"Good." On impulse she leaned over and kissed him on the mouth. She heard Ta-wa-ne gasp. There was a murmur among the men as Rachael's kiss lingered. "I'll see you after nightfall," Rachael said to Storm Dancer when she finally stepped back.
"Until tonight, then," Storm responded with a wave as she walked away.
Dory gave Rachael a playful punch in the arm the moment the two women were out of earshot of Ta-wane. "Good God a Jesus, Rachael-honey! If you could have seen the look on the witch's face when you kissed that man of yours. I thought her eyes was gonna bug right out of her head!"
"It was an evil thing for me to do, Dory, but I just couldn't help myself. She doesn't care who takes the boy as long as he's out from under her skin!"
"I don't know who was more surprised over that kiss, Storm Dancer or Ta-wa-ne."
Rachael laughed. "Come in and speak with Starlight. I'm certain she'll be able to help you decide between Yesterday's Thunder and Shadow Man."
Dory stalled. "Aw, I don't want to bother her; I know she's busy doin' whatever it is chiefs do."
Rachael dropped her ice bucket by the doorway, and took Dory's from her hand and set it beside her own. "Come on, don't be a coward." She tugged at her friend's hand.
Reluctantly, Dory followed Rachael inside the wigwam.
"Look who I've brought, Grandmother," Rachel said to Starlight.
The old woman turned from where she was digging through a basket on the floor. At the sight of little Ka-we-ras, she threw out her arms.
Rachael set him down on his feet and he darted around the firepit toward Starlight as fast as his little legs could carry him. "Gwand-mudder!"
Starlight scooped him into her arms and squeezed him tightly. "Ah, it's so good to have a little one in this wigwam. It has been too many years."
Rachael stepped inside. "I also brought Dory."
"Greetings to you, Chief Starlight." Dory gave a nod.
"She has something to discuss with you, Grandmother."
"But . . . but if'in in you're busy, I can come back."
Starlight gave a wave of her hand. "Nonsense." She had taken Ka-we-ras's winter coat off and seated him by the firepit to play with the new toy dugout Shaakhan had carved for him from a piece of beechwood. "Sit, sit and drink tea with us, Flamehair." Starlight waved a hand. "I even have an English teapot the old man brought me from Annapolis as a present last springtime."
Dory sat on the guest's mat and Rachael began to serve the tea that stayed warm on a rock beside the firepit. "I have asked Storm Dancer to our evening meal, Grandmother, so if you do not mind I will work while you speak with Dory."
The old chief slurped loudly from a handleless porcelain teacup. "The Storm Dancer graces our meal with his presence, does he? I'd say it's about time, wouldn't you?" She winked at Dory.
"Yes, ma'am, 'bout time I'd say."
Starlight set down her teacup and folded her hands as a signal that she was giving her undivided attention to Dory.
Rachael moved about the wigwam gathering herbs and vegetables for supper while she listened to Dory explain in broken Algonquian her dilemma to the village chief. Starlight was a superb listener, occasionally asking a question, but allowing Dory to relate her problem as she saw it. Starlight offered no comments through the entire conversation, always saving her words for last.
When Dory had exhausted her story and grown silent, Starlight stroked her wrinkled chin in contemplation for only a moment before speaking. "The solution is simple you silly equiwas!"
"It is?" Rachael was kneeling beside Ka-we-ras feeding him a corncake with honey on it. "What is the solution then, Grandmother, great chief of the Lenni Lenape?"
Starlight reached for her pipe, smugly. "Marry them both."
Dory choked on a swallow of sassafras tea and Rachael reached over to pat her roughly on the back. "Marry 'em both? Pardon my sassiness, Chief Starlight, but are you jerkin' my tether?"
The old woman laughed, striking her knee with her hand. "It's the only choice. Both men need you. It would be only fair."
Rachael came to stand beside Dory and rested her hand on her friend's shoulder. "She could marry two men?" She couldn't believe she was honestly contemplating such a choice for her friend.
