T'on Ma (4 page)

"Kiss," he said softly as he touched the curls that lay against her cheek. Looking up at him, she took his hand and kissed his palm, overwhelmed by what she felt. He leaned down and kissed her once more, then grinned and jumped back on his horse, hurrying home.

Lana stood there for a few moments, watching him ride away while she composed herself. Then, sighing once, she turned toward the house.

"Ma, I'm here," Lana announced as she opened the door.

"Lord be praised!" May exclaimed as she jumped up from her chair.

"Girl, we thought you were dead! Your brothers and I went looking for you until it got too dark." Her father walked over and hugged her. Even her youngest brother, Jake, hugged her. Lana sat at the table and recounted the day.

When she got to the part about being rescued by Two Hawks, her father stopped her. "Who's Centas Yi?"

"He's the one that grabbed my face the first time they came to trade. He calls me T'on Ma, which means Water Woman. And his name in English means Two Hawks."

"You didn't leave him outside, did you?" Joshua looked toward the door.

"No, Pa. He wouldn't stay." Her mother inspected her head and began to dab it with iodine. "And, Pa, I'm sorry about the rifle. I tried to save it. I really did!"

"That's all right, Lana," he reassured her, though losing the gun was costly.

"I can show you where it is and maybe you can get another stock for it later," she offered.

"Maybe we'll do that," he agreed. "But for now, I'm just grateful you're alive."

Two Hawks made it back to his village a few hours after dark. Turning his horse loose with the herd, he trotted toward his mother's tipi, knowing his family would be worried about him. His mother was sitting outside by the supper fire when he approached.

"I'm here."

"Where have you been?" His mother, Gray Dove, looked up from her cooking, relief clear in her eyes.

"I was caught in the prairie fire."

"We saw the smoke. Are you all right?" she asked as she handed him a bowl of venison stew.

"Yes. I'm fine. The fire didn't reach here, I see."

"No."

Hearing his son's voice, Many Deer stepped outside and sat beside him. He watched Two Hawks eat for a minute and then commented, "The fire was some time ago, son."

Two Hawks nodded as he swallowed. "I had to rescue Water Woman from the fire. I saw her running, but she fell and was knocked out, so I dragged her to the river." He took another bite of food before he continued. "Since she was hurt, I took her home. Then I came back."

"Did you speak to her people?"

"No. I didn't go into their house. I didn't see anyone."

"So there's no trouble with them?" Many Deer wanted to be clear on this point.

"No. No trouble at all. Water Woman seemed very grateful for my help."

Corn Flower walked by their fire for the fifth time that evening, worried about Two Hawks, wanting to know if he was home yet. Seeing him, she smiled. He nodded once briefly at her, and then resumed eating.

His lack of interest bothered her. Usually, he would have done or said something to tease her. But not this time. She might as well have been one of the camp dogs for all of the attention he paid her. Turning on her heel, she tossed her head and flounced away. Two Hawks barely noticed, but his mother watched the whole thing with great interest.

"She likes you, you know," Gray Dove teased her son.

"She likes Iron Crow," he retorted as he handed his empty bowl back to her.

"That's not what her mother tells me." Expecting to get an eager response to that, Gray Dove was surprised when Two Hawks simply shrugged his shoulders and announced that he was turning in for the night.

When he had gone, she turned to her husband, looking worried. "That's not right," she said. "He's been pining for Corn Flower for a long time. Why would he suddenly lose interest?"

Many Deer shook his head. He wished he had no idea, but a suggestion of a reason nagged the back of his mind. It was so preposterous, though, that he dismissed it before it ever became a full thought.

As he lay on his buffalo robes, Two Hawks looked up through the smokehole, where the moon had gotten snagged on top of the lodge poles. He put his hands behind his head and let his thoughts drift back to the fire, back to the river. Closing his eyes, he could feel T'on Ma's hands around his waist, holding on for dear life as she rode behind him.

He smiled at that, but the smile faded as he recalled her - what had she called it? Oh, yes, her kiss. And then his kiss. And then
their
kiss. He rolled on his side, trying to shake the memory of her body pressed against his, of how she felt in his arms. But it didn't work. Sleep eluded him until the dark, early morning hours.

