Our bodies fit perfectly together, as we clung to each other with a desperate need that acted as though it could never be fulfilled. We teased and prodded the need forward, ever striving for greater gratification as the reward hovered with a promise we both struggled to achieve. A reward that was blossoming like a rose, opening its petals to feel the warmth of the sun upon its face. That warmth ran through me graduating into a heat that consumed me as we both caught on fire never wanting the fire to be quenched.
The rumble of Wolf’s satisfied moans joined mine as we showered our love upon one another in a way unimaginable to me. I had never wanted anything as desperately as I wanted to remain in this joined embrace moving to the rhythm of our mutual love for one another. Nothing would ever match that need that sprung between us and grew into a tornado in a mixture of love and desire. The whirlwind carried us away into the ethers of a parallel world never experienced by me before. I floated and rode the waves of its ever lifting arms, flying into the heavens of magnificent aspiration which led into ecstasy. My body and soul was consumed by Wolf’s love and essence, breathing a new kind of life into my being.
And then we lay, shivering with the aftermath, unbelieving at the wonder of what we had created through our mutual desire for one another. It was a feeling beyond any explanation, which I knew I wanted to experience with Wolf as often as possible. I had forgotten about my vow never to conceive another child with Wolf or anyone else. All I wanted now was Wolf and myself moving as one and becoming the other half of each other.
We slept briefly in each other’s arms before it was time to rise so the cow could be milked and the fires lit. The two of us walked hand in hand until Wolf had to leave to the barn and I had to start the fire. I found myself humming that funny little song of Wolf’s as I prepared everything for the morning meal. I had never felt so happy before and I was astounded that I could feel that way. It had been so long since I had even felt a brief happiness, let alone a happiness that filled me completely.
As we ate breakfast, we merely smiled at each other, an emotion reached across the table between us, holding each of us in its protecting embrace. I never wanted the emotion to end. When the meal was over, and the kitchen was cleaned, Wolf took my hand and led me into the parlor. He brought me to the settee and took my hand.
“In our Tribe, we believe the hair is part of our soul. When we kill an enemy, one of the reasons we scalp them is to remove their soul from their body. We keep it captive so the soul can never escape this world to travel to the afterworld. If we ever do release an enemy’s soul, we place the scalp upon a piece of wood in a stream or bury it in the ground, and then the soul can go to the afterlife.”
Wolf looked a little nervous but then continued.
“When I scalped your family, we were to give the scalps to the French so we could be paid for them. Only by the time we had reached our village, I knew I loved you. I could not take payment for killing your family. I kept their scalps. Now I wish to return those scalps to you, so you can bury them and allow your loved one’s souls to be free.”
He fumbled with a pouch he took from his belt and handed it to me. I knew what was inside, but was afraid to open it to look at my families’ scalps. I remembered how he had combed my mother’s hair, and I didn’t know if I could touch her hair, now that she was dead.”
“Do you know what your companions did with their bodies?” I asked after a moment of confusion while I clutched the pouch in my hands.
“When spring comes, I will take you to where they were buried,” he promised. “Until then, you will have their scalps and do with them as you please. Forgive me for killing your family.”
“I have already forgiven you,” I whispered. “I know you were only following orders.”
“I will do all in my power to make it up to you,” he promised.
“You already have,” I insisted. “You have helped me so much over the winter. I don’t think I could have done it without you. You were there when Ben was born, and you have been such an attentive father and a loving partner. I am honored to be your woman.”
When I said that, wolf grinned larger than I had ever seen him grin before, then he was crushing me in his arms.
“I don’t just want you as my woman,” he whispered in my ear. “I want you as my wife.”
“I know,” I whispered back. “I don’t know if I could ever find a preacher that would consent to marry us, though.”
“Until then, I will consider you my wife, and you must consider me as your husband,” he insisted.
I nodded. Everything seemed to be changing so fast, it was hard for me to assimilate it all. I liked the idea of considering myself Wolf’s wife, though. I just didn’t know how I would explain it all to Martin when he came?
CHAPTER TEN
I saw Martin riding across the yard from the kitchen window. I came out onto the front porch and stood there to greet him when he arrived. Wolf came and stood beside me. His chin was jutted out in a stubborn stance and I knew he was determined not to allow Martin the opportunity to insist that he leave.
When Martin saw there was someone standing beside me on the porch, and that it was an Indian, he gave his horse a kick. He must have believed I was in some sort of danger, being held captive in my own home. The horse broke into a gallop and then suddenly, it reared up and turned, throwing Martin from its back. It was then I noticed a snake slithering across the dirt in front of the horse.
Both mine and Wolf’s instincts were to run toward Martin to make sure he was not hurt. The horse had already spun around and was galloping away in the same direction it had come. When we reached Martin’s sprawled body, he was struggling to sit up, holding one arm in his other hand.
