Savage Skies (26 page)

“You will not kill or torture ever again,” Blue Thunder said, then motioned with his head in the direction of where they had left their steeds. “Put out the fire. Leave the dead where they lie. Soon the animals and birds will have their way with them. They do not deserve a decent burial after leaving so many dead and unburied across Wyoming land.”

The warriors hurried from the death scene, running until they reached their horses.

It was at that moment when Proud Horse came riding back, dismounting when he came alongside Blue Thunder.

“The man we hoped to stop today is gone, but not by riverboat,” Proud Horse said as he met his chief's eyes, seeing instant disappointment in their depths. “I was told that he left the fort sometime in the night, for he was not in his cabin this morning. When the soldiers
went to invite him to eat the morning meal, he and his daughter were gone.”

Proud Horse smiled. “Also I was told that the white woman who came to the fort was gone too this morning,” he said, chuckling. “They believe the woman, the man, and the child hooked up together somehow during the night and decided to take off on their own. The pony soldiers will not concern themselves about any of them again.”

Disgruntled, Blue Thunder hung his head. He had so hoped to put a stop to Earl Mingus once and for all.

Now he must search for the man.

He would not rest until Earl Mingus was found and killed, for while he was alive, and still living in this area, he was a constant threat to Shirleen and her daughter Megan.

Blue Thunder looked up and turned to Proud Horse. “You take several warriors and search for Earl Mingus,” he commanded. “But whether or not you find the villain, you must return by tomorrow morning, for it is then that I will place my uncle in his final resting place.”

Proud Horse placed a hand on Blue Thunder's shoulder. “If at all possible, he will be found and brought to you, my chief,” he replied.

Suddenly Blue Thunder remembered that Proud Horse had no idea what had transpired in his absence. He told his most valued warrior about the attack on Big Nose.

“He . . . is . . . dead . . . ?” Proud Horse
gasped, his eyes wide in wonder. The renegades are all dead?”

“Their evil deeds have been stopped forever,” Blue Thunder confirmed. “Their bodies lie even now as food for the forest animals and birds, who will make fast work of their flesh. There will be no more remaining of them than there was of the innocent people they left behind after their killing sprees. Clothes. Bones. Even Big Nose, with his horribly shaped and colored nose, will no longer be recognizable.”

“I heard no gunfire,” Proud Horse said, lifting an eyebrow.

“That is because there was none,” Blue Thunder replied, his eyes dancing. “Arrows are lodged in their bodies, not bullets.”

“That was clever, my chief, for gunfire would have been heard by the soldiers at the fort,” Proud Horse said. “Who is to say whether they would have condoned the killing, or condemned us as murderers? Your plan was the best for all concerned.”

“But now, my warrior, you must leave and search out the evil white man,” Blue Thunder said. “If you find him, silence him. But, remember, we do not want to draw undue attention to our vengeance.”

Proud Horse quickly gave Blue Thunder a bear hug, then chose the warriors who would ride with him. With their bows slung across their shoulders, their quivers filled with unused arrows, they rode away into the darkest depths of the forest.

Blue Thunder sighed heavily. Though he was proud of what had been achieved today, he was disappointed that Earl Mingus had eluded them.

He untied his reins and held them as he swung up into his saddle. The warriors who had stayed behind did the same.

As they turned and rode back in the direction of their village, Blue Thunder was lost in thought about Earl Mingus.

What had changed Earl's mind about boarding the paddlewheeler? he wondered. Had he awakened from his drunken stupor to realize that he had been duped by a goldenhaired woman, who now had his daughter in her possession?

The man had wanted to be rid of both his daughter and his wife, but he would be furious if he realized somehow that they had been reunited. He would stop at nothing to find them, and if he succeeded, Blue Thunder did not even want to think about what he might do to them.

No matter what, Earl Mingus had to be found!

He had to be killed!

Or his woman's nightmare would not be over at all.

Love is a passion which kindles
Honor into noble acts.

