Savage Spirit (14 page)

But as for this woman who would soon be his wifewould she bear him children?

If she disappointed him also, how could he send her away? He wanted her with every fiber of his being. This was a sort of want he had never felt before, one that would not easily be cast aside.

Again, doubts of his own virility momentarily flooded his senses, but he quickly brushed them   away. Deep down inside himself, he knew that he could not live with such doubts for much longer. He must have a son to prove his virility!

"Perhaps," he murmured. "Perhaps soon. Perhaps
many
."

Red Crow and Cloud Eagle embraced, then Red Crow left.

Cloud Eagle went to Alicia. He lifted the mail sack from her arms. "You have itnow what will you do with it?" he said, laying it aside.

"It would please me so much if it could be taken to Fort Thomas," Alicia said softly. "Of course I know the risks. Whoever is seen with the mail sack could be accused of having stolen it. But perhaps it could be done at night. Perhaps it could be left in front of the station so that it could be found the next day?"

"It is that important to you?" he said, framing her face between his hands.

"There is a letter in the mail sack that is important to me," she murmured. "It must be rewritten, then the mail sack must be taken to Fort Thomas, or the nearest stage station, as soon as possible."

She rubbed her sore leg. "I would go myself, but I doubt that I could travel that far on horseback quite yet," she said.

"After you rewrite the letter, I will see that the mail sack is delivered for you to Fort Thomas," Cloud Eagle said and drew her into his embrace. He stroked her back through the soft buckskin of her dress. "And so you now have absolute proof of this Apache's innocence?"

"Damn Sandy Whiskers," Alicia said, snuggling closer to Cloud Eagle. "How could I have been so blind not to realize that he was mixed up   in underhanded schemes? One look into his empty gray eyes turns one's insides cold. I've never trusted him. Yet I never thought that he could be responsible for anything as horrible as being the leader of a gang that ambushes innocent travelers."

She leaned away from Cloud Eagle and searched his eyes. "Something must be done about him," she said softly. "He must be reported. He must be
stopped
."

"In due time," Cloud Eagle said. He wove his fingers through her lustrously long hair and led her lips close to his. "Remember,
Ish-kay-nay,
Sandy Whiskers' supplies make winters less perilous for my people. When Sandy Whiskers fails to be of use to the Apache, then his activities will be revealed."

"But Cloud Eagle, the innocent people that he has harmed," Alicia pleaded, ignoring his continued use of
Ish-kay-nay
as his nickname for her. She knew that he no longer saw her as a boy!

"For you, to
please
you, I will send patrols out to watch for those who might plan to ambush and kill. They will be stopped," he promised. "Will that make you happy?"

"I will sleep much better knowing that someone out there cares about what happens to those who come to this land seeking fortune and opportunity," Alicia murmured. "The soldiers' hands seem tied at times."

"There will never be enough soldiers or Apaches to stop the evil that floods our land," Cloud Eagle said. He took her by the hand and pulled her down on the pallet of furs beside him.

"I know, and that is frightening," Alicia said,   inhaling a shaky breath when Cloud Eagle swept a hand up the skirt of her dress and began caressing her. "I fear so for my . . ."

She did not get the word 'brother' out before Cloud Eagle silenced her with a heated kiss. She strained her body up against his and moaned with rapture when he thrust a finger deeply within her. He knew ways of stopping her from worrying. Her head was already spinning as a delicious languor stole over her.  

The next morning, when the birds were in the sky before the sun, Cloud Eagle awakened Alicia.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, yawning and wiping her eyes as she turned to him. Gray came to her and playfully nudged her with his nose.

"Sleep eluded me last night," Cloud Eagle said somberly.

"Why?" Alicia asked, leaning up on one elbow.

Fear gripped her heart when a thought came to her. Was he feeling guilty for having discarded his two wives? Had he discovered, in their absence, that he cared deeply for them after all? Had he decided to send
her
away?

"I have been thinking about the upcoming duel with Ten Bears," he said quietly. He left their pallet of furs and slipped into his clothes. "To clear my mind before the duel, I am going hunting."

