Savage Skies (12 page)

“Where are you going?” Shirleen asked, her eyes widening in fear.

“I am going to scare a couple of rabbits from their burrow,” he said. He smiled softly at her. “We will have a nice meal. Then we will rest beside the fire. When you are ready to ride again, all you have to do is tell me.”

Again seeing how foolish she had been to
doubt him for even one moment, Shirleen smiled and nodded. Then she stretched out on the blanket while he departed for his brief hunt.

He came back a short time later, carrying two skinned animals. Shirleen had not heard the sound of a gunshot, and she sat up and questioned him with her eyes.

“A knife makes a quiet, quick kill,” he said, already placing one of the animals on a spit that he prepared over the fire, and then securing the second one beside it.

Shirleen saw that this was a good time to go and wash the day's dirt off her face and hands before they settled beside the fire to eat. She was looking forward to some nourishing meat.

Blue Thunder watched her go to the stream. He didn't accompany her, for he felt that she needed privacy to attend to her needs.

When she momentarily slipped behind some bushes, he knew that she would relieve herself of one of her discomforts.

As she came from behind the bushes and looked his way, she was blushing so pink he could even see it beneath the light of the moon. He had not anticipated this timid side of her that she was revealing to him.

He smiled and nodded and watched as she knelt beside the stream and washed her face, and then dipped her hair into the water and washed it.

When she stood, with the moon glowing on her wet hair and face, it was hard for Blue
Thunder to just sit there looking at her, when everything within him wanted to go and draw her into his arms and kiss her.

All of those thoughts were quickly erased when Shirleen suddenly screamed and grabbed at her head. As she collapsed to the ground, moaning and holding her face in her hands, Blue Thunder could not get to her quickly enough.

When he reached her, he swept her up into his arms and carried her to the blankets, where he gently laid her down.

He knelt beside her as she gazed up at him through tears.

“My head,” she sobbed, reaching for it. “A sudden, sharp, searing pain shot through the wound on my head.”

“Is it still hurting?” Blue Thunder asked as he swept her hair back from her face.

“It has subsided somewhat,” Shirleen said, her voice catching as she slowly sat up. “Thank you again for being so kind and caring.”

“Who would not be kind and caring toward you?” Blue Thunder said thickly as he gently wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.

Never in her life had Shirleen met a man as gentle as Blue Thunder.

Not even her papa had been this gentle.

Blue Thunder's kindness, caring, and gentleness melted Shirleen's heart.

She knew now that she was lost, heart and soul, to this man.

The color of his skin didn't matter.

Yet there was still that question she had not yet asked him.

“Why did you have me guarded when you brought me to your village?” she blurted out.

“Why?” Blue Thunder repeated, reaching over and testing the doneness of the meat. It still had a ways to go before being ready to eat.

He drew his hand back and looked over at Shirleen, slowly smiling. “You thought that you were being held captive?” he asked, searching her eyes.

“How could I think otherwise?” she asked. “I had you guarded from others who might sneak into my village under the cover of darkness and try to steal you away,” Blue Thunder softly explained. “The guard was not there to prevent you from leaving, for you have never been a captive. You were brought to my village so my shaman could make you well, and for nothing else.”

“I am so glad to know that you never saw me as a captive,” Shirleen murmured. “I . . .”

When she started to say something but then fell silent, Blue Thunder's curiosity was piqued. “What more do you want to say?” he asked, again searching her eyes and finding them so beautiful.

Even beneath the moonlight they shone so mystically green.

“I . . . I . . . shouldn't,” Shirleen said, blushing.

She had came close to saying that she thought perhaps he had brought her to the village
because he was enamored of her, just as she was of him.

But she knew this was not the time to reveal such a thing to him.

She wanted to be certain of his feelings first.

“Then don't,” Blue Thunder said, his pulse racing. He had hoped she was about to reveal her feelings for him.

