The song and laughter of his people wafted through the air, touching Mary Beth’s soul.
“Let us talk no more about coyotes,” she said. “I would love to join your people’s fun. I feel so comfortable with them now.”
“As they do you,” Brave Wolf said, taking Midnight’s reins and leading him toward the village. “Tomorrow is not far away, so let us fully enjoy the night.”
The huskiness in his voice made Mary Beth blush, for she knew that he was not only talking of fun with his people. He had read her well—he knew what was in her heart.
Yes, soon they would be floating amid the stars as they found a wondrous love in each other’s arms.
When they reached the huge outdoor fire where the crowd was now assembled on blankets, eating, talking, and laughing, a young brave took Midnight to Brave Wolf’s corral.
Dancing Butterfly ran up to Mary Beth. All smiles, she gave Mary Beth a tray of food, which included the pemmican meatballs Mary Beth had helped prepare.
“It is such a wonderful night,” Dancing Butterfly said, her gaze darting to Pure Heart’s lodge.
Mary Beth saw why Dancing Butterfly was so radiantly happy. Night Horse lay just outside the tepee, his eyes no longer glazed with fever. He was on his way to a full recovery, and his gaze was on Dancing Butterfly.
Brave Wolf noticed the two looking at each other. He was not happy about that.
When he made Night Horse leave, what would happen to Dancing Butterfly? He knew that she loved Night Horse.
He feared for her now, feared that her love for Night Horse might lead her into making the wrong decision, one that she would regret for the rest of her life. She was too sweet to allow someone like Night Horse to dictate her future.
Chapter Fifteen
Out of the Indian approach to life
came a great freedom, an intense and
absorbing love for nature; a respect
for life.
—Luther Standing Bear,
Oglala Sioux Chief
“I truly enjoyed the evening,” Mary Beth said as she went into Brave Wolf’s tepee with him. “And I never felt as though I were an intruder. I felt that most everyone accepted me.”
Brave Wolf took her by the hand and pulled her down onto the thick pelts beside the slow-burning lodge fire. “They see you as their chief’s woman. That is why they did nothing to make you feel uncomfortable,” he said. “Can you feel it, as well? Can you feel our connection?”
“I do, and I felt it even before I would admit to myself that I could trust you and the goodness I saw in you,” Mary Beth murmured. “What had just happened in my life was so horrible. How could I immediately trust a man who resembled those who took so much from me?”
“I cannot restore your losses, except perhaps, your son,” Brave Wolf said thickly. “I am sorry that my warriors’ search for David has not been successful.” He placed his hands at her waist and drew her closer. “If the pony soldiers can do what my warriors have not been able to do, that will be good. I want nothing but your happiness.”
“I do not look forward to going to Fort Henry,” Mary Beth said. “At first, that was all I could think about . . . going to be with my own people. Now I cannot see any future that does not include you.”
She placed a hand on his cheek. “How can love come so quickly between a man and a woman?” she asked softly. “Since I have never truly loved before, it all seems like such a miracle. I can hardly believe that I found it now . . . that I fell in love with you so quickly, a stranger until only a few days ago . . . a man who is not of my own people . . . a man most white women would fear.”
She sighed. “I never feared you,” she said. “Never. You did not put fear into my heart . . . only sweetness.”
“You did not feel anything like sweetness at first,” he said, chuckling. “If you did, you were good at pretending you hated me.”
“Hate was not the emotion that I felt,” she said, smiling almost shyly. “Frustration that I could not get you to do as I asked . . . but not hate. I felt something special for you very soon after you rescued me, but I would not admit it, even to myself.”
“That was then, this is now, and all is good between us,” Brave Wolf said thickly. “I am a man in love. You are a woman who loves. Let us not wonder why. Let us just accept our good fortune with warmth in our hearts. Let us enjoy it.”
“And by enjoy, you do mean something more than hugging one another,” Mary Beth said, blushing.
No man had ever awakened this new side of herself. She actually felt sensual . . . seductive. Her body cried out for something from this man.
She wanted to experience true lovemaking.
When she had made love with her husband, she had pretended that she had received pleasure from it, when in truth her body had never been awakened to the miracle of love . . . of sensuality.
Just being with Brave Wolf had aroused these feelings in her. To think that she might experience the complete fulfillment that came with lovemaking made her whole insides tremble with anticipation.
Brave Wolf did not respond verbally. His answer was in the dark, deep passion in his eyes, and in the way his fingers trembled as he placed them at the hem of her doeskin dress and slowly began lifting it.
The mere touch of the dress moving along her flesh caused Mary Beth to melt. With each inch as more and more of her body was revealed to Brave Wolf’s watchful eyes.
Her heart pounded and she blushed anew when Brave Wolf slid the dress past her breasts, their dark tips tight as the air touched their bareness.
Then she sucked in a wild breath of ecstasy when he dipped his head low and flicked his tongue across one of her nipples. He continued to slide the dress slowly upward, and then over her head, tossing it to the floor behind him.
He brought his hands to her breasts and filled them with their heaviness, his lips now sucking on a nipple.
