Savage Winter (4 page)

Windhawk laughed deeply. “Why do you think I carried you away with me today? Did I not tell you I was taking you somewhere special? There is something I want to show you.”

“What?”

“You will have to wait and see,” he said, placing her back on his horse and climbing on behind her.

As they rode along, Joanna was lulled by a feeling of contentment. She wished that she and Windhawk could ride on like this for eternity—wrapped in the soft warmth of their love. Her head began to nod, and she felt herself getting drowsy. Leaning her head back against Windhawk’s shoulder, she fell into a contented sleep.

It was late afternoon when Windhawk shook Joanna to awaken her. She opened her eyes, surprised to find that they were in the mountains.

Windhawk helped her down from his horse before dismounting. She still felt sleep-drugged as she watched him tie the leather rope about Puh Pom’s forelegs to hobble him.

“Are we there?” she asked, gazing around the dense pine forest. She couldn’t see what was so special about this place. It wasn’t unlike the forest where the Blackfoot usually made their winter camp.

“It is very near,” he replied, taking her arm and leading her forward. There was no path to guide them, and sometimes Windhawk would have to hack his way through the dense undergrowth of bushes with his knife.

They hadn’t gone very far when Joanna heard a roaring sound in the distance. Looking up at Windhawk inquiringly, she smiled brightly, knowing the sound she heard could only have come from a waterfall. She hastened her footsteps, running in the direction of the rushing water. Darting around trees and between thick bushes, she could feel her excitement mounting. Windhawk smiled to himself as he watched her face glow when she reached the waterfall.

Joanna stood for a long moment, silently allowing her eyes
to drink in the wondrous sight. As she stood beside the shimmering water, which cascaded down from a high cliff, she felt as though the waterfall must have been there since the beginning of time. Her eyes were bright and shining as she watched the foamy water roll and splash into the river below, before calmly kissing against the shore. Joanna had the feeling she was one of the privileged few who had ever witnessed this magnificent spectacle.

Windhawk laughed when he saw Joanna strip her clothing off and plunge into the river. He watched as she swam toward the falls and climbed onto a rock, allowing the water to wash over her.

The water was cool and invigorating, and Joanna laughed with delight as it seemed to wash away the weariness from her aching muscles. She sighed with pleasure when she felt Windhawk next to her, then she melted against him when he pulled her into his arms.

I have it all, she thought, as Windhawk breathed words of eternal love in her ear.

As their hungry lips met, their bodies fused together like two magnets. Joanna sighed as his magnificent hands moved over her hips, pressing her against him. Her eyes glazed with desire and anticipation when he pushed her backward behind the cascading water, his hand cushioning her tender skin from the rough cliff wall.

Joanna gasped as his throbbing manhood entered her body. Throwing her head back, she felt his lips caress her long, slender neck. Her hands laced into his ebony hair as he filled her body.

Windhawk groaned, thinking each time he took Joanna it was like the first time. When he was making love to her, he always felt there was no mountain he couldn’t climb…no feat he couldn’t accomplish. She was his life as surely as was the heart that beat within his chest.

Delightful feelings ran like wildfire through Joanna’s veins. She tossed her head from side to side as their passion
reached its zenith. Windhawk lifted her up, and she locked her arms about his neck while her whole body trembled.

Joanna slid her arms down to his shoulders as he carried her out of the water and laid her on the sweet-smelling grass. When he lay down beside her, he pulled her into his arms.

“When you are in my arms, Joanna, I know what it is to be happy,” he said in a passionate voice. “I am a man who has sought and found his destiny.”

Joanna closed her eyes, loving him with all her heart. Windhawk and she might come from different worlds, but they had overcome their differences. No matter where the future led her, she knew she would always feel safe and secure as long as he stood beside her.

Gazing up into his dark, handsome face, she gave him a bright smile. “Is there nothing more you want that you do not have, my husband?”

His dark, velvet-soft eyes rested on her lips. “There is nothing I want that I do not have…except…perhaps, a child.”

Joanna touched his face softly, and he turned his head to kiss her hand. “I want that, too, Windhawk.”

His hair was wet from the river, and Joanna laced her hands through it, thinking how she loved its dark-midnight color. He gave her a look that melted her heart as he laid his face against her smooth, flat stomach. Moments of silence passed as his hands caressed her body. At last, he raised his head and placed his cheek against hers.

“Soon, Joanna, we will have a child that will be born from our love—then you will never want to leave me.”

Joanna closed her eyes. Why did he still have this fear that she would leave him? Hadn’t she proven to him by now that she loved him?

