Gray Hawk's Lady: Blackfoot Warriors, Book 1

by Karen Kay

  Chapter Twenty

  “She what?”

  “Your sits-beside-him-wife was asking me many questions today about the white man’s trading post, seeking to find the path to take to reach it.”

  Gray Hawk barely gave the orphan boy a glance. “And what did you tell her?”

  “I did not see the harm in pointing out the way to the Big River, and from there to follow it to the fort, at least not at first. But now I wonder.”

  Gray Hawk, who was still lounging against a willow rest in White Eagle’s lodge, peered steadily at the boy. The youth, who had probably reached only ten winters, had come to White Eagle’s tepee only a few moments ago, seeking an audience with Gray Hawk. Gray Hawk asked, “Why do you now wonder?”

  The young boy stared at his feet. “I worry.”

  Silence ensued while Gray Hawk waited for the lad to continue. At length, he prompted, “You worry?”

  The young boy swallowed. “Aa, yes, I do.”

  “Why?”

  The youth looked away. “Because your sits-beside-him-wife left the camp.”

  “Annisa, I can understand it, then, your worry. Did she go to bathe alone? You are wise to have come and told me this.” It was the only thing Gray Hawk could imagine Gen-ee would do that might upset this boy. To bathe after dark, without a chaperone, was to take risks, even here in camp.

  Gray Hawk started to rise, determined that he would speak to his wife at once about the dangers of bathing alone. He said to the boy, “You have done well. I have a new knife I will give you for observing with such diligence.”

  The lad shifted, looking down at his feet. “Perhaps I do not deserve it.”

  Gray Hawk had gotten to his knees when he glanced up sharply at the boy. “What do you mean?”

  Again the boy fidgeted, and even White Eagle sat forward. “I am not certain that she went to take a bath. I saw her lead your best pony out of the herd today…”

  A long pause. “Aa, yes?”

  The boy shuffled his feet. “She rode out of camp early this afternoon, and she had with her several parfleches that looked full, plus she took with her a robe around her shoulders and an extra one for warmth. Do you see? I fear she may be going to this fort, and that is why she asked me about it.”

  Gray Hawk couldn’t speak for several moments. He just stared at the boy.

  “Why did you delay coming to us with this information?” It was White Eagle who finally put the question to the lad.

  “I did not see the harm in it before now. She is, after all, a warrior woman, and as such I have no right to question her movements. Yet, something about what she did seemed strange to me, because she kept looking around her, as though afraid that she might get caught doing something. It wasn’t until just a few moments, ago that I remembered her asking me the way to the white man’s fort.” The boy suddenly looked up. “I have done the right thing in telling you, have I not?”

  Gray Hawk nodded. He cleared his throat, but still he said nothing.

  “Do you say that she went out alone?” It was White Eagle who spoke.

  “Aa, yes. I saw no one else leave with her.”

  “And she is definitely gone?” Again White Eagle questioned the youth.

  “Aa, yes. I checked her lodge before I came here. I was hoping I was wrong.”

  Gray Hawk met White Eagle’s glance, but still Gray Hawk did not speak. Something had hit him hard in the pit of his stomach, and Gray Hawk was uncertain how long it would take him to recover.

  His Gen-ee, gone? How could it be?

  She had looked so happy to see him today, and he had…ignored her.

  Perhaps he shouldn’t have, but it seemed to him that this was the way a man was supposed to treat his wife. Hadn’t he seen other men in the tribe, well-respected men, handle their women this way?

  Gray Hawk sighed. Such behavior had certainly gained him nothing.

  Perhaps he was wrong to have ignored her. It wasn’t the way he would treat a woman if he were alone with her. A woman, as far as he was concerned, should be handled with respect.

  Something he hadn’t done today.

  Had his Gen-ee rebelled and gone off without him?

  It was something he would never have predicted she would do, but then she had more spirit than most, a spirit he did not wish to crush.

