Savage Illusions

"Two Rid­ges sa­ved yo­ur li­fe?" Jole­na blur­ted out, fin­ding that hard to be­li­eve now that she knew of Two Rid­ge's dar­ker si­de.

Having de­ci­ded not to tell an­yo­ne the truth abo­ut Two Rid­ges' at­tempt to kill him, Spot­ted Eag­le's jaw tig­h­te­ned and his lips be­ca­me tightly pur­sed. "Spot­ted Eag­le, why don't you an­s­wer me?" Jole­na mur­mu­red, then grew cold in­si­de, thin­king she al­re­ady knew the an­s­wer wit­ho­ut his ac­tu­al­ly sa­ying the words.

Footsteps be­hind her drew her tho­ughts and her pity el­sew­he­re. She wat­c­hed Brown Elk's ex­p­res­si­on as he step­ped in­to the mo­on­light just as Two Rid­ges' body was lif­ted from the hor­se and was car­ri­ed to­ward him.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Everyone step­ped asi­de as Brown Elk mo­ved at a dig­ni­fi­ed pa­ce to­ward the hor­se on which his son lay. He ma­de no so­und as he lif­ted Two Rid­ges from the hor­se and car­ri­ed him in his arms to­ward his dwel­ling, stop­ping be­fo­re en­te­ring his te­pee to ga­ze up in­to Spot­ted Eag­le's eyes.

"Did my son die with co­ura­ge?" Brown Elk as­ked softly, his eyes ha­zed with a sad­ness that he was trying to ke­ep wit­hin him­self.

Spotted Eag­le's in­si­des stif­fe­ned, fe­eling ever­yo­ne's eyes on him, es­pe­ci­al­ly Jole­na's as she shif­ted hers up­ward, ga­zing up at him as she awa­ited his res­pon­se.

Although Spot­ted Eag­le was a man of truth and ho­nesty, this ti­me he had to lie, for to tell the truth me­ant ca­using pa­in that was not ne­ces­sary. "He di­ed with both ho­nor and co­ura­ge," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, his vo­ice drawn. "Yo­ur son di­ed in pla­ce of Spot­ted Eag­le, for Long No­se's ar­row was me­ant for me, not yo­ur son."

"He di­ed so that you co­uld li­ve?" Brown Elk sa­id, his vo­ice bre­aking. He lo­we­red his eyes. "My son di­ed for a go­od pur­po­se then. He ke­eps the son of Chi­ef Gray Be­ar ali­ve so that he can one day be chi­ef of our pe­op­le!"

Jolena lis­te­ned to ever­y­t­hing that was be­ing sa­id, re­ali­zing that most was fal­se. She knew the evil that lur­ked wit­hin Two Rid­ges' he­art. She co­uld ne­ver see him as co­ura­ge­o­us or one who might do an ho­no­rab­le de­ed for the man who sto­od in the way of his ha­ving the wo­man of his de­si­re.

Jolena had to be­li­eve that Spot­ted Eag­le was co­ve­ring up so­me hor­rib­le truth. She co­uld see it in his eyes, in how they had wa­ve­red as he spo­ke to Brown Elk. She had he­ard it in his vo­ice, that what he had sa­id was pre­ten­se, su­rely to sa­ve hur­ting Brown Elk.

For now she held her ton­gue. But la­ter she wo­uld qu­es­ti­on Spot­ted Eag­le abo­ut it.

She co­uld al­so no lon­ger ke­ep to her­self the hor­rib­le sec­ret of what Two Rid­ges had at­tem­p­ted to do to her.

"Let me help you with yo­ur son," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, mo­ving clo­ser to Brown Elk. "Let me carry him in­si­de yo­ur dwel­ling for you."

Brown Elk fir­med his hold on his son. "No," he sa­id firmly. "I ne­ed ti­me alo­ne with my son, and then I will

go to a high pla­ce away from the vil­la­ge for my pri­va­te mo­ur­ning."

Brown Elk shif­ted his ga­ze to Jole­na. "To­mor­row you will pre­pa­re yo­ur brot­her for bu­ri­al," he sa­id softly. He lif­ted his eyes to Spot­ted Eag­le aga­in. "To­night ta­ke my da­ug­h­ter with you and see to her com­fort. She has spo­ken well of you, Spot­ted Eag­le. It is go­od that she has fo­und a fri­end in you, just as my son al­so saw you as a de­vo­ted fri­end. The fri­en­d­s­hip bet­we­en our fa­mi­li­es will be­co­me even clo­ser as we all be­co­me mo­re ac­qu­a­in­ted with my da­ug­h­ter."

Jolena was fil­led with dre­ad at what Brown Elk had sa­id­t­hat she wo­uld be pre­pa­ring Two Rid­ges for his bu­ri­al!

How co­uld she? She co­uld hardly stand to be ne­ar him when he was ali­ve, much less now when he was de­ad!

Brown Elk smi­led down at Jole­na. "I spo­ke to you of war­ri­ors co­ming to my do­or to co­urt you?" he sa­id softly. "Per­haps the­re is no ne­ed to lo­ok fur­t­her for a per­fect hus­band. Spot­ted Eag­le wo­uld ma­ke the best of hus­bands for my da­ug­h­ter."

Jolena's lips par­ted in sur­p­ri­se, and her he­art po­un­ded as she felt a blush rush to her che­eks. Al­t­ho­ugh she had just be­en fil­led with an ap­pre­hen­si­ve dre­ad for what wo­uld be ex­pec­ted of her to­mor­row, ever­y­t­hing el­se in her new li­fe se­emed to be fal­ling in­to pla­ce easily.

She had fo­und her true fat­her. She was lo­ved by a won­der­ful man. Her fat­her had even bles­sed the­ir uni­on wit­ho­ut kno­wing it! The only mis­sing in­g­re­di­ent in her hap­pi­ness was her re­la­ti­on­s­hip with Two Rid­ges. If only she and he co­uld ha­ve known each ot­her as brot­her and sis­ter!

His at­trac­ti­on to her had su­rely be­en be­ca­use he had mi­sin­ter­p­re­ted the­ir na­tu­ral clo­se fe­elings as lust!

She sho­ok her he­ad slightly, sor­row­ful for that part of her li­fe that she wo­uld ne­ver kno­wof sis­terly af­fec­ti­on for a brot­her ot­her than Kirk.

Kirk! she tho­ught des­pe­ra­tely to her­self. So much had be­en hap­pe­ning, her sad­ness abo­ut Kirk had slip­ped from her mind!

She tur­ned her eyes up to Spot­ted Eag­le, wan­ting to beg him to go and lo­ok for her mis­sing brot­her. If she and Spot­ted Eag­le had sur­vi­ved the storm, per­haps Kirk had be­en as lucky!

But now was not the ti­me to bring up one brot­her when anot­her was lying de­ad and be­ing mo­ur­ned by her true fat­her.

Later, when she and Spot­ted Eag­le we­re alo­ne, she wo­uld then talk of anot­her brot­her.

Everything be­ca­me qu­i­et as the re­ne­ga­de Cree's hor­se was bro­ught clo­se for Brown Elk to see and to ac­cept as his.

"This is the hor­se of the Cree re­ne­ga­de who kil­led my son?" Brown Elk sa­id, his ga­ze mo­ving slowly over the whi­te stal­li­on, se­e­ing its sle­ek­ness and its worth.