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"This is damn foolish," Kirk argued, yet he knew that he had no choice but to join her or look the fool again in his sister's eyes.
He reached beneath the seat and grabbed the bottle that already had a piece of cotton soaked with alcohol in it. Grumbling, he left the wagon.
When Jolena came to him, he began following her, catching glimpses over his shoulder of the other lepidopterists busy swinging their nets, catching everything but the two that Jolena was so determined to snare.
"Up there!" Jolena shouted, pointing up the steep side of the bluff as it loomed overhead. "I've got to climb up there and get it!"
Spotted Eagle had been watching everything with caution, knowing that if he should show too much concern for her, Kirk could cause much trouble for them.
To save Jolena undue embarrassment, Spotted Eagle had stood by, silent until now. But when he heard Jolena say that she was going to climb the side of the cliff, that was all the fuel he needed to go after her.
"Care for my horse," he said, giving his reins over to Two Ridges.
Two Ridges had been watching Jolena with concern also and did not like the idea that Spotted Eagle was going to once again get the glory for saving her from what might be a close brush with death. If she attempted climbing the side of the cliff and lost her balance, she might not just fall to the narrow path. She might miss it and plummet to her death below, where rocks jutted out in cone-shaped peaks, waiting to pierce her body like sharpened lances.
Spotted Eagle went to Jolena and grabbed her by one wrist, stopping her as she walked determinedly away from Kirk. "I cannot allow you to do that," he said, ignoring the looks and frowns of everyone who now stood by watching. "It is too dangerous."
Jolena gazed up at him, her lips parted with surprise that he would come to her in such a way, knowing how it must look to everyone else.
Yet he was their guide, looking out for their interest. She hoped that everyone would see that as the reason he had come to her with the commands of a lover!
Frustrated and angry, Kirk frowned at Spotted Eagle, then looked slowly over at Jolena. There was clearly something between his sister and this Blackfoot guide, and it tore at his heart. This drove him into doing something which under other conditions he would never have attempted.
He set his jar aside and went to Jolena, grabbing her net away from her.
"I'll get both butterflies for you," he said, his voice tight.
Jolena reached a hand out to Kirk in an effort to stop him, but Spotted Eagle would not allow her to.
As the nymphalid fluttered higher and higher along the sides of the steep slope of rock, Jolena held her breath, her heart pounding as fear suddenly gripped her. The damnable butterfly was behaving in a teasing fashion again, but this time it was Kirk who was the recipient of its sultry charm.
Perhaps there was something to the myth that the butterfly caused bad luck. The thought sent icy shivers up and down Jolena's flesh.
"Kirk, don't!" she cried, but it was already too late. Kirk was fitting his feet in tiny holes along the side of the rock wall. As one hand searched for something solid to grab, the other firmly gripped the handle of the net.
Scarcely breathing, Jolena watched as Kirk climbed higher, his eyes watching the nymphalid fluttering closer and closer to his face. "The damn thing!" he shouted, turning to give Jolena a look of frustration. "How can I catch it if it continues trying to land on my nose!"
Just as he made eye contact with Jolena, the butterfly began flapping its wings against Kirk's face, over and over again. Jolena's heart sank as she watched Kirk momentarily forget that he was holding on to the sheet of rock to keep himself from falling. Instinct led him to slap at the butterfly, and when he did, his body fell backward away from the wall, plummeting quickly toward the rock path below.
"Oh, Lord," Jolena whispered, her eyes wide and terrified as she watched Kirk land clumsily on the rock, his head making a strange thud as it hit.
Wrenching her wrist out of Spotted Eagle's firm grip, she ran to Kirk and fell to her knees beside him. She covered her mouth with her hands as she watched blood trickle from the corner of her brother's mouth, concerned over how quietly he layhad he only been rendered unconscious by the fall? Would he wake soon?
Tears rushed down Jolena's cheeks, and she was filled with guilt for having neglected Kirk's attentions of late and actually keeping her distance from him when they had made camp so he would not preach to her against the Indians.
"Oh, Kirk," Jolena sobbed. She started to reach out to cradle his head on her lap, but stopped when Spotted Eagle knelt down beside her, a canteen in his hand.
Wide- eyed, Jolena watched as Spotted Eagle emptied the water from the canteen onto Kirk's face, then gasped with happiness as Kirk's eyes began to flutter open, his hand re
aching for the throbbing knot that was forming on the back of his head.
"What happened?" Kirk asked, gazing questioningly up into Jolena's eyes, then past her at Spotted Eagle, who was screwing the top back onto his canteen.
Jolena did not take the time to answer him. She leaned down and gave him a big hug. "Thank God you're all right," she said, sobbing as she cradled his head close to her bosom. "That damn butterfly. I never want to see it again, much less try and catch it. Kirk, I'm sure it meant for you to die!"
Kirk eased from her comforting arms and moved to a sitting position. "Hogwash," he said, yet his insides were cold with the memory of the butterfly attacking him, as though purposely. "Butterflies have no sense of logic. Something frightened it into thrashing itself against me. That's all."
Jolena placed a gentle hand to his elbow and helped him up from the ground. "Are you truly all right?" she murmured. "You had quite a fall."