“I do not need a child to bind me to you, my dearest love. I think I knew when we first met that we had a destiny to fulfill together.”

Joy lit his ebony eyes once more, and it seemed as if a flame
burned inside them. “When we have a son, I will teach him to walk in the ways of the Blackfoot, but you will also teach him about the white world. One day, he will be chief, and I want him to be armed with knowledge of both his mother’s and father’s world.”

“What if your son turns out to be your daughter?” Joanna asked, giving him a mischievous grin.

His eyes softened. “I would wish her to have hair and eyes the color of yours. Then I would have two flaming-haired princesses.”

Soon they both lay in a soft embrace, while each of them thought of the future when a child would bless their life. Joanna hoped their first child would be a boy. She thought of how patient Windhawk was with her brother. He would be a good father, teaching their child to face life as he did—with courage and hope for the future.

Joanna felt his hands slide lingeringly over her stomach. Closing her eyes, she said a silent prayer that she would soon bear him a child.

As the wildflowers lent their sweet fragrance to the air and the tall pine tree bowed its branches with the breeze, Windhawk made love to Joanna once more. This time she could feel the urgency in him. It was as if he was determined to impregnate her body with his child.

“Who knows, my love?” she whispered. “Perhaps, soon, I will give you the child you want so badly.”

Joanna watched him as he lay back and closed his eyes. She noticed the tiredness etched on his face. He had so many responsibilities that he never seemed to be at peace. She pulled him forward and rested his dark head against her silken breasts.

“Sleep, my dearest one,” she whispered.

Captain Harland Thatcher stared disbelievingly at the tall, heavyset man who claimed to be Joanna and Taggart James’s uncle. The man’s mode of dress, while expensive, was appalling. The bright green waistcoat and loud yellow vest did not represent good taste. Harland was having a hard time associating Howard Landon with Joanna. It wasn’t that the man didn’t speak excellent English, it was more the fact that there was a certain coarseness about him. There was also something in his manner that Harland didn’t like, but he didn’t yet know what it was.

Harland sat back in his chair, crossed his legs, and rested his hand on his booted foot. He thought back to the first time he had seen Joanna. She and her brother had been accompanied by two servants when they had joined the wagon train he had been in charge of. At that time, he had had the distinct impression that Joanna had been running away from something, though he had never learned what it was.

Almost from the beginning, Harland had been drawn to Joanna. At one time he had even asked her to be his wife, but she had turned him down. The fact that she had chosen the legendary Blackfoot chief, Windhawk, over him, had done nothing to stem the love he still felt for her.

“I’m afraid I can’t do much to help you find your niece and nephew, Mr. Landon. Joanna chose to go to this Windhawk of her own free will. The army had no jurisdiction over her or her brother.”

Howard frowned at the captain’s manner. “I think what you mean is you
won’t
help me. Isn’t that right?”

Harland shrugged his shoulders. “I have no power over what you think—believe what you will,” he replied with a certain amount of arrogance.

“Both Taggart and Joanna are under age. I, as their legal guardian, feel it my duty to find them and take them back with me to Philadelphia, where they rightfully belong.”

“When I first met Joanna and her brother, I got the distinct impression they were running away from something or someone they were afraid of. Joanna never told me what her trouble was, but I now believe what they were frightened of was you, Mr. Landon,” Harland said, eyeing the man closely.

Howard snorted. “What they were running away from was the voice of authority. Neither one of them wanted to follow my direction. They were too headstrong and obstinate to know that I was acting in their best interests. Can you not see into their characters by now? You tell me what sane young lady of breeding would go off to some dirty Indian camp to live like a savage?” Howard’s eyes narrowed to slits. “I will find them, and when I do…I will take them home, with or without your help, Captain Thatcher!”

“I am surprised you would take the trouble, Mr. Landon. Apparently Joanna and her brother didn’t want to stay with you, or they wouldn’t have run away in the first place. It
was
you they were running away from, am I right?”

Howard’s face reddened. “Yes, and for that they will both pay! I have been a patient man in the past—but I will no longer tolerate rebellion from either of them.” Howard’s dramatic skills came to his aid now. “They were my wife’s niece and nephew, God rest her soul. She has been dead these last six months. I owe it to her memory to find Joanna and Tag. Besides, I care deeply about my niece and nephew. If they had been left in your care, Captain, would you abandon them?”

“No,” Harland agreed, “I can see what you are saying, but I think I should tell you that Joanna considers herself the wife of Windhawk, the chief of the Blood Blackfoot. She will never agree to leave him.”

