Wild Embrace

No. Four Winds could have had nothing to do with this. Strong Heart would keep that thought while trying to find out who did.

“Go with care,” Strong Heart said to Many Stars as she slipped outside.

Elizabeth eased from Strong Heart’s arms. “Your parents?” she queried softly. “Are they all right?”

“Both are alive, but my father lies with a leg wound.”

“I’m sorry about your father,” Elizabeth responded. “I hope it’s not serious.”

“In time he will walk again,” Strong He

art said sourly. “But for now, when he is needed the most by his people, he is incapacitated. He needs my leadership now. I will lend it to him to lessen his burden. I will be his legs. I will be everything for him.”

“How can I help?” Elizabeth asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. For that brief moment, when her life had been threatened by those few Suquamish, she had seen just how much she could be resented by the Indians. In truth, she was quite shaken by the incident. But for Strong Heart, in his time of need, she would have to brush her fear aside.

“It is perhaps best if you return to Seattle,” Strong Heart said. Saying this to her made it feel as if a knife were cutting into his heart, for he never wanted to let her go. But for now, he had to put his people before his needs.

Elizabeth paled. “You no longer want me?” she said, gasping. “Now that I want to be with you . . . you will send me away?”

Strong Heart softly held her shoulders. “My la-daila, I have much to make right in my world. That includes you. I should have never taken you against your will. You are free to go. And I have much to do. I must help set things right for my people. And I trust you now, my la-daila. I know that you would never lift an accusing finger at me. I know that you love me too much to ever want harm to come to me.”

“If you know that I love you, and I know that you love me, why then do you still send me away?” she pleaded.

Strong Heart placed a finger to her lips to silence her. “Listen to what I have to say,” he said quietly. “Ah-hah, our love is strong between us. But there is more in life, than love between man and woman. I have always aspired to match the deeds of my father. I have spent much of my time hunting, fishing, wrestling, and swimming—preparing my mind and body for a worthy life, the life of a leader. So many of my people are now in their death sleeps due to the vile actions of the renegades and outlaws. I must guide those who are still alive!”

He paused, then added, “I must see to my people’s burials, then go and try to find the ones responsible for the raid and deaths. Then I must help prepare my people for the salmon harvest.”

Elizabeth was reminded of her father, and what he had planned for the salmon run. She suddenly felt protective of Strong Heart and his people, not wanting her father to come here with his hopes for his fishery! These people had already suffered enough at the hands of intruders.

“I would like to stay and help you in any way that I can,” Elizabeth reasoned. “There are many ways that I could help. And, darling, must I remind you that if I do return home, it would be as you had earlier worried—the sheriff could come to me and question me about what had happened. He would order me to describe the man who had knocked him unconscious. The sheriff surely knows that I had to have seen you. And how could I explain my absence—where I have been since then? And with whom?”

The memory of the hanging platform was embedded in her mind. She must, at all costs, make sure that Strong Heart was never accused of any crime. She knew that the hangman’s noose was always ready for the neck of an Indian, no matter if they were guilty or innocent.

Strong Heart nodded. “Ah-hah, what you say is true. It is best that you stay. I will welcome anything that you might do to help lessen the burden of this grief.”

“Thank you, darling, for allowing it,” Elizabeth said.

But Strong Heart’s mind was elsewhere. It seethed with anger at who might have done this thing to his people. His tribe lived separate from others because they wanted to live in peace.

Strong Heart pulled Elizabeth close to him. She could feel his sorrow and anger lessening, and she was glad. She knew that he had to be strong to live through the days ahead as he buried so many of his people and guided the living toward hope again.

“Such pain burns within my heart,” Strong Heart whispered to Elizabeth, his voice choked with despair.

“My darling,” Elizabeth comforted him. “My poor, sweet darling. I’m so sorry about everything. So very, very sorry.”

* * *

As Earl stood dejectedly at the window in his new office in his fishery, he almost did not hear someone enter. When he looked up and found Morris there, his eyes narrowed in anger.

“Where the hell have you been?” he yelled. “Why has it taken you so long to get back here to see to business? We’re partners, or do you find that hard to remember?”

“You better hope I never decide to forget,” Morris said, coming to the desk and running his hands over the smooth texture of the oak finish. “I’d say my money even paid for this desk, wouldn’t you?”

Earl’s face flushed. He tried to ignore the constant reminders that Morris offered of who did not have the money to back this project and who did.

“How’s it all look to you?” Earl asked, shaking off his anger and his worry about Elizabeth.

Morris sat down behind the desk, as if he belonged there. He smiled smugly up at Earl. “I’d say it’s as fine as it ever will be,” he said, chuckling. “And don’t you worry about Chief Moon Elk either. Things have turned around in our favor. Let’s go full speed ahead with the fishery. We’ll wait a few days and go and talk with the chief again. He’ll place his ‘x’ on the dotted line. I’m sure of it.”