Fire Thunder held the swinging door open for Kaylene.
She gave him a weak smile, then stepped inside.
She was glad when he was at her side again when she found herself suddenly face to face with a short, yet burly, aging man, whose dark eyes bore into her as he stared up at her. He then looked slowly over at Fire Thunder.
His gray hair hung to his collar. His face was lined with craters of wrinkles. He wore a buckskin outfit, a sheriff’s badge pinned to the shirt, with heavy pistols at both his hips.
Recognizing the man to be a much older Sheriff Adams than he had dealt with in the past, Fire Thunder stiffened.
“Fire Thunder?” Sheriff Adams said, taking a slow step toward him, away from the bulletin board where he had been pinning wanted posters. “Is that truly you?”
“Sheriff Adams, it has been many moons since we last talked,” Fire Thunder said, not taking the hand that the sheriff extended toward him. He had too many memories of this man that grated at his nerves.
“You are making your residence in Mexico now, I hear,” Sheriff Adams said, slowly easing his hand to his side.
“Yes, and now no Kickapoo are threatened by white rustlers,” Fire Thunder grumbled.
Kaylene gave him an uneasy glance, fearing that if bad feelings erupted between these two men who seemed to have had an uneasy past, the sheriff might not be willing to supply them with the information she so terribly wanted.
“Fire Thunder, ask him,” she blurted out. “Please ask him if he knows my mother.”
Fire Thunder gave her a slow gaze, then knew that with her astuteness, she was aware of the tension between him and the sheriff, and concerned about it.
“Mother?” Sheriff Adams said, idly scratching his wrinkled brow. “Miss, what’s her name? I know everyone in these parts who deserves bein’ known.”
“Eloisa Soriano,” Fire Thunder answered for Kaylene.
Kaylene paled when she saw the quick reaction of the sheriff—how his jaw tightened and his beady eyes narrowed even more.
“Eloisa Soriano . . . is . . . your . . . mother?” he questioned warily. Forking an eyebrow, he looked Kaylene slowly up and down.
Then he looked up at Fire Thunder. “This woman you are looking for is a leper,” he said, his voice tight.
“Yes, we know that,” Fire Thunder said. He reached a hand out for one of Kaylene’s and squeezed it reassuringly.
“Then you do know her,” Kaylene said anxiously. “You do know where she lives.”
“Everyone knows of Eloisa Soriano,” Sheriff Adams grumbled. “And everyone knows not to go near her.”
“I must see her,” Kaylene said, her voice breaking. “I have never known her. I have never seen her. I must, this once, see my mother.”
“She is not pleasant to look at,” Sheriff Adams said, visibly shuddering. “And I warn you not to get near her. She is cursed!”
Kaylene paled. She turned her eyes away from him, then gazed intently at him again. “Tell me how to find her,” she said, her voice grim.
“If you must know, she lives far into the hills, alone,” Sheriff Adams said. He then took them outside onto the porch and pointed out the direction they should take to get to Eloisa Soriano’s cabin.
“Thank you,” Kaylene said softly.
“Fire Thunder, it was good to see you again,” Sheriff Adams said as he walked them to their horses. “Come again. All past differences are forgotten, are they not?”
Fire Thunder glowered at the sheriff as he untied the reins of his and Kaylene’s horses.
He then helped Kaylene onto her horse, swung himself into his saddle, and rode away with Kaylene without even a nod to the sheriff.
“You haven’t changed a bit, you damn savage!” Sheriff Adams shouted after them. “You’re like all redskins. You don’t have an ounce of appreciation in you! You just take, take, take!”
Fire Thunder rode onward in the direction of the hills. He looked heavenward, and saw how the sky was darkening. “We will make camp, then go to your mother tomorrow,” he said, giving Kaylene a soft gaze. “We are unfamiliar with the terrain. It would not be safe to travel up the hillside in the dark.”
“Whatever you think is best,” Kaylene said, glad to be out of the town of Laredo, now where the countryside seemed less threatening. The scent of spring was in the air as the wildflowers which dotted the landscape sent off their spicy fragrance.