"It's a man or a woman's right to marry a second spouse under special circumstances when permission is given by the chief." She poked her sunken chest with the stem of her clay pipe, cackling with pleasure. "That's me and I'd say," she stuck the pipe between her teeth and reached with a straw to light it, "it's been a matter of survival at times."
"Two husbands!" Now Dory was beginning to chuckle. "If that don't hang all!"
"Both men would have to agree to this compromise."
"They wouldn't, would they?" Rachael asked, still a little shocked.
Starlight shrugged her shoulders. "Depends on how badly they want her, I would say."
Dory smiled. "Two husbands," she said more to herself than to Rachel and Starlight.
"You aren't really considering such a thing, are you?" Rachael squatted beside Dory.
Dory looked at Rachael, a grin from ear to ear. "And why not? I'd be a good wife to 'em both."
"I know you would, but—"
"But what, Rachael-honey?" Dory stood. "These people got different ways than our people, but they ain't bad, just different. It all makes sense in a funny kinda way."
Rachael glanced at Starlight. "You're serious?"
"That I am child." The old woman puffed on her pipe. "Think it over, Flamehair, and talk to your men. If they say they are willing to share you, send them to me so that I may be certain their intentions are true. If there are no objections from the village and all parties agree, you may wed as soon as a feast can be prepared." She indicated Ka-we-ras who had curled up in a ball on a sleeping skin and fallen asleep. "This village is in need of more little ones. We do not delay in marriage these days."
Rachael handed Dory her winter cloak and walked to the doorway with her. "You're serious, are you?," she whispered.
Dory looked up at her friend. "I know you don't think it right, but you know there was many a man in the Bible that done had many a wife. Why can't I have two husbands if my heart's in it and theirs is too?"
Rachael had to smile. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but you're right. If Yesterday's Thunder and Shadow Man are willing to share you, I know you'll have enough love to go around." She kissed Dory's pock-scarred cheek. "So, go talk to your men and let me know what they say." Rachael was still smiling when Dory stepped out into the frigid air and let the door flap fall behind her.
Chapter Twenty-Four
"We cannot leave in the darkest of winter," Pretty Woman hissed in Broken Horn's ear. She looked up to be certain no one else heard her. The dozen villagers who had not yet died of starvation or consumption still slept in the lodge, huddled together for warmth near the firepit. "We will freeze to death. There is little game. We will starve."
Broken Horn stuffed a mangy hide vest into his bag. "We must go. There are evil spirits here—spirits who will kill me."
Pretty Woman pulled her cloak tighter over her thin shoulders. "We'll die in the forest with no one to bury our bones! No one to bury us and we'll rot on this earth, never rising into the heavens to meet our children."
He glared at her. "We'll die if we stay here."
"Spring—"
"We will never live until spring with this evil luck that has settled upon us." He nodded in the direction of the sleeping Mohawks. "Look at them. Death hovers over them." He wrinkled his nose. "I can smell its rancid scent. I hear its wings flutter in the darkness. I can see it lurking in the shadows."
"Should we not gather our brothers and sisters and take them from this evil with us? Surely if death presses so close, they will not survive until their great chief can return."
Broken Horn turned his attention to a pile of weapons at the door. He carefully made his selections. "They will only slow this man down. I will not drag corpses behind
me."
Pretty Woman glanced at the pitiful sleeping forms. Two Crows wheezed, his chest rattling with each breath he took. Pretty Woman knew Broken Horn was right. Such starvation and illness could not befall a village so quickly except by a curse. She looked back at her husband, thinking that it would only be a matter of time before she too had the death rattle in her chest. "I will go with the chief, my husband."
"You will not."
She picked up Broken Horn's bag from the floor and tossed a few cooking utensils into it. "I will prepare your meals and fetch your water so that you, my great chief, will not have to be concerned with such menial woman's work."
"You could not keep up. It will take months of walking at this time of year."
"If I cannot keep up, you can leave me behind, or kill me if you wish." When she saw that he was considering her proposal, she went on faster than before. "This woman would care well for her husband the great chief. She would be there to fulfill any need he might have, be it one kind of hunger or another." She ran a hand over his lean buttocks.
