Savage Arrow (21 page)

Breathing hard, his heart thumping wildly, Reginald straightened his back and found himself gazing up into the dark, stern eyes of none other than the young chief.

“Chief Thunder Horse,” he said, hating the trembling in his voice. He was very aware of the heaviness of that large, copper hand on his shoulder.

“What are you doing here?” Thunder Horse asked, his voice stern, his anger obvious. “And where is your horse?”

“I . . . I . . . left my horse and buggy back yonder,” Reginald breathed out, pointing.

“Why?” Thunder Horse asked, his eyes narrowing angrily. “And again, what are you doing here? You know that you are not welcome on our land.”

“It doesn’t belong to you anymore and you know it,” Reginald said quickly, then wished he had not spoken.

But he didn’t like hearing the savage claim something that was not his. It was only out of the kindness of the president that these savages were still in this area on land that belonged to the United States. Personally, he could not wait to see the last of this pack of wild, flea-covered savages.

He wanted to scream out that his cousin had no place among such savages, to demand to know why she was there in the first place. Had she been abducted?

Oh, surely she hadn’t come here of her own volition.

Would she have truly chosen this sort of life over what he had offered her?

He cursed himself silently over having forbidden her to play the piano, for it seemed his reaction to her playing had precipitated her departure.

But he couldn’t mention Jessie to this savage, for to do so would be to tip his hand . . . to reveal that he was trying to find a way to claim her again as his!

Thunder Horse found it unbelievable that this tiny, sweating man could stand before him and speak so coldly about whom this land did or did not belong to. Thunder Horse wanted this man out of his village. He couldn’t stand the smell of him, or the sight!

“You still have not said why you are here, or why you chose to walk instead of ride into my village,” Thunder Horse said dryly.

“I walked because I wanted to get into the village instead of being stopped as I was last night when I tried to come and talk with you,” Reginald gulped out. “If I came in my buggy, it would have made too much noise. I felt that once I got inside your village, I would be able to get a few moments of your time to plead my case.”

“And that is?” Thunder Horse asked, stunned to learn that this man had came last night to try to speak with him and no one had told him about it.

He was also surprised that this man had been able to elude his sentries. He had sneaked through the forest, where the trees were thick and the shadows dark. Thunder Horse had to correct this weakness in his defenses by making certain his sentries were placed among the trees, too.

“Thunder Horse, may I go to your lodge with you, where I can sit down while we discuss my situation?” Reginald asked, his eyes pleading through the thick lenses of his glasses.

Just the thought of this man being in his private lodge, where Jessie even now sat waiting for Thunder Horse’s return, made him shiver with disgust. Jessie had heard the wheezing and coughing before anyone else. She had been aware at once that Reginald was somewhere close by.

“Say what you have come to say and then return to your home and never come here again,” Thunder Horse said tightly. “You know that you are not welcome here, or else you would not have sneaked around like a frightened skunk to request time with this chief who sees you as evil and worthless.”

“Alright, then, I’ll say it and leave,” Reginald replied. “Thunder Horse, I have come to beg for mercy. Please stop the nightmares. I . . . I . . . haven’t gotten any decent sleep since they began. You know that you have the power to stop them. Please, oh, please, I beg of you.”

He shoved his hands into his front suit jacket pockets and pulled out many shiny gold coins. He thrust them toward Thunder Horse. “Here, take these, and there are many more in my pockets,” Reginald said, wheezing almost uncontrollably.

“Lord, Thunder Horse, what else can I do to make you understand the severity of the situation?” Reginald said, a sob lodging in his throat. “Please, oh, Lord, please, take the coins. They can buy you a lot of supplies. Hand
me a bag. I’ll fill it with these and all the others I have in my pockets. I . . . just . . . need a decent night’s sleep.”

Thunder Horse’s jaw tightened. He gazed at the coins, and then raised his eyes and glared at Reginald.

“No, no payment,” he said. He gestured with his hand toward the forest. “Return to your horse and buggy, for you see, little man, there will never be any forgiveness from my people. Your life is what you made it to be; now live it.”