When the moon was full overhead, and a thick stand of trees for the cover for their camp was found, they quickly built a small fire within a circle of rocks.
Kaylene ate the beef jerky and slices of dried pumpkin that Fire Thunder had taken from his store of food in his parfleche bag. She kept looking toward the hillside which housed her mother, somewhere among the trees.
“I will soon know my true mother,” she whispered as she took the last bite of the jerky. She drank big gulps of water from the canteen, then crawled over to Fire Thunder and sat down on his lap, straddling him with her legs.
She eased the last tiny piece of jerky from his hand and tossed it aside, then twined her arms around his neck and drew his lips to hers.
“I love you so,” she whispered against his lips. “You are so good to me.”
“You would not have said that a few weeks ago,” Fire Thunder said with a low, throaty chuckle as his hands crept up inside her blouse. “I was a vicious savage in your eyes.”
“I never saw you as a savage,” she whispered. “And please, please never say that word again to me. It is white men like my . . . like John Shelton, and even perhaps that sheriff in Laredo, who are the true savages of our world.”
“You are a woman who fills my heart with so much joy,” Fire Thunder said, then kissed her with a tenderness that grew slowly into a surge of passion.
When he cupped her breasts, she moaned softly into his mouth. Her skin was warm and smooth against the flesh of his fingers. Her lips were moist and hot against his mouth.
She pulled her lips away. She gazed at him in the moonlight, his eyes shining with passion. “Tell me what is in your heart,” Fire Thunder whispered huskily.
“I want you,” Kaylene whispered. She reached her hands to the tail end of his shirt and lifted it slowly up his powerful chest, and then over his head.
Fire Thunder placed his hands at her waist and lifted her from him. He drew her to her feet before him. Methodically, slowly, meditatively, he undressed her.
She, in turn, slowly finished undressing him, until they were both standing nude in the soft night air, hardly aware of the rustling of leaves overhead as the breeze sang through them.
Fire Thunder gazed at Kaylene, his pulse racing as he once again became in awe of her gentle curves. He ran his fingers over her breasts, then lower across her flat stomach. He splayed them over that shock of hair that framed that part of her that he hungered for.
When he thrust a finger inside her, he watched Kaylene’s expression turn to ecstasy as she closed her eyes, sighing. He stroked her woman’s center.
He leaned low over her and flicked his tongue over one of her breasts, the nipple hardening.
“Take me, darling,” Kaylene whispered, as she reached down and touched his thick, long shaft. Her voice quivered emotionally in her excitement. “Fill me.”
He sucked in a breath of passion when she came to him and leaned her soft body against the hardness of his. He placed his hands at her buttocks, and when she lifted a leg around one of his, she guided him inside her pulsing cleft. She threw her head back in a guttural sigh of pleasure when he began his eager thrusts.
He drove inside her as he held her in place against him, then withdrew from her and lay her down on the blanket that he had spread beside the fire.
He moved over her and parted her thighs. His warm breath mingled with hers as he kissed her, then shoved himself deeply inside her.
When he entered her she shuddered sensually. She rode with him as he began his rhythmic strokes.
Fire Thunder
reverently breathed her name against her neck as his lips slid from her mouth. Then again he kissed her long and deep and moved slowly, powerfully within her.
His mouth slid from her lips and showered her with feathery kisses along her throat until he reached a breast. With exquisite tenderness he chewed on the nipple.
They made love until they were exhausted.
Then they drew blankets around their shoulders and sat beside the fire, their eyes heavenward. “It is such a beautiful night,” Kaylene murmured. She giggled as she gazed over at him. “In many ways, my love.”
Suddenly there was a meteor shower overhead.
Fire Thunder jumped to his feet as though he had been shot as he watched the falling stars.
Kaylene dropped the blanket from around her and rose quickly to her feet beside Fire Thunder. She stared at him, seeing terror in the depths of his eyes for the first time, ever.
“What is it?” she gasped. “You look so frightened?”
“Do you see what is happening in the heavens tonight?” he said, his voice drawn.