Broken Horn thought for a moment and then gave a nod of assent. "Very well, Wife, you may accompany this great chief, but he warns you—" he lifted a finger, "if you are trouble I will leave you behind to feed wolves. Now hurry. We leave before the sun lifts on the horizon."
"You will not wait to tell the others?" She grabbed items at random off the floor and walls, fearful he would leave without her.
Broken Horn's black eyes narrowed dangerously. He grabbed Pretty Woman by a hank of her hair and jerked her backward making her drop her leather journey bag. "You think this chief needs permission from his people to make a journey to save himself . . . to save them?"
Her hand flew to her head to ease the pain. "How . . . how can you save them if they are already dying?"
He jerked her head by her hair again. "Silence!" he shouted as loudly as he dared. "If these people die then I will find a new people, but first my luck must be restored! The evil spirits that haunt this camp must be driven out. I must take back what is rightfully mine!"
"Yes, yes, this stupid woman understands the great chief's words."
"Now hurry about your task of packing, and do not show me any airs you picked up from the white whore Rachael. You speak to this man in that tone again and I will break your jaw." He let her go with a smack to the back of her head.
Pretty Woman knelt to gather her belongings that had spilled from her fallen bag. "The white whore is it? Is she the reason you try to leave this woman behind? So that you can take her as wife?"
"I have said nothing of taking the white woman Rachael! I will kill her the same as I will kill my brother. Now hurry or I will leave you to die with the others." He swung a quiver of arrows over his back and reached for the best bow on the wall. A musket already waited for him beside the doorway. "Get what you must and dress warmly. Bring snowshoes."
"Mine rotted."
"Take someone else's. They'll not be needing them. Put everything together in one pack you can carry. A chief does not carry anything but his weapons." He stood tall, thrusting out his chest in a manly stance. "We will travel south to the Chesapeake and I will find my mother's people. I will take back my scalp lock from my half-brother and with it my luck." He smiled at the thought, his voice growing softer and more thoughtful as he spoke. "I will kill the Dancer of Storms." He slammed his chest with his fist. And then I will take his white whore for myself.
Because of the frigid January temperatures, Dory's marriage to Yesterday's Thunder and Shadow Man was held in the great ceremonial longhouse. After a touching wedding ceremony presided over by Chief Starlight and the new shaman, Storm Dancer, the villagers lavished the bride and grooms with gifts and the feasting began. Storm Dancer excused himself to discuss some village issues with the elders of the council, but promised to search Rachael out later in the evening.
Lanterns hung from the ceiling joists of the ceremonial longhouse casting the large room in golden sparkling light. The longhouse was filled with villagers dressed in their finest clothing, all there to celebrate the covenant of marriage. A great fire in the firepit in the center of the room kept the wedding guests warm and filled every nook of the bark ceremonial house with bright light in the dead of the dark winter.
Rachael soon found herself heady from the loud drums and rattles, and the spicy food and the friendship. Dressed in her white doeskin dress, she laughed and danced with the men and women of the village until she was hot and sweaty and her head was reeling.
As she whirled with Tuuban she watched Dory who was seated between her two bridegrooms, the children crowded around them. Surprisingly, when Dory had made her offer, there had been little protest from the two men. When each considered that he might not be the choice, should Dory have been forced to choose, they both readily agreed to the arrangement. If each man could not have her to himself, he would share her. It was decided by all parties involved that each man would continue to live in his own wigwam. Dory would live in both wigwams and the children would always be welcome to come and go in both homes. It seemed that this odd arrangement had provided Shadow Man's children not only with a mother, but an extra father as well. Yesterday's Thunder enjoyed the activity of Shadow Man's large family and doted on the children like a favorite uncle. When he presented Dory with a wedding gift of a short feathered cape, he gave the children gifts as well.
Tuuban whirled Rachael around and she threw back her head in laughter as she stumbled. She was caught by a pair of strong arms banded with copper armbands and when she looked up, Storm Dancer was there and Tuuban gone. Holding her in his arms, he bent to press a kiss to the throbbing point of her throat.