—Dryden

January . . .
Wah-nee-e-too,
winter Early in the Moon of Frost on the Tepee

Shirleen sat beside her lodge fire as she sewed beads on a new pair of tiny moccasins for her daughter. She looked up through the smoke hole, seeing a lovely blue sky and a bright sun. But she knew that it was quite cold outside. Snow had fallen the entire night, and there was now a blanket of white outside the tepee.

She had learned soon after moving to Wyoming that winters there could be relentless, a time of frostbite, black ice, and dizzying whiteouts. Bare-limbed cottonwoods stood ghostly white near the village with snow resting on their limbs.

Shirleen smiled to herself as she thought of the snowy wonderland the Assiniboine children had played in.

Shirleen had stood just outside the entranceway of the tepee for a while, watching
Megan teach the children of the village two games that white children played.

Megan had shown them how to make a snowman, though it lacked the usual carrot nose since no carrots were grown at this village.

A stick had been substituted for the nose, and small, round stones had been used to make the eyes and a smiling mouth.

Shirleen had smiled as her daughter taught the girls how to make snow angels. Their imprints remained in the snow, but the children were inside their warm homes now, listening to stories or playing indoor games.

Megan was at Bright Sun's tepee playing with Little Bee and would spend the night with her. The two children had become almost inseparable.

Tonight they planned to eat popped corn by the fire as Aunt Bright Sun told them the stories of her ancestors.

“Tiny Flames, what are you so deep in thought about?” Blue Thunder asked as he came into the tepee, dripping wet.

He was glad that she now used her Indian name, not the one she had been born with. It made her seem more a part of his people.

He was proud to call her not only Tiny Flames, but also his wife!

She shook her head, pale when she saw how wet he was. She had known that he planned to take a brief swim with his warrior friends, but she did not approve.

He had said it was customary for the men to
take these icy swims at least twice during the winter. They would dive into a part of the river that had not yet gotten a layer of ice over the surface.

He had explained to her that the practice kept them strong against all things.

This was the first time she had seen him dive into the river when it was so icy cold outside, and she was horrified at the prospect of his getting ill from it.

Shirleen hurried to her feet.

She grabbed a towel, which she had traded for at the fort.

“Look at you,” she cried as she went to Blue Thunder and started drying him down. “How can you believe that you won't get ill from that icy swim? I wish I could talk you out of doing it, but I know I would be wasting my breath.”

“It has made me feel invigorated after having to stay inside our lodge for so long a time,” Blue Thunder said, his eyes dancing as Shirleen continued to fuss over him. She finished drying his body, and then set to work on his long, black hair.

“It has taken several years off my life to sit by the fire, all warm and cozy, thinking about you being in that icy water,” Shirleen grumbled. “I still can't believe you did this.”

“And I shall do it again when I feel my bones are getting too stiff from sitting idle by the fire during these winter months,” Blue Thunder said, giving her an amused smile as she stopped and put her fists on her hips, the towel slung
over her shoulder. “I think you are prettier when you are mad, for I cannot take my eyes off you, my
mitawin
.”

“That kind of talk won't get you anywhere,” Shirleen said stubbornly.

“I believe it will,” Blue Thunder replied, stepping out of his wet breechclout.

Now nude, his body warmed by the fire, he tossed the breechclout aside and reached for Shirleen, holding her hard against him.

The towel fluttered off her shoulder as she leaned closer to him.

“My husband, you are impossible,” Shirleen said, giggling as he twined his fingers through her hair, using his grip as a way to bring her lips closer to his.

“You are my everything,” Blue Thunder said huskily as his desire for her grew, the heat of his manhood pressing tightly against her. “My wife, I need you. Are our daughters at Aunt Bright Sun's lodge for the rest of the day?”

“Yes, and for the rest of the night as well,” Shirleen said, breathless as he reached up inside her dress and began caressing her where she already ached for him.

She closed her eyes and sighed heavily, “My husband, oh, my husband . . .”

