He knew that he could never take her to his villagenot as long as Spotted Eagle was alive! Spotted Eagle would take her away from him and condemn Two Ridges in the eyes of their people!
There was only one solution.
Two Ridges would have to ambush Spotted Eagle and kill him, so that Two Ridges would not have to live the life of a banished Blackfoot. He wanted to take his copper princess to his people and show her off to them. They would see why she would cause him never to take another woman to his bed.
She was the most beautiful of all the women he had ever known! He ached to touch her copper skin. He ached to bury his nose in the depths of her midnight-black hair, to smell its fragrance. His mouth wanted to know the sweetness of her lips.
But he knew that he would first have to gain her trust to have these pleasures!
Jolena was stunned numb with the news that she and Two Ridges were the only two of the expedition to come out of this tragedy alive.
She closed her eyes and sobbed out Kirk's name, then her beloved Spotted Eagle's.
She crumpled down onto the blankets and curled into a ball, still crying, her eyes closed, her heart shredding into a million pieces of despair. When a warm hand touched her face, she thought it was Spotted Eagle's, so much did she want it to be so. She leaned into the palm of the hand, sobbing softly.
When she opened her eyes, she lurched back wildly away from Two Ridges, jolted back to her senses.
"Allow me to comfort you," Two Ridges said, placing a hand to her wrist, attempting to draw her into a sitting position next to him. "For a moment you allowed it. Ok-yi, come. Kyi. Let me hold you. Cry until all of your sadness is washed from inside you."
"No," Jolena said, choking back another sob. "I'm fine. I don't need anyone. I'm going to be fine."
"You need not suffer through this alone," Two Ridges said, drawing her closer to him as he still held tightly to her wrist. "I was Spotted Eagle's best friend. He would want you to seek comfort in my arms."
"Please leave me be," Jolena said, yanking her wrist free. "I need no one. No one, do you hear?"
His eyes narrowing, Two Ridges moved away from her and resumed his place before the dying embers on the opposite side of the fire from Jolena. His eyes never left her as he placed more wood on the coals of the fire, and the flames soon ate away at the dry timber.
Jolena stared into the flames, trembling from the coldness she felt inside over her losses.
Her brother! Her wonderful Spotted Eagle! All of the others of the expedition of whom she had become so found!
And her beloved journals and her precious butterfly collection!
"Everything is lost to me," she whispered, tears again splashing from her eyes. "Everything."
Returning to her soft pallet of blankets, she stretched out onto them, meticulously covering herself with another one. When she closed her eyes, she found that there was too much there in her mind's eye that continued troubling her… the damnable Nymphalid butterfly that was known to portend death! And the damnable dream in which Spotted Eagle had died!
Although Spotted Eagle had not died from an arrow's wound, he was dead just the same.
She now wished that she had listened to Kirk and had turned back toward Fort Chance, leaving the butterfly to tease and cause death to someone else.
"Oh, why didn't I listen to Kirk?" she cried softly, pummeling her fists into the blankets. "Why? Why?"
She had been so caught up in her grief that Jolena had not heard Two Ridges coming toward her again, had not been aware of him lying quietly down onto the blanket beside her…
Only when he scooted beneath her blanket and placed his body behind hers was she aware that he was there, his breath now hot on the nape of her neck as his fingers lifted her hair so that he could kiss her sweet, soft flesh.
Jolena's eyes opened wildly and her heart skipped a beat when she felt the most identifiable largeness of his manhood through the material of his breeches and her skirt as he began gyrating himself against her from behind.
She was so shocked by his actions that she was momentarily rendered speechless and seemingly helpless. She lay there, scarcely breathing, as one of his hands moved around and cupped one of her breasts through the cotton fabric of her blouse.
In a flash, the blanket was thrown aside and Two Ridges was atop her, his mouth seeking her lips, his hands slipping quickly up the inside of her skirt.
''I will make you forget everything but the pleasure that you will receive from my lovemaking," Two Ridges whispered huskily against her cheek, his lips quickly claiming hers in a frenzied kiss.
With one shove, she pushed Two Ridges away from her.