  He would go and find her, of course. There was little else he could do.

  Not because it was expected of him. No, he would go to her because…why? Why did he feel as though the earth had suddenly slipped out from beneath his feet? Why so…empty?

  It couldn’t be that he…cared for her, could it?

  Well, of course he cared for her. He had made her his sits-beside-him-wife. But his feelings for her didn’t go beyond a need to protect her, did they?

  Or did they?

  He stared at the young lad before him.

  At length Gray Hawk repeated, “She is not in our lodge, you are certain?”

  “Aa, yes. She is not there.”

  Gray Hawk acknowledged the youth with a mere look and a flick of his wrist.

  “And did she tell you anything about where she went or why?”

  The lad shuffled his feet again, looking down. At last, though, the boy said, “Your mother and your sisters were with her when she left. They waved to her.”

  “My mother?”

  The boy acknowledged.

  “My sisters?”

  “Yes. Your sisters gave her the extra buffalo robe.”

  Gray Hawk glanced over toward his friend, who seemed unable to do more than give Gray Hawk a puzzled glance.

  “Come here, boy,” Gray Hawk said, drawing from around his waist a new, shiny knife, beautifully sheathed in white, beaded buckskin. Taking it firmly in hand, he held it out toward the boy. He gave the young orphan a smile. “I will be leaving here soon. I will need someone to watch over my ponies while I am away. I would ask that you do this for me. And, young man, if you do this well while I am away; you may call my lodge your own.”

  The boy’s face suddenly lit up.

  “My more-than-friend here will see to it that you are taken care of in my absence. And yes, you have done the right thing.”

  The quick, bright grin on the lad’s face was quite something to behold, and Gray Hawk was glad he had made the offer. Later, when he had retrieved his wife, he knew that his Gen-ee would thank him. Besides being winsome, the boy could provide that extra helping hand that he was certain his Gen-ee would need.

  “What do you think your wife does?” White Eagle asked after the boy had left.

  Gray Hawk shrugged and, jerking his head slightly to the left, he tried to keep his expression blank. “I do not know,” he said matter-of-factly. “When I saw her in camp today, she looked happy. Perhaps she grows tired of my delay and wishes to go and find her father on her own. But I am now ready to leave on that journey. I have seen to all that I must in our village. I may as well start off this night as any other.”

  “Relax, nitakkaawa. I am sure she is all right. She cannot go far in the dark, and there is no sign of rain tonight. Why not get a good night’s rest and pick up her trail in the morning?”

  Gray Hawk didn’t even hesitate. “If she is on the trail, so, then, should I be. Besides, nitakkaawa, you do not know this woman as I do. There is much trouble that she can get into. I had best leave tonight. She already has many hours of travel ahead of me.”

  White Eagle nodded his head. “Do you wish me to accompany you only as far as she is?”

  “Saa, no, not this time. You already do much for me.”

  White Eagle grinned. “Or perhaps you do not want me there when you find her. Maybe you would like to spend the night with her alone?”

  Gray Hawk didn’t return the grin, nor did he do anything else to show an acknowledgment.

  “Nitakkaawa,” White Eagle looked at his friend, “what is it?”

  Gray Hawk stared at the tepee poles. He said, “I worry. What if something happens to her? I
don’t know what I would do if… There is so much trouble that she could cause.”

  White Eagle frowned. “She is a warrior woman. She—”

  “Is not. She could no more defend herself than she could make the wind blow.”

  “But she captured you.”

  “Yes, it is true that she did. But not alone. She paid others to do it for her. She paid others to guard me, but she did not actually take me captive. I have let the camp rumors stand without comment because I wished her to be accepted. My friend, when I captured my wife, she did not even know how to cook, skin an animal or build a fire, let alone know how to defend herself against a hungry animal.”

  “Then she could be—”

  “In danger now.”

  “You had better go quickly, nitakkaawa.”

