Savage Illusions

"The elk tusks that de­co­ra­te yo­ur dress are worth two go­od hor­ses," Mo­on Flo­wer sa­id, gig­gling.

Then she grew se­ri­o­us. "You are a be­a­uti­ful bri­de," Mo­on Flo­wer mur­mu­red, te­ars fil­ling her eyes at the tho­ught of her own mar­ri­age vows that had be­en de­ni­ed her not only on­ce, but twi­ce!

"I fe­el be­a­uti­ful," Jole­na sa­id, her pul­se ra­cing. "Now what do I do? I'm so ex­ci­ted, Mo­on Flo­wer, I fe­el as tho­ugh I may fa­int!"

"Go to Spot­ted Eag­le," Mo­on Flo­wer sa­id softly. "He is wa­iting for you in yo­ur lod­ge."

"He is the­re, in my lod­ge that sits in the cir­c­le?" Jole­na sa­id, the be­ats of her he­art a gre­at pul­sing so­und in her ears, her ex­ci­te­ment was so in­ten­se. "Do you think he ap­pro­ves of the lod­ge?"

"Who wo­uld not ap­pro­ve, if yo­ur hands we­re res­pon­sib­le for it," Mo­on Flo­wer sa­id, dra­wing Jole­na in­to her soft em­b­ra­ce. "Go. Be happy."

Tears of joy stung the cor­ners of Jole­na's eyes. She eased from Mo­on Flo­wer's em­b­ra­ce and tur­ned and wal­ked with we­ak kne­es and throb­bing he­art to­ward the vil­la­ge, whe­re her lo­ved one wa­ited to ma­ke the­ir uni­on com­p­le­te. She felt as tho­ugh she we­re flo­ating high abo­ve her­self, lo­oking down on so­me­one el­se ex­pe­ri­en­cing such blis­sful hap­pi­ness!

She smi­led he­aven­ward, si­lently than­king the one who was truly res­pon­sib­le for this spe­ci­al day. "Lord, I shall fo­re­ver be gra­te­ful," she mur­mu­red. Smi­ling, she knew that this was one cus­tom of her whi­te he­ri­ta­ge that she co­uld ne­ver le­ave be­hind her­her be­li­ef in her God was so­lidly im­bed­ded wit­hin her­self.

When she ca­me to the ed­ge of the cle­aring that led in­to the vil­la­ge, she stop­ped and sta­red at the te­pee that sat in the cen­ter, won­de­ring if Spot­ted Eag­le was as fe­ve­rishly an­xi­o­us as she.

Lifting her chin, pro­ud and su­re, she mo­ved on­ward, pus­hing her way thro­ugh the throngs of Blac­k­fo­ot who we­re al­re­ady in the midst of a grand ce­leb­ra­ti­on.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Jolena he­si­ta­ted only a mo­ment be­fo­re step­ping in­si­de her lod­ge­long eno­ugh to ta­ke a de­ep, qu­ave­ring bre­at­h­t­hen she lif­ted the en­t­ran­ce flap.

She had ex­pec­ted to find Spot­ted Eag­le sit­ting be­si­de the lod­ge fi­re. In­s­te­ad he was sit­ting in the sha­dows at the back of the te­pee. When he re­ac­hed a hand out to her, she went to him and knelt down be­fo­re him.

His eyes de­vo­ured her as he ran his ga­ze over her. An­xi­o­usly, she wa­ited for him to say so­met­hing.

When his ga­ze mo­ved up­ward and his eyes loc­ked with hers, she still wa­ited, for he did not spe­ak, only lo­oked.

''Is the­re so­met­hing abo­ut what I ha­ve do­ne in pre­pa­ra­ti­on for our mar­ri­age that dis­p­le­ases you?" Jole­na fi­nal­ly as­ked. "Dar­ling, ple­ase say so­met­hing. I am at a loss. I ha­ve do­ne ever­y­t­hing that Mo­on Flo­wer in­s­t­ruc­ted me to do. Is the­re… mo­re?"

"You ha­ve do­ne ever­y­t­hing to per­fec­ti­on," Spot­ted Eag­le fi­nal­ly sa­id. He re­ac­hed a hand to her ha­ir and to­uc­hed one of her bra­ids, then smo­ot­hed his fin­gers over the da­isy at her left ear. "In my eyes you ha­ve al­ways be­en be­a­uti­ful, but to­day yo­ur lo­ve­li­ness sur­pas­ses an­y­t­hing I wo­uld ha­ve tho­ught pos­sib­le."

He cup­ped her chin with one hand. "To­day two he­arts co­me to­get­her to be­co­me one li­fe," he sa­id so­lemnly. "To­day you ha­ve be­co­me my 'sits be­si­de me' wo­man. You are my wi­fe."

Jolena suc­ked in a wild, sur­p­ri­sed bre­ath. "We are mar­ri­ed?" she mur­mu­red. "The­re are to be no words spo­ken over us? No vows ex­c­han­ged?"

"Everything you did to­day, pre­pa­ring and brin­ging me fo­od and erec­ting yo­ur lod­ge, and my pay­ment to yo­ur fat­her are the things that se­aled our he­arts to­get­her as man and wi­fe," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, pla­cing his hands at her wa­ist, brin­ging her on­to his lap so that her legs strad­dled him. "The­re is so­met­hing mo­re, my wi­fe, to ma­ke it truly com­p­le­te."

Jolena twi­ned her arms aro­und his neck, rap­tu­re bu­il­ding wit­hin her. "Ma­king lo­ve in my lod­ge?" she mur­mu­red.

"Yes, ma­king lo­ve in yo­ur lod­ge," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, his eyes twin­k­ling in­to hers. "But not he­re in the cen­ter of the vil­la­ge for ever­yo­ne to wit­ness." "Oh, yes, I re­mem­ber now," Jole­na sa­id, sig­hing he­avily. "I must ta­ke the te­pee apart and set it up away from the vil­la­ge." Her lips cur­ved in­to a po­ut. "That will ta­ke so long, Spot­ted Eag­le. I am not skil­led eno­ugh at bu­il­ding lod­ges to re­mem­ber which po­le go­es whe­re or how to re­mo­ve the co­ve­ring and rep­la­ce it aga­in as it sho­uld be."

"It is not usu­al­ly the pla­ce of the hus­band to as­sist the wi­fe with the lod­ge on the day of the mar­ri­age, but I am su­re this ti­me it will not lo­ok all that unu­su­al sho­uld I help you. Our pe­op­le know you are new to our cus­toms," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id.

He drew Jole­na's lips to his and ga­ve her a pas­si­ona­tely hot kiss, then lif­ted her from his lap and drew her to her fe­et be­si­de him.

"Let us mo­ve the lod­ge el­sew­he­re qu­ickly," he sa­id hus­kily. "Then we shall se­al our bond of mar­ri­age. We shall ma­ke lo­ve, my wi­fe, as our pe­op­le ce­leb­ra­te and awa­it our re­turn. The­re will be many gifts then from the wo­men of our vil­la­ge."

He ga­ve her a slow smi­le. "They are al­ways most ge­ne­ro­us on a spe­ci­al wed­ding day," he sa­id softly.

Spotted Eag­le step­ped away from her and snuf­fed the fla­mes of the fi­re in the fi­re­pit by smot­he­ring them with blan­kets.

He then held out a hand for Jole­na.

She to­ok his hand and wal­ked out­si­de with him. They we­re re­ce­ived with much sho­uting, chan­ting, and sin­ging.

Jolena smi­led a thank-you to tho­se who we­re crow­ded aro­und her, to­uc­hing her, brus­hing her with qu­ick kis­ses, and hug­ging her.