Too curious not to see who it was, Jolena threw her blankets aside and crawled to the tiny opening of her tent. Her breath seemed suddenly lodged in her throat and her heart skipped a beat as she watched Spotted Eagle leave the campsite carrying a large bow, a quiver of arrows at his back. With an anxious heartbeat, she watched Spotted Eagle until he became hidden in the shadows of night.
Without further thought, she scrambled from her tent and began following him.
Chapter Eight
Cicadas vibrated their wings and made loud buzzing sounds on all sides of Jolena as she crept along beneath the trees, the cicadas' song drowning out the rustling of the cottonwood leaves overhead as a brisk wind blew through them.
Fear made Jolena's throat dry, for she had yet to see Spotted Eagle. She was even beginning to think that she should turn back, to return to the safety of the camp.
Then the spill of the moon's light revealed Spotted Eagle's muscled body through a break in the trees, where he was sitting beside the river, seemingly in deep thought.
Jolena's pulse began to race, wondering if Spotted Eagle could possibly be thinking about her. Could he have wished her there? She felt foolish for allowing her fantasies to continue causing her to believe the impossible. Just because she had experienced strange, sensual dreams about an Indian, she could not keep allowing herself to believe that this Blackfoot warrior was, indeed, the man of her dreams. That was not possible, and she must stop thinking that it was!
Yet she could not help walking toward the Blackfoot, her heart pounding harder with each step she took closer to him. She knew that she should not be acting like a loose woman, actually seeking out the company of a manand not any man, a handsome Indian warrior!
But nothing less than a bolt of lightning striking her dead would prevent her from going to Spotted Eagle, to talk and to…
Jolena's face flooded with color as she stopped her thoughts, feeling shameful for once again allowing herself to think such things about Spotted Eagle. She must gain control of her thoughts and her desires, for he was now only a heartbeat away as she stepped out into the spill of the moonlight. Not far away, where the horses were reined upstream, they whinnied softly.
She jumped when Spotted Eagle sprang suddenly to his feet, an arrow already drawn from its quiver as he turned quickly on a heel, his lips parting and his eyes widening when he found Jolena standing there frozen, it seemed, to the ground as she gazed with startled eyes up at him.
Spotted Eagle easily slipped his arrow back into its quiver and bent and laid the large bow on the ground beside him, his eyes never leaving Jolena. His heart thundered wildly against his ribs, finding her even more intriguingly beautiful beneath the play of the moonlight. He gazed at the magnificent lines of her body as the wind pressed her skirt and blouse tightly against it, then watched the wind pushing the dark cloud of her hair back from the finely cut lines of her face. He desired her as he had never desired any other woman, except when he was a boy with the desires of a man for a woman twice his age.
He was that boy again, desiring a woman no less than then, and perhaps even more. He had to fight back speaking Sweet Dove's name, for surely the Gods had sent her back to him, to love with a man's heart and a man's body.
Jolena could feel his eyes on her, as though he were branding her as his, and blushed beneath the close scrutiny. Yet she did not look away from him with lowered eyes. She held her chin high and squared her shoulders even more, which made the magnificent swell of her breasts even more pronounced.
"I did not mean to disturb your moments alone," Jolena finally said, her words seeming to come in a mad rushas mad as the beat of her heart over being this close to Spotted Eagle and to be silently admired by him. "If you want me to, I can turn back and return to the camp."
Spotted Eagle said nothing for a moment, then drew himself out of his reverie and reached a hand out to Jolena. "No, do not return to the camp unescorted,'' he said, giving her a scolding look as he frowned. "You were foolish to come this far alone." He reached out a hand to her. "But now that you are here, ok-yi, come. Sit beside me. The night is warm. The moon and stars speak gently from the sky to me. Enjoy them with me."
"Thank you. I would love to," Jolena said, her knees weak at the thought of taking his hand.
When she reached her hand to his and his flesh met hers as he circled his fingers around hers and drew her on toward him, Jolena's breath was sucked away and drawn deep down inside her, causing her to sway from lightheadedness. She swallowed hard and steadied herself, then moved toward him.
