Proud Wolf's Woman (8 page)

“I believe your sister would marry me to a white slave,” Neeheeowee interrupted to say to Mahoohe.

And though Mahoohe chuckled, Voesee raised her head, looking down her nose at the two men, though she addressed only Aamehee. “Would you tell these two Cheyenne warriors that this is not something I say to make them laugh? I believe the white woman has great spirit.”

Neeheeowee paused, giving Voesee an amused glance. At length he spoke, but still only to Mahoohe. “I believe the white woman has enchanted your sister, my friend.”

And to Voesee’s choked cry, Neeheeowee continued, saying, “It would appear your sister would like to see me united with someone who has no Cheyenne heritage. Do you think she forgets that the white woman is without family or kindred; without any moral or social standing in our community? I ask you, my brother, do you think your sister forgets that a Cheyenne husband would desire to know if his future wife is honorable?” Then, without even a smile, he leaned over toward Mahoohe, adding, “You had better watch your backside, brother, or next she will have you taking all the village widows as second, third, and fourth wives.”

And while Mahoohe laughed, Neeheeowee silently congratulated himself. Voesee had a habit of ignoring tradition and poking into other people’s affairs when she shouldn’t, and he hoped that in this teasing way, his words would keep his sister-in-law from prying too carefully into concerns where she was not welcome, those matters being his own private life.

But when Neeheeowee glanced up to catch Voesee’s gaze, he groaned. His sister-in-law was not to be put aside so easily.

Voesee had drawn herself up, her back straight, her head thrown back. She smiled, causing Neeheeowee to bring his brows together. “I must assume,” Voesee said after a while, “that my brother-in-law from the north cannot see beyond this white woman’s rags. I am greatly concerned about his eyesight.” Here she leaned over toward Aamehee. “I will ask my son to tell him that I will solicit the village medicine woman to make strong brew to help him see.”

Mahoohe grinned, while Neeheeowee scowled, sending a quick glance up toward the heavens. And looking over to Voesee, Neeheeowee found himself wishing that he could ignore the woman. However, he couldn’t. For while custom clearly tabooed communication between brother and sister, the opposite remained true for brothers- and sisters-in-law. These relatives were expected to tease and to poke fun at one another directly, and the more people involved in the joke, so much the better.

He had just closed his eyes and sighed when a thought hit him. Ah, yes, here was a plan, here was a way to keep Voesee from prying too deeply into his personal affairs. And if it also had the effect of making Voesee think next time before she spoke, so much the better.

Neeheeowee didn’t smile. He wouldn’t. But that didn’t keep him from leering at Voesee before he said, “Sister-in-law, I have heard your words, and I have thought on them. I believe there is some wisdom in what you say and after thinking on it, I would be more than happy to purchase the white slave that you mention, but I will tell you now that I would not make this woman my wife. I believe that my sister-in-law forgets that I have other things to attend to that would not allow a wife into my life. I would ask my sister-in-law if she does not remember the Pawnee who…” Neeheeowee broke off. One did not speak of the dead, even if that dead be a beloved sister or wife. And so without so much as a shrug, Neeheeowee continued, “Sister-in-law, I will buy this slave. But I would buy her on condition, that condition being that my honorable sister-in-law should take the white woman as sister to her—”

“She is too old!” Voesee burst out, causing Neeheeowee to sit back, relaxing against the willow backrest as he watched Voesee struggle to subdue her urge to speak out. After a short while Voesee once again addressed Neeheeowee, saying, “My brother-in-law from our northern cousins has quick tongue, I think. But surely he knows that this white woman is too old for me to take her on as sister. It would be too hard to adopt her into our own customs. No, as I said. Not good sister…good wife.”

Neeheeowee smirked and, leaning over toward Mahoohe, said,
“Eaaa!
Do your ears hear what mine do? Does my esteemed sister-in-law say that she will not have the slave, yet she would expect
me
to give up my life, to marry this white woman, and to tame this woman to our ways as well? Be careful, my brother, your sister has lost all sense, I think.” Both men snickered.

