And she had been right!
Tears rushing from her eyes, and knowing how devastated Moon Flower must be feeling, Jolena went to her and drew her into her embrace. "I'm sorry," she whispered as the lovely, slight maiden clung to her, sobbing. "I'm sorry my brother couldn't accept both you and the child. I understand how you are feeling, and I want to be your friend."
Spotted Eagle watched the emotional scene with much love in his heart for his woman. He went to her and drew both her and Moon Flower into his arms.
Moon Flower enjoyed the closeness of her special friends for a moment longer, then broke away and went to Brown Elk. She gazed humbly up at him. "You will still have me in your dwelling?" she asked, her voice breaking.
"As long as you wish to be here," Brown Elk said, then drew her into his arms. "My little Blackfoot princess, you and your child will fill my dwelling with much happiness. That will be good for an old man like Brown Elk."
Jolena and Spotted Eagle crept from the tepee. When they got outside, Spotted Eagle swung Jolena around into his arms. He crushed his lips to hers and kissed her passionately, then swept her into his arms and began carrying her toward their tepee.
"Kirk? Did Kirk treat her terribly?" Jolena asked, as she peered up at Spotted Eagle.
"He said nothing to her after she told him," Spotted Eagle said. "He just mounted his horse and rode away. I stayed behind with her, to return her safely home. The other warriors went on with your brother."
Jolena sighed. "Well, at least the truth is out," she murmured. "Had Moon Flower waited, it could have been tragic for them bothand also the child."
Spotted Eagle carried Jolena into their tepee and laid her down on a pallet of furs beside the fire. Hurriedly, they undressed each other. Spotted Eagle knelt down over Jolena and brushed a kiss across each of her breasts, then moved his lips lower.
"Tonight," he said between kisses, "who needs blankets?"
He worshiped her flesh with his lips and tongue, then moved over her and filled her with his thick shaft. He held her hands above her head as he began his strokes within her, his mouth covering her lips with another fiery kiss.
Jolena could feel the passion rising in her. She lifted her legs and locked them around his waist, allowing him to move more deeply into her.
"I love you so," she whispered, as he slid his lips away from her mouth and moved them lower, where he could flick his tongue over her nipples. She strained her breasts upward, sucking in a wild breath of pleasure when he placed his mouth fully over one of them, sucking, licking, biting.
Spotted Eagle began moving his hands over Jolena, finding and caressing her every sensitive place until she was tossing her head back and forth, writhing from the rapture.
Then the explosion of their passion erupted. They clung and rocked and sighed.
Afterwards, they lay together, Jolena's leg draped over Spotted Eagle's thigh.
"Tomorrow you will be shown what is required of the Blackfoot woman before she becomes a wife," Spotted Eagle said, smiling down at her.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Spotted Eagle had eaten his morning meal of cooked sarvis berries without saying a word, making Jolena more anxious than ever. She had a hundred questions to ask about the marriage ceremony, and he had chosen to be uncommunicative. She was so excited that her life was finally turning into something sweet and peaceful, perhaps even normalhow could she not want to make sure that she did everything right at the wedding?
Picking at the berries in her wooden bowl, she kept giving Spotted Eagle harried glances but did not disturb him, for he seemed to be lost in deep thought about something.
Then she jumped with alarm when he set his bowl aside and rose to his feet. He began walking toward the door, still without saying anything to her. She wanted to go after him but refrained from doing so.
When he left the tepee, Jolena scampered to her feet, went to the entrance flap and slowly shoved it aside. Scarcely breathing, she watched Spotted Eagle walk through the village and then enter her father's dwelling.
''Why did he go there and not ask me to go with him?" Jolena whispered to herself, hurt that even in this way he was leaving her out this morning.
Her eyes widened when Moon Flower stepped from Jolena's father's tepee and headed toward Spotted Eagle's. When she got inside the tepee, Jolena gave her a warm hug, then took her hand and led her down on soft mats by the fire.
"I know that I should offer you food, but I'm so anxious to ask you about Spotted Eagle's strange behavior that I wish to discuss that with you first," Jolena said in a rush of words.
She moved to her knees and faced Moon Flower who was sitting calmly. In her eyes there was a mischievous, merry glint.
"Well?" Jolena prodded. "Why is Spotted Eagle in my father's tepee? He told me nothingjust left and went directly to my father's dwelling."
"You truly do not know, do you?" Moon Flower said, giggling behind her hand as she gazed into Jolena's anxious eyes. "You do not know the actions taken by a warrior when he wishes a Blackfoot woman's hand in marriage?"
Jolena's heart skipped an anxious beat, and she could feel a flush warm her cheeks. "That… is why he went to my father's tepee?" she murmured. "It's about our marriage?"