She scrambled to her feet, and as he jumped to his feet and towered over her, she started to run. He grabbed her by the waist and spun her around so that she was held immobile against his body as he lowered her again to the blankets.
"This is what you would do while your best friend lies dead?" Jolena cried, stricken with a sudden fear when she gazed up into eyes that were anything but friendly.
She shoved at his chest. "Why are you doing this to me?" she cried. "Please let me go. Please don't do this!"
"I cannot stop myself from wanting you," Two Ridges said, a strangled sob leaping from his throat.
His gaze moved over her face, suddenly realizing again that there was something about her that was too familiar.
This made him come to his senses.
He moved quickly away from Jolena, then shamefully hung his face in his hands.
Too frightened to trust his sudden change of mood, Jolena knew that she must not take any chance of his changing his mind again and continuing with his plan of raping her.
Wildly, she gazed around her for something with which to protect herself against this Blackfoot Indian seemingly crazed by runaway lusts and desires!
Breathing hard, her eyes fell upon a rock near where she sat.
Without any further thought, she grabbed the rock and brought it down hard upon Two Ridges' head.
When the rock made contact with his skull, Jolena recoiled and looked away.
When she slowly turned her eyes around a moment later, Two Ridges lay perfectly quiet beside the fire. Jolena covered her mouth with her hands, gasping as she stared at him. His eyes were closed. Blood was curling down across his brow from the wound she had inflicted on his head.
He was breathing raspily.
"I've got to get out of here," Jolena said, looking desperately around her. She gazed again at Two Ridges, then gulped back a fast-forming knot in her throat. What if he died? She hadn't wanted to kill him. Why had he forced her to do this terrible thing to him?
She moved shakily to her feet and began inching backward, away from Two Ridges, fearing more that he might wake up than that he should not wake up at all.
He had reason now to do more than rape her.
He might even kill her!
&n
bsp; Remembering the dangers that lurked in the forest, and realizing that she could wander alone for days before finding any sort of civilization, Jolena stopped and gazed down at Two Ridges' knife. She was afraid to try and get it, fearing that he might wake up the very moment she was leaning down over him. She closed her eyes at the thought of him grabbing her and forcing himself on her again!
Then she opened her eyes again slowly, knowing that her life now depended on her taking many risks.
Leaning down, she moved her trembling fingers to Two Ridges' sheathed knife at his right side. She watched his eyes as she quickly grabbed the handle and brought the knife out of its sheath.
Her heart thumping wildly, Jolena turned her attention to the food dripping its juices into the fire. Her mouth watered suddenly for she had not realized until this moment just how hungry she was.
"To survive, I must eat," she whispered, stepping up to the browned morsel, very deliberate- ly cutting several wide strips of the meat away, then thrusting them into the depths of her skirt pocket.
"And warmth," she whispered, spying the blankets upon which Two Ridges still lay. She must take at least one of those blankets.
With one hand, she poised the knife above Two Ridges, ready for the death plunge should he awaken while she was slowly rolling his body off the blankets.
When he was successfully moved over onto his stomach, his face pointing away from Jolena, she grabbed the blanket, then took off in a mad dash toward where she thought the mouth of the cave might be.
The pitch darkness of the cavern slowed her escape. She found her way by keeping her back against the one side of the cave and inching herself along. She was glad when she finally saw the light of the moon as it made a path of silver just inside the entrance of the cave.
Jolena broke into a run again, tears filling her eyes with renewed thoughts of Spotted Eagle and Kirk. She felt empty with loneliness.
How could she bear such losses? Her future was bleak. Without Spotted Eagle's arms and strength to guide her into the future, how could she exist?
She felt useless now, utterly useless.
Running out into the clear, clean air of night, Jolena moved relentlessly onward, knowing she must put much distance between herself and Two Ridges. When he came to and found her gone, he would surely not leave a stone unturned to find her again.
And if he found her, what then?
Would he kill her?
Or continue where he had left offand rape her?
Both thoughts sent chills racing up and down her spine.
"His horse!" she cried. "Why didn't I think to get his horse?"
But she had been too eager to get as far from him as she could, and since she had not seen the horse, it had not come to her mind to take it.