Mary Beth threw her head back in total ecstasy as Brave Wolf showered both breasts with electrifying kisses, then brought his lips to hers and gave her a deep, long, passionate kiss. At the same time, he pressed his body against hers, until she was on her back on the pelts.
Brave Wolf kissed her for a moment longer, then rose over her and removed his own clothes. When he was as naked as she, Mary Beth saw just how gifted a man he was.
She gazed at his maleness, then brazenly reached a hand to him and touched him. His eyes glazed over with rapture as she ran her fingers slowly up and down the full length of his shaft.
She remembered well how her husband had enjoyed such touches. He had seemed to enjoy her stroking more than the actual lovemaking.
She had been happy about that, since she had never looked forward to the bedtime duties of a wife. She had been glad when her touch had satisfied him enough that he asked no more of her once his seed splashed out into her hand. That was another reason why they had never had a second child.
Now she wanted to make babies with this wonderful man. She wanted to share the sensual side of making babies with him.
“Mitawin, my woman, I want more than touches from you,” Brave Wolf said, taking her hand away, and seeming to have read her thoughts. “I want you . . . all of you. I want to fill you. I want you to feel me fill you.”
“I have never wanted a man like I want . . . like I need you,” Mary Beth said, then sucked in another wild breath when he ran his hand down the front of her, then touched that part of her between her thighs that had never responded to a man before.
She closed her eyes in ecstasy when he began slowly caressing her there.
“It . . . is . . . so heavenly . . .” she murmured breathlessly.
He smiled, lowered his lips to hers, and kissed her with fierce, possessive heat. His knee eased her legs apart.
With his hand he guided himself to where his fingers had just been, and without hesitation, entered her in one deep thrust.
Feeling her inner folds enwrapping his heat, Brave Wolf groaned with pleasure.
/> He laid his cheek against hers, closed his eyes, and began rhythmically moving within her.
Mary Beth wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him, her body seeming to know how to move with his.
Oh, Lord, this time she didn’t have to pretend to feel the bliss that came with lovemaking.
It was real, so very, very intensely, beautifully real.
She smiled and moved with him, giving all that she could.
It came so easily to her, as though she was practiced at it, but in truth, she was learning everything tonight.
And she was so glad that she was feeling these wonderful things. Had she never known such bliss, she would have felt cheated when she grew into an old woman looking back on her life.
Now, ah, now she would never feel cheated.
As Brave Wolf’s lean, sinewy buttocks moved, his heat filling her magnificently, Mary Beth was flooded with more wondrous rushes of bliss.
“I never knew it could be this way,” she whispered against his cheek, her voice catching when he went deeper into her, touching a place that aroused an even more delicious sensation within her.
He puzzled over what she had said.
More than once she had mentioned having not known such pleasure before.
She had had a husband!
Had her husband only selfishly satisfied his own needs, ignoring hers?
He would not question her about this. It could be humiliating for her to have to say it.
“My goal is to give you more pleasure than I take for myself,” he whispered huskily, his thrusts continuing.
“But I want you to feel it, too,” Mary Beth said, as he leaned up away from her to look into her eyes. “How can you not? Aren’t I desirable enough to make you feel the pleasure that I am feeling?”
“Desirable?” he said, his eyes dancing. “My woman, you are so desirable I can take pleasure just by looking at you.” He smiled almost devilishly. “My woman, do not think I am not feeling all the wonder of how your body responds to mine. My body is alive with you.”
He pressed his lips against hers and gave her a sweet kiss as he swept a hand between them and cupped one of her breasts. “You fill my very soul with your sweetness,” he whispered against her lips.
“You are sweeter,” she whispered back, then melted as they came to that place where they both soared in passion’s embrace . . . then lay together, still clinging, their hearts now beating as one.
“Never, oh, never will I forget this night, these special moments with you,” Mary Beth said, her cheeks flushed from the heat of their lovemaking. She turned over onto her belly and gazed into his eyes. “I shall love you always, my wonderful, handsome Crow chief.”
“For as long as there is breath in my lungs, I shall love you,” he said, reaching out for her, drawing her down beside him again.
Sighing contentedly, she cuddled against him as she gazed at the dancing flames of the fire. “I wish there was nothing else but now, forever and ever,” she murmured.
Then she winced when she realized what she had just said.
Her son.
She could not want only moments like this forever, for that would mean she would not be with her son ever again.
She hurried to a sitting position. She was not even uneasy about sitting there naked as his eyes roamed slowly over her.
“You are thinking again of your son?” Brave Wolf said, sitting up, himself. He reached for her, placed his hands at her waist, then lifted her onto his lap, facing him. “Tomorrow comes soon, my woman. I know what tomorrow brings. We must be separated for a while, and I understand why. Your son. You must then focus only on him.”
“Yes, on finding him,” she said. She swallowed hard. Her eyes wavered. “What if he isn’t . . . ?”
She couldn’t say it.
She just couldn’t think it.
She must find her son, or a piece of her heart would be gone forever.
“Do not think about the bad when reality may eventually be all good,” he encouraged. He drew her into his arms. “My woman, as the pony soldiers are searching, so will my warriors be out looking again. Everything within my power will be done.”