“Forever?” Reginald choked out, unaware that the coins were spilling from his hands as he dropped them to his sides. “I will be forced to have . . . these . . . nightmares forever?”

“Forever,” Thunder Horse said firmly. “You disturbed the peace of our sacred cave forever. Leave. Do not return.”

Reginald was struck dumb by Thunder Horse’s refusal to have mercy. He stared up into the chief’s dark eyes.

And then a rage filled him that he had never felt before. He leaned into Thunder Horse’s face. “You will pay for this,” he growled out. “I will find a way. I’ll go to the authorities and tell them what you’re doing to me. They will come and force you and your people to go to the reservation now, not later.”

“You know what will happen if you do this,” Thunder Horse said, a slow smile quivering across his lips.

“What . . . will . . . happen?” Reginald gulped out.

“They will think you mad,” Thunder Horse said, now openly smiling down at Reginald. “So do as you must and then live . . . and die . . . with the result.”

Reginald took a slow step away from Thunder
Horse, then turned and began running as fast as his weak legs would take him. Yet his heart was filled with an almost uncontrollable hatred.

Jessie.

Yes, Jessie.

He would get back at Thunder Horse through Jessie.

He would kill two birds with one stone.

He would take Jessie away from the Indians and he would at the same time make her pay for what she had done to him.

No woman double-crossed him and lived to tell of it, not even a cousin.

Thunder Horse watched Reginald until he couldn’t see him any longer, then gazed down at the coins. He stepped up to them and with a heel, he ground what he could into the ground. It was the hunger for such coins that had sent Reginald Vineyard into the sacred cave to take silver from it.

Thunder Horse wanted nothing that came from such greed.

“Thunder Horse, I am sorry that I didn’t tell you Reginald Vineyard came here last night while you were gone,” one of his warriors said from behind him, drawing Thunder Horse quickly around. “He did not make it into our village. I stopped him and sent him away.”

“He will not come again,” Thunder Horse growled, then walked past the warrior and hurried into his lodge, where Jessie stood over the fire, visibly trembling.

She turned quickly when she heard him enter.

She hurried to him and flung herself into his arms.

“He is gone and will not return,” Thunder Horse said, holding her close.

“What if he saw me?” Jessie said, leaning away so that she could look into his eyes.

“It would not matter if he did, for he knows better than to bring trouble into my village for any reason,” Thunder Horse said. He framed her beautiful face between his hands. “My woman, you are safe. Nothing will ever come of this meeting, even if he did see you.”

“He is an unpredictable man,” Jessie said, still bewildered that he had turned into such an evil man after being a decent person in his youth.

Of course the children poked fun at him then, because of his bad eyesight and small stature, but she had thought he had ignored those humiliations and had made a good life for himself as an adult.

She knew now that she’d been terribly wrong. He had made a true mess of his life.

“He might be unpredictable, but he is also a coward who tries to seem otherwise,” Thunder Horse said. “He will never get a chance to harm you. I won’t allow it.”

Feeling truly safe, and loving Thunder Horse so much, Jessie eased back into his arms. “I know that you will keep me safe,” she murmured. “I shall not worry another minute about what happened here today, not even if he, by chance, got a glimpse of me.”

Yet inside her, where her fear of this cousin of hers was centered, she knew that no one could watch her one hundred percent of the time for the rest of her life, not even this strong and wonderful Indian chief!

She would just have to be cautious in everything she
did from now on. She would have to be certain to watch all around her whenever Thunder Horse wasn’t near.

She clung to Thunder Horse, reveling in the safety she felt while she was in his arms.

A fire burned softly in the cave where Jade and Lee-Lee sat beside it. On every side they were surrounded by solid rock, except overhead, where the cave gave way in places to open sky, and smoke from the fire filtered slowly through the spaces.

“What if someone sees the smoke created by our fire?” Lee-Lee asked, watching the slow streamers float up. “Mother, what if Reginald Vineyard sees it?”

“The smoke is not enough to draw anyone’s attention,” Jade reassured her. “By the time it escapes through the cracks, it is quickly dissipated into the air. I planned all this, Lee-Lee, after I found the cave and came inside to see if it could be used for our temporary hideaway.”