Afraid to be left alone, a keen apprehension   rose within Alicia. Although Cloud Eagle had assured her that she had nothing to fear from Spring Dawn and Lost Wind, she was not totally convinced of it.

Also, she now had someone else to be wary of. Ten Bears. If he was angry enough to challenge his chief to a duel, could he not at this moment feel that he had nothing to lose if he killed the white woman, the one he held responsible for his sister's being sent from Cloud Eagle's lodge?

Alicia pushed herself slowly to her feet. She expected her leg to throb from the pressure that she was putting on it. Instead the pain was all but gone.

"Let me go with you," she said, scurrying into her clothes. "Please?"

"No. That is not wise," Cloud Eagle said as he tied a headband around his head. "Women are taboo on the hunt. They bring bad luck."

"Do you truly believe that?" Alicia said, slipping her soft moccasins on.

Cloud Eagle ignored her skepticism about this custom. He secured his quiver of arrows on his back, and grabbed his powerful bow and a lance.

"Stay," he said, giving Alicia a firm stare. He gave Gray the same stare and order.

Obeying, Gray stretched out beside the fire.

Knowing that she had no choice but to obey when she saw that Cloud Eagle's mind was made up, Alicia nodded and sat down beside the glowing embers of the fire beside Gray.

When Cloud Eagle left without another word, Alicia began placing wood in the fire pit. Leaning over, she blew at the embers, causing sparks to fly. Soon the blaze took hold and flames began   caressing the wood in streamers of fire.

Grateful to at least have Gray there to relieve her loneliness, Alicia cuddled him closer and stared into the flames. She prayed that this day would go by in a flash and bring Cloud Eagle back to her.

How strange it was, she thought to herself, that she now depended so much on someone besides herself for her existence. Since her parents' deaths, she had become solely responsible for her well being.

''Charlie," she whispered to herself. "I do miss
you
, Charlie."

But she had not wanted to live her brother's sort of life for some time now. It had been boring. When she awakened every morning in Saint Louis, it had always been the same, with the same dull routine stretched out before her.

Out in the Arizona Territory, no one knew from moment to moment what was around the corner, or who. That was the excitement of it all.

But now she wanted the security of knowing that nothing would come between her and her beloved Apache chief.

She glanced over at the closed entrance flap. Anyone could come at any time to spoil her future with Cloud Eagle. There were no locks to stop them.

Cloud Eagle stepped outside and froze in his steps when he found Ten Bears standing in the shadows of the lodge next to Cloud Eagle's. He wondered how long Ten Bears had been standing there. Perhaps all night? That might have been why Cloud Eagle could not sleep. He might have sensed Ten Bears's presence all along.

Cloud Eagle gripped his lance tightly and   glanced over his shoulder at his own lodge. Alicia was alone, trustingly alone. If Ten Bears wanted to avenge his sister's expulsion from Cloud Eagle's lodge before the duel, he might act out his revenge in Cloud Eagle's absence by taking his anger out on Alicia.

This thought sent Cloud Eagle back inside his tepee. He laid his bow and his lance down. He went to Alicia and took her gently by the wrist. "Come," he said in a low growl. "You will come with me on the hunt after all."

Stunned by Cloud Eagle's change of mind, Alicia was at a loss for words. She stumbled to her feet. "Why do you want me to come now, when only moments ago you would not allow it?" she asked, her eyes searching his. "Do you no longer see my presence on the hunt as taboo?"

"My feeling about that has not changed, but there is more danger of bringing bad luck into my life in leaving you here than taking you with me," Cloud Eagle said. He nodded toward her moccasins. "Take off your moccasins."

Alicia was becoming more confused by the minute. "If I am going with you, why would I remove my moccasins?" she asked, looking blankly up at him. "Why would you want me to go in my bare feet?"

She watched him go to a small chest. She slipped her moccasins off as he bent over the chest and raised the lid.

"You will not go in your bare feet," Cloud Eagle said, taking a pair of moccasins from the chest. "You will wear my mother's moccasins. They are special."

When Cloud Eagle took the moccasins to Alicia, she looked at them, noting how different they   were from those that she had been wearing.