“So I’ve been told. Good Lord, how can Joanna turn her back on her own kind to live with some dirty Indian?” Howard asked, unable to believe that Joanna had gone willingly
to live with the Indians. “Who is this Indian, this Windhawk, everyone speaks of?”

“To many people he is more fiction than fact. The stories that are told about him are not to be believed. It is said he is a great chief and that none of his enemies will dare attack the Bloods as long as he is their leader. He is respected and almost worshipped by the Blackfoot tribe. I saw him only once, and that was just for the space of a short time. I can tell you, in all honesty, I would not want to be the one to cross him or come up against him in a fight.”

Howard looked speculative for a moment. “You say Joanna is this damned Indian’s…wife?”

“Yes, without a doubt. At least, she considers herself his wife, which amounts to the same thing.”

Howard turned white around the mouth. He had coveted the fair Joanna since the first day he had walked into her home in Philadelphia. She had a way of getting into a man’s blood and making him forget everything but possessing her. He knew, though, that he would have to concentrate on finding Taggart, since the boy was the whole key to the James fortune. If Tag had died, Howard would have lost everything.

But Howard knew the real reason he had come to this God-forsaken country had been to get Joanna back. He hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. His wife, Margaret, had known about his feelings for her niece. Poor Margaret had met with a most unfortunate accident. She had fallen down a flight of stairs, killing herself instantly. Howard frowned to himself. Before Margaret had expired, he had tricked her into signing papers, giving him power over all her affairs. He had thought he would inherit the James shipping empire through her. He couldn’t have been more wrong. The James’s lawyer, on learning that Russell James had died, read his will. Howard could still taste his disappointment like a bitter pill in his mouth. The will stipulated that the moneys and estate would be held in trust for Taggart until he reached his twenty-first birthday. While Howard was still allowed to remain in the house in Philadelphia, he received only as much money as it
took to pay the servants and run the household. He was also allowed a generous clothes and food allowance, but it could hardly be termed a fortune. So Howard knew he had to get his hands on the boy, since he was still classified as Taggart’s legal guardian.

He remembered poor Margaret, and a sinister smile moved over his face. The doctor had said her heart couldn’t stand the strain of her fall. What the doctor hadn’t known was that Howard himself had given her the shove that sent her tumbling down the stairs. Howard had grown weary of Margaret’s constant complaining. She had been aware of his feelings for Joanna and had constantly badgered him with her jealousy.

In the back of Howard’s mind, the thought nagged at him that if he didn’t get Taggart back, one day, when the boy reached manhood, he would make trouble for him. He
had
to find Tag and take him back to Philadelphia, so he could be in full control again. According to the attorney, he had to bring back proof that Tag was still alive.

But still he knew that the real reason he had traveled so far from civilization was to find Joanna. She had become an obsession with him. Her face had haunted him for two years now. He felt confident that he would have her sooner or later—she wouldn’t get away from him this time!

Howard realized his mind had been drifting and that Captain Thatcher was staring at him. “Can you recommend someone to me who might be willing to travel to this Blackfoot village, Captain?” he asked.

The captain raised his eyebrow. “You are either a very brave man or a very foolish one, Mr. Landon. If you think you can just go riding into Windhawk’s village, you are badly misinformed. He would kill you first and ask questions later.”

“I have no thought of going to this village myself.” Howard patted his pocket. “When one has money, one hires others to take risks for them. I am prepared to pay a substantial reward for the return of my niece and nephew. You can pass the word on to anyone you think might be interested.”

Harland watched Howard Landon for a moment. His dislike for the pompous, arrogant man grew. There wasn’t anything in particular that Harland could pin his dislike on, but Mr. Landon struck him as an interloper and a fraud. He doubted that the man would find anyone who would go against Windhawk to get his niece and nephew back. Although Harland had been ordered by Colonel Jackson, the commander of Fort Leavenworth, to lend his help to Joanna’s uncle, Howard Landon had already received all the help he would get from him. There had to be a good reason why Joanna had run away from the man in the first place. Harland had no intentions of helping Mr. Landon get her and her brother back.

Thinking he might throw Mr. Landon off the trail, he decided to give him what he considered a piece of useless advice. In doing so, however, Harland Thatcher had no way of knowing that his good intentions were unwittingly placing Joanna in very grave danger.

“I believe if you are determined to find your niece and nephew, you would be well-advised to go to the fort that belongs to The American Fur Company. It’s located much closer to Blackfoot territory than we are here.”

“What’s the name of this fort?” Howard asked, sensing the captain’s dislike for him.

“Fort Union. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding someone who will guide you there with your loose purse strings,” Captain Thatcher said sarcastically.

