She looked quizzically at him. “What did you just say?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“Your medicine very good,” Fire Thunder said, in his eyes a silent, intense admiration.
Little Sparrow eased from Kaylene’s arms and slipped from her lap. She thanked Kaylene in sign language, gave her another fierce hug, then ran from the cabin to play once again.
Fire Thunder drew Kaylene into his arms. He held her close and kissed her, then took her by the hand and led her to the door. He grabbed his rifle, that she had stood beside the door, then stepped outside.
Again they found someone there—but not just one person. Many.
Word had spread that quickly about what Kaylene had done for Little Sparrow. Little Sparrow had apparently run around the village, telling everyone that Kaylene had made her well.
People stood just outside the door, their eyes on Kaylene, smiling. Several came forth and embraced her and thanked her.
Kaylene was stunned to see how quickly they had accepted her. They saw her in a different light—as someone who cared, and someone who could be wholeheartedly accepted by them.
When they turned and left, Fire Thunder gave Kaylene a soft smile. “Now marrying you will be much easier,” he said, chuckling. “My people will even dance at our wedding!”
So happy, so relieved that things had changed, and that she could walk around the village without the glares and looks of condemnation, Kaylene flung herself into Fire Thunder’s arms.
“I’m so happy,” she said. “I do wish to be a part of your people’s lives. I wish to be your wife.”
She closed her eyes and squeezed out thoughts of her father, and the wonder of whether her mother was, in truth, her mother.
This was now, and nothing would be allowed to spoil the moment. She had found her rightful place on this earth and it would never be taken from her!
Over Kaylene’s shoulder, Fire Thunder saw Black Hair and several warriors leave on a campanas, hunting expedition, to get plenty of meat for the coming New Year celebration.
Fire Thunder’s gaze shifted and he frowned when he found Running Fawn standing in the doorway of her lodge, also watching her father. He could not help but suspect that she was watching for all the wrong reasons. Surely after her father was gone, she would do as she pleased.
If Fire Thunder had not had plans of his own, he would follow Running Fawn and see what she did when she went absent from the village. If there were young men involved, she was breaking all the rules and she could be banished!
And even if she was his best friend’s daughter, that would not stop Fire Thunder from sending her away. She had been nothing but trouble since the day of her mother’s death.
For certain he would make sure that she kept her distance from Kaylene, unless Kaylene told him that she truly missed Running Fawn’s companionship.
If he allowed them to be together, he would warn Kaylene not to be drawn into any of Running Fawn’s mischief.
A young brave brought Fire Thunder his white mustang and handed Kaylene the reins of a gentle mare.
Fire Thunder thanked the child, then helped Kaylene onto the mare.
He swung himself into the saddle and rode slowly through the village with Kaylene at his side, as the children, including Little Sparrow, came and ran after them—laughing, giggling, and reaching up to touch him and Kaylene.
Kaylene smiled down at them. She felt blessed to be among such gentle, caring people, no matter how she had been brought there. The word “captive” was no longer a part of her vocabulary.
Her father and Chief Fire Thunder finally out of sight, Running Fawn left her lodge. She lifted the hem of her brightly flowered cotton skirt and ran around behind her cabin. She rushed into the shadows of many trees, where her three best friends waited for her on burros. A burro stood aside from the others, waiting for Running Fawn.
“It took you too long,” Star Shine fussed at Running Fawn as she glowered at her. “Our boyfriends may have gotten too restless. What if they returned to San Carlos?”
Running Fawn mounted the burro and rode it bareback away from the village with her friends. “Pedro will wait for me,” she said, lifting her chin confidently. “He loves me.” She cast each of her friends a devilish grin. “But I am not sure about your boyfriends. Perhaps they do not care as much for you, as mine cares for me.”
They rode on in silence down the mountainside until they came to a cabin snuggled beneath a thick covering of trees into the side of the mountain, halfway between San Carlos and the Kickapoo village.