“Yes, I must think all things positive,” Mary Beth said, smiling weakly up at him.
Then she cuddled close to him again. “Just hold me,” she murmured. “Please . . . just . . . hold me.”
“Then you must sleep, for tomorrow is almost upon us,” he said softly. “You must get what rest you can.”
“I shall hate leaving you,” she said, her voice breaking. “After having found you, and loving you so much, being parted from you for even one day will be hard.”
“Days pass quickly,” Brave Wolf said. “Sometimes it seems that I only blink my eyes and it is another tomorrow.”
“Yes, I have felt that way, myself,” she said, laughing softly.
Then she eased from him and stretched out on the pelts. She reached her arms out for him. “But this is now, and we are together,” she murmured. “It will be wonderful snuggling against you as I sleep.”
He smiled, then moved down next to her.
He reached out for her and drew her close, their bodies melding together as though they were one.
“Istima, sleep, my pretty one, my woman,” he said, then brushed soft kisses across her brow.
She smiled as her eyes slowly closed.
Chapter Sixteen
Let those love now
Who never loved before;
Let those who always loved
Now love the more.
—Thomas Parnell
It had taken a good part of the day to arrive at Fort Henry. The sun was lowering behind the distant mountains, but it was still light enough to see the huge fort that loomed ahead of her on the flat land surrounding it.
Mary Beth’s insides quavered as she stared at the fort. It was only a short distance away from where she sat on the lovely dark sorrel that Brave Wolf had given her.
She looked at Brave Wolf. “I don’t know why, but I am suddenly afraid to go on to the fort,” she murmured. “When the sentries first see me alone, they will wonder why. It is unusual for a woman to be alone in this wilderness.”
“I would accompany you there, but that would raise more suspicion than curiosity,” Brave Wolf explained. “It is best not to let them see you and me together. Go, my woman. I shall stay hidden here among the trees, watching you, until you are taken safely inside the fort’s walls. Only then will I feel that you can fend for yourself.”
Mary Beth laughed nervously. “My teeth are actually chattering,” she said. “I don’t know what I am expecting from them to make me so . . . so . . . afraid.”
“I should never have told you my opinion of Colonel Downing,” Brave Wolf said ruefully. “I am sure that is why you are apprehensive about going to his fort. It is not too late to change your mind. I can take you to Fort Hope.”
“No, I truly believe I have come to the right fort even though I do not look forward to meeting Colonel Downing,” Mary Beth murmured.
“Just remember that those at the fort are your people, so expect understanding and kindness,” Brave Wolf said, reaching a hand to her cheek. “You are a brave, courageous woman. Now is the time to use that courage.”
“I believe I know what is truly causing my hesitation,” she said, searching his eyes. “It is because I have to leave you. I’m so afraid that something might happen and I may never see you again.”
“When you are ready to return to me, I will be there, waiting,” he promised. “I have not survived these twenty-five winters of my life to allow something to happen to me now that I have found you. True love only comes once in a lifetime. Never shall I let anything jeopardize it.”
“Then I shall go on my way with a much lighter heart,” Mary Beth said. She took his hand, kissed its palm, then slowly released it. “I shall go on now. Perhaps I shall find my son already safe in the hands of the soldiers.”
“Had you thought that
possible, nothing would have kept you from coming to this fort before now,” Brave Wolf said, his voice drawn. “No, my woman, do not expect to find your son at the fort. But do expect to find people who are willing to search for him.”
“Yes, I know they will, for who would not want to assure the safety and well-being of a child . . . except for people like those who stole him from me,” Mary Beth said.
She inhaled a deep, shaky breath, gazed at the fort again, then smiled at Brave Wolf. “Goodbye, my love,” she said. “I shall return to your arms as soon as I find something out about David.”
“Faith . . . hope . . . love . . .” Brave Wolf said. “They will get you through these next hours.”
He reached over and placed a hand at the nape of her neck. He drew her close and gave her a long, deep kiss, then dropped his hand away and watched her ride from him.
He dismounted, tied his reins to a low limb, then went and knelt behind a stand of bushes. He parted their branches to get a better look at the fort, and those who would open the gate to his woman.
Then he suddenly noticed something that Mary Beth surely had forgotten. The clothes she wore were not clothes ordinarily worn by a white woman. She was still wearing the doeskin dress his mother had given her.
He wanted to cry out to warn her, but he knew that the wind would carry his voice to the soldiers. They would have double cause to be alarmed if they saw a woman dressed in doeskin and heard the cry of a red man calling her name!
“Tread softly and warily, my woman,” he whispered, his spine stiffening as she drew closer and closer to the fort on the steed that had been his for so long but was now hers. His jaw tightened when he saw the tall, wide gate slowly opening.
He watched with bated breath as a soldier came from the gate, brandishing a rifle. Brave Wolf’s hand went to his bow as Mary Beth stopped beside the soldier, then dismounted while he took her reins in one hand, still holding his rifle in the other.
When Brave Wolf saw that she was not going to be harmed, he slid his hand away from the bow and watched until she and her horse disappeared inside the fort with the soldier.
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