“Even if that were true, Rebecca, it wouldn’t have been your fault. How could he possibly blame you or reject you for being kidnapped or raped?” Bonnie reasoned.
“Men are funny about such things, Bonnie,” she remarked.
“But that man didn’t touch you. And you never reached the Crow camp,” Bonnie argued. “When Bright Arrow comes, you can tell him.”
Rebecca wasn’t convinced. Bright Arrow had been told where she was and in what condition. There was no way she could explain his behavior. He knew she wouldn’t ride into the Oglala camp after he had ignored her completely for weeks. This had to be his way of telling her good-bye, of implying it was over for them. Confronting him would only cause her embarrassment and suffering. She shouldn’t have sent Windrider to the Oglala camp.
Bonnie watched Rebecca’s pensive features. She inquired, “What are you thinking?”
“I’m a bloody fool for sending Windrider on such a futile mission. It’s clear Bright Arrow doesn’t want me back. He would have come by now or sent me a message. I shouldn’t have drawn Windrider and you into this problem. I’ve got to get away from here, Bonnie. I can’t be here when he returns. I know what he’s going to say. There’s no need to put either of us through a painful scene like that. Can you loan me a few supplies and a weapon?” she asked, shocking her friend.
“Rebecca Kenny, you can’t ride off alone, especially with winter just around the corner!” Bonnie fearfully protested.
“I must. I can’t bear any more torment. I’ve lost everything, Bonnie. I should have understood his message from the first! I’m not staying here to be ripped apart again! With or without your help, I’m leaving in the morning,” she declared firmly.
Bonnie knew she was serious, and she shivered in panic. She had to find a way to stop Rebecca’s reckless flight. Until she reasoned out a plan, she would feign cooperation. “I don’t like this,” she argued. “It’s dangerous and foolish, Rebecca Kenny. Where will you go? How will you survive? What about enemies? And food and shelter?”
“I can take care of myself,” the flaming-haired woman stated.
“Like you did in the Yankton camp?” Bonnie unthinkingly scoffed.
Rebecca grimaced. ‘That was a valuable lesson—trust no man! I’ve lived in the wilderness most of my life. If I don’t know enough to survive, then I don’t deserve to do so. I’m going to St. Louis.”
Windrider couldn’t believe what he had discovered from Shalee in the Oglala camp. Now he related his own tale to the worried woman. At Shalee’s insistence, he would spend the night in the Oglala camp and head home in the morning. Both assumed that Bright Arrow was on his way from the Blackfeet camp to the Cheyenne camp. Soon, they hoped, this confusing and painful situation would be a thing of the past.
Rebecca knew Bonnie would try to trick her into staying in the camp. She realized that Bonnie wasn’t beyond using force or help from another warrior to hold her captive until Windrider returned. During the night, she crept out of the tepee, taking with her a knife and a few supplies, including a buffalo robe for warmth during the cold days and to sleep on at night. She didn’t feel too guilty about taking the supplies; many tribes had come to the aid of their Cheyenne friends by providing food, weapons, garments, and hides for tepees.
At the edge of camp, she turned and glanced backward, struggling to prevent tears from flowing. She whispered sadly, “Good-bye, Bonnie, my good friend. Be happy with Windrider and the new baby. One day I’ll repay you for these supplies and your kindness.” To herself she said, “Well, Rebecca Kenny, you’re on your own now. Let’s see if you can make St. Louis before spring.” She looked up at the full moon, and a strangled sob was torn from her very soul. “Farewell, my traitorous love,” she softly cried. “Perhaps we’ll meet again someday. Fate has a way of traveling in circles.”
She turned and determinedly began her journey toward a new life. It was early December. It was cold and lonely. Snowflakes began to fall ever so gently, the first of the season. Regardless of her efforts to hold them back, tears began to slip down her icy cheeks. The snow would make everything pure and white and beautiful again, everything except her life and love.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rebecca walked for an hour, making very little progress. The cold attacked her moccasin-clad feet; the light snow flurries hindered her vision and chillingly teased at her face. As her hands gripped the buffalo robe she wore to keep her body warm, they became numb and icy. She tried not to cry, for she knew tears would freeze on her cheeks. Yet she was dejected, for even Nature was proclaiming herself an enemy during this tragic time.
