Savage Flames

by Cassie Edwards

  Joshua nodded and ran from the room.

  There was a strange sort of quietness as Lavinia and Wolf Dancer moved through the house, finding and lighting the wicks of various lanterns and lamps.

  After the warriors arrived, each took a lamp or lantern, and soon the drapes were aflame, as were many pieces of furniture. The flames took hold quickly, necessitating a quick escape.

  Lavinia stood beneath the moonlight as the house went up in flames. The sky was now lit orange by the savage flames of the burning house.

  And as it continued to burn, the tobacco, which had been tied up in bundles by the slaves, was taken to the canoes and placed in them. Then the horses were led out of the stable and set free.

  As they galloped away from the chaos of the Price Plantation, even Lavinia’s favorite mare, she felt a strange sort of emptiness. She truly loved her mare and had loved riding it.

  But she knew that someone would claim it, as well as the others, and give them good homes.

  The Seminole had no use for horses. Everywhere they traveled was by canoe, or on foot.

  Some few of the slaves took off on foot, heading north, while the others boarded the canoes, among them Nada, Caleb, and their two children.

  Lavinia took one last look around her at everything that was burning, and for a moment seemed to see Virgil standing there watching. The expressionshe saw on his face was not at all what she would have expected were he alive to witness the destruction of his plantation; it was a look of serene peace. It was then that she recalled how he had so often said he would one day free his slaves. She knew that somewhere in the heavens he was looking down and approving of what she had done.

  “Let us go now,” Wolf Dancer said, sliding an arm around Lavinia’s waist and leading her away from the heat of the many fires.

  “It does seem so savage,” Lavinia said, trembling as she took one last look over her shoulder before boarding a canoe. “Those flames are destroying…my…husband’s dream, a dream that turned into a nightmare.”

  She eagerly boarded the canoe, and Joshua climbed in behind her. He and Wolf Dancer manned the paddles as they turned the canoe downriver.

  Lavinia was thinking about Hiram’s reaction when he saw that his world had been destroyed. Wolf Dancer had told her that he would come back and wait for Hiram’s return.

  Lavinia looked over her shoulder and gazed at the mansion, which was still aflame. She was glad that Hiram’s reign of terror was over, and that he would be captured and taken to the Seminole village.

  Lavinia knew that it was not the Seminole practice to murder anyone in cold blood, so she could only imagine that Hiram would be held prisoner, at least until Wolf Dancer decided what his final fate would be.

  One thing was certain: She would be married to Wolf Dancer while Hiram was forced to watch.

  That made Lavinia smile. Her only regret was that she wouldn’t be there when Hiram returned home and saw what had happened, and that everything he had worked for lay in gray ashes! With the destruction of the Price Plantation went Hiram’s dreams of being a man of power and wealth.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  A little still she strove,

  And much repented.

  And whispering,

  “I will ne’er consent”—

  —Lord Byron

  The sun was tinting the sky a soft orange as morning came with the sounds of birds awakening, filling the air with their beautiful songs. A gentle breeze scattered the smoke that rose from the burned mansion and outbuildings.

  As Hiram rode up the long gravel drive toward the plantation, he watched the smoke with growing anxiety. He felt a pain deep in his gut as he realized that the smoke had to be coming from his plantation, and that something large had to have burned.

  “The mansion?” he whispered hoarsely. The pain felt like a hot poker in his stomach, for he knew that while he was gone, disaster of some sort must have fallen on his plantation.

  Had the slaves rebelled and burned everything before making their escape to freedom? Or had natural disaster struck?

  Afraid to find out, yet knowing he must, he sankhis heels into the flanks of his white mare and sent it galloping toward home.

  The cool morning air stung his whiskered cheeks and burned his lone eye, causing it to run. He wiped his eye with the back of a hand.

  He had not bathed or shaved for three days now. He could smell his own stench, a combination of whiskey, perspiration, and cheap perfume. When no decent women responded to his posters, he had gone to all the saloons and cribs in the two towns that he had visited.

  When none of those women consented to be his wife, he knew what a horrible sight he must be. He had offered those wenches the world if they would consent to be his wife. And none of them had wanted any part of it.

  “The one eye,” he growled to himself. “It has to be the one eye. Or…perhaps the perspiration?” Or was it the rumors of his cruelty and whippings that had scared them off?

  All he knew was that he was totally alone in the world. He now regretted having killed his brother. His brother had been the only person who had accepted him, no matter how distasteful his appearance, or how much he sweated.

  His brother had loved him so much that he had made him part of his life. Until Virgil had died, the Price Plantation had seemed the perfect place to live, even though Hiram knew that his brother’s wife had spoken against his living under the same roof with them.

  It was the first time he’d overheard her object to his presence that Hiram had started plotting to make her his wife, no matter what he had to do to achieve this goal. Her dislike of him had made him want her all the more!

  He now knew why. He had not wanted her out of love, but out of spite.

  He smiled crookedly. He had wanted to make her uncomfortable every day she had to share a bed with him. That would pay her back for what she had said about him behind his back.

