Savage Arrow (10 page)

She paused, then said, “But you must give it time to work.”

“You drugged him?” Jessie said, glad to see that Jade was beginning to fight back against Reginald.

“
Ai
, yes, and you can soon leave,” Jade said, picking up the bag.

“I wish you could go with me,” Jessie said, searching Jade’s beautiful, slanted eyes.

“If I did, my daughter would pay for it,” Jade said, her voice drawn. “Nay. I cannot leave. Until my daughter is set free, I am also Reginald’s prisoner.”

“I’m not sure how, Jade, but I will find a way to get Lee-Lee out of that damnable crib,” Jessie said firmly. “And then I’ll come for you. Somehow I’ll find help for you both.”

“You had just better think of yourself,” Jade replied. “If you can manage to get free of Reginald Vineyard, count yourself blessed. You see, I’m working on plans, myself, to get my daughter free. It’ll happen one day soon. You’ll see. I believe that if you can get away from this horrid place, someone will take you in and have mercy on you.”

“But everyone knows Reginald,” Jessie said. “No one who knows him will help me.”

“I must go now to my room, but you’ll find a way, Jessie,” Jade said, creeping toward the door and slowly opening it. She stuck her head out and looked from side to side down the corridor, then gave Jessie a smile and hurried away.

After Jessie closed the door, she began pacing as she
waited for the right moment to leave. She truly had no idea where she would go.

Then someone came to her mind!

Thunder Horse! He was kind. He was caring.

Perhaps he could hide her until she figured a way out of her mess.

And, ah, wasn’t he so handsome . . . ?

She felt she should confide her plan to Jade. She even wanted Jade to consider going with her to seek help from Thunder Horse, too.

But she knew that Jade was scared to death of Reginald and what he might do to Lee-Lee if Jade ran away. Perhaps the first step was for Jessie to escape.

She went to Jade and explained about where she was going, and from whom she would be seeking help.

Jade hugged her. “I so wish you well,” she murmured. “If Thunder Horse agrees to help you, perhaps Lee-Lee and I will soon join you.”

“I’m sure Thunder Horse would welcome you, too,” Jessie said, then gave Jade another hug and went back to her bedroom to wait for an opportune moment to flee. She would be setting out in the darkness of night, alone, and afraid, and hoping for help from Thunder Horse.

“Will he take me in, or will he be too afraid to get involved?” she whispered as she gazed out her window, only now realizing that she had no idea where Thunder Horse’s village was located.

She no longer felt as sure of her plan as before.

Thunder Horse’s
ahte’s
tepee was lit by the burning embers of the lodge fire. Concerned about how his father had seemed to worsen today, Thunder Horse had decided to sit with him for a while longer than usual tonight. White Horse was sleeping now on his bed of blankets and furs, a warm pelt covering him to his armpits.

Earlier, when Thunder Horse had came to see how his
ahte
was faring, he had become concerned when he heard just how labored his father’s breathing was.

Thunder Horse knew that his father had these spells often now. Thus far, he had come out of them in a matter of hours. But each time he was left even weaker.

Thunder Horse knew that one of these times, his father would slip away from him to begin his long journey to the hereafter to join his ancestors in the sky.

White Horse would become one of the stars in the heavens. Thunder Horse would gaze upon them each
night and know that his father would be looking down at him.

His eyes never leaving his
ahte
as he sat beside him on a blanket on the warm rush mats covering the earthen floor, Thunder Horse drew his knees up against his chest. He held them in that position by wrapping his sleeping robe tightly around his loins and knees.

In this fashion he had made of himself a rocking chair, and even now he slowly rocked back and forth, his troubled thoughts on his father. He knew that his father’s time to leave this earth was near, but would it be days or weeks?

White Horse had proved to have a strong constitution and an even stronger will to live.

When Lone Wing said Thunder Horse’s name outside the lodge, Thunder Horse rose and held the entrance flap aside.

“Chieftain uncle, may I sit with you?” Lone Wing asked, looking into Thunder Horse’s eyes, then gazing past him, at how still White Horse lay.

