After Jolena was dressed and her hair was braided, she gazed down at herself, again finding it strange how she felt as though she had lived this all before!
One by one, the Blackfoot women filed out of the tepee. Brown Elk soon entered. When he gazed over at Jolena, tears flooded his eyes, for he felt suddenly that he was once again the young man who had taken Sweet Dove as his bride.
''Father?" Jolena whispered, feeling no awkwardness in calling him that. It seemed so very natural and most definitely right! "Do you approve? Do I now look Blackfoot?"
"You called me Father," Brown Elk said, his voice filled with emotion. "It has been many years of waiting to hear such words from my daughter."
Then he nodded as his gaze swept over her. "Does this father approve of how you look?" he said, his voice breaking. "He approves. And do you look Blackfoot? Very!"
A sob lodged in Jolena's throat as she went to her Blackfoot father and flung herself into his arms. "Oh, Father, I love you so naturally, as though we have never been apart," she cried.
Brown Elk held her near and dear to his heart. "We are together now, but one day you will leave my dwelling again," he said remorsefully.
Jolena eased back from him and gazed into his eyes. "Never shall I," she said, her voice determined.
"You are a beautiful woman who will bring many men to my door to court you," Brown Elk said, smiling gently down at her. "You will make a choice and then share a tepee with your husband, not your father."
Jolena's heart seemed to drop to her feet at the mention of her marrying someone. All her dreams and plans for marriage had died the day Spotted Eagle had been taken from her! She did not even like to think about it, much less talk about it!
Deep down inside herself, where her desires were formed, she knew that no man would ever take Spotted Eagle's place in her life.
She eased into her father's arms again. She closed her eyes, silently praying to her Lord that Two Ridges had been lying and that Spotted Eagle was still alive.
Soon. Soon she would know…
Chapter Twenty-Two
The sun was lowering behind the mountains in the distance. Purple shadows filled the empty spaces of the forest as Spotted Eagle rode relentlessly onward. He had not returned to the village right away. He had needed time alone, to commune with the Sun and Old Man, for only they knew his feelings about losing the only woman he would ever love.
Spotted Eagle was now on his way home, to find solace in the quiet cocoon of his dwelling.
Life had struck him so many hard blows! All of his relatives, except his beloved chieftain father, had gone to the Sand Hills, the shadow land and place of ghosts, the Blackfoot's future world.
And now also his woman. His period of mourning for Jolena would be long and painful!
He was not even sure if he could ever not mourn the death of his beloved Jolena!
He did know for certain that he would never allow any other woman to warm his blankets at night.
He even accepted the fact that he would not have a son to follow in his footsteps into chieftainship. This honor would have to be passed on to someone else's son.
Perhaps Two Ridges'.
Spotted Eagle frowned when he thought of how Two Ridges loved women all women. It would be hard for his virile friend to choose among those many to whom he had shown special attention.
"He is yet young," Spotted Eagle whispered to himself. "And best that he has not yet made a choice. I made mine, and I have now lost her!"
Then he frowned, wondering how he could ever again have a pleasant thought about Two Ridges, who had deserted Spotted Eagle! It would be hard for Spotted Eagle ever to understand why!
His head bent, his shoulders slouched, Spotted Eagle rode onward, now unthinking, for to think was to hurt. No matter how hard he tried, he could not stop thinking about Jolena for long.
Everything led back to her.
The rustling of dried and rotted leaves beneath the umbrella of trees at Spotted Eagle's right drew his head up with alarm. His hand went automatically to the rifleboot at the side of his horse. His fingers did not even have a chance to make contact with the rifle before he saw his archenemy, the Cree warrior Long Nose, notching an arrow onto his bow and taking a steady aim at Spotted Eagle.
Another sound alerted Spotted Eagle to yet another presence in the forest. Gasping, Spotted Eagle watched Two Ridges ride toward him, in his hand an upraised knife. Two Ridges glared at Spotted Eagle, his jaw clenched tight with hatred. It dawned on Spotted Eagle that his best friend was attacking him!
Stunned by Two Ridges' behavior, he forgot all about Long Nose. Two Ridges was closer. His knife would find Spotted Eagle's heart before the Cree's arrow did.
Spotted Eagle glanced from the Cree to Two Ridges as Two Ridges came closer. Then Spotted Eagle gasped and cried out when unknowingly Two Ridges blocked Long Nose's way, spoiling the renegade Cree's shot.