The next day, a small group of young men went hunting, Two Hawks and Laughing Turtle among them. The hours went by with some success. They killed several rabbits and one stag. On their way back home, Laughing Turtle rode beside Two Hawks so they could talk.

"My sister is mad at you," Laughing Turtle grinned, his eyes twinkling.

"Why?" Two Hawks asked.

"Because you didn't talk to her last night."

"If I had, she wouldn't have said anything, anyway. She never does."

"I know. But this time, you didn't even try. And now she's mad." He laughed.

"Why is that so funny?" Two Hawks asked.

"Because she is so sure you'd do anything to get her attention, it's funny to see her wrong. She thinks she knows everything." Laughing Turtle sounded like a typical younger brother.

"Well, I guess she doesn't know everything, then," Two Hawks said quietly.

Something in his tone made Laughing Turtle look over at him. "You still like her, don't you?"

Two Hawks shrugged his shoulders in a noncommittal fashion, refusing to discuss it any further. They rode the rest of the way home in silence.

That evening, after a delicious rabbit supper, Two Hawks sat beside his mother's tipi to enjoy the night air when Corn Flower and Iron Crow walked by. When she saw Two Hawks, Corn Flower deliberately took Iron Crow by the hand and looked adoringly up at him, ignoring Two Hawks as they passed. Two Hawks shook his head at the irony. Now that he wasn't sure that he wanted her, she was doing all she could to make sure he did.

Three days later, the sun leisurely rose in the east, sending streaks of pink and orange through purple and midnight blues in the western sky. With a bucket in each hand to get the day's water, Lana walked down the slope toward the river. She saw Two Hawks on his horse and, when he saw her, he slid down and walked over to her.

"Good morning, T'on Ma,"
he smiled.

"Centas Yi!" Lana looked over her shoulder, but no one could see them from the house. "What are you doing here?"

He took the buckets from her and set them on the ground. Then he pulled her close. "Kiss."

"Uh - uh," Lana didn't know what to do.

"Kiss?" he asked sweetly.

She paused for a moment, looking into his handsome brown eyes, and then nodded. "Kiss."

Holding her tight, he kissed her just like he had imagined at least a thousand times since the last time he saw her. Her soft hands touching him just so. The sweetness of her lips tasting just like that. Her breasts pressing against him.

"LANA!
Get in the house this instant!" Joshua's voice boomed angrily down at the young couple.

Lana whipped around, jumping out of Two Hawks' arms. "Oh, Pa!"

"Git!" Joshua strode furiously down the slope, pointing back at the house.
"Now!
"

Lana gathered up her skirts and ran back to the house as fast as she could, water buckets forgotten.

Joshua stood in front of Two Hawks. "You need to get home, boy!" he ordered, gesturing to Two Hawks' horse. Two Hawks didn't need to know English to understand 'mad father'. He raised his hand up once, palm out, nodded, and then jumped on his horse, splashing through the river on his way home.

Lana burst into the house, engulfed in tears, and flung herself into her astonished mother's arms.

"What happened?" May asked with great concern.

Before Lana could quit crying enough to speak, Joshua stormed inside. He jerked Lana around by her shoulders to face him. "I ought to whip you till you bleed!"

May looked in alarm at her husband. "What happened?" she asked again.

"I caught your daughter kissing that Kiowa boy down by the river."

"What?"
May whirled around to look at Lana. "Have you lost
all
good sense?"

"But, but Ma, it was just a kiss," Lana cried.

"That's not the point!" her father growled. "He's Kiowa. He'd just as soon rape you and leave you for dead!"

"That's not true!"
Lana wailed. "He's kind and gentle. He saved me from the fire, didn't he?"

Her lack of understanding of the Kiowa's ruthless reputation scared the life out of Joshua. They took captives and sold them into slavery in Mexico. Their legendary hatred for white settlers resulted in burnt homesteads, stolen horses, mutilated dead. He didn't know how to get her to see the danger. Grabbing her face in his left hand, he leaned in close.