“Tell my wise and great brother-in-law,” Voesee broke into the two men’s amusement and spoke to her young son as though Neeheeowee weren’t present, “tell him that I would desire to have the slave as sister if she were fifteen winters younger. But tell him also that it cannot happen now. The white woman is too pretty, and I would worry that my husband might find her so, also. No, not good sister would the white woman make…good wife…”

Neeheeowee made a deep sound in the back of his throat while Aamehee quietly spoke up from the sidelines, saying, “You must understand, my brother,” she spoke to Neeheeowee. “Your sister-in-law, Voesee, is wise to protect herself. After all, what woman would sanction the competition of another, beautiful woman within her own household? Even if attractive herself, a first wife would find the presence of such a one as this white woman disturbing.”

Neeheeowee nodded toward Aamehee, not wishing to tease the shy, withdrawn wife of his brother-in-law. “You speak wisely, wife of Mahoohe,” he said, “though I would still query my sister-in-law, Voesee, to ask if she has thought well on this. I wonder if she sees that here is a unique opportunity for her—to have again an older sister; someone to share the work, someone to help with chores, with the children. Besides, there would be no competition between Voesee and the white woman unless her husband were to solicit the white woman as second wife and then—”

“It is that possibility that would torment me!” Voesee looked away, toward Aamehee, then back to Neeheeowee. At length, she addressed her son once again, who sat at Neeheeowee’s side. “Would you explain to my northern brother-in-law,” she said, “that my husband may yet take another wife, but I would not want it to be someone who is so…so…”

“Pretty?”

It was her son who spoke, and Voesee smiled, at last agreeing, “Yes, pretty.”

Neeheeowee didn’t respond. Instead, glancing up and speaking as though to the air, he said, “It is too bad. I was hoping that either my brother-in-law, Mahoohe, or his sister, Voesee, would take the white captive into their home. Tell them, little nephew.” Neeheeoee leaned forward, away from his backrest to try to gather the attention of the young boy. “Tell your elders here for me,” Neeheeowee said, “that I am bound to purchase this slave, no matter the consequences of that purchase.”

The small child of no more than ten years of age opened his mouth to speak, but instead of uttering a word, he gaped at his uncle. In truth, the whole atmosphere inside the tepee echoed the same response. Silence ensued.

At length, Mahoohe said into the quiet, “Tell us about this, my brother. Tell us about how a man who is too involved with revenge to even look at another woman, is now bound to purchase a pretty, white slave.”

Neeheeowee said nothing, merely raising his shoulders, and Mahoohe continued, saying, “Come, come now. I am sure I am not alone in wondering, my brother-in-law, how a white slave could mean so much to you. All my life I have known you, and for these past seven winters I have beheld you as the man who married my younger sister; a man who even now would avenge my sister’s death; a man without emotion, intent only upon revenge. And I cannot understand how a white slave girl could cause the sentiment I witness in you at this moment. For there is emotion in you today; emotion that I have not seen in you for… My brother, I see that this girl is pretty, but…”

“I know her.”

It was a simple statement, yet it conveyed everything Neeheeowee wished to say on the matter; it also had Mahoohe straining up in silence for several moments, listening for more explanation while he gazed over to his brother-in-law, though, at length, Mahoohe merely asked, “You know her?”

“Haahe,
yes.” Neeheeowee nodded. “I met her some years ago when I accompanied one of my Lakota brothers on a mission of revenge which carried us into the soldier town the white men call Fort Leavenworth. She is the friend of my Lakota brother’s wife, who is also a white woman. It was there that I came to know the woman they call Julia. It was there that I came to call her friend.”

Voesee gasped. “You call a woman who is not a part of your kindred friend?”

Neeheeowee nodded.

“The white world allows this?”

Again, Neeheeowee nodded, saying,
“Haahe,
yes, it is so. They have many strange customs. But do you see now that I am duty-bound to purchase this white slave? I have pledged friendship to her, meaning that I must protect her. I cannot allow her to suffer the consequences of captivity. And I must see that she is safely settled, for I could not allow her to travel with me. It would put her honor at stake, plus it would distract me from my purpose. Would you not…?”