“Yes, it is a meteor shower,” Kaylene said warily. “I . . . I think it is quite lovely.”
“There is nothing lovely or good about it,” Fire Thunder cursed as he gave Kaylene a quick frown.
“Why not?” Kaylene asked softly. “Or is it something in your customs that causes your reactions? Do meteor showers mean something bad to the Kickapoo?”
“It forewarns disaster,” Fire Thunder said in a tone of voice that sent splays of icy fingers across Kaylene’s flesh.
Kaylene recalled the one other time when Fire Thunder had been away from his village and he had been forewarned of a disaster. He had been right to be alarmed then.
Was he also this time? she despaired to herself.
Chapter 27
We met on roads of laughter;—
Now wistful roads depart,
For I must hurry after
To overtake my heart.
—CHARLES DEVINE
At first Kaylene and Fire Thunder followed a creek in the tall woods. The path was so narrow, sometimes they snapped off the branches on either side of them.
When Kaylene saw a lone cabin through a break in the trees, only a short distance away, she scarcely breathed. Could it be? she wondered, her pulse racing.
As she and Fire Thunder rode closer, her heart did a flip-flop and her fingers tightened around the horse’s reins as she saw an old bent woman sitting on a chair outside the door of the cabin.
A soft spray of sunshine broke through the umbrella of trees overhead, giving Kaylene a better view of the elderly lady.
Yet to her disappointment, she could not see the woman’s face. She was bending low over an animal that lay dutifully at her right side on the ground, gently stroking its gray fur.
“My mother,” Kaylene said in a timorous whisper. “That has to be my mother.”
Her gaze shifted. She studied the animal, gasping when she discovered that it was a wolf. This choked Kaylene up with emotion, knowing that her mother had the same sort of bond with animals as herself. Kaylene now knew where she got the deep feelings she had for animals. From her mother.
Kaylene looked quickly at Fire Thunder. “Surely that’s her,” she said, her voice anxious. “Don’t you believe so, Fire Thunder? This is the only cabin we’ve seen. It is so isolated. Don’t you believe that’s my mother?”
Fire Thunder’s gaze moved slowly over the elderly woman who wore a faded cotton dress and whose gray hair was wrapped in a tight bun atop her head.
“Yes, I believe it is your mother. But until we see her face, and see whether or not she is a leper, we shall not be certain,” Fire Thunder said, drawing a tight rein. “Let us leave our horses here and go the rest of the way on foot. We do not want to alarm the woman. And thus far I do not think she has heard the approach of our horses.” His gaze shifted. “Nor has the wolf.”
Kaylene drew a tight rein and slid out of the saddle. “Do you think the wolf could be a threat?” she asked. “What if he attacks us as we approach?”
“Most wolves are not as prone to attack as a dog might be when strangers approach,” Fire Thunder said, tying his reins to a low tree limb. “Although most people think of wolves as vicious and mean, for the most part, they are gentle. They tend to cower from strangers, not pursue them.”
Kaylene laughed nervously. “I hope you’re right,” she said, but doubted he was so sure of what he said when he grabbed his rifle from the gunboot on his saddle.
“Come,” Fire Thunder said, nodding toward her. “Let us go now and introduce ourselves to the woman. My main concern is that she will flee back inside her lodge when she sees us. Surely she has grown to fear strangers since those who know she is a leper would not go near her. She would have to believe that those who do approach her cabin would only do so out of ignorance and might be someone with evil on their minds.”
“Oh, how I hope she will give us a chance to speak with her,” Kaylene said, falling into step beside Fire Thunder as they slowly walked toward the cabin. “I have to tell her who I am. I must ask her who my father was. Surely he is someone I can go to without the fear of such a dreaded disease as leprosy.”
“Do not count on too much, Kaylene,” Fire Thunder said, giving her an uneasy glance. “If you do, you might be disappointed.”
When they got close enough to the cabin for the wolf to sense their presence, his steely-gray eyes raised and he saw them. He immediately showed his fangs and growled, causing the elderly woman to lift her head in a panic.
