She closed them and stifled a sob behind a hand.
Then it was as though the arms of her father were there, enveloping her within them, whispering comforting words to her as he had done so often when she had been a child.
She recalled Dancing Cloud saying that her father’s spirit would be with them always.
She smiled.
He was there now.
She could almost feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek, but realized that it was just the warmth coming from the embers of the fire.
She turned to her side and drew her legs up in a comfortable position. Finally she felt as though she could drift to sleep. She welcomed the peace that came with it.
Dancing Cloud watched Lauralee until she was asleep. Then he left his bed of blankets and went to sit by the river. As the moon spilled its light into the water his thoughts again became filled with Lauralee. It was hard to keep his feelings for her at bay, and the journey had just begun. He knew that going to sleep would not stop his thoughts. She was with him now, bonded like a second skin.
Sighing heavily, he left the river and went and stood over Lauralee. Her coppery-red hair was spread out over the blanket in a satin sheen, tempting him to run his fingers through it. Her lashes were closed over her pale cheeks like black veils, and her perfectly shaped lips were just barely parted, her breathing soft and even.
He knelt on one knee beside her and dared touch her cheek, and then her lips. Almost reverently, absolutely cautiously, he bent over and kissed her lips, then drew away when she inhaled a deep breath and flipped over to her other side.
When she turned over, the blanket was kicked away. Dancing Cloud could not help but look at the swell of her breasts that pressed against the inside of her simple cotton dress.
His gaze moved lower. Her dress was hiked up way past her knees, revealing to him the sensuous curve of her thighs.
His heart almost pounding out of control, he rose quickly away from her and returned to his blanket.
But even that did not keep him from looking at her. He would never get enough of her. She was food for his soul, this woman whose very presence threatened his future as a leader of his people!
Chapter 6
What are these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?
—PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
The sound of a loud splash in water awakened Lauralee with a start. She bolted to a sitting position and looked wildly around her.
At first she was frightened.
She then sighed when she recalled where she was, how she had gotten there, and with whom.
She peered toward the river. When she saw Dancing Cloud’s clothes and his rifle laying on the riverbank she concluded that he was taking an early-morning swim before resuming their journey to Mattoon.
Lauralee glanced up at the sky. Night was changing into day. A glorious color of orange suffused the heavens as the sun rose slowly from beyond the beckoning horizon.
Thoughts of her father being alone on the hillside that overlooked the Mississippi River in Missouri sent a keen melancholia through Lauralee. She shivered from loneliness for her father.
But knowing that she must move on with her life she started to leave her bed of blankets, but stopped. A thrill shot through her when she noticed how considerate Dancing Cloud continued to be. While she had slept he had covered her with a warm buffalo robe. He had placed fresh wood on the fire, which had revived the flames and now swept around the logs like orange, caressing fingers. A large bowl of delicious-looking, plump purple grapes for her breakfast sat nearby.
She was so touched by his thoughtfulness she wanted to thank him now. Not later, after he returned from his early swim.
Scampering to her bare feet, and ignoring her wrinkled dress and tangled hair, she ran to the riverbank. She looked for Dancing Cloud.
Just as she found him making a bend in the river, his powerfully muscled strokes taking him swiftly through the water, her voice froze in her throat. A water moccasin was slithering its way through the water toward him. Lauralee could tell that he was unaware of the snake!
Instead, he had just caught sight of Lauralee standing there.
He smiled, then stopped with a start and eyed her with a strange wonder as he stared at the rifle that she had grabbed up from the ground and seemed to be aiming at him.