“As you do everything,” Jessie said, smiling up at him. “Thank you. I mean pila-maye.”
“Hearing the Sioux words being spoken by you brings gladness to this chief’s heart,” Thunder Horse said.
When Jessie smiled broadly at him, he knew that once again he had chosen the right words to make his woman feel comfortable in her new role.
Tomorrow, after the lodges were erected, he would take the time to exchange vows with Jessie. She would wait no longer to become this chief’s wife.
“Tomorrow, my mitawin,” he said suddenly. “We will marry tomorrow.”
Jessie felt a radiant glow within her. Finally! She had her own life and someone she truly loved to share it with.
Nothing could get in the way now.
Nothing, and especially not her cousin!
Chapter Thirty-one
Thunder Horse was dressed in a deerskin jacket, with bright-colored beads down the front. He also wore his long-fringed leggings as he prepared himself for the wedding that would take place today.
He slid his feet into his porcupine-quill-embroidered moccasins and folded his best robe about him.
Sweet Willow stood behind him and brushed his long, glossy hair with a brush made from the tail of a porcupine, then perfumed his hair with scented grass before arranging it in two braids with an otter skin woven into them. Since he was a powerful warrior and chief, Sweet Willow added an eagle feather to his hair, held there by a beaded headband.
Thunder Horse had risen early today and brushed the horse that was his gift to Jessie until it shone. Then he had woven wreaths of sweet grass around its neck and tied eagle fea
thers to its tail and mane.
“It is your day, and Jessie’s,” Sweet Willow said, stepping around in front of him. “My brother, you deserve this day and all the happiness that comes with it. You have brought your people on a long journey and helped them through much sorrow and sadness. Today is for laughter and loving. It is your day.”
“My woman will be beautiful as she comes to me today as my bride,” Thunder Horse said thickly. He stepped up to the entrance flap of his newly built tepee and gazed outside, over at Sweet Willow’s lodge, where he knew Jessie was being helped by Jade and Lee-Lee to get ready for the short ceremony.
“The horse you chose for her is lovely,” Sweet Willow said, clasping her hands together as she gazed at her brother’s handsomeness.
“The husband-to-be always takes pride in the fine horse his bride will ride, especially in ceremonial parades,” Thunder Horse said, gazing at the tethered horse that stood outside his lodge.
He silently admired the white-faced bay with its white hind legs. The horse was made even finer by the handsomely beaded saddle trappings that were also a gift to Jessie on this, her and Thunder Horse’s special day.
“Do you think Jessie is ready for you to go to her?” Sweet Willow asked as she stepped to his side and looked past him at her own lodge a few feet away.
Smoke spiraled lazily from the smoke hole. Her son had lit the fire late last night, and it would not be allowed to go out until next year when the spring days arrived with the deliciousness of the sun’s warmth.
“I will give her more time,” Thunder Horse said, stepping back from the entranceway. He sat down before the fire, and Sweet Willow sat next to him. “This is a moment in my life I will savor, especially when I have troubles heavy on my mind. These moments with my woman will erase bad and add good to my memory. I will make Jessie happy. I will bring comfort to her heart when she bears her first child. And then the time will come when she bears me a son from our own union. And . . . then . . . a daughter.”
Jessie’s heart pounded as Lee-Lee and Jade fussed over her, helping to arrange the gown of whitened deerskin that was heavy with beads and long fringes.
Her belly pulled too tightly at the dress that Sweet Willow had secretly made for her before they left for the Dakotas.
Sweet Willow had not expected Jessie to be this big with child when she married Thunder Horse.
“I love the fringes and beads,” Jessie murmured, but blushed when she saw the swell of her bosom where the dress fit too tightly across her breasts.
She saw too much cleavage, but Lee-Lee ingeniously corrected the problem by placing a cluster of white mountain flowers at her neckline. The blossoms not only hid her cleavage, but also gave off a sweet aroma that smelled like rich French perfume to Jessie.
“You are so clever,” Jessie said, giggling. “Now I won’t have to blush so much when I step before Thunder Horse’s people to speak vows with my beloved.”
She sighed with appreciation when she gazed down at her leggings, which were trimmed with quills of porcupine, as were her moccasins.
“I will complete you now,” Jade murmured as she dusted the part in Jessie’s hair with pulverized ocher ore, as well as the dried powder of a prairie dustball.