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Fully clothed, Elizabeth stepped from behind the curtain. “Four Winds, prepare three horses for travel,” she said, her hands on her hips. “I am also going.”
Strong Heart turned and faced her. He knew her stubborn nature, and her determination to stop the attack on her father, but he had not expected her to want to go.
And although she thought that what he was readying to do was solely for her benefit, it was not. His motive in this was a selfish one—to protect his people. He knew that if the Suquamish braves succeeded, the repercussions against their people would not be worth the victory. The white authorities would come to his village and take away those who were responsible for the fire and perhaps the murders of some white people. They would be hanged. And then the people of his village would be forced to move to a reservation, where they would lose all of their freedoms—all of their joys.
He did not want Elizabeth to slow him down. Already they had taken too much time in talking.
He went to her and gently took her face into his hands. “It is best that you do not go,” he said, his voice slow and measured. “The journey will be done at a hard gallop so that we will be able to get there in time. My la-daila, it is late. Go to bed. This time tomorrow night I will be warming the blankets with you again.”
Elizabeth stuck to her guns. “No matter what you say, I am going,” she said. She stepped away from Strong Heart and glared at Four Winds. “Go and prepare three horses. If you don’t, then your journey will be slowed by having to wait for me to get my horse ready, myself, for I am going!”
Strong Heart gave Elizabeth a long, frustrated stare, then turned and nodded to Four Winds. “Prepare three horses,” he murmured. “We shall be there shortly.”
Four Winds looked from Elizabeth to Strong Heart, then nodded and left with hurried steps.
Elizabeth turned to Strong Heart and flung herself into his arms. “Thank you,” she cried. “Thank you for not ordering me to stay behind. If you had, I’m not sure what I would have done. I would not have wanted to embarrass you in front of Four Winds. Thank you for not giving me cause to.”
Strong Heart stroked her long and flowing hair. “I do not embarrass all that easily,” he said, chuckling. “But it is best that a woman does not show defiance to her man in front of friends. Tonight it came close to that, but I closed my eyes to it. Your reason for behaving this way was understandable. No matter how evil your father is, within your heart there will always be a corner reserved for the man who helped give you breath and life.”
Tears streamed from Elizabeth’s eyes. She was so grateful to this man whose compassion ran so deep.
“But I do worry about how you can stay in the saddle through the long night when you have yet to have any sleep,” Strong Heart said, easing her from his embrace, and holding her at arm’s length.
“Do you not recall the nap you and I took early this afternoon, anticipating the late hours of the celebration?” Elizabeth asked, wiping tears from her eyes. “I rested well then, Strong Heart. I am fine for the whole night of travel. Honest, I am.”
“Ah-hah,” he said, smiling down at her. “I believe you are.” He walked away from her and grabbed his rifle, then nodded toward her. “Let us leave now. Let us hope that when we return it will be with a light heart.”
“Yes, let’s,” Elizabeth vowed, rushing from the longhouse with him.
Four Winds had brought the saddled horses to the house. As Strong Heart and Four Winds swung themselves into their saddles, Elizabeth leaped into her own, her heart pounding. She feared that they would be too late.
As they rode from the village, she tried to keep her spirits high. Courage was now needed as never before.
* * *
Elizabeth had known the ride would be excruciatingly hard, for she had been on this same journey enough times now to know how tiring it was to stay in the saddle for so long. She had managed to keep up with Strong Heart and Four Winds the long night through and soon they would be arriving at her father’s place. To her chagrin, they had not caught up with the Suquamish who had left before them.
The sky was just lightening along the horizon when Elizabeth’s gaze was jerked upward. She was quickly overcome by a horror when she saw the flames of a great fire in the sky.
“No!” she cried. “We’re too late!”
She broke away from Strong Heart and Four Winds and urged her horse into a hard gallop toward the dire signs in the heavens. The nightmares that had troubled her now rushed back into her consciousness. She recalled the fire, and how she had been trapped in it.
Surely the nightmare had been an omen. Yet those trapped within the flames were her father, and sweet, innocent Frannie, and all of the other servants. They must have been asleep when the fire had been set. Surely they had had no chance of getting out alive.
Guilt ate away at her for how she had turned her back on her father, even though he had deserved it.
Now she would never have a chance to tell him that, no matter what he did, she loved him.
And neither would he have a chance to redeem himself of his crimes.
When she reached the outskirts of her father’s estate, she could see the flames engulfing both the house and the fishery. She almost fainted from the sight. Nobody could have survived the fire. And even though she had Strong Heart’s devoted love, this was the worst moment in her life.
She quickly dismounted, and had to force herself not to go farther, but to stay hidden in the shadows of the forest. She couldn’t allow anyone to see her or Strong Heart. She did not want Strong Heart to be blamed for the fire.
Elizabeth gnawed on her lower lip as she frantically looked for her father and Frannie among the spectators watching the fire. When she saw them both, as well as the other servants, clustered together outside the tall, old gate, she cried with relief.
Elizabeth then searched around her for those who had set the fire. When she found no sign of Strong Heart’s braves anywhere, she realized that they had left the minute they had seen that their fires had caught hold.