Her knees trembled as he helped her down onto the warm grass beside him, regretting it when he released her hand.
Jolena could not keep her eyes off his uncovered chest. She had never seen such muscles, and he was bare of hair, unlike her white brother and father, whose chests were covered with featherings of golden hair.
Beneath the light of the moon, the sleekness of Spotted Eagle's copper skin was very tempting. Yet she was not daring enough to place a hand there, to feel how it might resemble her own when, at age six, she had stood in front of a mirror and had run a hand over her body, wondering why it was different in coloring than her playmates'.
She had then discovered how smooth and soft her copper skin was and took pride from that time on that it was of that color and texture.
"You followed Spotted Eagle to river," he said, yet not looking at her. "That was foolish. Many creatures stalk at night."
Jolena felt awkward, knowing that to reveal the truth to him was to open her soul and heart to him. Instead, she said something else, hoping that might satisfy him, at least for the moment. "I could not go to sleep," she said softly. "I, too, followed the path of the moon to the river." Then she told a lie that she thought was needed. "I had no idea you were here. Again, I'm sorry if I've become a bother to you. Just say the word and I'll leave."
Spotted Eagle quickly looked her way. "You will leave when I leave," he said. "My weapons will protect you."
Jolena was surprised that he was being so talkative with her. All day, in the presence of everyone else, he had been grave, silent, and reserved.
She was glad that he was more open with her. She so badly wanted to question him about what there was about her that was familiar to him, and then tell him about her dreams and what they might have foretold.
She also wanted to prod him for answers to her questions about the Indians in this area, about whether or not he knew of a father whose child had been lost to him eighteen years ago.
But now that she was here, the opportunity staring her in the face, she could not find the words to ask him anything. If he was from her tribe, then she would want to be taken to his village to meet her true people.
Perhaps even her true father.
Then she might never want to return to Saint Louis,
to the man who had raised her with much love and warmth. She felt a keen devotion to Bryce Edmonds.
"Whenever you wish to return to the camp, I would be grateful for whatever protection you lend me as I accompany you there," Jolena said, nervously drawing her legs up before her and circling her arms around them to hold her skirt in place.
Spotted Eagle gazed at her, smiled, and nodded. As their eyes locked in an unspoken understanding, he was reminded of the many questions that he wanted to ask her, yet at the same time he saw no need to ask her why she had been raised as white, for he believed he already knew the answer. He would wait for the perfect time to tell her.
When he knew that her heart belonged solely to him, then he would tell her…
"You like stars and I like butterflies," Jolena said, laughing awkwardly as she wrenched her eyes from his, feeling the danger in his hypnotic stare. She could feel herself being pulled deeper and deeper into the mystique of this man, her very soul crying out to be held by him.
She wanted to experience everything with him. She wanted to share her deepest feelings and emotions with him, if he would allow it.
For now, she must make small talk only. She must move slowly into this true knowing of him and his people. She did not want to regret later something that she might do now because of the sensual lethargy that she was experiencing at his nearness.
She wanted it to be totally right when she moved into his arms and allowed him to teach her the true meaning of being a woman…
"You seek a special butterfly," Spotted Eagle said softly. "I have seen it. Soon I hope you will also see its loveliness."
He was glad to be drawn into small talk, knowing that this would delay what he so badly wanted to do. He had waited a lifetime for her, and it was hard not to hold her and tell her that she was already everything to him without even that first kiss.
In time, he thought to himself.
In time, the moment would be right for him to draw her into his arms, to kiss… to hold… and to claim her totally as his.
For now, he would just enjoy being with her, absorbing her every move, her every word, her every smile.
All of these things pleasured him more than he would have imagined a woman could affect him ever again.
But she was not just any woman. She was the mirror image of Sweet Dove.
She was Sweet Dove's daughter.
"I hope you are right," Jolena said, giving him a sweet smile, then turning her eyes away from him again when she felt him looking at her at though she were something precious. "And I do thank you for notifying those at the fort that you sighted the euphaedra. I enjoy watching and studying the interesting life cycle of butterflies. It was my father's deepest desire long ago to find the rare, elusive butterfly. I hope to fulfill his dream by taking it home to him for his collection."
