But Elizabeth held her tongue, and checked her emotions. She must force herself not to allow any of the things that had lain heavy on her heart through all those long years, to ruin what might happen now. Her mother and father might become reunited.
Yet, she wondered, should she even wish for such a reconciliation? Her father had just proved to her that he did not deserve anything but loathing.
And Elizabeth had come to her mother’s house today with other things than family on her mind.
Strong Heart. She had to help Strong Heart!
Elizabeth broke from her mother’s arms and started to ask for Maysie but stopped when her eyes were drawn to the rich furnishings of her mother’s house. Women lounged on the plush, bright red velveteen chairs and sofas, clothed in undergarments and their faces painted. She was aware of a man and a woman coming down the spiral staircase, arm in arm. The woman was giggling and the man seeming quite pleased not only with her, but also himself. He strutted down the steps in expensive clothes, sporting a sparkling diamond in the folds of his cravat.
Then Maysie came into view, thankfully alone. Today she was dressed in a simple cotton dress with a high neckline, her face bare of any paint.
When Maysie saw Elizabeth standing there, she lifted the skirt of her dress and ran to her, flinging herself into Elizabeth’s arms.
“I’m so glad you came,” Maysie murmured, clinging to Elizabeth. “I thought you might hate me after seeing that I had returned to the life that you tried to help me escape from. I’m so glad that you don’t hate me. Oh, Elizabeth, I’m so very happy.”
Elizabeth hugged her for a moment, then stepped back. “I could never hate you,” she said gently, touching Maysie’s cheek. “But I did not come to tell you that. I’ve come for something else. Maysie, I need to see Four Winds. Will you be seeing him soon? I very desperately need his help.”
“What sort of help?” Maysie asked, clasping her hands behind her.
“Strong Heart,” Elizabeth said, trying to ignore the boisterous goings on in the room as other men arrived to seek the pleasures of the women. “I’ve got to get to Strong Heart. It’s very important. And I don’t want to travel through the forest alone. I thought that Four Winds might go with me.”
Marilyn paled and went to Elizabeth. “Darling, you can’t be serious,”’ she said softly. “You could be harmed going to see this Indian. Let him come to you.”
“I can’t wait,” Elizabeth said with a sigh. “What I need to tell him can’t wait.” She was afraid to say anything else, for fear that her mother might not be quiet about it.
“And, Mother, please don’t say anything to anyone about this,” Elizabeth blurted out. “Even after Father finds me gone, and should he come to you, don’t tell him where I’ve gone. It’s of vital importance that he does not know.”
“Elizabeth, it isn’t right to keep secrets from your father,” Marilyn said, then held her breath when she saw accusal flash in her daughter’s eyes. Marilyn realized that she did not have the right to tell Elizabeth not to keep secrets, after she had kept so many for so long.
“Mother, you must promise me,” Elizabeth said firmly.
“I won’t say anything,” Marilyn promised.
Maysie took both of Elizabeth’s hands. “You’re in luck,” she said, smiling into Elizabeth’s eyes. “I was just on my way to see Four Winds. I meet him from time to time, now that he no longer rides with the outlaws.”
“He’s no longer with the outlaws?” Elizabeth said, raising an eyebrow.
“For me, he has decided not to ride with them any longer,” Maysie said, sighing happily at the thought. “But he’s laying low for now so the outlaws won’t find him and kill him for turning on them. I know where his hideout is. Come on. I’ll take you to him.”
Elizabeth hugged Maysie gratefully. “Thank you,” she said, a sob lodging in her throat.
“And he’ll do whatever he can to help Strong Heart with whatever problem he has,” Maysie said, stepping away from Elizabeth. “He’s talked to me at length about his feelings for Strong Heart. He said that he was willing to do anything for his friend.”
Elizabeth felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. She was so relieved that she knew that she could count on Four Winds. She gave her mother a quick hug and kiss, then left with Maysie.