"If I
ever
catch you with him again, I will
beat
you. And I'll
kill
him!"

Lana had never seen her father look that harsh, that hate-filled. It frightened her. For the first time in her life, she was afraid of her own father.

"All right, Pa," she said quietly. He slowly released his grip on her face, red marks remaining where his fingers had been.

"Go get the water," he told Nathan, who, along with his two brothers, had watched the drama with great concern. If their father had to kill a Kiowa, they would have a fight-to-the-death on their hands with the rest of the tribe. Lana better do what she was told, or she endangered all of their lives.

"That girl is going to be the death of me," Joshua complained to his wife when they had a moment alone in the barn. "I aged ten years this morning."

"Sweetheart, I know." May stepped into his embrace. "Me, too. But, like she said, it was just a kiss."

"Oh, honey. No." Joshua shook his head. "There's a kiss like this." He leaned down and gave his wife a quick, sweet kiss. "And then there's a kiss like the one I saw this morning." He leaned in again and kissed her with passion and heat and longing, his hands moving across her back, pressing her closer to him. May momentarily forgot what the object lesson was.

When he finally let her go, she looked up into his eyes and nodded. "I understand."

"May, I don't know what to do." He ran his hands through his hair, his eyes filled with worry. "Bringing the boys out here was one thing. I'm not afraid for them in the same way as I am for her. She's my only girl, and when I think of all that could go wrong, I almost want to pack up and leave."

"We knew all this before we came out here," May reminded him. She reached for his hand, patting it once. "You need to understand something, Joshua. Lana is growing up. If we lived near a town, she'd be getting married soon to some fine young man that you couldn't stand."

He chuckled at that.

"But out here," May continued, "there is no one for her. Absolutely no one. Except for this Kiowa boy."

"He's not really a boy, May. You've seen him. He's a grown man."

"I know. But it doesn't change the fact that he's all that she has. And I really don't think he'd hurt her. He's had too much opportunity before this, if he was going to."

"I hope you're right. God in heaven, I hope you're right." Joshua sighed his prayer and then turned to his chores.

Two Hawks rode slowly back into camp, trying to decide what he should do with the rest of his day. He didn't feel like hunting. Making arrows with his father held no interest. What he wanted lived back at the sod house. He tethered his horse outside his mother's tipi and went in to the empty lodge. His father entered a few minutes later and was surprised to see him sitting there, doing nothing.

"Are you ill?" Many Deer asked, looking closely at his son.

"No. I'm fine."

"Then why aren't you out hunting?"

"I don't feel like it," Two Hawks murmured.

"You'll feel like it this winter when there's nothing to eat," his father scolded.

"I know. I'll go in a moment." Two Hawks rested his elbows on his raised knees. Many Deer found the whetstone he had come in for and turned to leave. But something in his son's tone stopped him.

"What is it?" Many Deer sat across from him. "Something's on your mind."

Two Hawks sighed heavily, knowing that if he told what was really on his mind, it would only bring an argument. "Nothing."

"Son, whatever it is, tell me."

"You won't like it."

"Tell me anyway." Many Deer braced himself for whatever it might be.

"I went to the whites' house this morning."

"Why?" His father's face wrinkled in a question.

"Because I like Water Woman - a lot. And I wanted to see her again."

Many Deer closed his eyes, his jaws flexing. "Well, you were right. I
don't
like it. And what do you mean 'see her
again?'"

"Ever since she fed me blackberries..."

"Wait. When did she feed you blackberries?"

"Oh. That's right. I never told you about that. When I carried her basket home for her, I've liked her ever since then." Two Hawks deliberately made himself look straight into his father's eyes - as a man, not a boy, would do. "When I took her home from the prairie fire, I kissed her. And she kissed me back. Then, this morning, when I was kissing her, her father caught us."

"You are a
fool!"
Many Deer exploded as he jumped up. "I don't know who should shoot you, her father or me!" He paced around the lodge for a full minute, so angry that he didn't trust himself to speak or even to look at Two Hawks.