Savage Tempest

“I shall point your way to the valley,” High Hawk said, pleased to be a part of this scheme that would keep Andrew among his people.

Andrew turned to Rose and took her hands in his. “I shall return soon, and your father will not be able to refuse my second bride price,” he said. He hugged Rose as she flung herself into his arms.

“Go and return soon,” Rose said, tears spilling from her eyes.

“I shall,” Andrew said, then stepped away from her. He walked briskly to High Hawk’s corral, where he was given a muscular roan.

“I shall place my best saddle on the horse and give you a rifle in case you are threatened by a mountain lion,” High Hawk said.

After Andrew was mounted and ready, with High Hawk’s rifle slid inside the gunboot at the side of his horse, Joylynn was filled with a sudden apprehension. The sight of this young man on a horse again, and with a rifle in the gunboot, caused her to fear the outcome of this moment. Was it possible her husband was trusting too much?

She knew why he was going so far to please this young man. He hoped that by doing so, his trust in Andrew would be rewarded again, that Andrew would return with a beautiful horse on a rope behind the stallion.

Rose hurried to Joylynn’s side. She wiped tears from her eyes as she gazed up at Andrew. “Come back soon,” she said, stifling a sob behind a hand. Joylynn sensed that even Rose had some doubt of ever seeing Andrew again.

Joylynn stepped closer to High Hawk, tempted to tell him of her fears, but she knew that it was best not to question his judgment, authority, or his trust, certainly not in front of the many people who had come to watch Andrew’s departure.

“Rose, I will see you soon!” Andrew said, pride in his eyes.

As he rode away, Joylynn saw Andrew reach back and pat the Bible in his pocket.

That gesture made her almost certain that she would never see Andrew again, not unless he returned with a whole cavalry of men to do what they had been prevented from doing earlier.

She slid a hand into High Hawk’s and clung to it, hoping he could not feel the sweaty coldness of her palm, or divine the deep worry inside her heart.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

A growing number of bald eagles, casting massive winged shadows over the icy water of the stream, marked the first days of November. The mammoth birds buzzed the flocks of geese and ducks gliding overhead, on their way south to warmer weather, then circled back.

Having heard the commotion, Joylynn and High Hawk stepped from their tepee just as several eagles settled down onto the limbs of the willow trees. Others stood on the ice, while some were roosting already for the night on outstretched limbs of the fir trees and ponderosa pines in the shadows of the deep, dark canyon beyond.

Just before sunrise they would lift off and wing toward their feeding grounds.

With wing spans as wide as eight feet, the bald eagles were strong and agile fliers.

“The heavier snows will begin any day now,” High Hawk said as he gazed at the thin layer of snow on the trees and ground that had fallen during the pr

evious night. He slid an arm around Joylynn’s waist, drawing her close to his side. “And Andrew has never returned, as he promised. Even now my warriors are searching one last time for him.”

“I doubt they will find him,” Joylynn said softly. “When you handed him that rifle, I saw a look in his eyes. It was the look of someone who has been given a second chance at life.”

“I did not see that look,” High Hawk said thoughtfully. “I truly believed him to be a man eager to do what he could to win the woman he loved. But I was wrong. He has been gone for many sunrises now. It does not take that long to find a horse suitable to be offered as a bride price.”

“He might have loved her, but not enough,” Joylynn said, her voice drawn. “Poor Rose. Her heart is broken.”

“And Two Stars,” High Hawk said, sighing heavily. “He trusted Andrew more than anybody. He fears that our people will see him as a foolish old man who trusted too much, for he showed even more trust than I.”

He lifted the entrance flap and stepped aside so that Joylynn could enter the warmth of their lodge.

“Everyone loves Two Stars so much, and all know of his goodness. No one will hold it against him that he put such trust in someone who spent many hours with him, speaking of Tirawahut,” Joylynn said. “Andrew did truly seem interested.”

“There have been no signs of Andrew anywhere,” High Hawk said, bending to one knee and lifting a log onto their lodge fire.

Then he sat down beside Joylynn and gently placed a blanket around her shoulders. “We will have at least the winter months before he can return with armed soldiers to try to kill off my people,” High Hawk said sadly, his gaze following the flames wrapping themselves around the new log. “That will give us time to prepare for the fight. We will be the victorious ones, not the white eyes. My warriors will be perched in prominent places where they can see everything below. Their vigilant eyes will not miss one movement. Andrew will surely be with the soldiers, leading them to bring death upon the Pawnee. He will be the first to die.”

That thought sent a chill up Joylynn’s spine. Although she now believed the young man was a traitor, his death would bring heartache to more than one Pawnee.

Rose and Two Stars.