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She wasn’t about to tell this one that he was wrong, that she was not there to trick him, that she truly was alone in the world with a baby on the way.
He wouldn’t believe her.
Not sure now whom she could turn to, yet too proud to cry in front of Thunder Horse, Jessie gave him a defiant stare. Then with her chin held high, she wheeled her horse around and rode away from the young chief and his village.
Oh, where could she go? she wondered desperately.
And her fingers. They ached so much. Jade’s medicine had worked, but for only a short time.
First she must find water to soak her hands in, and then she would decide what her next move would be.
She felt, oh, so very, very alone!
Chapter Fourteen
Thunder Horse watched Jessie ride away on her white horse until he could no longer see her, then dispiritedly turned and went back inside his lodge. Uneasy about what he had just done, he sat down before his fire and went over again in his mind what had just transpired between himself and the beautiful woman.
Deep down he felt he was wrong to have turned her away. The more he thought about the look in Jessie’s eyes, and the pleading in her voice, the more he thought she might truly be in trouble. If not, she was quite an actress.
He hated to think that he might have sent away a woman in distress.
“Uncle?”
The voice of his nephew Lone Wing broke into Thunder Horse’s thoughts. He looked quickly toward the closed entrance flap.
“Ho, nephew,” he said. “What do you want with your uncle?”
“I wish to speak with you,” Lone Wing said. “May I come in and sit with you? May I speak my mind about something?”
Thunder Horse rose to his feet and held the flap aside.
“Enter, nephew,” he said. “You are always welcome in my lodge.”
“Pila-maye, thank you,” Lone Wing said, his manner a little awkward.
Thunder Horse saw much in his nephew’s eyes and could guess what he wished to speak about.
The woman.
His nephew had seen the woman’s plight, and believed her words.
“Sit,” Thunder Horse said, gesturing toward the blankets beside the fire.
Lone Wing nodded and sat down with Thunder Horse.
“Speak your mind, nephew,” Thunder Horse said, folding his legs and resting his hands on his knees as he gazed at Lone Wing.
“I heard what transpired between y
ou and the woman,” Lone Wing said, searching his uncle’s black eyes. “I saw much between you, yet even more in the woman’s behavior. My uncle, I listened well to what the woman said. I watched your reaction to it. I believe you said to her what you do not truly feel. You saw, as I did, how frightened she is of Reginald Vineyard.”
“I have thought about all of this, too, yet still fear that she may have come because she is a part of a scheme . . . a trap . . . formed by our enemy to get back at the Sioux for having caused him many sleepless nights,” Thunder Horse said tightly. “If this is so, and if I took her into our village, all would be lost for our people. That man would come and say crazy things, and he would not come alone. He would bring white authorities to witness it all. And which of us do you think the white authorities would believe? The man whose skin is white.”
“I understand your fear, yet what if it is not so?” Lone Wing said softly. “What if the woman did leave because of her fear of that man, and she is alone now with nowhere to go, or no one to look after her? She is such a frail thing, more frail than any of our women.”
There was a strained silence; then Lone Wing moved to his knees and faced Thunder Horse. “There is more I want to tell you,” he blurted out. “Chieftain uncle, there is another woman, a woman-girl, who is entrapped by that same man. She is his slave and is forced to sell her body to evil men. I have watched her. I have seen her misery and shame. One day I waited outside her back door, and when she came out to throw water from the door, I spoke to her. She was not afraid of me. She talked. She told me things that made my heart turn cold.”
“You say this woman-girl belongs to Reginald Vineyard?” Thunder Horse said. “And . . . how would you know this? Where did you see her? Which house? Why did you chance talking with her?”