  “Yes,” Gray Hawk said. “I fear that if I do not leave immediately, it might be too late.”

  White Eagle emptied his pipe and, tapping it on its bowl, signaled the end of their meeting. “May the spirits that protect you see your wife and yourself safely on your journey.”

  Gray Hawk smiled at his friend and, getting quickly to his feet, stepped from the tepee into the night.

  “What? You are telling me that you will not allow me to go and search for my wife?”

  Gray Hawk’s mother gave her son an irritated look. “She has a wild spirit, that one. You must be careful not to squash it.”

  “Why would I want to squash it?”

  “You are a man, are you not?”

  “What has that to do with it, my mother?”

  Gray Hawk’s mother sighed. “Sometimes, my son, I am not certain of you. Where is your power of observation? Are you helpless?”

  Gray Hawk grinned. “Only when I want to be.”

  One of Gray Hawk’s sisters, who was pretending to be asleep, giggled. The older woman cast a sharp look at her daughter.

  His mother turned back to stare at Gray Hawk. She said, “Your wife would not have left if you were more of a man.”

  Gray Hawk narrowed his eyes at his mother. No one else would have ever said such a thing to him. No one else would have dared. He said, “There had better be good reason why you speak this way to me. If you were a man, you would no longer be living.”

  “Ha’! We helped her to leave,” his mother said. “We thought she had good reason.”

  “I know that you did, my mother. What I do not know is why. Why did you help her?”

  “Surely you must know.”

  “If I knew this, my mother, I would not be asking you now.”

  “You must forgive us for siding with her, but we have grown quite attached to her since she has been with us. She does not know how to do many of our chores well, but she tries so hard. And she is, after all, a warrior woman. Maybe she just never learned these things. And she seems so intent, so much in love with you, to be attempting this. And we thought it would not hurt to help her. And, too, because she is a warrior woman, we could not see that much harm could come to her going off by herself.”

  Gray Hawk drew a deep breath, keeping a hold on his temper. It was not a good thing to do, to show anger to a woman, since a female was unable to defend herself physically against a man. Such things, even anger, only intimidated a woman and ultimately killed her spirit, a thing a man must always guard against, since a woman represented the love and the beauty of the race, their future.

  He said, “My mother, my wife is not as invincible as she might seem. She could come to harm out there at night since she does not know the prairie. She has been raised differently than our women.” He gazed at his mother, but seeing that she still had the same stem look upon her face, he said, “I worry.”

  “You should have thought of that before you decided to leave her.”

  “Leave her?”

  “Aa, yes, my son. She told us all about it.”

  Gray Hawk drew back as though slapped. So that was what had happened to his Gen-ee. She thought that he… A spark lit within him. Ah, there was hope.

  He suddenly grinned, noting that his mother bristled. He said, “Perhaps you should tell me about how she came to this conclusion, since I have no intention of leaving her.”

  “Maybe not now.”

  “Maybe not ever.”

  His mother gave him a shrewd look. She said, “Prove it.”

  “I should not have to; I am your son.”

  His mother sighed.

  Now, while it is true that in the more “civilized” world, a mother might still have reason to disbelieve her son, this was not true to the Indian mother. An Indian man, particularly a son, never lied. To do so would be to court death.

  And Gray Hawk’s mother, knowing this, said, “She overheard you telling your more-than-friend that you were going to leave her with her father once you took her to her home.”

  Gray Hawk raised his eyebrows. “This is an odd thing for her to have overheard, since I did not say it.”

  “She was certain.”

  Gray Hawk shrugged. “I did not say it.”

  “She must have… I do not believe that she lied. She truly thinks that you mean to leave her.”

  “Perhaps she overheard someone else speaking.”

  “Your wife not recognizing your voice?”

  “Or perhaps she mistranslated something I said. But this is unimportant. Where is she going?”

  “It is true that she might have misunderstood your words.”

  Gray Hawk could barely contain himself. “Where has she gone?”