“It is time to eat,” Blue Thunder said quickly. “The meat is dripping its juices into the flames. I prefer them to be in my mouth, do you not, too?”

“Yes, I truly do,” Shirleen said, laughing softly. Strange how her head no longer ached, how her seat was no longer sore from long hours in the saddle.

She suddenly felt as though she might be floating above herself. She was now absolutely certain that she was in love with a man who also loved her.

And she would not let the fact that she was married mar the beautiful relationship that was developing between herself and this handsome, wonderful man.

In her eyes, she truly was no longer married to the cruel, heartless man she had grown to detest . . . even hate.

In the West, life could be abruptly snuffed out at any time, so she was going to take advantage of each and every moment that she had breath left in her lungs.

She blushed as Blue Thunder handed her a piece of hot meat.

“Be careful, it might burn your fingers,” Blue Thunder said, wanting to protect her from even such a tiny annoyance as that.

“I will,” she said, smiling softly at him. She was happy for the first time in so long, but her full happiness would not come until she held her daughter in her arms again!

When she took her first bite of the meat, she gave Blue Thunder a quick, puzzled look. “I have eaten rabbit often,” she said. “This tastes nothing like rabbit. It has the taste of . . . chicken.”

He chuckled. “I did not come across rabbits but instead sage hens,” he said. “That is why you taste sage hen, not rabbit.”

“Well, my word,” Shirleen said, laughing as she gazed down at the piece of meat held between her fingers. “I have heard of sage hens, but have never eaten one.”

“Do you prefer sage hens or rabbit?” he asked, pulling off a big bite of meat for himself.

“Sage hens,” she said. “It reminds me of the turkeys my mother cooked on Thanksgiving.”

“I will catch you a wild turkey one of these days,” Blue Thunder said, smiling as he enjoyed relaxed, inconsequential talk with this woman . . . a woman he now knew that he would love forever.

“I would enjoy that,” she murmured.

Thinking about a future that had Blue Thunder in it made her feel suddenly at peace with herself, except for one thing—not having Megan with her.

But she believed that this handsome chief would eventually find her daughter, for was there anything he could not do?

She smiled timidly at him as she took another bite of meat.

He returned the smile, awakening new feelings in Shirleen that she never knew existed!

Our lives would grow together
In sad or singing weather . . .
If love were what the rose is,
And I were like the leaf.

—Swinburne

The sound of people talking somewhere not far away awakened Shirleen with a start.

She leaned up on an elbow and found Blue Thunder sitting beside her where she lay on comfortable pelts beside a slow-burning lodge fire.

The voices she had heard came from outside the tepee, a tepee she suddenly realized was not the one where she had been staying.

And why had Blue Thunder been sitting beside her as she slept?

And . . . how had she gotten there?

The last thing she recalled was falling asleep beside the campfire where they had stopped to rest before returning to the Assiniboine village.

Whose tepee was this? she wondered.

As she looked slowly around her, she saw that the buffalo-hide walls had been painted with scenes of the exploits of the person who
lived there. She also saw quite a cache of weapons stored at the back of the tepee.

“I am very confused,” Shirleen said as she sat up, realizing that she wore the clothes she had worn on her journey to search for Megan.

She gazed into Blue Thunder's eyes as the blanket that had covered her fell away. “How did I get here?” she softly questioned. “The last I remember is becoming so sleepy I could not keep my eyes open.”

“You fell asleep,” Blue Thunder said, gently pushing a fallen lock of her hair back from her puzzled eyes. “I did not think it wise to spend the full night away from my home with the renegades about. They are always a threat, often roaming the darkness in search of horses to steal, so I rode back to my village with you.”

“But . . . if I was asleep . . .” Shirleen said softly. “Blue Thunder, I still don't recall anything past sitting by the campfire. I surely would remember riding on my horse.”

“You did not ride on your steed,” Blue Thunder said, bringing even more confusion into Shirleen's eyes. “I led your horse while you rode on mine with me.”

