War Cloud's Passion

by Karen Kay

  He finished, and Anna sat in silence until another thought came to mind. She asked with gestures, “And yet your brother tried to marry five times even though he knew this?”

  “It is said that he did not believe in the curse when he was young,” responded the youngster in sign. “He thought, as I once did, that the story was told only to discredit our family, for some of the stories were bad, very bad. It was not until he tried several times to marry that we both, at last, came to understand that the curse is real. Of course, our ancestor helped him to discover this, too.”

  “Your ancestor?”

  Lame Bird nodded. “We have an ancestor who comes to my brother often. He speaks to him as he does to no other. Our ancestor believes that it is my brother who will, at last, be able to break the curse.”

  Anna drew back from Lame Bird, remembering a dream that she’d had only a few nights previous. She had seen, there in the fantasy, an apparition talking to War Cloud. Had it been real?

  No, impossible.

  Still, doubt colored her tone of voice as she said, “I do not believe in curses or in ghosts.” She followed the speech with signs.

  Lame Bird merely shrugged. “I understand,” he signed. “There were many years of my life when I doubted it, too.”

  “Many years?” she queried. “You are still so young.”

  “I am not young!” came the instant gestures.

  Anna grinned, though she signed, “No, you are not so young.”

  “Humph!”

  “Lame Bird.” She said his name aloud. “You must understand. I do not believe in curses. I do not believe in ancestors speaking to the living, nor do I believe in spirits wandering over the prairie. My beliefs are strong and they will protect me. So you see, there is no danger in your brother marrying me.”

  “Humph!” the lad said, then signed, “I forbid you to do it.”

  Forbid? This, from a mere boy?

  Lame Bird continued with signs, “Why do you want to marry my brother so much?”

  “Because if I do,” she returned, “the children and I will be protected when we reach your camp.”

  Lame Bird nodded. “That is a good plan, for you will not be safe otherwise.”

  Anna nodded. “Yes. But there is another reason. Your brother and I also made a pact. We agreed that I would marry him and he would take me to a white settlement.”

  This simple statement seemed to startle Lame Bird and he rushed the gestures. “My brother wishes to marry you?”

  Anna glanced away. “Not exactly,” she said, following the words with the proper hand motions.

  “What did he suggest?”

  “He…well…” What could she say? “He thought I meant one thing while I meant another.”

  “Saaaa,” said Lame Bird, knowledgeably. “My brother must want you in the way a man wants a woman he wishes to marry.”

  As Anna recognized Lame Bird’s signs, she felt her cheeks grow so hot, she thought she might burn up with embarrassment. It was one thing to have such a conversation with an adult, but with a child?

  Yet, Lame Bird went on, as though these sorts of things were discussed daily, “It is good.” The youngster looked away from her, although now and again she caught him snatching quick glimpses at her.

  She said and signed at the same time, “It is not good. I could never be a part of something like that without marriage.”

  “I disagree,” signed Lame Bird. “Your life may depend on it.”

  Anna felt her insides churn as she translated the gestures. Was the boy, too, a part of this madness? She signed, “I find the story of the curse interesting, but not frightening. Therefore, it is my belief that there is nothing to be lost from marriage.”

  “My brother will never marry you.”

  Goodness, but she was getting tired of hearing that.

  The boy sent her a sympathetic look. “Know that he would be proud to have you as his woman. But he cannot. Perhaps it might help if I tell you that no woman has ever been harmed by…keeping him company…to my knowledge. Know, too, that if you do this thing, it is not the same as being a woman of fleeting reputation. Do not confuse the two. You would do it to save the children, much as you saved me—only in a different way.”

  She heaved in a deep breath, deciding there was no reasoning with these brothers. Besides, she was more than a little uncomfortable discussing such a subject with a child of twelve.

  Signing the hand motions for “Thank you,” she came up onto her feet.

  But before she could leave, Lame Bird caught her by the hand, pulling her attention back to him. He signed, “You should understand that in an Indian village, there is little that is unknown from one person to the next. If my brother claims you for his wife when he has not committed the husbandly act, and if he desires you, it will soon be found out. It is not so easy to hide things from very wise men.”

  Anna groaned. She signed, “But I could never do it.”

  “I understand,” motioned the boy. “Still, it is good that he desires you. It has been many moons since my brother has shown any interest in a female.”

  “That may be good for him, but bad for me,” she said, signing the general meaning of the words.

  “Think you so?” Lame Bird queried and smiled a very adult smile at her.

  And Anna thought she might like to melt into the ground, so great was her embarrassment. Without further sign language or conversation with the boy, she trod away. She would seek out War Cloud and have this issue settled.

  She found War Cloud at his bath. However, thinking he was merely swimming, and not sparing a thought as to how he might dress when he went about such a thing, Anna padded right up to the shore.

  She said, without waiting to see if he acknowledged her, “Mister War Cloud, we should get this thing settled between us before we go any further toward your Dog Soldier camp.”

