"Then your thoughts are on the travel ahead?" Two Ridges said, grinning smugly, knowing that his friend was not speaking the full truth to him. Yet he did not want to pursue further conversation about it when he had his own hidden thoughts and desires regarding the copper princess. "You think perhaps of having to fight off Cree renegades, especially the one called Long Nose, while protecting these people who know little of the dangers the Cree impose upon them?"
"Long Nose will dare not pursue a confrontation with the white people when he sees who guides them through the wilderness," Spotted Eagle said. "He understands that he will incur the wrath of this Blackfoot, whose warriors number three times those of the Cree. He learned long ago not to interfere in Spotted Eagle's life. My father taught me well the art of warring when it is required against those whose heart is dark."
"That is so," Two Ridges said, nodding. "You are respected far and wide. It is with the same admiration that this friend respects you and will humbly ride with you while guiding the white people on their search for the rare butterfly.
"The white woman," Two Ridges dared to say, having realiz
ed that his friend did not want to speak about her to him. "She is most beautiful, is she not? And it was strange how you acted as though you had seen her before."
Spotted Eagle's shoulders tensed as he looked away from Two Ridges, gazing toward the large cabin where he knew that Jolena was perhaps even now undressing for bed. Ah, but if he were only there, to touch her, to kiss her, to tell her that she had always been his.
Two Ridges stared at Spotted Eagle, hurt that he was ignoring him again. He set his lips tightly together and narrowed his eyes, feeling that this friend would one day show his annoyance one time too often.
Two Ridges looked away from Spotted Eagle, who was again glaring into the fire. He was beginning to sorely resent this behavior of his friend!
He would show him.
Chapter Seven
The bright sunrise and scurrying clouds were accompanied by a brisk wind. Several covered wagons pulled by mules were lumbering along this land that was a wilderness of wooded slopes, flowing mountains, and meadows. Streams tumbled over waterfalls. Blue lakes lay in peaceful valleys. Wild sage, balsam root, and wild larkspur spotted the land with their brilliant colors.
Spotted Eagle rode straight in his Indian saddle ahead of the wagons, Two Ridges faithfully at his side. Spotted Eagle shifted his eyes heavenward, feeling the effects of the Sun God shining brightly overhead as his buckskin clothes clung damply to him like a second skin.
Then Spotted Eagle took a look over his shoulder at Jolena as she wiped perspiration from her brow with a lacy handkerchief. Her brother handled the reins of their wagon, while experienced wagoners were at the controls of the other land vessels.
He frowned, recalling the bold, boisterousness of the wagoners, having seen them tease and flirt with Jolena more than once when the convoy stopped to allow their mules to drink from the streams and to give the men and women of this expedition time to eat and drink and to find private moments behind the tallest bushes before boarding their wagons again.
Not only had Spotted Eagle found the attention of the wagnoners to Jolena annoying, but he had watched Kirk's reaction, which was near the exploding point.
Spotted Eagle moved his eyes from Jolena and returned to watching for anything that might signal that the Cree were near. He smiled at the idea of Kirk trying to defend his sister against the large and bulky wagoners. It was obvious to Spotted Eagle that Kirk was not a man of muscle and would not be able to fight off his offenders if ever he tried. It would be up to Spotted Eagle to prove to Jolena who was the strongest of those who fought, hopefully causing her admiration to blossom into something more than what it might be now.
Spotted Eagle nudged the flanks of his stallion with his heels and rode off in a stronger lope, wanting to find a campsite quickly for this first night out from Fort Chance.
Jolena was uneasy on the hard wooden seat beside her brother. It was not altogether the heat that troubled her, but something else, as though she had just felt a silent bidding from someone.
Her heart raced, looking ahead at Spotted Eagle. Only moments ago he had given her a quick glance, but it had been long enough for her to see that same inquisitive look as before, as though he saw her as someone he had known in his past. She would never forget the first time he had looked at her, when he had reacted as though he had seen a ghost.
Whose, she wondered?
Who could she look like that he knew?
This gave her cause to hope that it had something to do with her true Indian family. If she resembled one of them, then perhaps she was not all that far, indeed, from the truth of her heritage!
Squirming again to get more comfortable on the seat, the sun pouring its heat down upon her, Jolena tried to focus her thoughts elsewhere, to pass the time until they stopped to make camp.
She was anxious for tonight.
She wanted to find a way to be with Spotted Eagle, alone, to try to make her midnight dreams and daytime fantasies come true.
After Kirk was asleep, she would go to Spotted Eagle. He was surely the reason she was feeling this silent, strange sort of bidding. She felt that it could come from no other than he whose heart was crying out to her. Jolena gave Kirk a steady stare. He was stonily silent, his jaw tight, after having had another confrontation with the brash wagoners the last time they had stopped to stretch their legs and to eat. She wanted to reach over and pat his knee and thank him for coming to her rescue, but she held her hand at bay. She did not want to encourage these confrontations and bouts of chivalry over a sister. She knew what his reaction would be if he ever caught her talking with Spotted Eagle. If he knew the deep feelings that she already had for Spotted Eagle, he would explode into a rage that no one would want to witnessespecially Jolena!
She turned her eyes and thoughts away from her brother, now watching around her again for butterflies, but disappointed anew. Even though it was a warm and sunny day and flowers dotted the land, all the butterflies had been elusive today. She hadn't spotted any, especially the euphaedra, with its turquoise, black and orange coloring, and a streak of pink on its wings.
But what was lovely to look at was this glorious country where nature had reared great mountains and spread out broad prairies. Along the western horizon, the Rocky Mountains lifted their peaks above the clouds. Here and there lay minor ranges, black with pine forests. In the distance they were mere gray silhouettes against a sky of blue.
Between these mountain ranges everywhere lay the great prairie, the silver gray of the wormwood lending a dreariness to the landscape. At intervals the land was marked with green, winding river valleys, and it was gashed everywhere with deep ravines, their sides painted in strange colors of red and gray and brown. Their perpendicular walls were crowned with fantastic columns and figures of stone or clay, carved out by the winds and the rains of ages.
Here and there, rising out of the plain, were sharp ridges and square-topped buttes with vertical sides. They were sometimes bare, and sometimes dotted with pinesshort, sturdy trees whose gnarled trunks and thick, knotted branches had been twisted into curious forms by the winds which blew unceasingly through gorges and coulees.