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“How do you know about that?” she murmured, nervously brushing a strand of hair back from her eyes.
“Your father, along with another white man who is known by the name Morris Murdoch, came to my village just prior to the raid on my people,” he answered. “I was not here. I had left to free Four Winds from prison. But my father and the other braves have told me why your father and Morris Murdoch were here—to trick my people with their white man promises to catch the salmon for them instead of for our people. And they urged our people to work in the fishery that they have built on the beach close to the hallowed land of the Suquamish. Why did you not tell me that your father was building a fishery, and for what purpose? Why did you not tell me that your father planned to come to my village and speak in council about the salmon? Why, my la-daila? Why?”
Elizabeth’s mouth gaped, stunned by what Strong Heart had said. Her father had been trying to push his ideas on Strong Heart’s people? She had not known exactly which Indians he had visited, and did not know why she had not considered this possibility before now.
But that Strong Heart saw her as a liar hurt more than anything had hurt her in her life, for she was not a liar. She had only told him a half-truth, hoping that she would never have to tell him the whole truth about her father. She had hoped that her father would make his contract with another village, leaving Strong Heart and his people in peace.
Elizabeth went to Strong Heart, bending on her knees before him. She held his face between her hands, feeling him grow tense at her mere touch. “Darling, I told you a nontruth only . . . only to protect you,” she pleaded. “I didn’t want my father and the man I loved to clash over differing ideals. Both of you have wills of steel. I . . . I . . . felt that if you fought with my father, you would be the eventual loser, and the hanging platform still haunts me. And, Strong Heart, I didn’t know that my father was coming to your village. Please believe me. I didn’t know.”
Strong Heart searched her eyes, and when he saw the apology and the hurt in their depths, he placed his hands at her wrists and drew her to him, holding her against him. He gazed down at her. “I believe you did this from your heart,” he said. “I believe you did this for the man you love. I do understand your motive, but never lie to me again. I value honesty in everyone, especially the woman I love.”
He was very close to telling her the other thing about her father, but something stopped him—perhaps feeling that enough conflict and doubt had been between them for today. Or perhaps he did not want to discover that her father was guilty of killing his people. This man that he doubted, would soon be his father-in-law, a man he wished to have peace with. For this man would one day be his children’s grandfather, and it would not be good to have a grandfather who was despised by their father.
“Please never treat me so terribly again,” Elizabeth mumbled, near tears. She flung her arms around his neck and drew his lips close to hers. “I love you so, Strong Heart. I would never do anything to hurt you. Surely you know that. I only want what is best for you—and your people.”
“Ah-hah, yes, I believe that is so,” he whispered, brushing his mouth across her lips, his hands eagerly undressing her. “But for now, my la-daila, do only what is best for me.”
“You call me la-daila again instead of Elizabeth,” she sighed, so glad to have the wrinkled dress off, and to feel the wonder of the warmth of the fire against her flesh. She giggled. “That proves that you are no longer unhappy with me.”
Strong Heart pulled away from her and began to undress. “That is so,” he said, laughing softly.
When he was naked, he reached for a basin of water fresh from the river. He took the basin over to Elizabeth and handed it to her. “Cleanse me. Then I will cleanse you,” he said throatily.
Elizabeth picked up a buckskin washcloth, and then a piece of soap that Many Stars had placed there. It was quite a sacrifice on her part, for the chances of getting perfumed soap here in the wilderness were slim.
Meditatively, Elizabeth began to bathe Strong Heart, drawing a moan of pleasure from deep within him when she reached that part of his anatomy that was swollen and throbbing in her hand. She dutifully caressed it with fingers that were slippery with soap suds.
She continued caressing Strong Heart, watching his eyes become glassy with passion. He clutched his hands in her hair and he urged her lips where her fingers had just been. She scarcely breathed and her eyes widened, not sure of what he was asking of her.
But further urgings made her understand. Her pulse raced and her knees grew weak as she tasted him for the first time. The pleasure that she was giving was intense, for his body had stiffened and his eyes were closed, while soft moans rose from deep within him.
She pleasured him in this unusual way for a while longer. Then he placed his fingers to her shoulders and urged her down on her back on the soft cushioned floor. She became the recipient of the same sort of caresses as he took the soaped cloth and began stroking her all over as he washed her.
He knelt down over her, parting her legs, and he touched that most sensitive part of her with soapy fingers, where her heart now seemed to be centered. She closed her eyes, wishing that the pleasure would never end.
Then it seemed to intensify as she felt something even more wonderful caressing her swollen bud. Her whole body throbbed with pleasure. When she opened her eyes and gazed down at him, she was surprised to see that his mouth was the source of her pleasure, his tongue feverishly moving over her.
When she could not take much more without going over the edge into total bliss, Elizabeth took his face with her hands and urged him to move up. Soon his manhood was in rhythmic strokes within her, his lips on her breasts, moving from one to the other, setting her aflame with desire.
Moments later they reached that peak of passion they had been seeking, taking from one another all that they could give. Then they lay together, their breaths mingling as they looked with rapture into each other’s eyes.
“I could never have sent you back to your world, no matter if you had not had a good reason for lying to me,” Strong Heart confessed. “My love is too strong for you to lose you.”
“I would have never gone, had you even ordered me to,” Elizabeth whispered back, leaning to flick her tongue into his mouth.
* * *
Earl lifted his saddle onto his horse, then gave Morris a frown. “I’ve lost the battle with my daughter,” he said sadly. “But I won’t allow it to happen between me and the Suquamish. By damn, I will have their support. I must. So, Morris, I’ll be a few days tryin’ again. You stay put and see to everything here at the fishery. Perhaps one man alone can do what two men together couldn’t at the Indian village.”
Morris smiled crookedly and gave Earl a mock salute as he launched himself into the saddle. “Good luck,” he said, smiling smugly to himself. He had done his part by ordering the raid on the Suquamish. Now it was Earl’s and Morris’s time to reap the harvest of that raid.
Chapter 25
When the praise thou meetest
To thine ear is sweetest,
O then remember me!
