Swift Horse

Almost dizzied by her feelings for this man, she leaned up and twined her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his. Soon they were kissing passionately, their bodies straining together, until they heard someone clearing his voice behind them.

Startled that her brother had caught her being this intimate with Swift Horse, Marsha blushed and stepped quickly away from the Creek chief.

“Perhaps your marriage should take the place of mine that has to be postponed,” Edward James teased, his eyes dancing as he looked from his sister to Swift Horse.

“Perhaps . . .” Swift Horse said, bringing Marsha’s eyes quickly to him.

For a moment there was a complete silence, then Edward James broke the spell as he stepped up past Swift Horse and Marsha. “I must get back to work,” he said, smiling devilishly at them as he left the cabin.

Swift Horse again drew Marsha into his arms. “It is something to think about,” he said thickly. “A marriage soon between us.” Then he stepped away from her and left, leaving her absolutely stunned and in awe of what had just happened.

She touched her lips with her fingers where Swift Horse’s lips had just been. “Did this truly happen?” she whispered, stepping quickly to the door to watch Swift Horse walk toward the huge council house where he was to meet with his warriors again in council.

She felt strangely weak in the knees and she could not get past the fact that he might truly be serious about marrying her.

“Can this truly happen?” she whispered.

Chapter 16

Come slowly, Eden!

Lips unused to thee,

Bashful, sip thy jasmines,

As the fainting bee.

—Emily Dickinson

The day was exceptionally warm for the month of October. The wind blew softly through the window beside the bed where Soft Wind lay in a soft, peaceful sleep.

“It is still Indian summer,” Marsha whispered to herself as she rocked slowly in a chair beside Soft Wind’s bed, crocheting. She paused with her work to gaze at Soft Wind. Marsha was taking turns with the other women of the village sitting with Soft Wind until she was able to leave her bed.

“Sleep sweetly,” Marsha whispered, reaching over to smooth a fallen lock of Soft Wind’s hair back from her eyes.

“She sleeps, I see.” A voice now so familiar to Marsha spoke up behind her.

She turned and smiled at Swift Horse as he came into the bedroom in his fringed buckskins, his hair long and loose today, with its usual lone feather hanging from a coil of the hair.

“Yes, she is sleeping,” Marsha said, laying her sewing on the bedside table.

She wasn’t quite used to how her heart could change so rapidly from beating its normal rate inside her chest to something erratic and thumping, which always happened when she first saw Swift Horse again after not having seen him for several hours.

She smiled and rose from the chair as he came to stand over the bed beside her.

“My sister’s wound will soon be well and she can resume her plans for marriage,” he said, reaching down and placing his palm on Soft Wind’s brow. “Good. She still has no fever. That means that her body is strong enough to fight back the heat that I felt around her wound last night.”

“Yes, I, too, thought she might have an infection,” Marsha murmured, standing so close to Swift Horse now, she felt as though her entire being was one huge throb, her excitement to be with him again was so intense.

“I have brought Pretty Doe to sit with my sister so that you can leave,” Swift Horse said, turning to Marsha.

She looked over her shoulder and saw the lovely maiden standing in the living room, waiting, a basket of beading materials in her right hand. Then she smiled up at Swift Horse. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I guess I should go home to the chores that await me. I still haven’t made the bread that I had planned to make two days ago.”

“Can it wait one more day?” he asked, searching her eyes with his. “I have some spare time on my hands. I would like to spend that time with you.”

“You . . . would . . . ?” Marsha asked, her eyes widening as she gazed more intensely into his.

“It is a good day for a ride,” he said. “Can you spare the time to share a ride with me?”