,” High Hawk said sadly, his gaze following the flames wrapping themselves around the new log. “That will give us time to prepare for the fight. We will be the victorious ones, not the white eyes. My warriors will be perched in prominent places where they can see everything below. Their vigilant eyes will not miss one movement. Andrew will surely be with the soldiers, leading them to bring death upon the Pawnee. He will be the first to die.”
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