Savage Illusions

They ga­zed smi­lingly at one anot­her a few mo­ments lon­ger, then Brown Elk frow­ned. "How is it that you are alo­ne?" he sa­id, his vo­ice drawn. He swept his eyes over her, se­e­ing her com­p­le­te di­sar­ray.

Then he ga­zed in­to her eyes. "How did you find this Blac­k­fo­ot vil­la­ge?" he sa­id softly. "How long ha­ve you be­en wan­de­ring, lo­oking for it?"

Jolena was ca­ta­pul­ted back to the tra­gic ac­ci- dent. She lo­we­red her eyes, truly not wan­ting to talk abo­ut it.

Not the de­ath of tho­se she lo­ved!

Nor of Two Rid­ges' de­ce­it of a fri­en­dand ne­ar ra­pe of his fri­end's wo­man!

All of this ca­used a bit­ter ac­he to cir­c­le her he­art, yet she knew that she must tell at le­ast part of the tra­gedy.

She wo­uld not re­ve­al Two Rid­ges' true na­tu­re to his pe­op­le. That wo­uld hap­pen so­on eno­ugh, when he re­tur­ned to the vil­la­ge and saw that she was the­re! He wo­uld not know if she had or had not told what he had do­ne.

This wo­uld ma­ke him re­act stran­gely eno­ugh in front of his pe­op­le so that they wo­uld ask what was the ca­use of his be­ha­vi­or. She wo­uld stand back, smi­ling smugly when he tri­ed to in­vent a lie that might free him of all bla­me and sha­me!

"You show such pa­in in yo­ur eyes," Brown Elk sa­id as he pla­ced a fo­re­fin­ger be­ne­ath Jole­na's chin, for­cing her eyes to lock with his. "What has hap­pe­ned? You can tell yo­ur fat­her."

Then his eyes wi­de­ned with hor­ror as he on­ce aga­in swept them over Jole­na, re­mem­be­ring that Spot­ted Eag­le and Two Rid­ges had go­ne to gu­ide a gro­up of whi­te pe­op­le. Le­pi­dop­te­rists, he be­li­eved they we­re cal­led. Co­uld his da­ug­h­ter ha­ve be­en among tho­se pe­op­le? If so, whe­re was Spot­ted Eag­le and Two Rid­ges? They had be­en hi­red as gu­ides!

"Spotted Eag­le and Two Rid­ges?" he cri­ed. "Do you know the­se two Blac­k­fo­ot?"

Jolena felt her thro­at be­co­me con­s­t­ric­ted at the men­ti­on of tho­se na­mes. "How wo­uld you know that I did?" she sa­id in al­most a whis­per.

"Then you are in the Mon­ta­na Ter­ri­tory se­eking but­ter­f­li­es?" Brown Elk sa­id, his vo­ice gu­ar­ded.

"Yes, I was," Jole­na sa­id, fin­ding it dif­fi­cult to spe­ak abo­ut it wit­ho­ut re­li­ving in her mind's eye all over aga­in the tra­gedy of it all.

Brown Elk pla­ced his fin­gers to her sho­ul­ders. "You say that as tho­ugh you are no lon­ger a part of the ex­pe­di­ti­on," he sa­id, his vo­ice drawn. He glan­ced at her dis­he­ve­led clot­hes aga­in and at her tan­g­led ha­ir, sud­denly fe­eling as if he was drow­ning in­si­de at the tho­ught of what this all me­ant.

"Where is Two Rid­ges?" he sa­id in a rush of words. "Whe­re is Spot­ted Eag­le?"

Jolena sta­red up at him, re­ali­zing that he had gu­es­sed what had hap­pe­ned, and she dre­aded ha­ving to tell him that what he fe­ared was in part true.

One Blac­k­fo­ot war­ri­or was de­ad.

The ot­her…

Oh, God, what co­uld she say abo­ut the ot­her?

This mo­ment, when she sho­uld be happy to ha­ve fi­nal­ly fo­und her true fat­her and true pe­op­le, she felt trap­ped­t­rap­ped by so­me­one el­se's li­es and de­ce­its and lusts.

Chapter Twenty-One

The sud­den alarm in Brown Elk's eyes ma­de Jole­na awa­re that he per­haps knew her an­s­wer be­fo­re she spo­ke the words out lo­ud.

Even tho­ugh tal­king of Spot­ted Eag­le's de­ath wo­uld te­ar her he­art apart, Jole­na knew that she had no cho­ice but to tell her Blac­k­fo­ot fat­her the truth. She owed him so much for ha­ving be­en de­ni­ed his da­ug­h­ter for the first eig­h­te­en ye­ars of her li­fe, and she ne­ver wan­ted to be an­y­t­hing but trut­h­ful with him.

"Spotted Eag­le and Two Rid­ges we­re do­ing well the­ir task of ke­eping the ex­pe­di­ti­on from harm," she sa­id, swal­lo­wing hard. She ner­vo­usly clas­ped her hands be­hind her. "But the­re was not­hing they co­uld do abo­ut the fi­er­ce lig­h­t­ning. It ca­used the mu­les and hor­ses to go wild," she sa­id in a rush of words. She lo­we­red her eyes, fin­ding it even har­der than she had at first ima­gi­ned to tell the rest. It wasn't that she had ac­tu­al­ly se­en Spot­ted Eag­le's hor­se be­co­me spo­oked eno­ugh to carry Spot­ted Eag­le over the cliff. She knew it to be true be­ca­use Two Rid­ges had told her that it had hap­pe­ned.

Her he?

?art skip­ped a be­at. What if Two Rid­ges had be­en tel­ling a lie, in ho­pes that she wo­uld le­an on him for pro­tec­ti­on in the ab­sen­ce of her be­lo­ved Spot­ted Eag­le?

Then she felt fo­olish for such a tho­ught.

Even Two Rid­ges co­uld not be that vin­dic­ti­ve.

She had to ac­cept that Spot­ted Eag­le was go­ne­fo­re­ver.