Savage Spirit (7 page)

"Do not think such a thing," Spring Dawn scolded. "Though barren, we are bound to him with vows of marriage."   "The bond can easily be broken if he chooses," Lost Wind said. She gasped with horror when Cloud Eagle reined in his horse close to the lodge and very delicately and devotedly lifted the white woman from his saddle. Lost Wind chewed her lower lip in frustration as Cloud Eagle carried the white woman toward the tepee.

"Do you not see how he treats her?" Spring Dawn whispered to Lost Wind. "It is as though she is everything to him. Surely he has brought her to our village to be his third wife."

"What if he replaces us with her?" Lost Wind whined pitifully. "I do not want to lose him. I so admire his large and powerful frame. His daring exploits, his wise teachings in council, have surrounded him with a large and influential band. This has given him prestige and sway among the various branches of our people and carries his influence far and wide. This has given you and me much prestige by being married to him. We do not want to lose all of this to this white woman!"

"Never," Spring Dawn hissed. She shied away from Cloud Eagle as he brushed past her and Lost Wind. Her eyes only momentarily met and held the white woman's. Her insides recoiled when she noticed how the venom in Spring Dawn and Lost Wind's eyes caused the white woman to cling more tightly around Cloud Eagle's neck, as though she expected him to protect her.

Spring Dawn grabbed Lost Wind's hand, and together they entered the tepee and stood in the shadows, watching.

Cloud Eagle placed Alicia on a pallet of furs beside a slow-burning fire. She continued to be aware of the two sets of eyes on her. She was   overwhelmed with jealousy to know that these two women were Cloud Eagle's wives and that they had shared more with him than she could even imagine.

Alicia could tell by their behavior and by the way they were staring at her, eyeing her like panthers from the shadows, that they were extremely jealous of her. She suddenly felt trapped and tried to ignore them as Cloud Eagle worked at making things more comfortable for her.

Cloud Eagle turned to his wives. "Bring this woman food," he flatly ordered.

Disgruntled, Lost Wind left the lodge. She returned a short time later with a platter of mesquite beans and cakes made of
pitahaya
, and a mug of cool water to drink.

Cloud Eagle sat down beside Alicia to wait for her to finish eating and drinking. Then he would see that she got a proper rest. Much lay ahead of her that would require all her strength.

Alicia would have rather refused the food, but she was too weak from hunger to be so stubborn. All the while she ate, she watched the two women for any sudden movements they might make. They both had knives in sheaths at their waists. One lunge at her with the knife, so quickly that Cloud Eagle could not stop them, and Alicia could be dead.

She was relieved when they made no moves toward her. She still watched them until her platter was empty and she had drunk every last drop of the cool, refreshing water.

When Cloud Eagle saw that Alicia's platter was empty, he took it and handed it over his shoulder to Lost Wind. "The ride has been long," he said softly to Alicia. He placed his hands at   her shoulders and eased her down onto the furs. "Sleep. Rest."

Worn out and aching from the long journey, and now comfortably full from the food, Alicia nodded and snuggled into the furs. She closed her eyes in an effort to forget the staring, jealous women.

But nothing she did made her forget that she was being closely scrutinized.

Lost Wind scooted closer to Spring Dawn. "I would not object to a woman of our own coloring being brought into this lodge for such tender care from our husband," she whispered. "But not this white woman. Cloud Eagle is surely going to take her as his wife."

When Cloud Eagle lay down beside Alicia, and Alicia allowed it, Spring Dawn and Lost Wind emitted low gasps and fled into the dark shadows of the night outside the lodge.

"My heart is hurt," Lost Wind said, sobbing. "It has been a long time since Cloud Eagle has slept with us. And now he sleeps with a white woman? I am humiliated. I am filled with rage."

Spring Dawn nodded as tears sprang from her eyes. "If Cloud Eagle's mother and father were alive, they would stop his nonsensical ways," she murmured. "But alas, they were killed in wars past with renegade Comanche. Cloud Eagle is not only our chief now, he obeys no rule but his own."