Kaylene’s insides swam with emotion when she saw the lady’s face, now for certain that she was gazing upon her mother’s. She was shocked and saddened by her appearance. Pain for her mother shot through Kaylene’s heart when she saw the layer after layer of scales, like those of a fish, on her face. Her eyes were sunk deeply into the scaly flesh, allowing her only to see in a squint.
She wanted so badly to reach out to her, to explain who she was. Yet she feared the wolf as it crept closer with a steady, low growl in the depth of its throat. Kaylene looked at her mother, then at the approaching wolf, then at her mother again.
Her heart leaped with panic when the woman picked up a cane from the ground and leaned against it as she rose slowly to her feet and started backing away, the door only inches behind her.
Kaylene raised a hand and gestured toward her. “Please don’t go inside,” she cried. “We haven’t come to harm you. I need to speak with you. Please listen to what I have to say. I have waited a lifetime to know you. Please, oh, please allow it.”
The old woman stopped and stared at Kaylene. “Who are you?” she asked in a raspy voice. She gazed sharply at Fire Thunder. “What do you and that Indian want of me? I’ve got nothing of value here. I’m a leper. Don’t you know that? No one comes close to a leper. No one cares about a leper. What brings you here?”
“Long ago you gave a child up to carnival people,” Kaylene said, half watching the wolf as it slunk closer. Kaylene could feel Fire Thunder’s readiness beside her. Should the wolf leap toward them, Fire Thunder would get a shot off quickly to stop it.
Kaylene’s eyes widened in surprise when the wolf, instead, crept up to her and knelt, its teeth no longer bared, its gray eyes looking trustingly up at her. Her heart went out to him, for he was treating her as though they were long-lost friends.
“How would you know about me giving up my baby?” Eloisa asked, her voice breaking. She took a shaky step forward, peering more intently at Kaylene through her small eyes.
“How would I know?” Kaylene said, choking back a sob that was threatening to surface. “I am that child.”
When she saw Eloisa’s reaction, and how she suddenly swayed, as though she might faint, Kaylene started to rush to her and hold her.
But Fire Thunder’s hand moved like a streak of lightning as he grabbed her arm and held her back.
“You cannot approach her any closer than this,” he said flatly. “You cann
ot chance it, Kaylene. You must control your strong desire to hold her, to embrace her. She is unembrace-able, Kaylene.”
Tears flowed from Kaylene’s eyes. “Yes, I know that,” she murmured. “But for a moment I forgot.”
“Emotions make one forget,” Fire Thunder said, easing his hand back to his side. “And she will understand why you cannot come to her. She would not even want you to. She would not want to condemn you to the same sort of life she has been forced to live.”
“You are my daughter?” Eloisa finally said, sobbing as tears rushed from her eyes.
“Yes, I am your daughter,” Kaylene said, wiping tears from her cheeks. “My name is Kaylene.”
“How did you know how to find me?” Eloisa asked, her eyes taking in every inch of Kaylene.
“I only knew recently that I had been raised by people who were not my true parents,” Kaylene said. “When I discovered that I had been taken as a child, and raised by someone other than my mother, I demanded to know who my real mother was. As soon as I knew, I came looking for you.”
“I would have never given you up had I not been forced to by circumstances,” Eloisa said, her voice breaking. “Have you been happy?”
Kaylene hesitated, for she was not quite sure how to answer that. Except for John Shelton, for the most part, she had done well enough in the carnival. So it would not be so much a lie when she told her mother that, yes, she had been happy enough.
“And I soon will be married,” Kaylene said, reaching a hand out to Fire Thunder, twining her fingers through his. “Mother, this is Fire Thunder. He is a Kickapoo chief. I so badly wanted you not to only know me, your daughter, but also the man I will soon marry, who will then be your son-in-law.”
Kaylene noticed how her mother suddenly flinched. She wasn’t sure what had caused her reaction. It surely had to do, though, with whom Kaylene was marrying. Perhaps she disliked Indians, as so many white people did.
One thing for certain, Kaylene was not going to ask her. She did not want to know that her mother was prejudiced toward Indians.
Wild Whispers Page 28