* * *
Soon they were riding through the forest, their horses lathered with sweat as they were pushed to go quickly. The women reached a meadow of blowing grass and wild flowers. Elizabeth’s red hair was like flickering flame as the wind whipped it around her face; Maysie’s was like trembling black satin as it blew and shimmered in the sun.
Elizabeth glanced at Maysie and felt warm inside, for she had never seen Maysie so alive and vital as now, and Elizabeth was proud to think that she was partially responsible for that.
Yet there was Four Winds. Elizabeth knew the power of an Indian’s love. That it was special, and oh, so wonderful. Maysie was inspired now by such a love, which would lead her into a different life—a life of total caring and commitment, instead of one of degradation.
“Up ahead yonder,” Maysie informed Elizabeth. “Four Winds is hiding in an abandoned mine shaft.”
They rode onward, then dismounted when they reached the mine shaft. After securing her horse’s reins, Elizabeth went with Maysie into the dark shaft, then stopped with a start when Four Winds stepped suddenly out of the shadows, blocking their way, a rifle aimed directly at Elizabeth.
Chapter 28
Joy so seldom weaves a chain
Like this tonight, that O! ’tis pain
To break its links so soon.
—THOMAS MOORE
Terrified, Elizabeth stood in the mine shaft, staring at the rifle, and at Four Winds’s face that was distorted with hate. She grabbed Maysie by the hand and attempted to run away with her, but her feet seemed frozen to the ground, unable to move as Four Winds began pulling the trigger. . . .
Elizabeth awakened with a start, and looked anxiously around her, then sighed with relief when she realized that she had had another nightmare. Her dream was far from the truth of what had really happened. When she and Maysie had gone to Four Winds, he had quickly offered to take Elizabeth to Strong Heart. He urged Maysie to return to Seattle, promising that he would return for her later.
Elizabeth and Four Winds had ridden hard to reach Strong Heart’s village, and as quickly as Strong Heart had been able to round up many braves, they had left by canoe on the river. Going by canoe would make it easier to remove the nets.
Elizabeth had fallen asleep on soft pelts on the floor of Strong Heart’s massive canoe, snuggled beneath a warm bearskin. She lifted the bearskin aside, and rose to sit on the seat just behind Strong Heart. She felt his eyes on her as he turned to check on her welfare. She smiled at him, so glad that he had allowed her to come on this mission so she could settle the score with her father, herself. He was a man that she no longer knew—a man guided by treachery and greed.
It tore at her heart to know this side of her father, and she doubted that she could ever forgive him.
When Strong Heart turned his gaze back to stare down the avenue of the river, Elizabeth reached for the bearskin and wrapped it around her shoulders, content at least for the moment. For she had proven where her loyalties lay by having brought Strong Heart the news of the nets.
Four Winds had also proven his loyalty to Strong Heart, and now rode in a canoe that was moving beside Strong Heart’s.
Driven by the sinewy arms of the oarsmen, the many intricately designed canoes pushed their way down the cold river that wound through the black forest and beneath the majestic bluffs, the long oars rising and falling in regular strokes.
The moon shone brightly onto the water, turning the tossing waves into flashing jewels. The wind soughed, and somewhere in the distance an owl hooted.
Elizabeth gazed at Four Winds’s canoe. The moonlight revealed its decorations of sea otter t
eeth and the prow handsomely carved in the design of a whale. As were all of the canoes traveling the rushing waters tonight, the canoe that Four Winds commanded had been hollowed by fire and adz and was very sleek, designed for fast, silent travel.
Elizabeth looked down at herself. Many Stars had urged her to change her clothes before setting out on this journey. Elizabeth had had just enough time to change from her cotton dress into a fine, white buckskin dress, and comfortably soft moccasins. Many Stars had plaited Elizabeth’s hair, so that it now hung in two braids down her back.
Elizabeth ran her fingers over the soft fabric of her buckskin dress, gazing at Strong Heart. His back was to her, she admired the definition of his muscles beneath the fabric of his own buckskin shirt. The fringes of the sleeves and his long brown hair lifted and waved in the breeze.