Wolf squatted down beside Martin. We could both tell, just by looking at the crooked angle of Martin’s arm that it was broken.
“Are you all right?” I asked anxiously.
“What is that Indian doing here?” is all Martin replied.
“He is a friend from the village where I was held captive. He has been helping me out over the winter. He is not going to harm you, and he won’t harm me!”
“The Indians were directed to leave,” Martin stated, his eyes filled with pain and anger at the same time.
“We will talk about it later,” I stated. “Right now, you need that arm taken care of.”
Martin grimiest, as he tried to ignore the pain.
“Find me some sort of sling. It is nothing!” he insisted.
“Your arm is broken!” I said. I can see the end of the bone sticking out from your skin!”
Martin looked down as though he had just discovered his arm was even hurt.
“So it is, he muttered.”
Immediately, Wolf sprang to his feet and started sprinting back to the house.
“Where in the hell is he going?” Martin asked wincing in pain.
“Probably to get something to set your arm with,” I suggested.
I had seen how the Indians had taken care of broken bones and wounds. I knew they were experienced in attending to events like this. A moment later, Wolf returned with two sticks. He snatched the dishtowel, I still had in my hands when I left the kitchen, and ripped some strips from it. He took Martin’s arm, as Martin glared at him, gave it a sharp jerk, which Martin yelled out at, swearing at Wolf angrily. Wolf ignored him and started wrapping the splint against Martin’s broken arm. I took the rest of the tattered dishtowel and folded it into a sling, which Wolf put Martin’s arm in once it was firmly bound.
“This is Wolf,” I told Martin. “He is my husband.”
“What?” Martin bellowed. “You never told me you married a heathen!”
“I didn’t think I would see him again,” I said honestly.
It was better to make Martin believe that Wolf and I had been married before I escaped than to let him know the truth about our relationship, I decided.
“That is why I could not agree to marry you,” I explained. “I was carrying Wolf’s c
hild. It has been born now, and Wolf is going to remain here with me on my homestead.”
I made the statement as though I assumed Martin would allow it. Like Wolf said, it was my home, and since I had a child fathered by Wolf, what was Martin going to do?
Wolf was helping Martin get to his feet, as they sized each other up. Martin with angry eyes and Wolf with bold ones.
“My damn horse has run off!” was all Martin said.
Then he turned to me, looking from Wolf to myself several times.
“It looks like you survived the winter. I had no clue you were in a mothering way.”
“I did not intend that you discover it. I contemplated killing the child once it was born, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and anyway, Wolf showed up.”
Wolf looked at me then. His eyes in a furry.
“You were going to kill our child?” he blared.
“I hated you for what you had done to me and my family. I would be shunned if I had a half-breed,” I said truthfully. “I didn’t want anyone to know. Only later, I knew I couldn’t do it. I had decided to keep it after all, regardless of the risk, and then you came!”
“Well, this is a little hard to swallow,” Martin muttered. “You couldn’t find it in your heart to accept my love, and yet you let this…heathen touch you?”
“I told you I had been a captive of the Indians. You know what they do with women.”
“So you married the man who degraded you after he captured you?”
Martin looked astonished that I would do such a thing. Maybe he was right thinking that about Wolf. Only I had started to love Wolf before he actually degraded me beyond touching me. I had been upset that he hadn’t loved me, and just wanted to use me.”
“There was a lot of miscommunication between us back then,” I said, hanging my head. “Only now, we understand each other. I want him to remain here with me.”
“You know you will be ostracized by the rest of the community, don’t you?”
“I know that. Only we live out away from most people. What I do on my own land should not concern anyone else.”
“I suppose there is no talking you out of this,” Martin said glumly.
“No there isn’t,” I agreed.
“You are probably biting off more than you can chew, Candice.”
“I will just have to deal with it,” I muttered.
Martin scratched his head.
“I suppose there is nothing I can do. Since you are married, we cannot force Wolf to leave. Apparently, you want him here; so you will just have to live with your decisions. However, I am not sure how I am going to be able to return to the fort? It seems my horse has set out in that direction without me!”
“I will take you,” Wolf offered. “I have a horse.”
Martin raised his eyebrows.
“Don’t know what they are going to say when I show up on the back of an Indian pony with a wild Indian,” Martin shrugged.
“We can hook the horse up to our buggy,” I suggested. “You will be a lot more comfortable in a buggy than riding behind Wolf on his horse. Do you think your horse would stand to have a buggy hooked onto him?” I turned to Wolf.
“Our horses are trained to do anything we ask of them,” Wolf informed me.
We all started walking back to the house. As Wolf hooked the buggy up to his horse, Martin stood watching.
“I suppose it was a good thing Wolf came to help you through the winter, especially since you were carrying,” he said.
Then he took one long look at me.
“I was hoping you would change your mind about my offer after winter. You said to talk to you about it in the spring.”