  If she had thought to catch him off-guard, she was to be quite mistaken, for he merely glanced at her and, treading water, said, “Come join me in my bath, white woman, and we can get it settled easily right now.”

  “Oh!”

  He laughed, and Anna was caught off guard for a moment at the pleasant sound of it. She said, “I have not come here for that reason, and well you know it. So turn your mind to other things.”

  He swam a little closer to her. “It is hard for me to ‘turn my mind to other things’ when there you stand and…here am I. I am told,” he said suggestively, “that I scrub backs well.” He raised a wet arm and, gesturing toward her, invited, “Come here, Little Bear, and I will show you.”

  “Mister War Cloud!” she uttered. “I have come here to do no more than discuss our pact with you. Nothing more. Now, perhaps I should turn my back while you get out of the water so that we might discuss this,” she suggested, though she did not turn away.

  “Why?” he asked, swimming a little nearer. “Were I to stand up, perhaps you could see if you like what you would be getting if you kept your part of our bargain.”

  “Really!”

  “Haahe, really.”

  “Mister War Cloud!” she said again, beginning to get angry. “We still have much to discuss. We have not agreed on what we will be doing and…we need to talk.”

  “Do we?” he asked, swimming closer. “I have told you how it should be for me if you and the children are to remain safe. I regret that this puts you at a disadvantage. But seeing that it has and that you object, I have also agreed to try to pretend a sexual knowledge of you that I do not have. It is my opinion that this will not work, but I am willing to do it. The choice is yours. Now, what else have we to discuss?”

  She ignored the question. “I…My concern is for the children, not myself.”

  “Then I will tell you what I think you should do, Little Bear. Throw off your clothes and join me, and you will no longer have anything to decide.”

  He swam still nearer to her and, without pausing to ask permission, stood up and came forward, dripping water all over
her.

  But it wasn’t the fact that he was getting her wet that took her attention, it was more that Anna had never seen an adult man in such a state of undress. For the only thing hidden from her was enclosed beneath a tiny bit of cloth that covered his most masculine asset.

  Tanned skin, taut muscles and broad shoulders, which tapered into a narrow waist and hips, met her regard.

  She gaped. And he grinned.

  Shaking off the excess water from his body, which fell onto her in cold pinpricks, he teased, “Perhaps you have reconsidered my offer?”

  “And if I have?”

  That question seemed to gain his attention as nothing else had, and he stared at her for so long she began to grow embarrassed.

  But she rushed on. “When I make an agreement, sir, I try to weigh the facts before I hasten into anything. Now, although it is true that I did not know of this curse, or of your unwillingness to enter into the marital state when I made the pact, it makes the fact of the bargain no less valid. Mister War Cloud, I would see these children safely settled. I knew I took a chance when I put the suggestion to you, and I understood at the time that I did not have knowledge of your customs or traditions. The curse changes nothing. If you think that I am so weak-minded as to back out of it simply because others have done so in the past, then you are mistaken. I said I would be yours if you would help me, and I meant marriage and by goodness, sir, I will marry you, curse or no curse.”

  She peeped a glance up at him to see what the result of her declaration was, and she gasped. The man’s features had hardened into a mask of concentration, and as he clenched his chin, his eyes danced with a fiery light.

  All he said, however, was, “I will not marry you or anyone else.”

  “Fine!”

  “Know that no matter what we do, I will not take you as a wife.”

  “Very well!” She made a movement so that she faced him fully, propping her hands on her hips. She said, “Make me a jaded woman, then, for I will keep my end of the pact no matter what you say, so long as you remain true to your own pledge and take me and the children to safety.”

  With her words, War Cloud’s features mellowed and he swept a curious glance over her, every nuance of his look sending erotic stirrings bursting over her already stimulated nerves. But she ignored the feeling; she ignored him and she went on to say, “If I must, I will do this thing with you—but on my terms. It is a sacrifice that I must make and that is all it is,” she said. And then once again, as though she had to remind herself, “That is all it is.”

  With this said, she crossed her arms over her chest, her pose most definitely defensive.

  He, on the other hand, rather than being excited by her offering, appeared immune to her. And he watched her with narrowed eyes. At length, he said offhandedly, “You have a few days to think about it. Do not rush into any decision yet.”

  Darn it! The man made her want to scream. She hated to think what it had cost her, in terms of her pride, to bow to his demands. Why did he not simply take her, now that she had agreed to it, and get the matter over with?

  She said to him, “I do not rush into anything. I think I know my own mind.”

  Regardless, his answer was none other than a grin. He said, “If I did not know you better, Nahkohe-tseske, your quickness to take this action might make me think that you are looking at this with more of a happy heart than I had, at first, anticipated.”

  “Never!”

  However, he did not seem to hear her, and with one eyebrow deliberately raised, he appeared to take great delight in contemplating her with the most devilish grin she had ever seen.

  Darn the man!

  She turned her back on him and put a foot forward, but she had only taken a few steps away when he caught her about the waist and spun her around to him.

  His fingers, cold from his bath, pushed back her hair before they smoothed over her face. And with his every touch, her body turned to a quivering mass. She felt branded.

