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Spotted Eagle was suddenly there on his magnificent stallion, grabbing the reins from Kirk, steadying the horses. "Get inside out of the rain!" he shouted at Jolena.
The rain had blown her hair and plastered it against her wet face. She gathered it in her fingers and parted it, yet the rain was coming down in such blinding sheets that she still could not see Spotted Eagle clearly.
She nodded and turned to untie the leather thongs that held the front canvas of the wagon in place, but stopped and stared up at the sky as the storm abruptly stopped. It was as though someone had waved a magic wand in the air, ordering the sky to clear.
Jolena turned back around, and as she combed her fingers through her drenched hair, she gazed slowly about her. As the sun broke through, the colors of everything seemed brighter, the air was fresher, and the birds sang cheerfully.
The leaves of the trees were coated with a film of water, and as the air grew slowly warmer, white vapor formed in the tree tops, drifting idly upward to the clouds. The forest looked as if a thousand campfires were smoldering below the trees.
Jolena started to step down from the wagon, then stopped and screamed when her gaze fell upon something that had been uncovered at the side of the path by the hard, pelting rain.
Spotted Eagle slid quickly from his saddle and rushed to see what was causing Jolena's alarm. He stopped and his jaw tightened as he gazed down into a grave, from which the dirt had been washed away slowly through the years.
His eyes wide with curiosity, Kirk leaned around Jolena trying to see, angry to find that his view was being blocked by Spotted Eagle. "What was it, sis?" he asked, gazing over at her. "I'm not sure," Jolena said, a shiver racing up and down her spine as she returned his studious stare. "It… it looked like a baby."
"Baby?" Kirk gasped, paling.
Kirk continued sitting there as Jolena stepped down from the wagon and went to Spotted Eagle's side. She covered her mouth with a hand as she stared down at the tiny remains of the body in the grave. It was lying curled up as if it were still in the womb. Its blanket, which seemed to have been made of turkey feathers, was rotted.
Spotted Eagle knelt down upon one knee and began shoveling mud back onto the tiny thing. "It is Pueblo," he said solemnly. "Turkeys were in many ways sacred to them. To bury a child wrapped in turkey feathers was to give it wings to the land of the hereafter."
Seeing the buried infant catapulted Spotted Eagle back into time to the day when he heard about Sweet Dove's death and the fate of her newly born child. He was grateful for the white people who had found the child and cared for her as though she were their own. But for them, that child might have seen the same end as this child lying in this shallow grave.
Perhaps she would still have been alive when her father found the body of his wife, yet the chances were the child would have died by then. Without nourishment, and lying exposed beneath the beating rays of the sun to any four-legged animal that might pass by, the child's chances of surviving would have been slim. "How lonely the baby looked," Jolena murmured, having been saddened deeply by the sight of the infant. "It must have broken the mother's heart to have to bury her child so alone. I could not bear it if a child of mine died."
"This child has been dead for many years," Spotted Eagle said, shoveling the last pile of mud onto the grave. "Her mother is surely now dead, also. Perhaps her grave is also nearby. We shall never know."
Wiping his dirty hands on the thick leaves of bushes, he turned to Jolena, not caring that Kirk was near enough to hear him.
"We will have many healthy children," he assured her, ignoring Kirk's loud gasp and not seeing Two Ridge's glower as he sat on his horse just behind the wagon. "And ther
e will be no graves necessary for our children. Nor for their mother. I shall stay at your side while you are birthing. Never would I send you away from our village to give birth to your child alone."
Jolena's eyes widened with horror. "Are you saying that some Indian women leave their villages to… to have their children?" she asked, shocked at the thought. "Why would their husbands allow it?"
"It is not for me to say the wrongs or rights of another man's customs," Spotted Eagle said, rising to his full height and placing a gentle hand on Jolena's cheek. "But for us, when the time comes, we want only what is safe for you and the child. Never will I allow anything to harm you." Aware that more than one set of eyes were on her and Spotted Eagle, Jolena could feel her cheeks becoming hot with a blush. She flatly ignored Two Ridges' steady gaze, but she gave Kirk a sideways glance. Her eyes wavered when she saw her brother's irritation with Spotted Eagle for having spoken so openly about children.
Jolena quickly changed the subject. "I'm cold," she said, hugging herself with her arms. "I'd best change into dry clothes." She looked Spotted Eagle up and down. His buckskin clothes were so wet they looked as though they might be his second skin, embarrassing her when she lowered her gaze to that part of his anatomy where he was so very well equipped.
Smiling awkwardly, she shifted her gaze quickly back up again, yet discovering that she had not lifted her gaze upward fast enough. There was a quiet amusement in the depths of Spotted Eagle's eyes.
Before she had the chance to turn around and climb into the wagon, she felt Spotted Eagle's eyes on her, also rediscovering her body with their heat as they roved over her, where her wet skirt and blouse clung sensually to her curves and the generous mounds of her breasts. It was as though everywhere he touched with his eyes he lit small flames, causing a gentle passion to rise within her.
Knowing the dangers in this, since they were the center of attention now that everyone had returned to their wagons and were waiting for Spotted Eagle's command to continue on with the journey, Jolena turned her back quickly to Spotted Eagle and began to climb aboard the wagon.
But her breath seemed to lock in her throat when Spotted Eagle's hands were suddenly there at her waist, helping her.
She wanted to cry out to him that this was not the time for him to touch her anywhere!
She felt as though she was ready to melt right on the spot, and she feared that her feelings were too vivid in her eyes and in the way she was so rapidly breathing.
One more quick look over at Kirk told Jolena that he was perhaps at the end of the limit of what he would allow between her and the handsome warrior. She was afraid that they soon would come to blows, and that was the last thing she wantedtrouble between the man she had grown up with and the man that she loved, with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life!
Chapter Fifteen
The afternoon was ending. Dull and red, the sun was lowering in the sky. The campfire blazed low, and the aroma of coffee wafted through the air. The expedition had stopped earlier than usual to make camp for the night because everyone needed to dry out their belongings that had gotten wet during the torrential rains and winds of the storm.
Jolena had crept away from the others, seeking privacy enough to take a bath in the river, although she feared being alone enough to have sneaked Kirk's pistol out of his holster after Kirk had removed it while he was changing into something drier and more comfortable for the long hours of night that lay ahead of them. She didn't expect that he would miss the pistol until tomorrow, when he dressed for travel again. And she didn't expect him to miss her. She had set up her tent and closed its flap, making a pretense of already having retired for the night.
