Wild Splendor

“This woman you speak of is my wife,” Sage said, glaring at Chief Four Fingers. “Do not speak of her again to me.” He gave Leonida a comforting glance, then turned to the Kiowa chief again. “Your horses are now loaded with the supplies you have traded for. It is best that you leave.”

Chief Four Fingers stepped around Sage and took it upon himself to touch Leonida’s hair, sighing at its utter softness, and then he gazed into her eyes again, giving her a slow, sure smile.

Then he turned abruptly and left.

Sage held Leonida close until they could no longer see the Kiowa descending the mountainside.

“I’m frightened,” Leonida said, trembling. “Did you see the way he looked at me? He does not seem the sort to take no for an answer.”

“Chief Four Fingers needs the alliance of the Navaho too much to do anything foolish that might harm their peace,” Sage said, swinging her around so that he could hold her in his arms. “Do not fret so. While you are in my village, among my people, nothing will happen to you.” He looked in all directions, then into Leonida’s eyes again. “My sentries are posted well. They would let no one get past them, especially Chief Four Fingers, if he is caught sneaking about.”

A sudden soft cry next to them drew them apart. Leonida stifled a scream behind her hand when she discovered that Pure Blossom had fainted and lay sprawled out on the blanket, looking more dead than alive.

Sage fell to his knees beside Pure Blossom and whisked her slight form up into his arms. “I will take her to her hogan,” he said across his shoulder to Leonida. “Go to ours. I will return when my sister awakens. Stay in the hogan, my woman. You will be safe there.”

The fact that he was ordering her to stay in the hogan made Leonida realize that he did not trust that she was safe from Chief Four Fingers all that much, either. The thought of Four Fingers even getting near her, much less touching her, made shivers of dread envelop her.

“Let me go with you,” she pleaded, hurrying after him. “Perhaps I can help.”

“You must be at the hogan for Runner,” Sage said, again over his shoulder. “He was among the children moments ago, watching the council. He is probably in our hogan now, awaiting your return. We do not want to give him cause to become frightened. Go to him. Stay with him.”

Realizing that Sage was right, Leonida stopped and watched him carry Pure Blossom into her hogan, then turned and headed hurriedly toward hers. She glanced all around her, seeing the shadows deepening as the sun sank behind the high cliffs around the village.

Again she shivered, hurrying toward the hogan. She would be counting the minutes with her every heartbeat until Sage returned to her and she could find a safe refuge within his powerful arms.

Chapter 18

How small a part of time they share,

That are so wondrous, sweet and fair.

—EDMUND WALLER

Runner smelled clean from his bath as Leonida bent over him and drew a soft blanket up to his chin. She then kissed his brow and smoothed his black hair back from his face. “How sweet you are,” she whispered, touched by how he had listened so intently to her latest bedtime tale. She knew that soon she would have to start teaching him more than made-up tales. Since he would never have the opportunity to go to school, she would be responsible for giving him an education. Having been fortunate enough to have a thorough education herself, she knew even more than the fundamentals of English, mathematics, and . . .

A noise in the outer room catapulted Leonida’s thoughts elsewhere. “Sage,” she whispered. “Finally, he’s returned home.”

Anxious to find out how Pure Blossom was, she turned and walked briskly from Runner’s room, but stopped abruptly and gasped when she discovered Chief Four Fingers and two of his warriors.

Leonida’s knees grew rubbery and a scream froze in her throat when a third Kiowa warrior stepped up behind her and clasped his fingers around her mouth, his other arm grabbing her tightly around her waist.

Fear gripped her heart. She was too stunned to think straight, and then suddenly something seemed to snap inside her brain, releasing her from her fears. Finding the courage and strength to fight back, she pulled on the man’s hand that covered her mouth but couldn’t budge it. She grabbed and pulled at the arm locked around her waist. She kicked at him, but nothing caused him to loosen his hold on her.

Knowing that she was wasting her energy, which she might need later in her attempts to escape, Leonida stopped struggling and glared at Chief Four Fingers as he moved

stealthily toward her. Her heart was pounding at the thought that perhaps the whole village was at the mercy of his warriors, the fear that perhaps even now Sage lay dead.

The thought sickened her, yet she bravely held her chin up, her eyes looking unwaveringly into the Kiowa chief’s. She reminded herself that she had not heard any gunfire in the village or any commotion which might mean that the Navaho people had been taken by surprise in their sleep.

This gave her hope that perhaps she was the only victim tonight.

Her heart skipped a beat when she remembered Runner asleep in the next room. Should he awaken and come into the outer room to see what was happening, surely the Kiowa would kill him for his interference.

“No one denies Chief Four Fingers anything,” the Kiowa chief said. He held a rifle in one hand, and with his free hand he traced the outline of one of Leonida’s breasts with a forefinger, causing her to shudder with distaste. “Four Fingers wants a white woman slave? He takes her.”

Four Fingers stepped back from Leonida, smiling devilishly at her, and in what seemed a flash, she was gagged with a bright neckerchief and wrapped in the rabbit-fur cloak that had cushioned her back while Sage made love to her. A Kiowa warrior secured it around her with long strings of animal-hide rope.

Totally disabled by the cloak, Leonida could not fight back when she was lifted onto the shoulder of one of the warriors and carried like a bundle of potatoes toward the door. The last thing she saw in the hogan was the squash blossom necklace which had broken and fallen from her neck during her struggles.