"Business finished?" she asked, intoxicated by his nearness. The wedding ceremony had touched a place deep in her heart, bringing embarrassing tears to her eyes. She wanted so badly to love and be loved. She wanted to make her marriage to the Dancer of Storms work.
"No, business is not complete, but the elders insisted I join you before another man carries you off to his wigwam." He dropped an arm around her shoulders, nuzzling her neck. "You are by far the most beautiful woman here tonight, the most beautiful woman on the Chesapeake." He scanned the crowd, his voice husky in her ear. "The men look at you with appreciation for your beauty, at me for my foolishness at not yet bringing you home to the wigwam where you belong."
She looped her arms around his neck. "I saw you speaking with Ta-wa-ne. Have you been able to reason with her?"
"She refuses the offer of marriage to the Shawnee trapper I spoke of."
"And Ka-we-ras?"
He brushed his lips against hers. "She says I may have him for a price."
Rachael's mouth dropped open in horror. "She will sell you your son?"
"My supposed son."
She gave an incredulous laugh. "It makes no difference. He's only a baby." She rested her hands on his broad shoulders. "What are you going to do?"
"Her price is too high. She wants white man's coin." He paused. "That or to wed me."
She chewed on her lower lip. He was testing her; she could hear it in his voice. Rachael dug deep within herself to grasp the trust she knew she must have for her husband. "If you turn her away, she may leave and take Ka-we-ras with her. If she's willing to sell him to you, she'd just as easily sell him to another."
Rachael glanced at a knot of young braves that surrounded Ta-wa-ne. She was deep in conversation with them, their tones bawdy. One brave rested his hand possessively on her buttocks. Another tried to steal a kiss. Rachael could hear her bell-like laughter, even in noise of the celebration. Ka-we-ras was nowhere to be seen.
Storm Dancer ran a hand through his midnight hair in thought. "Yes, something must be done to protect the boy. I only wish I knew what."
"We must make her give him to you, Storm. Threaten her. Kill her if you must."
A smile crept across his sensuous lips. "I cannot kill her. She has not yet done anything wrong."
Rachael crossed her arms
over her chest. "You have to do something to get the child in your care." She paused. "In our care."
He studied her intently. "You would take another woman's child?"
"He's yours; as your wife I have a responsibility to you to care for your child."
Storm brushed his knuckles against the apples of her cheek. "You would do this for this man?"
"I would do this for my husband." She closed her eyes and pressed a kiss to his lips. It felt so good to be so near him, to taste his lips on hers again.
"I will speak to Starlight and Shaakhan on this matter of the boy tomorrow. For tonight I can only offer my prayers into the heavens."
"For tonight we give our prayer for the child," Rachael whispered, guiding his hand until it rested possessively on her hip. "And what do we do in the matter of Storm Dancer and Rachael?"
He kissed her again, harder this time, and she melted into his arms, wanting nothing but to be his again.
Their lips parted all too soon and for one intense moment their gazes locked and then Storm Dancer swept her into his muscular arms. Rachael rested her head on his shoulder not caring who saw them in such an intimate embrace. When Storm started for the doorway, she protested. "Our cloaks. Tis cold outside," she murmured in his ear.
"I will keep you warm," he answered as he carried her out of the ceremonial house and into the frigid night air. "Come back to me Rachael-wife and I will hold you so tightly in my arms that you will never know the cold again."
She threw back her head and laughed in the bitter night air. "You ask and yet you already carry me away. Is this not kidnapping?"
He nipped at her ear. "If I do not get you onto a sleeping mat, I think I will take you here in the snow."
"Brrr, too cold." She left a string of tantalizing kisses along his jawline. "Better to go inside where it is warm and slightly more private."
"As you wish."
Despite the bitter cold of the winter night, Rachael felt a warmth in the pit of her stomach that was radiating outward to her limbs. Storm whispered words of love in Algonquian in her ear and though she did not know all of the words, it made no difference. Rachael did not know how this problem of Ta-wa-ne and Ka-we-ras would be settled but she had the faith to know that all would be right if left to time and God. There was a peacefulness she felt in her heart as Storm carried her through the doorway of the wigwam he shared with Tuuban.
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