Her heart beating soundly in her anxiousness to be with Pedro again, Running Fawn slid from the burro, secured its reins to a tree limb, then ran breathlessly to the cabin.
When she stepped inside, she found Pedro and his usual friends sitting around a table, drinking tequila and laughing drunkenly.
“Señorita!” the boys cried in unison when they found Running Fawn standing in the shadows of the doorway. “Finally you have come. Where are the others?”
“Outside,” Running Fawn murmured as she stepped farther into the cabin. “They will be here shortly.”
Pedro flashed her a wide grin. He scooted his chair back and left the table and went to her. A small-built Mexican man of eighteen years, dressed in red velvet breeches and a white, ruffled shirt that was unbuttoned halfway to the waist, his dark eyes devoured her as he drew her into his arms.
“My love,” he whispered, his lips finding hers warm and eager as he kissed her.
Running Fawn felt her friends brush past her from behind. She heard the boys scoot their chairs back as the girls went to them, giggling.
Soon everything was quiet except for the moans, as everyone kissed and caressed.
Pedro was the first to speak. “Let us not be in such a hurry here,” he said, laughing boisterously. “We brought cards. Do you not think it would be interesting to play some strip poker?”
The young men drew away from the Kickapoo girls. They shouted and laughed drunkenly.
Pedro took the cards from his breeches pocket. He let them tumble from his hands onto the floor, one by one.
“Bring the tequila!” he shouted merrily, as he looked over at his best friend, Miguel. “Let’s sit on the floor and see whose clothes will be removed first.”
He winked at Running Fawn. “Hopefully yours, my very own sweet señorita,” he said thickly.
Running Fawn felt the heat of a blush rush to her cheeks at the thought of unclothing in front of everyone. Thus far, only Pedro had seen her naked.
But that was all right, she thought. She planned to run away from home sometime in the near future and marry Pedro. His father was the rich, powerful General Rocendo, and Pedro could offer her, ah, so many riches.
She had seen his father’s villa. Surely Pedro would inherit it. One day it could all be all hers and Pedro’s, and their children’s.
Giddy at the thought of the future, Running Fawn sat down beside Pedro. She didn’t hesitate to drink from a jug of tequila as they proceeded with the card game.
One by one Running Fawn’s clothes were removed as she lost at poker, more quickly than the others.
When it came time for her to remove her skirt, her breasts already bared to everyone’s gawking eyes, she hesitated.
But, heady with tequila, and her love for Pedro, she stood up and looked around at everyone. She smiled wickedly as she slowly slipped her skirt down.
The young men gasped and gawked and whistled and cheered as they stared at her total nudity.
Jealous, not enjoying his friends taking such advantage of seeing Running Fawn nude, Pedro rose to his feet. Teetering from having consumed so much tequila himself, he took Running Fawn’s hand.
“Come, my sweet señorita,” he said, yanking on her hand. “We will go outside where we can be alone. We will make love while these others play their stupid game of poker.”
His friends jeered him loudly. Pedro ignored it.
Running Fawn started t
o grab her clothes, but Pedro yanked her away from them. “You do not need clothes, señorita,” he said, half dragging her out the door. He chuckled throatily. “No one but me and the sky will see you.”
Lightheaded from the amount of tequila she had consumed, Running Fawn had no strength to fight back. She leaned into Pedro’s embrace as he placed an arm around her waist and led her away from the cabin.
After he reached a place of privacy, where there were tall flowering bushes, Pedro lay Running Fawn on a thick bed of soft grass.
His eyes grew wide with a hungry intent as she lay there waiting for him, her arms extended toward him.
After dropping his breeches to the ground, he mounted her.
Running Fawn closed her eyes, thrilled by his nearness, by his hands, and his kiss, as his mouth covered hers. She lifted her hips to meet his every eager thrust, spiraling heavenward, it seemed, in the euphoria of the moment.