  His mother sighed. “To the white man’s post on the Big River.”

  So the boy was right. Gray Hawk thought for a moment. “That is a long journey to attempt on her own.”

  “She is a warrior woman.”

  Gray Hawk groaned. “Even for a man, that would be a long journey to make alone.”

  “Aa, yes, you are right. But it seemed harmless when she told us of it. And she is doing it for you.”

  “How can she be doing this for me? Can you not see that I am still here in our camp?”

  His mother looked doubtful. “I do not understand it all, but your wife said that she could contact her father somehow at that fort.”

  “He is not there.”

  “She said there was still a way. And she explained that then you would not have to take her back to her home…that she could stay here. Do you not see how attentive she is to you? She will make you a good wife.”

  “I am glad that you think so, but I must get her back before she can be that. Now, I need you and my sisters to prepare my things and hers, because I leave this night to go and find her. And when I get her, I will take her to her village, just as I said that I would.”

  “But you do not intend to leave her there?”

  “I never have.”

  His mother nodded. “Then we will help you.”

  No sooner had his mother said the words than all three of his sisters threw off their coverings and sat up, all three of them still fully dressed.

  Gray Hawk shook his head when he saw them and glanced at his mother, a half smile on his lips. He said, “Not even my sisters were going to help me?”

  His mother grinned. “Not even your sisters.”

  Gray Hawk laughed. He said, “I am glad that you all like her. I am truly glad. But come now and give me your assistance. I must leave here at once.”

  And quickly, just as his mother had said they would be, all his sisters were ready to help.

  Gray Hawk left within the hour.

  Genevieve hadn’t actually realized how frightening it could be out on the prairie, alone, at night.

  Why hadn’t she noticed before how dark the sky was, how vast the stars, how quiet the wind, how noisy the steps of her pony?

  She glanced behind her. She led the pony by its buckskin bridle since she was afraid it might stumble into a hole under the cover of darkness.

  She wasn’t certain she should be traveling at night. But she remembered that when Gray Hawk had been in danger, he had
always made his moves after dusk had fallen.

  It seemed a safe and fast rule.

  But what if she stumbled over something; a snake, a bear, a…ca ca boo?

  Oh, that’s silly, she told herself. Gray Hawk had just made up that stupid animal and the story to frighten her. Still…

  She raised her head to look ahead of her, being very careful to keep the Rocky Mountains behind her.

  There was a moon tonight, almost full, which meant she was quite visible out there on the plains. She had better stay alert.

  She gazed off to her left.

  What was that?

  Had she seen a movement?

  She stopped. She slunk back toward the pony, who whinnied at her.

  “Shh…” she said, and the pony rubbed his head against her hair.

  Had she imagined it? Was it only the wind?

  She heard a noise; she saw something move again.

  Oh, Lord, something was out there, she was sure of it.

  Despair began to descend upon her when all at once it occurred to her: it wasn’t fair to be intercepted now.

  She’d come all this way with no trouble, and she wanted none. She was making this trip for good reasons, with no intention of hurting anyone. She didn’t deserve this, to die out here on the prairie with no one around to mourn her passing.

  Why, Gray Hawk might even think she had left him.

  She bristled all over again.

  How dare he! No, there was too much unsettled business between them for this to happen. She couldn’t die. Not now.

  She had better confront whatever was there. It certainly didn’t look as though it was going to go away.

  She raised her chin and took a step forward.

  But it was just as clear that what was out there advanced toward her. She held back, her knees trembling.

  Was it a wolf? A bear? A cougar? Man? A ca ca boo?

  And then it was there in front of her, not a bear, not a cougar, nor a coyote. It was a man, a tall man, leading a horse behind him.

  The man’s hair blew back in the breeze, and his muscular figure stood silhouetted against the midnight beams of the moon.

  He looked more apparition than real figure, more godly than human flesh.

  And she knew him.