Apache Flame (22 page)

“‘Lisha.”

“I know.” She wrapped her arms tight around him, wanting to
be closer, wanting to feel the hard length of his body against her own.
“Mitchy…”

“What?” He kissed her, his lips like fire against her skin.
“Tell me what you want?”

“You. Just you.”

His hand slid up her side, the tips of his fingers brushing
along the curve of her breast. Pleasure curled through her belly. So long, she
thought, so long since she had felt his hands on her skin. “Mitchy…”

“Don’t look at me like that unless you mean it,” he warned.

She waged a silent war within herself…her desire battling
with her innate sense of morality. She knew it was wrong to be intimate with
Mitch before they were married. It had been wrong before; it would be wrong
now. This time, she wanted everything between them to be right.

With a sigh, she drew back a little. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He traced the curve of her cheek with his
forefinger. “I’ve waited this long. I can wait another day. Come on,” he said,
taking her hand in his, “let’s walk.”

“Tell me about your mother,” Alisha said. “I thought she
passed away when you were twelve or thirteen.”

Mitch grinned into the darkness. “That’s what I thought,
too. My old man was a real piece of work. To keep me from running away, he told
me she was dead. I should never have believed him. Con Garret never told the
truth in his life.”

Alisha made a soft sound in her throat. The lie Mitch’s
father had told him was no worse than the one her own father had perpetuated.
“How are we going to find our son?”

“I’ll ask my mother tomorrow, see if she knows anything.” He
shook his head. “Even if we find him, he might not want to come with us.”

She had thought of that herself, but it was worse, somehow,
hearing him put it in words. She had clung to the fantasy that she would find
her son and that all obstacles separating them would miraculously disappear.

“‘Lisha?”

“What?”

“You must have thought of that.”

“Yes, of course, but I refused to dwell on it. I told myself
that he’d want to be with me. I’m his mother, but I’ve just been lying to
myself, haven’t I?”

“Hey, you don’t know that. Maybe he’s unhappy where he is.”

“No!” She had thought of that, too, of course, imagined that
whoever had taken him in mistreated him. She had wondered if he had decent
clothes to wear, enough food to eat, if the people who had adopted him treated
him kindly, if his mother tucked him into bed at night and told him stories. In
the end, she’d had to believe he was happy and well cared for because to think
otherwise was too painful to contemplate.

Mitch swore softly. “We’ll find him, ‘Lisha, I promise.”

“Oh, Mitchy,” she wailed. “Why did my father have to lie to
me?”

“I don’t know, darlin’,” he said, drawing her into his arms
once again.

“I just don’t understand how he could do such a horrible
thing.”

Mitch took a deep breath. Feeling her need for reassurance,
he said, “I’m sure he did what he thought was best for you,” and thought he’d
choke on the words.

“Oh!” She twisted out of his embrace and began to pace back
and forth. “I’m so tired of everyone saying that! How could it possibly have
been the best thing for me to give my child away? How could he ever think it
was right for my son, our son, to grow up without his mother? How could that be
right?”

“I don’t know, but I know your old man loved you. He was
probably just trying to spare you the shame of raising an illegitimate baby.”
Mitch took a deep breath, realizing, for the first time, just what Alisha must
have gone through, all because of him. She had been the preacher’s daughter. If
people had learned she was carrying the bastard child of a half-breed, they
would have proclaimed her a fallen woman and shunned her company. She would
never have been allowed to teach, never been able to hold her head up in the
town again. He suddenly realized that, had he been in her father’s place, he
would likely have done the same thing to spare his daughter the shame she would
have endured.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Dammit, ‘Lisha, I would have
been here for you if I’d known.”

She stopping pacing and took a deep, calming breath. “I
know. I’m not blaming you.”

“Well, maybe you should. Dammit, I never should have left
you.”

She looked up at him, smiling through her tears. “No, you
shouldn’t have, but it’s all water under the bridge now,” she said, sniffing.
“You promised you would never leave me again, and this time I’m holding you to
it.”

“And you promised you’d marry me,” he said quietly.

“I know. Can we really get married tomorrow?”