“
Ho
,
hiyu-wo
, come in,” Thunder Horse said thickly, stepping aside so that Lone Wing could move past him.

“He seems so still tonight,” Lone Wing said as he went and stood over White Horse. “Is my grandfather worse?”

He watched Thunder Horse as he sat down by his father. He took the same position as before, again slowly rocking.

“It is hard to say,” Thunder Horse said, then patted the blanket next to him. “Sit. I welcome your company.”

“Should we talk? Will our voices disturb your father?” Lone Wing asked, settling down beside Thunder Horse, his own sleeping robe wrapped about his knees as he tried to imitate the way Thunder Horse was sitting and rocking.

“If we talk and my
ahte
hears us, that will be good, not bad,” Thunder Horse said, gently touching his father’s cheek, then drawing his hand slowly away again. “His flesh is warm enough. He is still with us for a while longer.”

“He was a good chief before you,” Lone Wing said softly. “But he is now . . . so . . . much smaller than I remember him being.”

“Age shrinks a person sometimes,” Thunder Horse said, sighing heavily. “But all who knew my
ahte
remember vividly how muscular and able he was before age took him in its iron grip. It is sad to see how much has been taken from him by aging.”

“
Ho
, very sad,” Lone Wing said softly.

To change the subject, Thunder Horse urged Lone Wing to talk about his own life for a while. To Thunder Horse’s surprise, Lone Wing brought the white woman with the flame-colored hair into the conversation.

“I do not understand how the pretty white woman that we saw kneeling at our worship stone today could belong to such an evil-hearted man as Reginald Vineyard,” Lone Wing blurted out. “Do you think she is his wife?”

Stunned that his nephew had thought of Jessie at all, much less be puzzled about who she might be married to, Thunder Horse looked quickly at him. His jaw tightened.

“I do not want to talk about another man’s woman,” Thunder Horse said. He gave his nephew a frowning glance. “If you want to sit with me and discuss anything further tonight, it is best that we talk about how you aspire to be our people’s Historian, how you will record our people’s history as we have lived it in these troubled times.”

“
Ho
, that is more important than . . . than . . . a mere woman who means nothing to either of us,” Lone Wing said, seeing that those words made his uncle’s jaw tighten even more.

Deep down he knew that this woman did mean something special to his uncle. It was clear in Thunder Horse’s eyes and voice that he felt something for her, yet apparently he denied those feelings.

The fact that she was associated with the evil white man seemed to trouble his uncle. If that white man had not appeared with his horse and buggy, Lone Wing had to wonder just where that conversation between his uncle and the flame-haired woman would have gone.

“I look forward to the time when I will be the one to record our everyday deeds,” Lone Wing said, trying to change the subject. “I am learning quickly, my uncle. I want to please you.”

Realizing that he had become too gruff upon the mention of the white woman, and knowing that Lone Wing did not deserve such gruffness, Thunder Horse
reached a comforting hand to his nephew’s shoulder. “You always please me,” he said, smiling. “Always.”

Lone Wing smiled broadly, but they both jumped when White Horse awakened and started coughing uncontrollably.

White Horse’s eyes were wild, and he seemed to be strangling as he coughed.

“Lone Wing! Go for our shaman!” Thunder Horse cried as he bent to his knees beside his father and wrapped his arms around him, trying to comfort him as he continued to cough.

As he felt his father’s body quiver and quake violently with each cough, Thunder Horse was afraid that these might be his final moments with his
ahte
.

Hawk Dreamer, their people’s shaman, came hurriedly into the lodge. He carried his parfleche bag of healing materials.

“Leave him to me,” Hawk Dreamer said, placing a gentle hand on Thunder Horse’s shoulder. “Step aside. I will make him better.”

Thunder Horse gave his father over to Hawk Dreamer’s care.

He stood back with Lone Wing and watched as Hawk Dreamer ministered to White Horse until finally his coughing was under control and he was lying back down on his bed of blankets and pelts, his breathing shallow.

“He will be alright now,” Hawk Dreamer said, lifting his bag into his arms. “He will sleep again and rest.”