  He had planned to force marriage on her, whether or not she consented. He had planned to threaten her if she declined to marry him.

  “And then she up and disappeared on me,” he growled out loud.

  Well, it no longer mattered to him where she was, or who she was with, or what she was doing. He had grown sorely tired of plotting to have her. He now wanted no part of her.

  She would only have made his life more miserable than it already was. She would have scorned him each day she was with him.

  His thoughts were brought to a halt as he came close enough to the plantation to see that his two-storied home no longer loomed up into the sky like a sentinel. Instead, he saw clouds of smoke rising upward, black and ugly.

  He shifted his gaze and noticed puffs of smoke coming from other places on the plantation grounds. He knew they had to be the outbuildings.

  A thought came to him that made him feel as though he was going to vomit. The tobacco plants!

  If they had been burned, his profits for this season were a part of that smoke rising into the sky.

  The loss of his wealth was much worse than losing his home. He had grown to despise every inch of the mansion because it represented all that had gone wrong in his life since he’d come to Florida with his brother and wife.

  Losing his tobacco and whatever profit he could have gotten from its sale meant that he had no money to take him far, far from this godforsaken place that had brought him nothing but heartache!

  He wondered again what had caused the fire. The most probable answer made him so angry, he could hardly stand what he was thinking.

  The slaves! They had surely not only fled to their freedom but also set fire to everything they thought was precious to Hiram!

  “Including the tobacco,” he shouted to the sky.

  He had been stupid, leaving them to themselves for so long. Why, he should have known they would see his absence as a rare opportunity to do as they pleased.

  “I’ll search to the ends of the earth for you,” he cried to the heavens, waving a fist.

  He sank
his heels into the flanks of his horse and rode harder toward the smoke. Each breath he took was now filled with smoke, and he could see the total devastation on all sides of him.

  His heart sank as the worst of his fears was realized, for there was no sign of the tobacco crop.

  He glanced over at where the slave quarters lay in ash. As he suspected, his workers had fled, but were they responsible for burning everything? Or had they fled after someone else did the dirty deed?

  He doubted that he would ever know the true facts about the ruination of his planation. And for some reason, it suddenly no longer mattered!

  His eyes lowered as he drew rein and stopped his mare. “The entire world is against me,” he sobbed. Then he lifted his chin and again looked around at all that had been taken from him.

  Surely he was wrong to cast the blame on the slaves. He just could not envision them being audacious enough to do this.

  Could it have been Colonel Fred Cox? Fred had sent Hiram away, refusing to help him.

  Could Colonel Cox have done this out of pure spite? He had spoken more than once against slavery, knowing that Hiram’s whole world centered around it.

  Or had Lavinia returned and seen all of her belongings destroyed, then set the place afire out of revenge?

  Or…had Indians come on his property, set it ablaze, and enjoyed watching everything burn? Had they taken the tobacco with them, to use themselves? It was no secret that Indians loved tobacco.

  No matter who, or why, the fact remained—it had been done and now Hiram owned nothing!

  The land was worth nothing to him without a home, its crops, and someone to share it all with!

  He dismounted, feeling cold and lifeless, then started to get back on his horse again. It suddenly dawned on him that there was no point in staying at a place that was no longer useful to him.

  He didn’t have the strength, or desire, to rebuild. And he most certainly couldn’t do it alone. He knew no one who would care enough to help him.

  Suddenly he felt a presence nearby.

  He stepped away from his horse and turned, looking quickly at a huge live oak tree that had somehow escaped the flames.

  He gasped and took a shaky step backward when he saw in its branches the white panther he had heard so much about. Its white color seemed to glow in the sun that had broken through the cloud of smoke. The rays of the sun seemed even more brilliant today than usual.

  Hiram could scarcely breathe, his fear was so intense. He stared in horrified fascination at the panther as it continued to rest on a limb, its green eyes watching Hiram.

  Hiram started to draw his pistol, but stopped, feeling faint at what he now saw.

  The panther was no longer there. It had changed right before Hiram’s eyes into a man. And not just any man, but a powerful Indian warrior. He, not the panther, leapt from the tree and started walking toward Hiram.

  Hiram gasped aloud. He had actually seen thetransformation of the animal into the powerful Seminole chief.

  And then, once again, before his very eyes, the chief turned back into the panther, stalking now as it continued toward Hiram.

  When it let out a loud screech, filling the air with the threat of the panther’s cry, Hiram cried out in stark fear. He grabbed at his chest when sudden pain shot through his heart.

  As he crumpled down onto his knees, the panther turned back once again into a man, who now stood directly in front of Hiram, so close that Hiram could reach out and touch him. Hiram cried out with pain as he collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. His already weakened heart could not withstand the shock of what he had witnessed.

  Wolf Dancer stood tall over the dead body.

  He stared at Hiram for a brief moment, then smiled up at the sun and thanked the Sun God for helping to mete out justice.

  He gazed at Hiram again, feeling nothing but loathing for him and the evil he had done. Then he turned and ran toward the river.

  He boarded his canoe and headed for home.

  He had slipped away from his village in the morning fog as Lavinia and his people slept peacefully.