“Anxious, are you?”

“Yes. Does that surprise you?”

Mitch shook his head. “No. You always were an impulsive
girl. Why, I remember the first time I kissed you, I thought you were going to
eat me up, you were so hungry for more.”

“Oh!” Eyes flashing, she punched him on the arm. “I was
not!”

Mitch laughed as he reached out and pulled her up against
him. He gazed down at her a minute, and then he kissed her.

Every thought fled Alisha’s mind as his mouth covered hers.
Warmth and a sense of security washed over her, and with it the deep inner
knowledge that this was right, this was where she was meant to be.

She kissed him back, her tongue dancing with his, her heart
pounding with joy. She was in Mitchy’s arms, and she felt young again, free
again. Somehow, everything would work out.

“‘Lisha, I want to feel you open for me… move with me…I want
to taste you…” He groaned low in his throat. “Feel your heat surround me.”

His words caused an ache deep in the core of her being, and
she pressed against him, wanting to be closer. A soft moan escaped her lips as
his arms tightened around her. She could feel his desire in his kiss, in the
tension in his body, the tremor in his arms. Whatever else was wrong in the
world, this had always been right between them.

“‘Lisha.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Dammit, girl, if you keep kissing me like that, I’m not gonna be able to wait
until tomorrow.”

Happiness welled up inside her and poured forth in a wave of
merry laughter.

“Think it’s funny, do you?” he growled.

“No, I’m just happy.”

She was beautiful when she was happy, with her brown eyes
sparkling and her lips slightly parted. She seemed to glow with a radiant inner
fire and he knew he’d consider himself a lucky man if he could spend the rest
of his life warming himself in her light.

“Come on,” he said, taking her by the hand. “I think we’d
better go find a crowd before one of us gets in trouble.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

The whole encampment had turned out for the victory dance.
Mitch was surprised to see Elk Chaser up and about. He mentioned it to his
mother, who just shook her head.

“I told him he should rest,” she said in a resigned voice,
“but he insisted on being here.”

Mitch sat beside Elk Chaser, not certain what to expect.

An air of excitement and anticipation hung in the air. A
fire burned in the center of the crowd, the low beat of the drum seemed to
speak to him, telling him of victories long past, of brave warriors whose blood
nourished the earth. The drum. Its voice was like that of the Thunder people,
speaking to his heart and soul, awakening memories of his childhood, of the
things his mother had taught him of the People, of their history and beliefs.

He watched the warriors dancing around the fire, acting out
the battle near the cave. When they finished their part of the battle, Fights
the Wind began to dance. Clad in clout and moccasins and carrying a bow and a
quiver of arrows, he showed how he had fought the Comanche and been wounded. In
an amazing sequence, he showed how the son of White Robe had saved his life.
And then, to Mitch’s surprise, the warrior walked toward him and offered him
the bow and a quiver of arrows.

Mitch nodded as he took the gift, realizing, in that moment,
that Fights the Wind had done him a great honor.

Several of the warriors who had been at the battle murmured
their approval, making Mitch feel as though he had been accepted as one of
them.

The last dance was a dance of thanksgiving to
Usen
for
granting the Apache a victory over their enemies.

When the dancing was over, Elk Chaser and Rides the Buffalo
returned to their lodge.

After bidding the two of them good night, Mitch took his
mother aside. “I need your help.”

“What do you need
, ciye?”

“Alisha and I want to be married tomorrow. Can you arrange
it?”

“So soon!” White Robe exclaimed. “And you told me you had no
woman. Hah!”

“Ma…”

She looked up at him and laughed. “I will see to it.” She
looked over to where Alisha was standing. “She is lovely, Otter. You have made
a wise choice.”

“I think so.”

“I remember you spoke of her many times when you were a boy.
I had often wished that you would bring her home to meet me.”

“I wanted to, but I was always afraid he might be there, and
I was ashamed of him.”

White Robe nodded. “I hope you and Alisha will find the
happiness that Elk Chaser and I have found.”

“Thanks, Ma.”

She smiled at him. “Go, now, and be with your woman. I will
take care of everything.”