“Back then I did not want to let you know I carried an Indian baby. I was thinking that I could get rid of it, so you would never know. Only, in the end, I knew I could not kill my own child, even if it was half Indian. I did not want to saddle you with a half-breed if I consented to marry you.”
“Guess that is water under the bridge now,” he murmured. “Only I’m thinking you will probably need at least one friend in the future. I still plan to remain friends with you, if you will permit it.”
“I would love that, Martin!” I squealed, and I impulsively gave him a hug. “You are welcome to come visit anytime.”
He nodded, looking as though he wasn’t sure he wanted to come visit and then climbed up into the buggy, looking over his shoulder at me. Maybe he thought Wolf would eventually join his people and leave me on my own. Maybe he wanted to be there if that ever happened? I hoped it would never happen, though. I also hoped Martin learned to accept Wolf as his friend. I didn’t want any friction to flare up between them.
I stood watching as the buggy pulled down the drive, heading toward town. I trusted that Martin was honest and wouldn’t put Wolf in prison simply because he did not want me to be with an Indian. I felt anxious. I knew the future would hold many instances where I would feel anxious because I was willing to let Wolf remain with me. However, I felt guilty. I was not actually married to Wolf, neither through his people’s method of marriage or ours. I wondered if God would blame me for pretending to be married to Wolf when I really wasn’t? However, by this time, my trust in God had wavered a bit, considering my whole family and many friends had been murdered and God had not saved them. He hadn’t saved me from Wolf either, and I had spent three months acting as Wolf’s slave to use as he pleased, so if God was unhappy with me, I believed it was not my fault.
I turned back to the house. There were chores to do, and little Ben probably needed tending to. I tried to push all worries aside. At least Martin did not out and out shoot Wolf, and since Wolf was trying to help Martin, it would be despicable of him to shoot him now. All I wanted was to try and piece my life back together, and having Wolf there with me was the only way I knew of doing it. The Indian raid had changed my life forever; so now I couldn’t question what actions I needed to take. I would just take what I had and make the best of it, I decided.
A few hours later, I heard the buggy returning and ran out to greet Wolf. Wolf looked rather happy, so I felt things went well when he dropped Martin off. I watched him climb down from the buggy as I approached. Instead of coming to me, though, he walked to the back seat of the buggy, reaching in, to lift something out.
“Martin sent you a couple of presents,” Wolf stated with that crooked grin on his face, but his eyes were shaded, as though he didn’t like the fact that Martin was giving me presents.
I looked and saw he was holding a lamb in his arms.
“He said he owed you some livestock,” Wolf told me, as he handed me the soft lamb. “There is a piglet in a crate as well,” he informed me.
I peered into the buggy and saw the little pig poking its nose between the slats of the crate. My heart swelled. Martin truly did plan to remain my friend, and I was grateful for that!
As the days continued to pass, Wolf appeared happy to carry the weight of all the work our homestead demanded. His horse did not balk when he hooked it to the plow to break up the sod of the fields. Wolf knew how to grow crops because his people were farmers. Even though they did not use a plow to prepare the fields, it was not as difficult to do it with many village members helping to cultivate the ground by hand. I showed Wolf the method of how to use the plow, having watched Ben plow the fields since I was young. He seemed to enjoy plowing and talked about how easy the plow made his work.
I sometimes stood watching as the sweat rolled over his strong muscles while he plowed beneath the spring sun. I loved to watch how his muscles flexed and his long hair hovered around his face, often flying out as it got caught by a cooling breeze. As usual, he wore nothing but his breech-cloth, which allowed me to admire his masculine body.
As I stood watching Wolf in the field, I noticed a rider approaching and saw it was Martin. It had been over a month since he had come the day he broke his arm. I noticed it was no longer in a sling. I was happy to see him since we never got any visitors and he was the on
ly friend I had in the area.
When he climbed down from his horse, I noticed he was rummaging in his saddlebag and when he turned, he had a small puppy in his arms.
“I thought you might need a farm dog to herd the sheep, once you build up your herd again,” Martin said with a wink, as he held the white and black fluff covered puppy out to me.
“Martin!” I squealed. “He is adorable!”
I cuddled the puppy in my arms and then let it down to romp around my feet. I knew little Ben would love him. Ben was just starting to crawl around, and he needed a companion to play with.
“You are always so kind to me, and constantly bringing me gifts.”
“It’s the least I can do. We should have been patrolling in the area when those Indians came. There had been rumors they were in these parts.”
“You can’t be everywhere at once. Besides, it was the French who prodded the Indians to attack us! Wolf said the French paid them for every scalp they took from the English!”
It made me remember how Wolf had given me the scalps of my family and as soon as the snow melted he took me to the spot where the Indians had piled rocks over the bodies of my family and other prisoners that had been killed. I had buried their scalps close by and made Wolf pound a cross in the ground to mark the spot.
Across The River Page 13