Rebecca realized it would take her several hours more to get past the rocks and evergreens of the Black Hills. Afterward, she would be in the open. It would require days, perhaps weeks, to conquer the grasslands and prairies before she could reach more protective forests. She wondered how she would find food on that wide span of nothingness during the winter. She sadly concluded that maybe Bonnie had been right; it had been stupid and dangerous to run away. Yet she walked for another half hour, unable to force herself to return and hear her love’s verbal rejection.
Under these demanding conditions, Rebecca tired easily and quickly. She longed for a fire to warm her flesh and a rest to appease her weary bones. Evidently she hadn’t regained as much strength and energy as she had thought. But she knew that if she halted the cold would be worse. She wondered whether it was too early in the season for a blizzard.
Far away, Rebecca could hear the howls of a lonely wolf, perhaps calling to his mate. She could envision other animals, two by two, huddled snugly and affectionately in their various abodes. She wanted to scream at the heavens, to demand to know why she had been singled out for such punishment and anguish. She hadn’t done anything wrong! Why was she being forced to suffer in this cruel and dangerous manner?
The snow flurries ceased, having left a light sprinkling of white on the ground, tree limbs, and black rocks. The wind settled down, halting its brisk and chilling assault. The sky was brightening gradually. Within an hour it would be dawn, Rebecca mused, a new day of misery!
Bonnie was alarmed when a man appeared near her sleeping mat and shook her roughly to awaken her. He had entered the tepee without asking permission, and she feared he was an enemy. Then the intruder’s words and face revealed his identity.
“Where are Rebecca and Windrider?” he stormed angrily. His ebony eyes glittered with emotions that frightened the white woman.
Bonnie rubbed her sleepy eyes and glanced over to where Rebecca had been sleeping. She sat up and looked around in confusion. “I don’t know, Bright Arrow. She was sleeping there last night. Windrider went to your camp to fetch you. He left yesterday, after Rebecca’s arrival. Why are you being so cruel to her?” she blurted, the question involuntarily spilling from her mouth and heart.
It was the Sioux warrior’s turn to show and experience confusion. “I have done nothing to her. She betrays me for another man,” he accused irately, although he doubted his own words.
Bright Arrow’s first statement caught Bonnie’s attention; his second went unheard. “Nothing!” she sneered incredulously. If he believed that, then why was he here? she asked herself. To pour more torment on Rebecca? “You betray her, reject her, abandon her, torment her, and call it nothing? You are a wicked, cruel man,” she declared.
Silent Thunder had been aroused by their harsh voices. Bonnie comforted him and told him to return to sleep. She refocused her attention on the virile man at her other side who was demanding that she explain her daring insults.
“I explain?” she scoffed, her own anger increasing by the minute. “You are the one who should explain your cruelties to her. She loves you! How could you be so heartless and mean?” she asked.
“If she loves me, why did she run to Windrider’s side when she healed? Why didn’t she return to me?” he argued bitterly.
Bonnie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What did you expect fro
m her after you ignored her for weeks? She was very sick. She went through awful times with that kidnapper. She needed you. Surely it was easier for you to ride to the Blackfeet camp than for her to ride to you in her condition! At least you could have sent her a message! All those weeks without a word or a sign from ‘ you!”
“Where is she?” he questioned sternly. This woman’s words made no sense to him. Rebecca was the one to explain her actions.
“I told you I don’t know.” Suddenly Bonnie paled and shivered. “Surely she wouldn’t… My stars!” she shrieked as the obvious truth touched her mind. “She’s run away to St. Louis. Yesterday she said she would leave before Windrider brought her news of your rejection.”
“Your words confuse me,” Bright Arrow declared impatiently. “Why did Windrider go to my camp? Why would Rebecca leave him?”