"Collection?" Spotted Eagle said, drawing Jolena's eyes back to him by the guarded way he had said the word. "How do you mean… collection? Ralph spoke of this at the fort. I did not understand then. I do not understand now. I thought you were coming only to study the butterfly, to take your knowledge back to the white people who learn and teach about such things as that."
Jolena nodded. "I will take my knowledge of this butterfly back with me, but I will also take a specimen," she explained. "My father must see the butterfly to fully appreciate its loveliness. One cannot tell someone something is lovely and express it in a way that this person can see it as the one who sees it firsthand. If I find the rare butterfly and catch it, I will be taking it to my ailing father. That is my purpose for being here."
"Ailing?" Spotted Eagle said, raising an eyebrow. "Your white father is not well?"
Jolena's pulse began to race as she noted his reference to her white father. Obviously, he was aware that her true father was someone other than Bryce Edmonds.
She looked away from Spotted Eagle, thinking this would be the wrong time to delve into those questions that she so badly wanted answered.
Later.
Later when they were drawn together with more ease and understanding.
"My father is not well at all," she murmured, tears burning the corners of her eyes as she saw her father in her mind's eye. "His legs are paralyzed. He is also weakening generally. I fear terribly for him. I must find the rare butterfly before… before…"
She could not help the deep sob that leapt from her throat at the thought of her father dying before she could see him again.
Embarrassed for allowing her emotions to get so out of hand so quickly in the presence of this man whose face had so often filled her midnight dreams, she stumbled to her feet.
"I must return to my tent," she said, wiping the salty tears from her lips. "I've stayed much too long as it is."
She started to run away but was stopped abruptly by a firm grip on her wrist. Her knees weakened, and her heart seemed to stand still for a moment. She turned slowly around and gazed up into Spotted Eagle's dark eyes as they stood facing each other in the moonlight, her heart now racing out of control.
"Why did you stop me?" Jolena asked, breathless from the tumultuous emotions swimming through her.
"Did I not tell you that I would escort you back to the camp?" Jolena smiled softly up at him. "I guess I forgot," she murmured. She glanced down at his fingers still circled around her wrist, then up into his midnight-dark eyes again. "You can unhand me now. I don't need any further reminding."
Spotted Eagle's heart throbbed and his eyes raked over her as he still held her by the wrist and drew her slowly toward him.
"Stay with me tonight by the river," he said, the words rushing across his lips without even any conscious forethought. "You are lovely, so very lovely. Let me hold you. Let me kiss you."
Stunned and thrilled at the same moment by his sudden decision to bring more into their relationship than mere talk of butterflies and stars, Jolena felt dizzied from the passion his suggestion evoked within her. She folded without hesitation into his arms. They kissed dazedly, his arms nudging her closer.
A noise from somewhere close by drew them quickly apart. When a black panther appeared at the edge of the clearing, its green eyes glinting in the moonlight, Jolena became frightened and darted off in the opposite direction.
The panther bounded after Jolena, as Spotted Eagle stood numb at the sight…
Chapter Nine
Her knees too weak to run any longer, Jolena turned around and stared with a throbbing heart at the panther, which also stopped, crouching, its eyes glaring at her. Too frightened to look past the panther to see what Spotted Eagle was doing, Jolena stood frozen on the spot, her screams seemingly frozen in the depths of her throat.
As the panther began slinking toward Jolena on its belly and four paws, Spotted Eagle acted swiftly. He notched an arrow onto his bow, and just as the panther's great m
outh opened with a roar and it leapt suddenly at Jolena, Spotted Eagle sent an arrow flying through the air.
Jolena felt faint as she watched the panther leap toward her, then gasped when a whistling arrow pierced the sleek fur of the cat's back. She covered her mouth with her hands and stood wild-eyed as she watched the panther fall to the ground on its side, howling in rage, then spring to its feet and leap at her again.
Spotted Eagle had already notched his arrow on his bow a second time and this time made a more accurate aim, sending his arrow into the heart of the animal.
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