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An occasional herd of buffalo or antelope was sighted, and along the wooded river valleys and on the pine-clad slopes of the mountains, elk, deer, and wild sheep fed in great numbers.
The scorching breath of early summer stirred the tall, weaving stems of the buffalo grass. Jolena had been told that there were all kinds of roots and berries growing in abundance in this land of sky, sun, prairie, and mountainswild carrots, wild turnips, sweet-root, bitter-root, bull berries, cherries, and plums among them.
Thinking of this wilderness food made her gaze up at Spotted Eagle again, thinking that surely the women of his village were kept busy searching for these different foodstuffs.
She closed her eyes, momentarily envisioning herself among such women, dressed as they were in soft doeskins, with perhaps a touch of bloodroot on her cheeks to liven up her color for the man she loved, for the man she would take her basket of berries and roots home to. He would enjoy the fruits of her labor, then take her to his bed and pay her in the way husbands everywhere showed their gratitude to their wives.
Feeling the slowing of the covered wagon in the way the
seat swayed and shook beneath her, Jolena's eyes flew open. She looked questioningly over at Kirk as he drew a tight rein when Spotted Eagle came riding toward their wagon, which was the first in the expedition.
Spotted Eagle drew a tight rein beside the wagon on Kirk's side, and when he talked, it was to Kirk; yet his eyes were on Jolena all the while, sending a sensual thrill through her heart.
Jolena clasped her trembling fingers to the seat and smiled nervously back at Spotted Eagle, his nearness filling her insides with something strangely sweet and foreign to her. Each time their eyes met, she knew that he was speaking to her without words.
And she knew that he could tell by her response to his eyes that she was answering him in kind.
Soon they would be able to speak aloud to one another, and she wondered what he would say to her first, and how she might respond to him without revealing her heartfelt feelings for him.
''We will camp here for the night," Spotted Eagle was saying to Kirk. "There is water for drinking. There are many cottonwood trees. They give us shade for setting up camp. Also horses and mules like to eat the bark of these trees. It is good for them. The grass here is young and healthy also for the animals."
Kirk glanced from Jolena to Spotted Eagle, another warning shooting through him when he saw again how her sister and this guide were attracted to one another. He hoped that Jolena's attraction was only because of her heritage and her burning questions about it.
He hoped that the Indian warrior's questions were only because he could not understand why a woman with copper skin was called Kirk's sister, or why she mingled with the white people, as though one of them.
Hopefully, once Spotted Eagle's curiosity was abated, he would place his thoughts on other matters.
Kirk silently prayed to himself that this would be soon, for he feared these feelings that might grow between Jolena and Spotted Eagle.
"Whatever you say, Spotted Eagle," Kirk said, nodding. "If you think this is a safe place, then who's to argue about it?"
Kirk gazed around him at the seclusion of this valley in which they would be making their first camp away from civilization. He could not deny that part of him that was afraid. Yet he had to continue looking brave in Jolena's eyes, especially in front of Spotted Eagle.
Kirk did not want the Indian to take over as his sister's protector!
Everyone left their wagons and worked together gathering wood for a fire, and just as flames were leaping around heavy logs, the afternoon was fading into shifting shadows. A haze of heat settled over the valley as the sun set into a purple cradle of clouds on the horizon.
Spotted Eagle and Two Ridges made a silent kill with their bows and arrows, and soon meat was dripping its tantalizing juices into the flames of the campfire.
Billy, one of the wagoners, the most burly and outspoken of them all, with a thick sprouting of whiskers on his craggy face, lifted a coffee pot from the hot coals at the edge of the fire. After he poured himself a cup, he held the coffee pot toward Jolena, where she sat silently beside her brother, nibbling on a small portion of the roasted meat.
"Hey, pretty thing, are you hungerin' for somethin' to drink, or someone to cozy up with?" Billy asked, his pale blue eyes raking over Jolena. "If I covered you with my body, you'd sure as hell not need a blanket."
The other wagoners chuckled as they peered at Jolena, their eyes revealing that their thoughts were anything but decent.
"Well?" Billy persisted. "How's about it? Cat got your tongue? Or do you think you're too good for ol' Billy? Let me tell you, pretty thing, there's more fire in this here man than ten other men combined. I'll show you just what lovin' is all about."
Jolena's face grew hot with an angry blush, and her heart pounded with embarrassment. She gasped and grew cold inside when Kirk slammed his coffee cup down on the ground, splashing it empty, and rose to his full height over the wagoner.
"You've been hired to drive the wagons, not insult my sister," Kirk said, doubling his hands into tight fists at his sides. "You apologize or…"
Billy tossed the coffee pot and his cup to the ground and pushed himself up to his full height, towering over Kirk at six-feet and four-inches. He leaned his craggy face down into Kirk's clean-shaven face. "Do you want to say all of that again?" he dared. "I ain't one to apologize, especially to a squirt like you. I'd quickly make mincemeat outta you. Want to give it a try?"
"I ask for no fight, just for you to leave my sister alone," Kirk said, swallowing hard as he gazed up into eyes of fire, and onto shoulders twice the size of his. "Now let's just forget about all of this and resume our supper. We've many more days to have to be around one another. Let us make the best of it."
Billy would not let up. Leering, he leaned even closer to Kirk's face. "That's fine with me," he snarled. "I don't see what the fuss is about anyhow. She ain't no sister of yours. She's nothin' more than an Indian squaw dressed in white woman's clothes. Why, as I sees it, she ain't nothin' but a redskin savage."
Gasps wafted through the scientists who had been watching with bated breath.