Just as Two Ridges rode up next to Spotted Eagle, his arm poised for the death blow, Spotted Eagle heard the sharp twang of a bow as Long Nose let loose his arrow. Spotted Eagle's body lurched, responding as though the arrow were piercing his own body as he watched it enter Two Ridges' back.
The knife fell from Two Ridges' hand as Two Ridges swayed, then toppled off his horse onto the ground, scarcely breathing.
Stunned, Spotted Eagle stared down at Two Ridges, unable to move. His thoughts centered only on his former friend, who lay dying, and on Two Ridges' obvious intention to kill him. Spotted Eagle forgot to worry about the Cree who had shot one Blackfoot while planning to kill the other!
Two Ridges' life's blood poured from his wound, staining the leaves on which he lay a scarlet red.
A lone gun blast filled the air, drawing Spotted Eagle out of his stunned reverie to remember the Cree and the Cree's reason for being thereto kill Spotted Eagle, his enemy!
Spotted Eagle watched Long Nose crumple to the ground, wildly clutching at a bloody wound on his bare chest, then gaped openly at several Blackfoot warriors from his village as they came riding up, one of their rifles smoking from the shot that had killed the renegade Cree.
"Spotted Eagle!" Double Runner said, quickly dismounting, while the others went to Two Ridges' aid, kneeling down around him. "We have been searching for you. We feared you were dead."
Double Runner glanced down at Two Ridges, then up at Spotted Eagle again. "The Cree shot arrow off at Two Ridges before we could stop him," he said. "We did not arrive soon enough."
Knowing that his warriors had not arrived soon enough to see that Two Ridges had planned to kill him, Spotted Eagle found it hard to respond to Double Runner.
Instead, his head swimming with so many questions, especially about Two Ridges, and seeing that Two Ridges would not last much longer, Spotted Eagle quickly dis�
�mounted and fell to his knees beside Two Ridges. He looked at his warriors, one by one. "Leave me to speak alone with Two Ridges," he said thickly.
The warriors nodded and went back to their horses, walking them away from Spotted Eagle and Two Ridges.
Spotted Eagle's first thoughts were to make Two Ridges more comfortable. He studied the arrow, then steadied his hands and placed them to it and snapped it in two. It was lance-shaped instead of barbed, so he managed to draw it out completely instead of having to leave a portion of it imbedded in Two Ridges' back.
When Two Ridges emitted a guttural groan of pain, Spotted Eagle frowned down at him, still wondering what could have caused his friend to become his enemy!
"Your knife did not have a mind of its own," Spotted Eagle said, tossing the broken arrow aside. He lifted Two Ridges' head from the ground so that their eyes could meet and hold. "You were in full command. Why did you choose to use it on your best friend?"
"Before I die, forgive me," Two Ridges said, reaching to clutch desperately onto Spotted Eagle's arm. His voice was so weak that only Spotted Eagle was able to hear him. "Because of a woman I did this! Only because of a woman would I go against my best friend! Never have I found a woman who was special enough to risk a friendship over. Not until… Jolena." "Jolena?" Spotted Eagle gasped. "You did this because of Jolena? You… fell in love with my woman?"
"As you did, I could not help but fall under her spell," Two Ridges said, choking as blood began seeping from the corners of his mouth. "I was cursed, it seems, the moment I chose to win her love, no matter what I had to do, even if it meant losing a friend."
"You loved her enough to want to see Spotted Eagle dead?" Spotted Eagle said, his heart aching to know these truths, yet now regretting having kept a certain truth from Two Ridges! If Spotted Eagle had not selfishly kept the secret of Jolena's parentage from Two Ridges, her very own brother, then none of this would have happened!
But never would Spotted Eagle have guessed that Two Ridges was capable of such a fiendish act as this, no matter what truths that had been kept from him. Spotted Eagle had always thought that Two Ridges was a man of strict honor, capable only of undoubted truthfulness and unbounded generosity. The love for a woman had changed him overnight, it seemed!
"Forgive… me…" Two Ridges begged, his eyes slowly closing.
Spotted Eagle had no chance to respond. Two Ridges took a wild gasp for air, then died.
