When he did not answer her, Kaylene tried to rise on an elbow to move closer to him, to demand answers.
But the pain was too intense. She closed her eyes and breathed hard, then gazed over at Fire Thunder again.
“Surely what you think about my father is all a misunderstanding,” she said, in her voice a soft pleading. “Surely my father truly thought your sister was a runaway and took pity on her.”
Fire Thunder could not help but laugh sarcastically at that. “Yes, your father took pity on her and then locked her in a cage like an animal,” he retorted, his eyes blazing.
The memory of Little Sparrow in the cage made Kaylene ashamed and uncomfortable. She would always be ashamed for her father having done this terrible thing to the small child.
She turned her back to Fire Thunder. Weary over so many things, she closed her eyes, and soon drifted off into a restless sleep.
Fire Thunder sat up and stared at Kaylene. When she groaned with pain in her sleep, he eased over next to her. Gently he lifted her, and the blankets that she was wrapped in, onto his lap. While she slept, he rocked her, slowly. Back and forth he rocked her as his eyes devoured the loveliness of her face; the innocence.
He nestled her cheek close to his chest and kissed the waves of her hair at the back of her head, inhaling the perfumed sweet fragrance of it.
When she snuggled more comfortably against him, the fires of desire raging through him spoke to him in wild whispers, saying that this woman was his, forever his.
He would do whatever was necessary to make it so.
Chapter 7
I want you when the shades of eve are falling,
And purpling shadows drift across the land.
—ARTHUR I. GILLOM
A soft hand on Fire Thunder’s cheek awakened him with a start. He looked over and found Little Sparrow on her knees beside him.
He then followed the path of her eyes and discovered that he still held Kaylene on his lap, his arm on which her body rested numb from not having moved it for several hours. He had fallen asleep and Kaylene had not awakened yet to find herself there.
Fire Thunder looked awkwardly around him in the morning twilight, glad that none of his warriors had yet awakened. For certain he did not want to be caught in such a compromising position, showing that he cared so much for the white woman.
At least not yet. He had to secure her feelings for him before allowing anyone but Black Hair to know that he had plans that would bind their futures together as one.
Little Sparrow moved her hand to Fire Thunder’s free arm and shook it slightly, to draw his attention back to her.
He then watched her hands as, in sign language, she asked how Kaylene was this morning.
His hands not free to respond in sign language, he moved his lips in unspoken words that would tell his sister that it seemed that the white woman was all right. It was apparent that she had enjoyed a restful night of sleep.
He slipped the blanket down from Kaylene’s shoulder and gazed at the bandaged wound. No blood had seeped through it. That had to mean that the herbs were working well. The wound was healing.
As the sun peeked over the horizon in a great ball of orange fire, which would surely awaken everyone else, Fire Thunder anxiously, but gently and slowly, placed Kaylene back on the blanket beside the glowing embers of the campfire.
He watched her as she blinked her eyes open, being shifted from his lap and arms having awakened her.
Kaylene opened her eyes wildly and widely, at first disoriented as to where she was, and with whom.
Then she found two sets of eyes on her. One set, the child’s, smiled down at her. The other, Fire Thunder’s, studied her guardedly.
Kaylene gazed up at him, everything that had happened the prior day returning to her in flashes, causing her heart to ache to think about the fate of her father, and making the anger return against this man who was responsible.
Words failing her, to describe her feelings to her captor, Kaylene turned her eyes away.
She then looked slowly around again when she felt a tiny, soft hand on her face. She gazed at Little Sparrow as the child spoke in sign language to her.
Not familiar with sign language, Kaylene felt at a loss as to what to say in return. It was obvious the child was asking her something.