In the lodge, Cloud Eagle could not rest. He rose and sat by the fire. His eyes never left Alicia. She was sleeping peacefully, her breathing low and even and sweet.

Grumbling to himself, Cloud Eagle left the tepee and ran to the river. Without removing   his clothes, he dove in headfirst, hoping to cool his thoughts and his hungers.

Alicia trembled as she dreamed of being held within Cloud Eagle's arms, his lips pressed hard against hers. His hands were awakening her to new desires as they caressed her breasts.

She awakened with a start, her pulse racing. She leaned up on one elbow and realized that she had only been dreaming, yet she wished that the dream were real.

She jumped with a start when Spring Dawn and Lost Wind entered the tepee and stared at her, then left again.

She feared them now, more than she could have ever feared Cloud Eagle in the beginning when they had first met. She had conquered her fear of him. Now she had the jealousy and fear of his wives to overcome.  

The next morning when Alicia awakened, she remembered where she was the instant she saw the peaked roof of the tepee, where showers of morning light were spraying through the smoke hole.

She lowered her eyes, then tightened inside when she found Cloud Eagle sitting on the far side of the lodge, watching her. Had he sat there all night? The last thing that she recalled from the previous evening was allowing him to lie down beside her because she had been too tired to care where he slept.

She also recalled him leaving her side just as quickly, to sit away from her. As she had drifted to sleep, she had felt his eyes on her.

Just as they were now.

Alicia smiled awkwardly at him, then swept her eyes over him. She realized now that he had not watched her the long night, after all. He   had changed his clothes. Today he wore beaded leggings, a red undershirt with a deerskin cover shirt, and a headband of red cotton.

It was less unnerving for her to see him more fully clothed. Wearing only the breechclout, with his muscled body so blatantly revealed to her, it had been hard not to remember how he had looked with nothing at all on.

When Cloud Eagle did not return the smile, Alicia felt seized with apprehension and fear all over again. He seemed lost in thought. Was he trying to decide what he was going to do with her now that he had brought her to his village? Had his wives complained to him about the presence of a white woman in their lodge?

She glanced around the tepee. His wives were not there. Had he sent them away? Or had they left on their own? Would they return soon and cause her more awkwardness?

The worries came to her, tumbling around in her brain like sagebrush blowing absently along in the sand.

She was glad when Gray came to her and snuggled next to her as she awaited Cloud Eagle's next moves. This was a new day. Oh, Lord, she despaired. What was it going to bring?

She eased her hand to her sore leg and felt around the festered area of the wound. She flinched. It still pained her.

Yet she was aware that it was much better. If she felt a worse threat than she already faced, she might even be able to get to her horse and escape.

She glanced toward the closed flaps at the entranceway, wondering where her horse was.

And her pistol? Where was
it?
  She stroked Gray's fur and frowned at Cloud Eagle, confused by his continued silence. Never, since she had met him, had he been this distant, this aloof. She feared the cause.

Cloud Eagle was aware of confusing Alicia by his silence. But he was not ready to speak to her just yet this morning. His troubled thoughts had kept him from sleeping all night. Today he had to make decisions and be on about his usual business.

Yet his thoughts were not clear and manageable as they were before he had met the white woman. He was nettled with many complications nowtwo wives, and yet no children, and a white woman he desired to have as a wife.

These were seeds for deeper pondering, for where man's cunning ended, woman's cunning began. A man who wished to master a woman must first master himself!

He was in no mood at this time for clear thinking and making logical decisions. There was no solid ground for his thoughts to stand upon. The only thing that mattered now was that the white woman was in his dwelling where the scent of dried grass blended with the smell of her.

He smiled to himself, thinking that, yes, she was there, and she would not soon be going anywhere.

Neither her wound nor he would allow it.

Cloud Eagle went to the fire and shoved more wood into the flames.

Alicia silently watched him, then tried her luck at breaking the silence between them.

''Your wives," she said, moving into a sitting position. "Where are they?"

She savored the warmth of the fire, which was   chasing the moist chill from the air this early morning.