Filled with many tumultuous emotions, Spotted Eagle stared down at Two Ridges, finding all of this hard to comprehend. This young man whose future was so bright was now dead, everything gone so quickly from his grasp! Spotted Eagle had often teased his friend that his passion for women would be the death of him.
But never had he actually meant it! It had been a way of teasing Two Ridges over his wandering eye and heart!
Spotted Eagle had actually envied Two Ridges' lighthearted mood towards women and his skill at teasing and loving so many!
Now there was nothing to envy.
A sudden thought came to himhow would Two Ridges' father feel if he knew the full truth of what had happened here today? It would devastate a man such as Brown Elk to know that his son had brought such dishonor to himself!
It had to be kept from him, so that Brown Elk could mourn his son without shame clouding his memories of a son he had idolized.
"I will rightfully keep this secret," Spotted Eagle whispered, slowly laying Two Ridges' head back on the ground. "I was wrong to keep the secret to myself that Jolena was your sister. But I must keep secrets again! Never will I allow your father to know the treacherous son that you were. You do not deserve such loyalty from Spotted Eagle, but your kind and generous father does!"
Rising slowly to his full height, Spotted Eagle gazed down at Two Ridges a moment longer, then walked away toward his waiting warriors. When he reached them, he looked solemnly from one to the other.
"He is gone from us," he said, almost choking on the words and the actuality of what Two Ridges had planned to do. And why would Two Ridges want to do such a thing?
He surely had to know that Jolena was dead!
That had to mean that his hatred for Spotted Eagle ran even more deeply than jealousy for a woman, and that was something that Spotted Eagle could hardly accept.
Only yesterday he and Two Ridges were riding side by side, talking and laughing as friends do.
There had been no sign then of Two Ridges having hated him.
"The news we take to Brown Elk will take away the joy of his having just discovered that he has a daughter, and that she is alive and well," Double Runner said gloomily. "Sad it is, that he gains a daughter, then loses a son."
Spotted Eagle's heart did a strange leap at Double Runner's mention of Brown Elk's daughter.
There was only one daughter!
Jolena!
And Double Runner was talking about her as though she were alive, as though he had met her!
This had to mean only one thingthat Jolena was in his Blackfoot village!
"What are you saying about a daughter?" Spotted Eagle said, clasping his fingers to Double Runner's shoulders. "About Brown Elk's daughter?"
"While you were away, she came into our village," Double Runner said softly. "She was the one who told us that you might be dead. Your father sent a search party out looking for you, in hopes that you would still be alive. It was with happy hearts that we found that you were.''
Double Runner glanced over his shoulder at Two Ridges. "Had we arrived sooner, we would make two fathers happy upon our return to our village," he said sadly.
Spotted Eagle was only half-hearing what Double Runner was saying. His heart was thumping wildly with joy over knowing that his woman was alive after all.
And she had even found her way to her people's village!
Everything would now be perfect if not for…
He turned and stared down at Two Ridges, still finding it hard to believe that Two Ridges would go so far as to kill his best friend.
Yes, he nodded to himselfthere had to be more to it than that.
But he doubted he would ever find the answers now that Two Ridges was no longer able to give them to him.
Anxious to go to Jolena, to take her into his arms and hug her to him, feeling the warm, sweet press of her body next to his as full proof that she was, indeed, alive, Spotted Eagle walked briskly to his horse and swung himself into his saddle.
"Double Runner, secure Two Ridges on your horse," he said, his voice solemn. He gazed at one of his other warriors. "Wolf Tail, go and find his horse. Take it and the Cree's with you to the village." Not waiting for Two Ridges to be secured on the horse, his every heartbeat counting the minutes until he saw Jolena again, Spotted Eagle swung his horse around and began thundering through the forest. He was glad when he reached the open spa
ces of a meadow, giving him more freedom to send his horse into a hard gallop.
As the sun was replaced in the sky by a round globe of moon, Spotted Eagle caught the reflection of a fire in the black velvet sky just up ahead and knew that he would soon be in his village. His pulse raced and his eyes grew anxious as he sent his horse into an even harder gallop, breathless now as he entered the outer fringes of the village.
He eased his mount into a soft trot and moved past the outdoor communal fire that blazed all night in the center of his village to help discourage the wild animals from coming near the Blackfoot people as they slept.
When Jolena's father's tepee came into sight, Spotted Eagle's heart seemed to skip a beat, for standing just outside the tepee, studying the heavens, was his woman!
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