She laughed softly. “And you do not have to worry about Reginald seeing it,” she said. “He would never come close to this cave again. He fears the spirits of the cave too much.”

“Mother, you are more daring than I ever knew,”
Lee-Lee said, giggling as she reached a soft hand out to her mother and twined their fingers together. “Oh, Mother, had I been forced to stay another night in that . . . that . . . horrid place, I surely would have killed myself.”

Jade gently squeezed Lee-Lee’s hand. “Do not ever talk that way again,” she said. “You are free, and soon we shall find a new life where we can feel like humans again. Reginald Vineyard treated us as though we were slaves and tried to take our spirit from us, but as you see, he did not succeed.”

“Spirits,” Lee-Lee said, visibly shivering as she looked slowly around her. On the cave walls were paintings that had been drawn by the Sioux many years ago; they were fading and sometimes even crumbling from the wall, leaving images that were hardly discernible. “Are . . . we truly . . . safe from the spirits . . . of this cave?”

“Do you feel them around you?” Jade asked, following the path of her daughter’s eyes, also seeing the faint drawings.

“Nay,” Lee-Lee said, turning her eyes back to her mother.

“They are here, but they will not bother us,” Jade said firmly. “We are good people. They know it. They only torment the bad.”

“Reginald Vineyard is very, very bad,” Lee-Lee said tightly. “I am so glad they are causing him distress as he tries to sleep. Mother, I would have loved seeing him running down the corridor, screaming and afraid,
as you saw him. That would have almost made my long stay in his crib worthwhile.”

“Nothing could make what you were forced to do worthwhile,” Jade said, smoothing her daughter’s long black hair back from her face. “Oh, daughter, what you had to do is too horrible to think about, yet . . . you . . . were made to do it.”

Lee-Lee humbly lowered her eyes. “
Ai
, Mother, it was like living in the pits of hell,” she said, swallowing hard. She looked quickly up again. “It is true, nothing would make that worthwhile. I . . . was . . . only—”

Jade placed a gentle hand on her daughter’s lips. “I know,” she said. “You do not need to explain anything to me. I am your mother. I know everything about you, even your deepest thoughts.”

Lee-Lee wiped tears from her eyes. “You are such a good mother,” she said softly. “But I loved Father, too, and, oh, Mother, I miss my brother Tak Ming so much.”

“
Ai
, as do I miss them both,” Jade said, then reached for another piece of the cheese she had brought from Reginald’s kitchen. Then she took a slice of bread that she had sliced only moments ago from the loaf she’d made late the night before in anticipation of her escape.

She placed the cheese on the bread and handed it to Lee-Lee. “Daughter, eat this,” she softly encouraged. “You have wasted away to almost nothing while in that
puh-kao
, that bad place.”

“While I was there, I did not wish to eat,” Lee-Lee said, taking the bread and cheese. She eagerly ate as her mother took an apple from the food basket and bit into it.

Jade again gazed at the drawings on the wall. “I find the drawings in this cave mystical,” she murmured. “They are not frightening at all to me.”

“
Ai
, they are becoming less frightening to me, too,” Lee-Lee said. “But, Mother, when can we leave? It is damp and dark in here. I feel chilled through and through.”

Jade laid the apple aside and went to pick up some of the firewood that she and Lee-Lee had gathered when they first arrived.

She took several small branches to the fire and placed them amid the flames.

She sat down again beside her daughter, then lifted a blanket and placed it around Lee-Lee’s frail shoulders. “We must stay here at least a week,” she said, her voice drawn. “We must wait for Reginald to give up on finding us.
Ai
, perhaps a week will do. Then we will go to the Indian village that Jessie was trying to find.”

“What if they do not like it that we stayed in their sacred cave?” Lee-Lee asked, wrapping the blanket more closely around herself.

“Did you not say that the nephew of the chief is kind and understanding?” Jade asked.

Just then something on the far wall caught her eye as the flames of the fire cast a brighter glow around her. Her eyes widened, for she thought she was seeing streaks of silver.

She knew that silver was what had made Reginald rich. Surely he had come and taken it from this cave.