  He said, “You are the bravest woman I have ever known.”

  “Humph!” she uttered, imitating the sound she had so often heard from him.

  And then he kissed her. He kissed her lingeringly, yet thoroughly, his lips encompassing hers as though they were a part of his own.

  Anna surrendered, her body molding to his every nude contour, delighting in the sensation of his manly form against her. In truth, she felt as though she might dissolve into a puddle.

  Raw yearning swept through her, causing her to feel as though her feet might not hold her. But she remained whole and upright, much to her surprise.

  Then his tongue swept into her mouth and she lost whatever control she might have had over herself, collapsing against him completely.

  She became lost in a world of seduction and rapture, certain that nothing existed outside of this man’s lips and his body pressed up tightly against her.

  He broke off the kiss all at once, and she should have regained control over herself, but he immediately began showering kisses over her face, her eyes, her cheeks; lower still to her neck, finding the sensitive spot there.

  “Little Bear,” he whispered, “it will be good between us.”

  She could barely think. In truth, it was all she could do at the moment to nod. This was, indeed, good.

  She could feel his lips against her face as he grinned, his cheek nuzzling hers. And he said, “I think our liaison will make you happy, while it lasts.”

  While it lasts.

  Those last few words had the same effect as dousing her in cold water. Drat! He would have been able to take what he wanted had he kept his mouth shut.

  And he knew it.

  His teasing her could only mean one thing: he was forcing her to acknowledge that if she did this thing with him, she would be as much a willing participant as he.

  Oh, how much easier it would be if he just took her.

  But he was not the sort of man to do that.

  Anna drew herself out of his arms and turned her back on him, feeling the very real evidence of his ardor against her. It made her want to turn and confess that she wanted this lovemaking as much as he.

  But she mustn’t do that, and so she did the only thing she could do. She took one slow step after another away from him, until gaining some little distance, she was able to run away from him altogether, back to the children. Back to some semblance of sanity.

  Or was it?

  Whatever the case, it was going to be a long, hot day.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Was she supposed to pretend that nothing had changed between them? she wondered. Could she ever be her usual self with War Cloud again? When even the tiniest of glances from him had her remembering the way he had looked, the way he had touched her, the things he had said?

  Even now when she thought of him, when she recalled the tone of his voice, the feel of his body against hers, and the fire in his eyes, it sent tiny pinpoints of pleasure sweeping along her nerve endings.

  She put the question to herself once more. Would she ever be the same again? She somehow doubted it.

  Shortly after their talk, War Cloud had directed her to attend to the children and keep them quiet. They would wait until evening for travel, he had told them, even though their party should have been safe, so close were they to Dog Soldier country.

  But with war parties on the loose and warrior-whites sending scouts into the territory, there was no way to predict the safety of daylight travel.

  True to his word, War Cloud led them from camp, out onto the open prairie. With the stars as their only tool to navigate, Anna located the Big Dipper, found the North Star from that and observed that they traveled north and west.

  Ahead of her, she watched the dim shapes of the ponies laden with their precious burdens. Luckily the moon had risen half-full and bright, though it cast eerie shadows over the landscape. Those ghostly silhouettes could have been frightening, too, she realized, if War Cloud were not here with her. But under his protection,
with him leading them and caring for them, Anna felt little to no fear. In truth, if she were honest, she would admit that War Cloud set her mind at ease.

  In more ways than one.

  While she no longer harbored fear of her surroundings, she also had laid to rest a great deal of her anxieties over the children. No longer did she feel that she, and she alone, was responsible for the welfare of the children. She shared it now, with him.

  Her own society could learn much about honor and trust from these people, Anna determined, remembering how fragile mere contracts could be. Until this moment, she had never stopped to consider that those in business appeared to expect a person to break his word if given the least provocation.

  Not so these red men. Such uncompromising trust she had never before experienced.

  Not even with the Orphan Society. Even there, she had been directed to put her signature to contract in order to “prove” her good faith. What was more, she was required to have any prospective parents put pen to paper that they, too, show their good intentions.

  How much simpler it would be if, like these men of the wilderness, a man’s word and his own personal pride in himself were more binding than anything another could think up or write.

  With this little bit of philosophical rambling, Anna stared in front of her, and spotted the object of her thoughts, War Cloud, far ahead. Since morning, she had become more than a little aware of him, of small things that he did, and she had started to look at him as more than her captor, her protector or as a mere handsome Indian male.

  Yes, he was attractive, no doubt, but he had become more than that to her.

  He was a lover.

  Odd, thought Anna, she was only mildly shocked by the thought. In truth, she might have been perhaps too comfortable with that image.

  But, she continued with this line of reasoning, War Cloud was more even than that, although the man did evoke the most amorous urges within her. But what was it about him?

  As she watched him move, she became aware of tiny things about him. The way he walked; the long length of his muscular legs; the way his breechcloth flapped in the wind; the way his legs and the rounded curve of buttocks peeked out beneath that breechcloth.