Wild Embrace

“What plan?” Four Winds asked, raising an eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”

“I will leave Strong Heart while he sleeps, ride on and meet the posse, and draw them away from Strong Heart,” Elizabeth said hurriedly. “Four Winds, don’t you see? It is the only way! It is best for Strong Heart. It is best for his people. Please trust me. Don’t awaken Strong Heart. Let me go alone.”

Four Winds was torn, yet saw the logic in her plan. And even though he knew that Strong Heart might hate him for it, he decided that, ah-hah, he would do as the white woman asked.

“Take my horse,” Four Winds said, handing the reins over to Elizabeth. “It would wake Strong Heart if you went for his.”

Weak with fear, yet digging deep within herself to find the courage to make this sacrifice for her beloved, Elizabeth nodded and lifted herself into the saddle. “Thank you,” she said, gazing down at Four Winds. “Thank you for understanding. You see, Four Winds, I love your friend more than life itself. I only hope that this plan works.”

Four Winds gave her the direction that she should take in order to run head-on with the posse. Then he stepped back and allowed her to leave, although he knew that the dangers were many in agreeing to the schemes of a woman. But for Strong Heart, he would do anything.

Turning slowly, he looked toward his sleeping friend, wondering how he would tell him. He knew that Strong Heart would become crazed with anger. Then, after he calmed down, hopefully he would understand both his woman’s and his best friend’s motives—which were for the benefit of the Suquamish.

It felt good to Four Winds to be doing something that was no longer selfish.

He waited for some time, to give Elizabeth a good start, then went to Strong Heart and knelt beside him. “Strong Heart, wake up,” he said, touching his arm, and gently shaking it. “It is I, Four Winds. Wake up.”

Strong Heart blinked his eyes as he stared blankly up at Four Winds. “Four Winds?” he said, rising to a sitting position. “What are you doing here?”

Then Strong Heart’s eyebrows lifted when he looked at Elizabeth’s empty blankets. He bolted to his feet and looked anxiously around him, then faced Four Winds as he rose to stand before him.

“Where is Elizabeth?” Strong Heart demanded, glaring at Four Winds. “She is not here and you are. Why is that, Four Winds? What have you

done with my woman? When we last parted it was as friends—as trusting friends. And now I find my woman gone. Where is she, Four Winds?”

Four Winds placed both of his hands onto Strong Heart’s shoulders. “My friend . . .” he said, and went on to explain what he had heard, and what Elizabeth had decided to do.

Strong Heart was breathless with a building rage that Four Winds had allowed Elizabeth to do something as foolish as this.

“If my woman suffers at the hands of the white authorities, you will pay the price,” Strong Heart said, jerking free of Four Winds’s grip. “I must go and find her. If I am too late—”

Four Winds interrupted Strong Heart. “I pray that you listen to reason,” he said, his voice low. “Ride on to your Village. Consider the welfare of your people!”

“Do you not see that I am considering the welfare of my people by not going to my village without Elizabeth?” Strong Heart said between gritted teeth. “Ah-hah, it is true that I will one day be chief of my people. But do you not understand that a chief whose life is empty from the loss of his woman is no chief at all? And that my people would suffer because of it? I must go for Elizabeth. It is my duty to protect her—the woman who will one day be a Suquamish princess!”

“I beg of you to reconsider,” Four Winds persisted. “Should the white woman be arrested, she would not be jailed for long. Her father would find a way to get her freed!”

“That is not so,” Strong Heart grumbled. “Her father is a worthless man who thinks only of himself!”

He suddenly realized that they had only one horse between them, and he set his jaw as he glared at Four Winds. Strong Heart would not be the one who would be forced to walk. Four Winds had been foolish enough to give his horse to Elizabeth, so Four Winds would have to pay the price by going on by foot!

But even as Strong Heart was angrily thinking this, he knew that Four Winds would not suffer at all without a horse. The village was near, and Four Winds was known for his ability to beat anyone who challenged him in footraces. Tonight, Four Winds would use his skills well, it seemed.

“Which way do I go to find my la-daila?” Strong Heart said, scowling into Four Winds’s face. When Four Winds did not respond and instead stubbornly set his jaw, Strong Heart placed his hand at Four Winds’s throat and began softly squeezing. “Tell me, or . . . you . . . shall die!”

Knowing that Strong Heart was angry enough to do as he threatened, Four Winds gasped out the answer.

Strong Heart released his hold on Four Winds, and then without another word, not even a farewell, Strong Heart ran to his horse and was soon riding away through the darkness.

He prayed to the Great Spirit that he would not be too late.

* * *

Starlight, pale and cold, filled the black, velvety sky. The moon lit the meadow that stretched out before Elizabeth like lamplight, enough for her to see the men approaching her on horseback in the distance. Panic swept through her. For an instant she wanted to turn her horse around and retreat into the forest that she had just left.

But the haunting memory of the hanging platform coming quickly to her mind kept her urging Four Winds’s horse into a steady gallop toward the posse, her chin held high. She would not let Strong Heart down, now or ever.

And this was the only way.