She looked down at the muscles of his arms, as they flexed and unflexed as he drew his single oar rhythmically through the water. She knew the strength of those arms, and desired to be held within his powerful embrace.
Then she stiffened and she grabbed ahold of the side of the canoe, for up ahead was a sudden cottony layer of fog which would hinder the view of the braves as they looked for the nets. It seemed as though her father had planned it this way—that he had the power of even changing the mood of the weather to suit his purpose.
But the steady movement of the oars did not slacken. They slid into the fog and as if guided by some unseen force, they did not crash into any floating debris, or the banks of the river.
The canoes kept a steady pace, the sound of the oars making contact with the water now almost eerie in the dim haze.
Elizabeth now felt strangely alone, for she could not even see Strong Heart through the denseness of the fog. It was as if she was the only person in the world.
Then the canoes slid from the screen of fog, and once more followed the moonlit path on the water until Strong Heart raised a fist in the air in a silent command for his braves to stop. As his canoe came to a halt in the water, so did those that followed.
Elizabeth’s breath quickened as Strong Heart, along with the other braves, turned the direction of their canoes and paddled slowly toward shore.
Once there, they pulled their canoes ashore on a spit of sand. Elizabeth nodded a silent thank you to Strong Heart as he helped her from the boat.
It was then that she got her first look at the nets that stretched across this narrow span of the river, as if a monstrous spider had spun a web.
A tremor coursed through Elizabeth, seeing how completely the waters were covered by the vast nets. There were nets crisscrossing the water, her father and Morris having evidently not taken any chance that should one net fail to stop the salmon, the others wouldn’t.
Knives flashed in the moonlight as the braves left their canoes and ran toward the nets. Elizabeth followed Strong Heart, slipping her own knife from a sheath that she had tied on her leg beneath the skirt of her dress—a knife that Many Stars had lent her.
With eager fingers and a building rage against her father, Elizabeth waded into knee-high water, and stood at Strong Heart’s side as they quickly began cutting the nets to shreds. She was so determined to make things right for Strong Heart and his people, she didn’t even notice how numbing cold the water was. The only thing that was important to her now was to help Strong Heart destroy the nets. Any day now the salmon would be appearing in hordes in these very waters.
They must become the harvest of the Suquamish, not her father and Morris Murdoch!
Just as the dark began to dispell with the sun’s rising, the last net was cut loose. And with the same silence that had brought them there, the Suquamish braves entered their canoes and shoved off into the water. Only when they got several miles up the river did they let out shouts and whoops of victory, Strong Heart and Four Winds’s the loudest of them all.
When Strong Heart turned to Elizabeth and motioned with a hand for her to come and sit beside him, she moved quickly to his side and snuggled against him.
“This thing that you have done for my people will never be forgotten,” he said feelingly. “And that you brought Four Winds, so that he could prove his worth again to the Suquamish, and his devotion as a friend to me, warms my heart, my la-daila.”
“I‘m so happy that everything turned out all right,” Elizabeth said, her eyes shining at his. “I even feel important now. Even your braves look at me with a different look in their eyes, as though . . . as though I now belong.”
“You do, and you always have,” Strong Heart said, never missing a stroke with his oar. “Have you returned to stay with me now, to be my wife?”
“Ah-hah,” Elizabeth murmured. “My life with my father as I have known it is now a thing of the past. I could not bear to even face him now, knowing what he is capable of.”
“My la-daila, forget your bad feelings,” Strong Heart softly encouraged. “Let us live for tomorrow. Today and forever throw all bad thoughts away!”
“I shall try,” Elizabeth said, badly wanting to, but knowing that it would not be as easy practiced as spoken.
* * *
The sky was dark again when Elizabeth woke up beside Strong Heart in his longhouse. She had drifted asleep in his canoe again, and had not even been aware of when they had arrived at his village, nor of being carried to shore to his longhouse.
Now, as she awakened she felt a warm body lying behind hers. Strong Heart’s nakedness against her own made a thrill shoot through her, for it seemed so long since they had been together intimately.
