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Jolena was reminded of her hunger when several lovely Blackfoot maidens came into the tepee carrying an assortment of food on wood platters and in large kettles. She did not have to be asked twice to partake of the food and was soon stuffing her mouth with pemmican made of berries and dried back fat of buffalo, rabbit stew with delicious chunks of carrots and cabbage floating around in the rich liquid, and many other things that she did not take the time to ask the ingredients.
She did not even notice that her father was not eating, instead amusedly watching her. She seemed to have lost all of her delicate table manners as she continued stuffing her mouth with food until she suddenly realized that she could not eat another bite.
Jolena did not have the time to feel embarrassed over her ill manners. Something elseanother generous offering from more womenmade her breath catch in her throat.
"Those are for you," Brown Elk said, rising. He walked toward the entrance flap. "I will leave as you dress yourself as a Blackfoot woman should be dressed."
"Thank you for everything," Jolena said, smiling up at her father as he gave her a glance over his shoulder, then stepped outside, leaving her alone with the women.
"I shall bathe and dress you, and Moon Flow
er will braid your hair," a woman named Crying Wind said as she brought a large basin of steaming water into the tepee.
Feeling pampered and enjoying it, Jolena shed her clothes and allowed the women to do as they pleased with her. First her hair was washed in water perfumed with what smelled like pine needles. Then, as she was being washed with a soft cloth, she gazed down at the clothes that she would soon be wearing. She silently admired the smock made from tanned buffalo skins, the milk teeth of an elk fastened in a row around the neck of the dress. There was also a pair of leggings that would reach to her knees, also made of tanned skins.
The black moccasins that sat beside the dress and leggings were made from tanned buffalo skin with parfleche soles which greatly increased their durability. They were ornamented over the toes with a three-pronged figure worked in porcupine quills and beads, the three prongs representing the three divisions, or tribes, of the Blackfoot nation.
After Jolena was dressed and her hair was braided, she gazed down at herself, again finding it strange how she felt as though she had lived this all before!
One by one, the Blackfoot women filed out of the tepee. Brown Elk soon entered. When he gazed over at Jolena, tears flooded his eyes, for he felt suddenly that he was once again the young man who had taken Sweet Dove as his bride.
''Father?" Jolena whispered, feeling no awkwardness in calling him that. It seemed so very natural and most definitely right! "Do you approve? Do I now look Blackfoot?"
"You called me Father," Brown Elk said, his voice filled with emotion. "It has been many years of waiting to hear such words from my daughter."
Then he nodded as his gaze swept over her. "Does this father approve of how you look?" he said, his voice breaking. "He approves. And do you look Blackfoot? Very!"
A sob lodged in Jolena's throat as she went to her Blackfoot father and flung herself into his arms. "Oh, Father, I love you so naturally, as though we have never been apart," she cried.
Brown Elk held her near and dear to his heart. "We are together now, but one day you will leave my dwelling again," he said remorsefully.
Jolena eased back from him and gazed into his eyes. "Never shall I," she said, her voice determined.
"You are a beautiful woman who will bring many men to my door to court you," Brown Elk said, smiling gently down at her. "You will make a choice and then share a tepee with your husband, not your father."
Jolena's heart seemed to drop to her feet at the mention of her marrying someone. All her dreams and plans for marriage had died the day Spotted Eagle had been taken from her! She did not even like to think about it, much less talk about it!
Deep down inside herself, where her desires were formed, she knew that no man would ever take Spotted Eagle's place in her life.
She eased into her father's arms again. She closed her eyes, silently praying to her Lord that Two Ridges had been lying and that Spotted Eagle was still alive.
Soon. Soon she would know…
Chapter Twenty-Two
The sun was lowering behind the mountains in the distance. Purple shadows filled the empty spaces of the forest as Spotted Eagle rode relentlessly onward. He had not returned to the village right away. He had needed time alone, to commune with the Sun and Old Man, for only they knew his feelings about losing the only woman he would ever love.
Spotted Eagle was now on his way home, to find solace in the quiet cocoon of his dwelling.
Life had struck him so many hard blows! All of his relatives, except his beloved chieftain father, had gone to the Sand Hills, the shadow land and place of ghosts, the Blackfoot's future world.
And now also his woman. His period of mourning for Jolena would be long and painful!
He was not even sure if he could ever not mourn the death of his beloved Jolena!
He did know for certain that he would never allow any other woman to warm his blankets at night.
He even accepted the fact that he would not have a son to follow in his footsteps into chieftainship. This honor would have to be passed on to someone else's son.