Stopping to draw the blanket over her shoulders, she looked in all directions, wondering which route would get her to civilization the fastest.
Fort Chance was many miles away, and she knew not where the Blackfoot village might be.
It truly didn't matter which way she went. Spotted Eagle would not be there.
She gazed through a break in the trees overhead and stared at the flecks of stars blinking down at her. "Oh, Lord, why did this have to happen?" she prayed. "Why was I allowed to fall so madly in love, and then have to learn how to live without him? Why, Lord? What have I done to deserve this?"
She lowered her eyes and gazed cautiously around her. The only sounds were frogs fairly cracking the air with their noise. The night was filled with a queer, luminous darkness. It was like velvet, soft yet heavy, but the moonlight enabled her to dimly see the different objects all around her.
The forest, always a thing of mystery at night, stood as though ready to enfold her within its dark arms, chilling her with terror at the prospect of never being found.
She shuddered at the thought of being attacked by a panther, wolf, or bear. A coyote's sudden long howl from somewhere in the distance startled Jolena into a mad run. She stumbled through the darkness, soon discovering that all the forces of nature seemed pitted against her. The bushes were so close-set that they tangled her progress slowed to that of a snail. When she stepped from the forest onto a stretch of open meadow, only then could she run again as the moon now lighted the mountains looming ahead of her.
Tears streamed down her cheeks again at the thought of the sheer drop from the cliff that had taken the lives of so many.
"Spotted Eagle," she cried mournfully aloud, her voice echoing back at her, hauntingly over and over again.
A horse whinnying stirred Two Ridges awake. He blinked his eyes nervously and reached a hand to his throbbing head, suddenly recalling what had happened.
Angry at himself for allowing a mere woman to take advantage of him, he moved quickly to his feet.
The fire was almost out. Smoldering ashes gave off only enough light for Two Ridges to see that he was quite alone.
He kicked at some loose rock at his feet. "She escaped!" he hissed between clenched teeth. " Hai-yah, she escaped!"
Dizzy from a severe headache, Two Ridges stumbled through the gray darkness until he found his horse, which had been secured in the farther depths of the cave, where a stream meandered into the cavern through cracks and crevices.
Flinging his saddle onto his horse, Two Ridges tried to decide what he must do. If he didn't find Jolena before Spotted Eagle found her, she would tell Spotted Eagle everything!
Taking the reins, he led his horse through the dank darkness of the cave. To keep his honor intact, Two Ridges knew, either Spotted Eagle or Jolena must die. Or both.
Frowning, he led his horse out into the open space where daylight was breaking along the horizon. Swinging himself into the saddle, he knew that he would be killing whomever he came across first, whether it was his long-time friend or the woman who he now knew would never be his.
He sank his heels into the flanks of his horse and rode into the shadows of the forest.
Chapter Twenty
The loss of her brother and Spotted Eagle lying heavy on her heart, Jolena walked aimlessly onward, relieved that it was now daylight so it would be easier for her to keep watch for dangerous animals. In her mind's eye, she kept reliving the night the panther had stalked her.
But Spotted Eagle had been there for her then!
Now she was solely dependant on herself. She hoped she would come upon travelers or perhaps even find herself in a Blackfoot village.
Bone- tired and sleepy, Jolena found it hard to move one foot ahead of the other. She was traveling through a wilderness that was not easily traversed. If she wasn't going through dark forests with close thickets and rapid streams, she was walking along cliffs with sheer drop-offs and wildly flung rocks.
Presently she found herself in a wide, shallow valley that was thickly timbered, where cottonwoods and rocks and silent streams jo�
�ined together to create a tranquil setting.
In the distance, Jolena could see great numbers of deer, elk, and mountain sheep on the hillsides.
Then a jackrabbit bounced past her, so close she could have reached out and touched it.
Jolena paused, sighing. She wiped beads of perspiration from her brow as she leaned against the trunk of a cottonwood. She closed her eyes and listened to the whisper of the leaves above her. If she did not know better, she would think she was listening to the sound of a peaceful, slow rain falling softly from the sky.
Savage Illusions Page 20