Elizabeth drew in a breath of joy and closed her eyes when she felt Strong Heart’s hands moving over her back, down to cup her buttocks. Then they moved lower still, around to caress her at the juncture of her thighs where her heart seemed centered in its wild beatings. As one of his hands caressed her there, the other moved onto one of her breasts, pinching the nipple to a tight peak. Elizabeth’s breath became short and raspy. Then his powerful hands were at her waist, turning her around to face him.
The fire’s glow revealed that his eyes were heavy with passion. He reached for her hair and began slowly unbraiding it. She took this opportunity to run her own hands down the magnificence of his body—long, lithe, and aroused.
Her hair, now free of its plaits, drifted across the sleeping platform. Strong Heart moved to his knees and straddled her. She gazed up at his lean, bronze face, and touched one of his cheeks almost meditatively as she felt the strength of his manhood probing where she so unmercifully throbbed.
Filled with an overwhelming longing and need that felt like exquisite pain, she opened herself up to him and locked her legs around his waist and drew him deeply into her.
With a groan, Strong Heart pressed deeper. He circled his arms around her and lifted her closer to him, his mouth lowering toward her lips, kissing her urgently, eagerly, drugging her. Her own kisses were desperate and hungry.
His tongue sought through her lips until he touched her tongue. His hands were on her breasts, feverishly fondling her, as she wriggled her body against his in response to his wonderful ways of pleasuring her.
Again they kissed. Strong Heart’s desire was a sharp, hot pain in his loins, surges of heat welling up in him, filling him, threatening to spill over.
His hips moved masterfully, faster and deeper. Feeling release so near, and wanting to postpone it because that would bring their lovemaking too quickly to a close, Elizabeth caught her breath, not daring to breathe, or to feel.
But the attempt to not give in to the ecstasy was in vain, because one more deep thrust within her, and one more flick of his tongue through her lips, and she was gone. Surges of euphoria flooded her through and through, making her feel as if for a moment she was spinning, deliciously spinning.
She clung tightly to Strong Heart as his body momentarily stiffened, and then he plunged one last time into her. Then he held her tightly to him as his body quivered and jolted against hers, his moans of pleasure mingling with her own as their lips slowl
y drifted apart.
Afterward, Strong Heart rolled away, and lay on his side, facing her. “Have I told you before that you are more beautiful than all the skies?” he said softly, placing a gentle hand to her cheek. “After the salmon harvest, we will be two hearts becoming one life, one flow. Ours will be a love everlasting.”
Elizabeth nestled closer to him, as he moved his hands around to her back, caressing her. “Each moment with you is sweeter than the last,” she whispered, sighing when his hand went to the most delicately tender spot at the meeting of her thighs, smoothing his fingers slowly back and forth, arousing passion inside her again.
“Perhaps Four Winds and this white woman named Maysie can find the same peace? The same paradise as we?” Strong Heart said, drawing his hands back up her body, now pressing her breasts. “This woman. She is surely the cause of Four Winds rethinking his future, and the direction that he was taking with his life. If she is at all like you, he is blessed—doubly blessed.”
Elizabeth did not want to disappoint him by revealing to him that this woman was the woman he had dragged half drowned from the Sound. That Maysie had lived the life of a prostitute until lately, when she gave herself solely to Four Winds.
No. It was best not to reveal that Maysie had, in a sense, taken a similar road in her life as Four Winds—the wrong road. These two unfortunate people were finding salvation in each other’s company, pulling themselves out of degradation into something that could be ideal, if they would only accept it.
The sound of people talking and moving anxiously outside the longhouse drew Elizabeth’s attention toward the door. “Tomorrow we leave for the canyon?” she asked, raising up on an elbow. “I am so happy to be able to partake in the salmon harvest with you. It will be such an adventure.”
“It won’t begin the moment we arrive,” Strong Heart said, rising from the platform and slipping into his fringed breeches. “After we reach the canyon, there could be several days of waiting for the right moment to start our harvest. And even then, we may have to wait awhile longer.”
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