Howard’s eyes gleamed with a secretive light as he faced the young captain. “You might want to reconsider going after my charges yourself, Captain. As I told you, I’m offering a substantial reward for their safe return.”

Harland frowned. “I have no need for your money, sir, but you might just possibly find some poor, misguided fool who will risk his life for your offer, Mr. Landon. I’ll give you a piece of good advice, although I doubt that you will follow it…Windhawk will never allow anyone to get close enough to Joanna and Taggart to take them away!”

Harland’s eyes flashed for just a moment. It had nagged at him for months that Joanna had turned down his marriage proposal to return to Windhawk. He was from a very prominent family in Philadelphia, and he would have been willing to lay the world at her feet had she consented to become his wife. He remembered her smile, which could tear a man’s heart out. Visions of her red-gold hair had disturbed his dreams many times. And the thought of her sweetly curved body set him on fire even now.

“If you are a betting man, Captain, I will wager that before the summer is out, I shall have both Joanna and Tag.”

“You are a fool, Mr. Landon! Even if you do convince some poor simpleton to do your dirty work for you, he won’t live past the first week in Blackfoot country. A man would have to be a complete imbecile to go against Windhawk. My God, man, this isn’t Philadelphia! Windhawk will see you dead if you don’t give up this foolhardy notion!”

Howard gazed out the fort gate to the vast prairie lands beyond the fort. “Joanna is somewhere out there, Captain. I know about some men’s greed for gold. I will have little trouble finding such a man. Besides, I don’t believe there is some damned Indian chief who strikes terror in everyone’s heart.”

“Oh, Windhawk’s real all right, but you’ll find that out for yourself. Lord help you if you do succeed in getting Tag and Joanna away from him. There won’t be anywhere on God’s green earth you can hide to escape Windhawk’s wrath…I can promise you that.”

Howard laughed contemptuously. “I can see the army has become frightened of a myth. After all that’s said and done, Windhawk is still just a man.”

“You are deluding yourself if you believe that. You haven’t the slightest notion whom you are dealing with. Ask any of the trappers or buffalo hunters about Windhawk when you get to Fort Union. They will be able to tell you stories that will keep you awake at night, Mr. Landon.”

Howard shook his head. “If you will excuse me, I think I’ll set about finding a guide to escort me to Fort Union. It’s for damn sure I’ll get no help from the army. I find very little comfort in knowing that men like you, Captain Thatcher, are all that stands between the rest of us and the Indians!”

Harland glared at Joanna’s uncle. “You’ll need more than just comfort from the army if you ever come up against Windhawk, Mr. Landon.”

Windhawk’s Blood Blackfoot had made their camp along the Milk River among the Sweetgrass Hills. The summer breezes that blew down from the nearby mountains and across the land brought with them the pleasant odor of blooming wildflowers mixed with the fresh, clean aroma of the pine forest.

The Blackfoot village was thriving with activity. The buffalo were plentiful this year, and there was meat to go around for everyone. Joanna worked tirelessly beside Windhawk’s mother and sister. The meat had to be butchered and cured and the skins prepared for later use.

Each night, Joanna would fall asleep almost as soon as she lay down. She was finding the Indian woman’s way of life a hard one, but she felt good knowing she was making a home for Windhawk. How far she had come from the girl she had once been!

Joanna could often see pride in Windhawk’s mother’s eyes as she worked alongside her, and she knew she was truly accepted as Windhawk’s wife and Sun Woman’s daughter. The Blackfoot were an outgoing and loving people, and they didn’t hesitate to show their feelings. Joanna found no difference in the way Sun Woman treated her and the way she treated her own daughter, Morning Song.

Tag was having the time of his life. Windhawk had taken it upon himself to see that Tag learned as much as he could about the Blackfoot ways. He would often take Tag on buffalo hunts and trained him with the bow and lance. Joanna
could see Tag growing more confident in his ability under Windhawk’s strong guiding hand.

It was early evening as Joanna and Windhawk walked beside the river. The night was dark, with no moon to lend its light to the deep shadows. Thousands of stars seemed to twinkle in the ebony skies.

Windhawk took Joanna’s hand and turned her to face him. “You are quiet tonight, Joanna,” he said, drawing her into his arms.

She sighed contentedly, laying her head on his shoulder. “I was just thinking how peaceful it is here. I cannot explain to you how I feel. I was thinking today how much I love the people of your tribe.”

His chin rested on the top of her head and he smiled. “What about me? Do you also love me?”

She raised her head and touched her lips to his cheek. “You I love more than I can say.”