But suddenly the sound of horses’ hooves from somewhere close by drew them apart.
“No,” Running Fawn said, frantically trying to cover herself. “What if it is my father? He is hunting with his friends. They went a different direction, yet perhaps they circled around?”
His heart pounding, Pedro grabbed her by an arm and forced her into a thicker set of bushes, where they could now just barely see the path that led up the mountainside.
Breathlessly, eyes wide, they watched a slow procession of armed men.
Running Fawn was relieved that it was not her father. But what she saw made her insides run cold.
“Do you see how heavily armed they are?” she whispered harshly to Pedro. “And I do not know them. Do you, Pedro? Have you seen them in San Carlos?”
“None are familiar,” he said, trying to focus his alcohol-hazed eyes.
“Only my people make their homes in these mountains,” Running Fawn whispered, shivering from a sudden dread at realizing what these heavily armed men meant.
Surely they were headed for her village.
And they were not going there in peace. Their looks were too solemn—even angry.
She started crawling away through the brush. “I must go and warn my people,” she cried softly.
Pedro panicked. He crawled on all fours after her and grabbed her by an ankle, hauling her to the ground on her stomach.
“No,” he said, his voice a cold warning, “you are not going anywhere. You will place yourself in danger. Also, everyone would then know for certain that you were sneaking around with me. You know what could happen if anyone ever knew for certain about our trysts. You could be exiled from your village. Your people might come for me and hang me.”
Tears splashed from Running Fawn’s eyes. She yanked her ankle free and sat down and sobbed, her face within her hands. “I’m wicked,” she cried. “Oh, so wicked! If I do not go and warn my people, what might happen?”
Seeing her distress, Pedro sat down beside Running Fawn and drew her into his embrace. She cuddled against him as the tears ran in torrents from her eyes.
“You have no choice but not to tell,” he whispered. “You have no choice.”
Running Fawn closed her eyes and tried not to envision what might soon be happening in her village. Even their chief was gone. And many of their warriors.
Too many were there, as helpless as she was at this moment.
“You are doing the right thing for us,” Pedro tried to reassure her. “If we are going to have a future together, this is the only thing that you can do.”
Running Fawn wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Perhaps those men mean my people no harm,” she whispered, yet knowing that she was only trying to fool herself into not feeling guilty.
Chapter 17
In a field by the river,
My love and I did stand.
And on my leaning shoulder,
She laid her snow-white hand.
—WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
Kaylene rode beside Fire Thunder up a gradual rise of land that led them farther up the mountainside away from his village. She could no longer look over her shoulder and see the valley below, where the longhorns grazed.
Now, whenever she took the time to look, all that she saw were jutting rocks and seas of pine trees standing below like columns, on both sides of her.
Occasionally she would hear and see long-tailed magpies.
But for the most part, she was alone with nature, and the man she could not help but love.
“How much farther?” Kaylene asked, giving Fire Thunder a questioning stare.
“We are almost there,” he said, then gave her an easy smile. “You ride a horse well.” His gaze swept slowly over her. Her back straight, she sat on the saddle of the mare as though she belonged there. She gripped the reins with ease with one hand, resting her other hand on her lap so that she could ease her injured shoulder.
His gaze slipped down to where her skirt was hiked up almost to her knees. He longed to place a hand between the angel-soft skin of her thighs.
His heart thumped erratically at the thought of what lay at the juncture of her thighs. He could feel it even now against the flesh of his palm, the soft tendrils of hair that led into the valley where the heat of her passion lay.
“I learned at a young age how to ride not only horses, but burros, as well,” Kaylene said softly, blushing when she cast him a glance and caught him staring at her legs.
A thrill coursed through her when she recalled how it felt to have his hands there, stroking, petting, awakening her body to all sorts of new feelings.
She could never not love him.
She desired him so much, it made her insides ache.