Cloud Eagle turned his eyes to her. "Do not concern yourself about my wives," he said in an indifferent tone. "They are useless, troublesome women."

Cloud Eagle found it easy to condemn his wives for his lodge being without the laughter of children, when deep inside his heart there was the nagging fear that
he
was the cause.

Two wives? Both barren? No. That did not seem logical.

But until proven otherwise, he would cast the blame on them to save face for himself. It would be deplorable to think that a powerful Apache chief was not virile enough to send fertile seeds into the wombs of his wives.

No. He would not allow himself to believe that, or else all was lost to him. He would lose face among his people. He would be a child again in their eyes, instead of a man!

He turned back to his task of placing more wood on the fire. Alicia watched him, stunned by his attitude about his wives, wary of it. She also recalled how they had treated her so coldly, their every movement, their every angry stare, filled with jealousy.

Alicia studied Cloud Eagle's handsome features, understanding why his wives saw her as a threat. No woman would want to gain, then lose, the love of this powerfully handsome Apache chief. Perhaps not even herself.

When he suddenly left and she was alone with her thoughts and fears of what might become of her today, she felt Cloud Eagle's absence like a heavy weight around her shoulders. She tried to   rise, but the pain was still too severe to put her full weight on the leg.

Unhappily, she watched the entrance flap, waiting for it to rise again. She wondered who would enter nextCloud Eagle, his wives, or those she had not yet become acquainted with?

She fought back the hungry ache at the pit of her stomach. Food should be her last concern. Survival was her prime concern. Although Cloud Eagle had treated her as though she were something special, his attitude today had changed.

He was no longer as friendly. He did not seem as kind. Perhaps he had thought over her presence more carefully and realized that she did not belong in his stronghold.

How he was going to be rid of her was anyone's guess.

Just as Alicia had decided to lie back down, she jerked herself to a sitting position again when Cloud Eagle came back into the tepee. Her eyes widened when he brought her a basin of water, in which floated a bar of soap and a cloth with which to bathe herself.

She then gazed at the dress that was draped over one of his arms, and the moccasins that were peeking out from beneath the dress, folded into the skirt.

"Bathe and dress," he said, handing the dress and moccasins to her after he placed the basin of water on the floor beside her. "No longer will you look like an
ish-kay-nay
. You will be a woman."

He smiled slowly down at her. "But I would still rather address you with an Indian name than a white.
Ish-kay-nay
has worked thus far. So shall it remain, evermore. It will remind us both of how   you were before you became transformed into a true woman."

Alicia knew that arguing with him about anything, especially a foolish Indian name, was a waste of time.

She hesitated, then took the clothes. She would be glad to get out of her stinking, blood-ravaged breeches and sweaty shirt. Even the moccasins looked inviting. It was a good excuse to throw the damnable boots into the fire.

"Call me what you must," she said sourly. "I won't be here long enough for it to matter."

"No thank-you again for my gift of clothes that I give you?" Cloud Eagle said, then shrugged and rose to leave. As he walked away, he spoke to her over his shoulder. "You will bathe in privacy. I meet in council with my warriors. My wives are busy with morning chores in the garden."

Alicia stared at him. She so badly wanted to thank him for being so generous with her after she had doubted him.

But the words just would not come. He still had not proven to her that he was not involved in the ambush. Until she knew absolutely that he was not, she would not let her guard down.

Then she recalled and blushed over those times when she had allowed herself to forget that he was possibly her enemy.

When he had kissed her.

Oh, Lord, it had been so hard to think that he could shoot her, then be so sweet to her.

She pursed her lips as he left the tepee, thinking that perhaps guilt was his reason for treating her so grandlyguilt for having taken advantage of a woman, when he thought he had ambushed and shot a man!   "A noble warrior and chief," she whispered sarcastically to herself as she plucked the soap from the water. "Hah. Scoundrel is more like it."

She placed the soap to her nose and sniffed. Lilacs. It smelled like lilacs. She would never have thought that Indians would own bars of soap.

Unless they had been taken forcefully from innocent travelers.