“You’re confused?” she replied, shaking her head. “So am I. Windrider wouldn’t have had time to reach you before your arrival. How did you know to come here for her?”
“Chief Medicine Bear of the Blackfeet told me she ran into the arms of Windrider, my treacherous friend,” he snarled bitterly.
“She what?” Bonnie inquired skeptically. His jealous anger dawned on her. “That isn’t true. She came here to plead for Windrider’s help. Windrider left her in the Blackfeet camp waiting for you to take her home. She said you never came for her there. You never even sent her a message. She asked Windrider to go to you, to beg for an explanation for your rejection.”
“I have not rejected her,” he protested.
“What do you call your behavior? She sends you a message to come after her, and you never arrive. SI doesn’t hear a word from you. What is she supposed think and feel? The Blackfeet warrior told her you were in camp, that you weren’t wounded. You had no excuse not to go see her,” she retorted.
“I was told she was a captive of the Crow. They have moved their camp. My friends searched for her many weeks. She could not be found. I rode to the Blackfeet camp to ask more questions. They told me of her injury. I knew nothing of such things. I feared she was lost to me, enslaved by my enemies. When I learned she had been in the Blackfeet camp for many weeks, I was hurt and confused. When I learned she had come to Windrider, I was angry.”
“This doesn’t make sense, Bright Arrow. Who would tell you such lies?” Bonnie probed in irritation and dismay. From the man’s tone and expression, she sensed he was telling the truth.
Bonnie was shocked and disturbed when he confidently accused, “Windrider sent the message to me. I did not know it was from him until I reached the Blackfeet camp. He sent many lies to mislead me.”
“That isn’t true!” she panted defensively. “Windrider is trying to get her back into your arms and tepee, not his! He loves me. We’re joined. I carry his child. He has gone to bring you here to solve this matter. There is nothing but friendship between my husband and your… Rebecca. This is also true for her. She loves you and wants you. For weeks she has suffered from your rejection. She does not understand why you have turned your back on her. She left to avoid hearing what you have shown her with actions. You are wrong, Bright Arrow. Your lies and mistrust have cost you a woman who would have given her life for you.”
“Quickly, you must tell me all,” he insisted worriedly. Now he needed to find Rebecca; later he would seek the truth.
After the two hurriedly compared stories, both were appalled by the misunderstandings. “I must go after her. When my friend returns, tell him all will go good for Bright Arrow and Rebecca. Tell him I feel shame for speaking such false words against him. It is clear he did not know the man he sent to me was a heyoka. When I learned of Thunder Head’s identity in the Blackfeet camp, I thought my friend had intentionally used him to trick me. It was only a terrible misunderstanding. I will send word of her safety and our return to my people.” Bonnie smiled. “Hurry, it is cold and dangerous in the hills.”
Bright Arrow chose the most likely trail toward the east. He rode for a short time, then dismounted to check for her signs. The light snow was concealing any markings on the stony ground. He had to trust his instincts and tracking skills to locate her before nightfall. The sky hinted at more snow and colder weather.
Before noon, Rebecca halted to rest. She ate strips of dried meat without any appetite. Her only thought was of obtaining energy for her trek. She was depressed, which only added weariness to her already exhausted body and mind. She leaned against a boulder and closed her eyes, trying to envision a cabin with a warm fire and hot food. The problem was that Bright Arrow and her children were also in the cozy scene.
As her tears began to flow again, she lowered her head to hide her face in the folds of the buffalo robe. She was snuggled tightly in a ball, attempting to warm and soothe her body. Her eyelids drooped. Slowly she sank to the ground, fast asleep.
From a short distance, Bright Arrow saw the little bundle. Fear gripped his senses. After the snow had ceased, her tracks had been easy to locate and follow. He jumped off Tasia’s back and raced over to Rebecca’s prone, limp body. He gently lifted her to a sitting position and thankfully locked her in a possessive yet tender embrace. He spread kisses over her hair and face, murmuring her name and thanking Wakantanka.