“And your panther?” Fire Thunder said, now looking into her eyes, smiling. “Although I have never seen you on the panther, I can envision it. I can imagine how those who came and saw you felt. What a sight it must have been.”
“I love Midnight so much,” Kaylene said, sighing as she went back in time, to when she had found him, so small and motherless, wandering alone at the foot of a mountain. She had fallen instantly in love with him, and he with her.
“I never approved of training him to be a sideshow for the carnival,” she went on. “Yet he accepted everything I did as though it was natural. I truly don’t believe he ever felt the humiliation that I felt for him while we performed.”
“Many animals are taboo for my people,” Fire Thunder said, his eyes again forward, as they approached the place where he would collect the Solomon’s seal plant. “Among them are the mountain lion, coyote and prairie dog. Such animals must not be killed, except under certain special circumstances. No snake may be killed, and neither may the horned lizard. And as you know already, the spider is taboo, as well as bumblebees.”
He gave her a quick glance. “If the panther were a taboo animal to my people,” he said, his voice drawn, “I would say to you that riding Midnight was sacrilegious.”
“And I would not argue that,” Kaylene said solemnly. “I will never get on the back of my proud pet again.” She swallowed hard at the thought of her father. “There is no one now to force my beautiful Midnight into performing. I don’t even wish to talk about it. Please tell me more about how your people feel about animals. I am in awe of your beliefs.”
“We Kickapoo are observant of animals and their activities,” Fire Thunder said softly, touched to know that she was being drawn more and more into the mystique of his people.
He must make her hunger for even more knowledge. When she sat at his side as his wife, he wanted his people to appreciate her for more than just being the wife of their chief. He wanted them to admire how much she knew about their culture.
“Back in Wisconsin, the arrival of geese announced cold weather. When the cranes flew over the river, we knew to expect rain. The arrival of the starlings and swallows announced the approach of warm weather.”
He cast her a quick glance. “The cry of a fox means misfortune,” he added solemnly.
Then he smiled and became lig
hthearted again. “When toads are seen in large numbers, it is a sign of rain,” he said. “When rattlers climb trees, it is a forecast of heavy rains. And when an owl hoots, it tells us a witch is nearby.”
He gave her a slow smile. “And let me tell you about the coyote,” he said, his eyes dancing. “Besides his ability to pull down cornstalks, it is believed that the coyote is able to wipe off the thorns of the prickly pear fruit with his tail before eating it.”
Unsure of whether he was being serious or not, Kaylene returned his smile and did not question whether or not he was jesting. Speaking of animals had catapulted her mind back to Moon Glow’s wigwam. Kaylene had never seen so many cats in one place.
“Please tell me about cats,” she murmured. “I still can’t get over how many there were at Moon Glow’s lodge.”
When he didn’t respond right away, Kaylene looked guardedly at Fire Thunder. She was not sure whether or not he would want to talk about the elderly lady, especially since he thought her a witch. Even now he carried bits of Solomon’s seal in a small bundle of white cloth tied with a green ribbon in his pocket to ward off the evil of such witches.
“Cats are good scavengers,” Fire Thunder finally said. “They keep mice and rats, the carriers of typhoid fever, away from our village. But cats are also feared. Let me tell you a story. There was once a woman who had a prize laying hen, but every time a chick hatched, her cat ate it. Finally, the woman could think of nothing to do but kill the cat. Then her best friend said to her, “If you kill the cat, its spirit may return to harm you.” So the woman did not kill the cat, and it lived always with her and had many kittens.”
He frowned over at her. “The woman in my story was Moon Glow,” he said solemnly. “And not only does she not kill her cats, no one else dares to. No one wishes to have their spirits live with them.”
Kaylene’s eyes were wide, stunned to know the extent to which the Kickapoo believed in, and feared, witches.
But her wonder was interrupted when Fire Thunder nudged the sides of his mustang with his knees and led his steed from the path on which they had been traveling.
Wild Whispers Page 18