He quickly undressed her and tossed her clothes and moccasins aside, then picked her up and carried her to their bed of rich pelts.

He stretched her on her back beneath him as he blanketed her with his body, his eyes searching hers. His hands now moved slowly
over her, causing her to draw quick breaths when he touched her more sensitive places.

“Perhaps this time we shall make a baby,” he whispered into her ear, now thrusting inside her that part of him that drove her wild.

“Yes, a baby,” Shirleen whispered, moving with him as his rhythmic strokes began within her. She could feel the heat of her cheeks and knew her face was flushed from the desire swelling inside her.

She tried hard not to show her disappointment each time they talked of how she had not yet become with child. They both wanted a child made from their special love for one another, and she was beginning to fear that maybe she would never be able to give him this child.

She had begun to think that the beatings Earl had given her might have somehow damaged her womb.

She hated to think he was still out there somewhere, hurting those weaker than himself. If he had taken another woman into his life, oh, how Shirleen pitied her. He was a man who seemed to take sadistic satisfaction from beating women.

When Blue Thunder had told her that Earl had disappeared without a trace, she had been horrified. She knew then that she would always have to watch closely when she was away from Blue Thunder's side, for she was certain that sooner or later Earl would reappear in her life.

She would not feel entirely free or safe again until she knew that Earl had breathed his last.

But her misgivings about Earl had not stopped her from marrying Blue Thunder. Two days after his uncle's burial they had exchanged vows. There had been three days and nights of celebrating, and then Shirleen and Blue Thunder were finally united as man and wife.

Ever since, they had shared the ultimate pleasure in lovemaking, neither of them seeming to be able to get enough of the other.

They often managed to get away alone. Megan spent a great deal of time at Aunt Bright Sun's lodge, where Little Bee still lived. To take Little Bee away from Bright Sun would have been the same as taking away her reason to live. She had grown as close to the child as though she were her very own.

Blue Thunder paused. He leaned up enough to be able to look into Shirleen's luscious green eyes. “I sense your mind is not entirely on our lovemaking,” he said huskily. “Are you again worrying about our not making a child?”

“Yes, and I must confess that other things came to my mind, too,” Shirleen had to admit. “I'm sorry, my husband. But I worry all the time about the fact that we have been together now for several months and I am still not with child.”

“I have seen this with other husbands and wives before. They are encouraged to stop thinking about it, and when they finally are able to think of other things, suddenly, like magic, the woman does finally become with child,” Blue Thunder carefully explained. “My
wife, think only of how much I love you and how wonderful it is to be together. Think of the blessings we have been given, not only having found one another, but your having already given birth to such a child as Megan, and my wife having given birth to such a child as Little Bee. We are twice blessed, my wife, to have such darling daughters as our very own.”

“You are so wise, so wonderful,” Shirleen said, ashamed for having interrupted their lovemaking by allowing Earl into her mind again.

But when she thought about not being pregnant, who else could she blame?

“I promise that from now on I shall not think of anything while making love with you but how I am so blessed to have
you
,” she murmured. “You have given my life back to me, as well as my daughter. You have made my life complete.”

She reached a hand to his brow and shoved a lock of fallen hair back from his face. “My husband, if I never have another child, I promise you that I will be happy enough,” she said. But even as she spoke, she knew it was a white lie. She longed for another child, and she knew that he did, too, no matter what he said.

He wrapped his arms around her and drew her more fully into the contours of his body. He kissed her passionately as he began thrusting inside her again. A husky groan came from somewhere deep inside him, proving to Shirleen that he had been able to put all they
had just discussed in the farthest recesses of his mind.

She would, too, for he had ways to make her mindless. Even now, she began to writhe in response to his fiercely passionate kiss. The power of his body made her long for more.

She was breathless, her eyes closed, as she clung to him. He plunged into her, withdrew, and plunged again. He rolled one of her nipples with his tongue, and then the other, all the while not missing one thrust inside her.