Rebecca awoke in this stirring and bewildering position. She looked up into his face, lined with tenderness and concern. “Taku ca yacin hwo? Tokiyatanhan yahi hwo?” she whispered hazily in Oglala, asking, “What do you want? Where did you come from?”
“I tracked you for the beautiful prey you are, because I love you and cannot lose you,” he responded, relieved and happy she was alive.
“It took you four weeks to come to those conclusions?” she asked in a solemn tone as Bright Arrow examined her beloved features. Her tawny eyes revealed anguish and doubt. Her white skin was flushed from the wind and snow. Her flaming curls were mussed and tangled, so fiery against the white background.
“I was told you were a Crow captive. The Blackfeet warrior you sent to me is a heyoka,” he informed her, then explained the warrior society of “contraries.” He smiled and hugged her tightly. “I did not know you were near until I rode to the Blackfeet camp to ask more questions.” He explained about the search for her, the misleading message from Thunder Head, and his urgent quest to find more clues.
“You didn’t come to me because you didn’t know I was in the Blackfeet camp?” she probed, needing to make certain she was hearing him correctly. Had all of her suffering been merely a horrid mistake?
His dark eyes were studying the ominous signs in the sky. “Osniyelo,” he announced, needlessly telling her it was cold. “We must find shelter. The snows come before nightfall. There is a cave nearby. We will go there to camp and talk. There is much for us to settle. Know this, woman. I love you and need you. I will not allow you to leave me.”
With that stimulating confession, he scooped her up into his strong arms and headed for his horse. Placing her shaky legs on the ground, he mounted agilely then he reached down and lifted her to sit before him. His infectious smile warmed and enticed her.
She smiled up into his tender gaze. She expressed her joy at his arrival. “Tanyan yahi yelo. I love you, Bright Arrow,” she murmured, then fused her lips to his. His arms encircled her fiercely as they savored each other’s response. Tingles ran over her body. Hot blood flowed swiftly through her veins and warmed her. How could she have doubted his love and commitment? She should have known something was wrong!
Her thoughts turned to their daughters and, in answer to her maternal inquiry, he assured her they were safe and happy with their grandmother. Comforted by his words, she nestled contentedly in his arms as he guided Tasia through the trees and around the rocks. Every so often, he dropped a kiss on her head and squeezed her affectionately. Her face rested against his drumming heart, the rhythm of hers joining its wild beat.
When they reached the cave, he slid off the animal’s back, then helped Rebecca down. Cupping her head between his hands, he searched
her face with his searing gaze as if he couldn’t believe he was staring into it once more. He lightly brushed her lips with his. “We must hurry, my rash heart. I will build you a fire and fetch more wood. Then I will hobble Tasia nearby to graze. Come, you are cold and weak.”
Bright Arrow grasped her chilly hand and Tasia’s reins. He led both inside the cave and unloaded his supplies. He knew there should be wood left from the time he and Sun Cloud had used this same cave during their escape from the Crow. He stacked brush and small limbs inside the rock enclosure. Soon he had a bright fire going. He placed larger pieces of wood nearby so that Rebecca could feed the hungry blaze while he was gone. He would bring more wood, to dry for use later when the temperature dropped. He estimated they could be trapped here for days.
Bright Arrow handed Rebecca his water bag and a pouch of pemmican. He told her to eat, rest, and get warm. Then he took Tasia’s reins and led him to the edge of the cave, glancing over his shoulder at Rebecca. “If we are lucky, I will find game for a hot meal. Tasia will graze while I find wood and meat. I will return soon, my beautiful heart.”
She watched him lead the horse to an area where winter grass was showing. He took a pine brush and moved aside the thin blanket of snow, then hobbled Tasia’s two front legs. After retrieving his bow and quiver of arrows, Bright Arrow headed into a stand of trees and waved to her. Rebecca leaned against the wall and watched him vanish from sight. She went to the fire to await her love’s return. Her mind was spinning happily. She was eager to know everything.
Rebecca laughed merrily when Bright Arrow returned. He was carrying two rabbits and a small deer. She teased, “Either you think we’re starving, or you plan to stay here a long time.”
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