Bending, Mitch pressed a kiss to his mother’s cheek, his
heart pounding with anticipation. Tomorrow, Alisha would be his.

* * * * *

Mitch stood beside Alisha. It had been a long day. Weddings
among the Apache were not elaborate affairs and he had hoped to marry Alisha
first thing in the morning. He was anxious to make her his bride, anxious to
hold her in his arms again. Anxious to make her his in every sense of the word.
He had said as much that morning, and his mother had replied that Rides the
Buffalo wanted to go hunting.

“Hunting!” he had replied. “Ma, haven’t you been listening?
Alisha and I want to get married. Now. Today.”

“I hear you,
ciye
. Take your brother hunting. Come
back this afternoon, late.”

He had started to protest, but she held up her hand. “Go.”

So he had taken Rides the Buffalo hunting, but all the while
he had been thinking about Alisha, remembering how good she felt in his arms,
the eagerness with which she kissed him.

When they returned to White Robe’s lodge late that
afternoon, they had found Red Clements and Elk Chaser sitting outside, sharing
a pipe in the shade.

When Rides the Buffalo started to go inside, Elk Chaser grabbed
him by the arm, and shook his head. “The men have been banished from the
lodge.”

“Why?”

Elk Chaser shook his head. “Only women are allowed in there
today. If you are hungry, go see Yellow Flower.”

Rides the Buffalo looked up at Mitch, shrugged, and ran off
toward Yellow Flower’s lodge.

Mitch hunkered down in the shade beside Clements. “What’s
going on?”

“Why, I hear you’re gettin’ hitched, boy. Big doin’s goin’
on in there. Women been comin’ and goin’ all day.”

“Is that right?”

Clements nodded. “They been sewin’ and cookin’ up a storm in
there.” He slapped his hand against his thigh. “Gonna be quite a shindig, from
the looks of things.”

That had been an hour ago. Now, freshly bathed and clad in a
new set of buckskins, he stood beside Alisha. Just looking at her took his
breath away. She wore a doeskin tunic that had been bleached white, then
decorated with delicate blue glass beads and tiny silver bells. Her long wavy
hair fell loose down her back save for two tiny braids that framed her face.
She wore a pair of new moccasins.

It looked like the whole camp had turned out to watch the
ceremony.

Mitch took a deep breath as the shaman took his place.

“These two have pledged their hearts to each other,” he
said. His voice, though low, carried to all those gathered around. “There are
no words strong enough to bind a man to a woman, or a woman to a man. With us,
the joining of a man and a woman takes place here, in the heart.”

The shaman took their hands and joined them together. “Now
you will feel no rain, for each will be a shelter to the other. Now you will
feel no cold, for each will be warmth to the other. Now you will feel no
loneliness, for each will be a friend to the other. You are now two people but
there is one life before you. Go now to your dwelling place and enter into your
togetherness. And may your days be good and long on this earth.”

Slowly, Mitch drew Alisha into his arms and kissed her,
sealing the shaman’s words upon her heart and soul.

When he released her, he saw his mother beaming at him. Tears
glistened in her dark eyes as she came forward to hug him.

“We have prepared a lodge for you near the east bend of the
river. Horses await to take you there. You will find wood for a fire, and food
to last for three days. Enjoy this, your special time together.”

“Thanks, Ma.”

“Be happy,
ciye.
” White Robe embraced her new
daughter-in-law. “Good wishes, my daughter.”

“Thank you,” Alisha said, pleased that Mitch’s mother had so
readily accepted her into the family.

Elk Chaser and Red Clements also came forward to offer their
congratulations, as did Fights the Wind, who offered Mitch a buffalo robe and a
pipe made of white birch.

Rides the Buffalo tugged on Alisha’s skirt. “You are my
sister now, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she said. “I guess I am.”

Rides the Buffalo smiled. “I always wanted a sister,” he
confided in a low voice, “but don’t tell Little Fox. He would make fun of me if
he knew. He does not like girls.”

“I won’t tell,” Alisha promised solemnly.

“Maybe you and my brother will have a baby soon,” Rides the
Buffalo said candidly.