“But . . . why don't I even remember that?” she asked, getting more confused by the minute. “What are you not telling me?”

“I carried you on my horse while you lay in my arms, asleep,” Blue Thunder said, smiling softly at her.

Utterly stunned by what he had just revealed, that she had been held in this wonderfully
handsome warrior's arms while she slept, Shirleen was rendered speechless.

Seeing that she was perplexed by what he had told her, Blue Thunder reached over and gently touched her cheek. “You are in my personal lodge,” he said. “As you can see, it is much larger and has more comforts than the one that was assigned to you. While you slept I brought your clothes from the other tepee, as well as those of your daughter.”

Shirleen found it hard to think while he held his hand on her cheek, his dark eyes gazing into hers.

He had to know just how mesmerized she was by him.

But the fact that she was now going to be staying in his lodge made her feel suddenly apprehensive.

Had he brought her there out of kindness, or lust? Did he believe that she was totally his now, to do with as he pleased?

She wanted so badly to trust his motives, to believe he was helping her out of kindness. Now that she would be in such close proximity to him, she would surely discover the truth very soon.

Whatever happened, she would be eternally grateful that Blue Thunder had rescued her, that she was not wandering alone, or a captive of the renegade Comanche.

She was also very happy that she had not come to this village as a captive.

One thing was certain: She could not feel any
more enamored of a man than she was of Blue Thunder.

She prayed that his intentions toward her were as pure and honorable as they seemed to be. Most of all, she prayed he would be able to find Megan.

The fact that her daughter was still nowhere to be found made everything else in her life seem empty and worthless. Feelings for a man, her own welfare, came second to her daughter, and there was not one thing that she, personally, could do to find Megan!

“I will be leaving soon with my warriors to make another search for your daughter today,” Blue Thunder said, as though he had read her thoughts.

In reality, he had read the emotion in her eyes. They changed, it seemed, by the minute.

He knew that her worry for her daughter was uppermost in her mind now. He hoped to remedy that.

“I just can't thank you enough for your kindness,” Shirleen said, her voice breaking. “My daughter Megan means the world to me. Without her, I feel a strange sort of cold death inside me.”

“I hope to take away that terrible feeling,” he said, taking his hand from her cheek. “I hope to fill your heart with sheer joy when I hand your daughter Megan over to you.”

“It
would
be a joyous moment,” Shirleen said, smiling at him. “Again, thank you.”

“When I leave, there is someone who would
like to talk with you,” Blue Thunder said, rising to his feet.

“Who?” Shirleen asked, glancing past him at the closed entrance flap.

“Speckled Fawn,” Blue Thunder said, walking to the doorway. He stopped and gave her a questioning look. “Can I tell her that you have said it is alright for her to come in for a while?”

“Yes, please do,” Shirleen said.

She rose from the pelts, and had at least gotten her hair straightened with her fingers when the white woman arrived. Shirleen smiled at Speckled Fawn, who came in and actually gently embraced her. As she stepped away, there was true sympathy in her eyes.

“I am so sorry that you didn't find your daughter,” Speckled Fawn said. “If I had a child out there alone, I would feel the same heartbreak as you. As it is, I never had a child, and it now seems that I never shall. My husband is elderly, and I would not even think to marry again once he is gone. He is the only decent man to have held me in his arms. There surely is no other.”

Shirleen could think of one man whose arms were so comfortable and sweet.

Blue Thunder's.

She only hoped that, in time, more than sadness would bring them together.

She would love for him to hold her and say sweet things to her that would make her melt in his arms.

She even dared to daydream of him actually kissing her.

“I'm glad that you found happiness with your husband,” Shirleen murmured, gesturing with a hand for Speckled Fawn to sit beside the fire.

After Speckled Fawn seated herself, Shirleen settled down onto the pelts next to her.

“Food will be brought soon,” Speckled Fawn said. She drew her knees up before her, hugging them. “Would you rather I stay or leave?”