“Thank you, my shaman,” Thunder Horse said, embracing him.

“But do not leave him alone,” Hawk Dreamer said.
“When you leave, make certain someone else sits with your father.”

“My sister takes my place when I am gone,” Thunder Horse said.

Hawk Dreamer nodded, then left the tepee.

“He is going to be alright?” Lone Wing asked, coming to stand beside Thunder Horse as he stood and gazed down at his father, who was already asleep again.

“For now,” Thunder Horse murmured. “Will you send your
ina
to me? I want to go and seek comfort and answers in prayer.”

Lone Wing quickly embraced Thunder Horse, gazed down at White Horse, then left the tepee at a run.

Thunder Horse knelt down beside his father again. He gently touched his ashen cheek. “
Ahte
, oh,
ahte
, why must you leave me?” he said, a sob catching in his throat. “As I miss my
ina
, my sweet mother, I will sorely miss you.”

His father did not respond, only continued to sleep.

When Sweet Willow came into the lodge, Thunder Horse rose to his feet and embraced her. Then he stepped away from her and gazed down at their father. “For a while tonight I thought he was leaving us,” he said, his voice breaking. “But he is still with us.”

He gazed into her eyes. “I must go now and pray,” he said thickly.

“I will stay with him,” Sweet Willow murmured. “Should anything change, I will send Lone Wing for you. You will go to your usual hillside, will you not?”

“
Ho
, I will be there,” Thunder Horse said, again embracing her.

Then he stepped away from her and left his father’s lodge.

He went to his own tepee and changed into breeches and shirt, putting warm moccasins on his feet.

He then ran to the hillside that was so familiar to him. His
ina
and
ahte
had brought him there when he was a child and taught him many prayers as they gazed up into the starry heavens or a brightly moonlit sky.

Tonight there were many stars but only a sliver of moon. He felt the spirits all around him as he knelt and began the prayers that always brought such peace and enlightenment to him.

Tonight, his prayers were not only for his father.

He found himself including a woman. He prayed to understand why he could not get Jessie off his mind.

After kneeling there for many hours, he came out of his prayers with a determined mind. He felt more able to accept his father’s death, and he’d also come to the conclusion that he must ignore the white woman at all cost. He was on this earth to lead his people, to keep them safe, to guide them once they were all reunited on the reservation.

That last thought was a bitter one. He knew he had no choice but to take the remainder of his people to the reservation after his father died. He had given his word to the white chief in Washington.

His mind drifted to the woman again; to the woman called Jessie.

His jaw tightened as he vowed to himself never to think of her again!

Jessie was torn by many conflicting feelings as she sat before the fireplace in her bedroom. She knew that she must leave this hellhole of a prison, yet she still could not quite believe the predicament she was in. She never would have thought that her cousin, with whom she had shared such fun and camaraderie as children, could have changed so much.

She thought about the curse that Jade said had been placed upon Reginald by Indians. Had that curse changed him?

But no. That curse must have been placed on him because of his behavior. She wondered what he might have done to cause the Indians to hate him so much.

All she knew for certain was that she did have to leave, and soon. She had her child to consider if not her own self. She would do nothing to endanger this precious being growing inside her.

Yet she had done that today, hadn’t she, when she
had risked her life by saving the Indian boy? It had not even occurred to her not to save him. All she knew was that she must do what no one else had done.

And she would never forget the young brave’s smile of gratitude. Yes, she had done the right thing, and as far as she knew, it had not harmed her own child.

But now?

What would her leaving do to her child? If she didn’t find a place to live, where she had good nourishment while she was pregnant, wouldn’t that be almost as harmful as staying with Reginald, at least until after the baby was born?

Oh, what
should
she do?

Did she truly dare leave Reginald’s house? Would he come looking for her? Or would he be glad to be done with her, especially once he heard that she was with child?

He did not seem the sort who would want a child in his home.

Her thoughts went to Chief Thunder Horse. She wondered how he might react to her being with child if he did, in fact, offer her shelter in his village.

Yes, if she did go to him, what could she truly expect from him? What if he didn’t want to be involved?