  Lavinia had no idea that the man she would soon marry was even more mysteriously magical than their people’s shaman.

  Wolf Dancer recalled the one time he had mentioned the panther to her. He had changed the subject so quickly, he didn’t think she suspected thetruth. He knew she had seen the panther several times, then seen him in its place, but he sensed that she did not know whether to believe her eyes.

  As he continued drawing his paddle through the water, Wolf Dancer thought more about what his woman might think if she knew his secret. Should he ever share it with the woman he loved?

  He shrugged and decided there and then that he would not tell her or anyone else.

  With Hiram’s death, the secret remained Wolf Dancer’s and his shaman’s.

  He heard the cry of a black panther in the distance and was tempted to answer its call, but knew he had best leave it be.

  He needed no panther searching him out in the night to mate. That made him smile, for there was only one mate for Wolf Dancer, and that was beautiful, sweet Lavinia!

  Chapter Thirty-two

  As happy a man as any in the world,

  For the whole world seems to smile upon me.

  —Samuel Pepys

  Still somewhat unnerved by all that had happened the night before, Lavinia had not slept well.

  She had realized that Wolf Dancer had had his own trouble sleeping when she had awakened during the night and found him gone. She had been tempted to go outside and sit with him under the stars, for that was where she thought he had gone. But she had decided not to.

  She felt that he had much to sort out in his mind.

  He had brought a woman, her daughter, and her two special friends into his life and village, and now he had many former slaves who had come to the village as well.

  When Lavinia had awakened this morning as the sun crept through her window, she had discovered that Wolf Dancer was still gone.

  But this time she thought he must be instructing his warriors about how many new huts should be built for the freed slaves and their families.

  Also today the harvest would be finalized.

  Yes, it was a busy time in this village, and should be a happy one for Lavinia. But as she sat beside the fire now, in deep thought, she just couldn’t find the feeling of peace she wanted so badly.

  Dorey had left a short while ago after sharing her morning meal with Lavinia to play with Twila and the other children.

  Lavinia wanted to believe that everyone was safe on the island. But as long as Hiram was still out there somewhere, able to wreak havoc on them anytime he wished, how could she relax and enjoy life? Soon she would be married to the most wonderful man in the world. She even hoped to discover that she was with child, for both she and Wolf Dancer wanted children born of their special love. But she could not help shivering at the memory of the mansion burning, and with it so many precious things that she had wanted to bring back with her to the village.

  Hiram had even destroyed the books she would have brought home for the children to enjoy. Her mother’s Bible was ruined and even now lying in ashes, as were so many other things she would have brought into her life as a Seminole bride.

  What she regretted most were those destroyed books.

  Yes, Lavinia had planned to use them to teach the Seminole children, as well as the black children, who had never had the opportunity to learn to read, as Dorey had secretly taught Twila.

  Lavinia’s jaw tightened with determination. She would not let those children remain uneducated. Assoon as she felt it was safe, she hoped to go into the nearest town and purchase at least a few books, which she could use to teach the children.

  She turned her head abruptly when she heard footsteps behind her.

  When she found Wolf Dancer entering, she greeted him with a smile, then leapt up and went to him.

  He took her in his arms and gave her a slow,
sweet kiss, then put his hands at her waist and held her at arm’s length.

  She saw from his expression that he had something to tell her that was not pleasant.

  “What’s wrong?” Lavinia asked, searching his beautiful green eyes.

  “It is Hiram Price,” Wolf Dancer said thickly. “When my warriors went to watch and wait for him, they found him dead on the grounds of the property. There were no visible wounds on his person, so perhaps he died from grief after seeing everything he owned in ashes.”

  “And after realizing that the slaves…and his precious tobacco, were gone,” Lavinia added softly. She could not help feeling a little sorry for Hiram, yet not so much that she regretted his death. The fact was…she and her daughter no longer had to fear his interrupting their lives by coming and causing trouble at the Seminole village.

  Nor did the slaves have to worry about their safety, especially beloved Joshua and Twila, who meant so much to Lavinia and Dorey.

  “How do you feel about his death, now that it has happened?” Wolf Dancer asked softly.

  “Do you really have to ask?” Lavinia said, sighing heavily. “You know that neither I nor Dorey would ever be completely safe if that man had lived. We would constantly have to worry about what he might be planning against us. It is sad, I must admit, that his life turned out to be so horrible, but I cannot regret the fact that he is gone. The future looks so bright now, darling Wolf Dancer. Thank you so much for taking me and Dorey in, as well as all the others. Without you, all of our lives would still be built around fear.”

  “I have told you before that you do not have to thank me for the things I do for you, or for those you love,” Wolf Dancer said. He reached a hand up and slowly drew his fingers through her golden tresses. “My violet-eyed, golden-haired woman, you will soon be my wife. I would do anything for you. Now that you are free of that man, and everything connected with him, we can have a marriage that will shine with happiness and love. You are my happiness. You are my love.”

  “Oh, how I love you,” Lavinia murmured. She twined her arms around his neck as he drew her up against him. “My love, I want to disappear into you. I…want…to be you.”