“Naaaa!”
Voesee came up onto her knees as she looked directly at Neeheeowee. “My brother-in-law, I have come to admire the white woman, but please, as I said before, it would be too hard for her to become sister. She would be feisty and she might attract the attention of my husband. No, I do not wish it.” Voesee paused, then, after a moment, she sat back down and leaning over toward Aamehee, she said, “I have seen this white woman at the stream in the morning. I have seen her courage, have witnessed her stamina. I believe she has a good heart, I believe she is brave.” This said, she glanced back toward Neeheeowee. “I can see that you have a problem, my brother-in-law, for if you do not make this woman your wife, as I think you should, and I cannot make a sister of the white woman, what will you do with her?”

“I do not know,” Neeheeowee answered, then, turning toward his brother-in-law, he stated, “I had thought to make her a present to you, Mahoohe.”

Mahoohe choked on the puff of smoke he had just inhaled. Amidst coughing and sputtering, he said, “As you have heard, my brother, one such as she would upset my household.” Here he looked to his wife, who in her own turn, nodded.

Voesee shook her head, also in agreement. “Yes, she is too…pretty and already a woman. One such as she could not be brought into our households. Still…” Here Voesee smirked, a twinkle in her eye before she continued, “But wait, my brother-in-law, there is another in camp who would be only too happy to take the white slave into his household as wife. Se’eskema, Wart, is having trouble finding a woman. He would be easy to convince to take her.” Voesee smiled. “I would only ask you, my northern in-law, not to judge the poor man on his looks. Wart would be kind to the woman.”

“You would have me give her to Wart? I said that the woman, Julia, is my friend.”

“He would make a good husband.” It was his young nephew at his side who spoke, and Neeheeowee, rising up onto his knees, glanced down at the boy.

“Eaaa!”
Neeheeowee spoke at last to everyone present. “Have you all lost your sense?”

No one said a word as all within the tepee, save one, grinned.

“Come, come, my brother.” Mahoohe was the first to take pity on his northern relative. “If you must purchase the slave, then you must. But I hope you are ready to make a hard trade; for my brother, the Kiowa warrior who owns her, treasures his slave, I think.”

Neeheeowee didn’t respond—at first. Then, “What do you mean?”

Mahoohe smiled before he spoke. At last, he said, “My good brother-in-law, what would you trade for the slave?”

Neeheeowee shrugged, sitting back down into position. “I will have to part with one of my ponies since they are my wealth. But come now, you avoid my question.”

Mahoohe paused, seemed to reflect for a moment, then said, “I am afraid, my brother, that it might take more than one pony to buy your friend away from her captor.”

“Why do you say this?”

“Her Kiowa master refuses to part with her.”

Neeheeowee took this message with a great deal more nonchalance than he felt, and he wondered why the matter affected him so. At last he spoke, again to his brother-in-law. “What do you mean,” he asked, “refuses to part with her?”

Mahoohe raised an eyebrow, looking away, before saying, “Just as I said. We arrived here at the trading fair before the others. We saw the war party as it came in and settled into camp. We saw the white woman and we thought her Kiowa captor might have brought her here to trade. But we soon learned it was not to be. Her captor tells a story of killing the woman’s husband in a fight with the blue-coated soldiers. He says because of her, he now has much medicine. He says she was braver than her husband.”

Neeheeowee nodded, and, at length, he said, “That is a good story, but you evade my question, brother. How can a man refuse to part with a slave? It seems strange to me. Can you tell me what you know about these Kiowa people who own her?”

Mahoohe sat in silence as was Indian custom, the rule being, one should think before speech. At last, Mahoohe glanced up, saying to his brother-in-law, “I know little about them save that the Kiowa mistress is cruel, though it may be that the woman is only jealous. After all, would it not be appropriate for a woman to feel suspicion when her husband suddenly brings home a beautiful captive and refuses to sell her for offers worth a great deal more than her value?”

“Others have tried to purchase her? Is that what you have been trying to tell me?”

“So it is said.”

“And who are these people?” Neeheeowee stared at his southern relative, drawing back within himself. He didn’t like the sudden feeling of something gnawing in his gut. He didn’t like it, he did not understand it, nor would he acknowledge it.

“Oh,” Mahoohe said, a sly humor in his voice, “several of our young men have offered ponies for her. This is why I said it may take more than one of your ponies to purchase her.”

“How many ponies have been offered?”