She slipped one on. It reached halfway up her thigh and had tough soles that were curved up at the toe, which ended in a sort of button the size of a dollar coin. The tops pushed down below the knees into a fold.

"These high moccasins will protect your feet and legs from venomous reptiles and thorny desert plants," Cloud Eagle explained. "We will do much walking today. You will need this protection."

Alicia placed the other moccasin on her foot. They were not as comfortable as those that she had been wearing since her arrival at the Apache stronghold, but they were still much more comfortable than the boots she had normally worn before.

"Come," Cloud Eagle said, again picking up his bow and lance.

With Gray dutifully following behind them, Alicia followed Cloud Eagle outside. She immediately saw why he had changed his mind about her accompanying him on the hunt. Ten Bears was lurking in the shadows, leering at her.

Chills rode Alicia's spine. Never had she seen such hate in a man's eyes. She knew that if Cloud Eagle lost the duel, her days were numbered.

She rushed away beside Cloud Eagle toward the corral. As he saddled his horse and secured his lance and bow at one side, Alicia saddled her own mount with the pelt from the leopard she had killed.

He went back to Alicia. "Your leg," he said, placing his arms at her waist to draw her against him. "Does it allow you to ride? It will be for only a short distance. Then we will walk as we   hunt. Does your leg allow such varied activity this morning?"

"it feels much better," she murmured, smiling up at him. "But still not well enough to ride clear to Fort Thomas or a stage station. Thank you for sending a warrior to deliver the mail sack. It's so important to me that it is finally in the right hands."

"Had you been well enough to make the delivery yourself, would you have delivered the mail sack there, then returned to Cloud Eagle?"

"Need you ask? Don't you truly know?"

"In my heart, yes."

"And you are right. Your heart and mine are now as one, Cloud Eagle."

He gave her a soft kiss, then lifted her into her saddle.

"Darling, your arm," Alicia said, gazing at the healed scratches left from the panther's attack. "It is a miracle how it healed so quickly."

"That is because shortly after the attack we made love and then entered the water that heals."

"Making love has healing powers?" Alicia teased back.

"When it is with you, yes."

Filled with love and adoration, Alicia watched him mount his roan. Each of his movements was filled with strength and exactness. She felt honored to be loved by such a man. In his presence, she felt as though she should be somebody else. It was just too unreal that such a man as he should care for her this much.

Before she met him, she had begun to think that there was no special man in the Arizona Territory with whom she could share anything.   much less a future. Then Cloud Eagle came alonga
very
special man. Things had not been the same since.

They rode off at a soft lope into the lightening sky of morning, Gray bouncing along behind them.

It felt good to Alicia to be riding a horse again, in control of the reins herself. Her leg ached, but not so badly that she was disturbed by it. It was too wonderful to be alone with Cloud Eagle and to be a part of his hunting adventure.

She held her chin high, even ignoring the hunger pangs that were gnawing at her. Hunger seemed of no importance while riding free as the wind beside her beloved Apache chief.

She inhaled the sweet fragrance of the morning air.

She marveled at the sky and how beautifully it was streaked with shades of crimson, pink, and turquoise. It was enchanting.

Alicia's attention was drawn elsewhere when a cliff hawk sailed smoothly down from the sky and soared between canyon walls to search out snakes and rodents.

They rode a while longer, then dismounted and led the horses instead of riding them.

Alicia walked proudly beside Cloud Eagle as they made their way in and out of thickets. Their movements caused small, vulnerable animals to run for cover, Gray sometimes taking off after them, yelping.

There was hardly any conversation between Cloud Eagle and Alicia except that he had told her that they were hunting for deer, gophers, andto her horrorlizards! He had explained that the Apache did not eat bear meat, turkey,   or fish, though they hunted turkey, hawks, and eagles for their feathers and mink, beaver, and muskrat for their pelts.

Carrying his lance, with his bow slung over his shoulder, Cloud Eagle held out an arm to stop Alicia. She stopped immediately and stood stone-still beside him.

Her eyes followed Cloud Eagle's. They had come upon a circle of feeding deer. They were well hidden behind bushes, but yet so close that she could see all the details of their facesthe long, thick eyelashes; the shiny, black noses; their beautiful dark eyes.