Savage Arrow (24 page)

“I know,” Jessie said, tears burning at the corners of her eyes.

“Go to my lodge and wait for me,” Thunder Horse said, searching her eyes. “What I must do must be done alone. Even my sister and nephew cannot join me as I prepare my father for burial. It is the duty of a son. I . . . am . . . that
micinski
, that son.”

He quickly drew her into his arms and gave her one last embrace, then turned and went back inside the tepee where his father awaited him.

Jessie hugged Sweet Willow and Lone Wing, then went alone to Thunder Horse’s tepee, where she began gathering things and packing blankets and clothes in parfleche bags for the long journey ahead. She did not want Thunder Horse to have to do this after burying his father. She was his woman and she would perform a wife’s duties for the man she would soon marry.

The thought of marrying Thunder Horse made these moments less sad, for soon she would be the wife of a wonderful, caring, powerful Sioux chief.

“Sioux chief,” she whispered, knowing that just a few weeks ago she would have been astonished to learn that one day she would be the wife of a powerful Sioux chief. That was not an ordinary thing—a white woman with an Indian, much less a chief.

But things had happened that made this so, and now she could not see how her life could ever be any other way than intertwined with Thunder Horse’s forever.

“I will always be here for you,” she whispered as she picked up one of his fringed shirts and held it tenderly to her bosom. “My love, oh, my love, I wish I could do something to help erase the pain of your loss, for I know how deep it goes. I have lost many I love, too.”

As she remembered the loved ones who had died such untimely deaths, and in such horrible ways, Jessie’s thoughts went to her one remaining relative.

Reginald Vineyard.

It did not seem right to have such a man as a relative. He had become a stranger to her in every way.

A shudder raced across her flesh as she thought about what Reginald might do in a desperate attempt to get rid of his nightmares. She was afraid of what he might do now that the Sioux had refused to lift the curse from him.

And, Lord, where was Lee-Lee? And how was Jade?

Would Reginald be cruel to Jade now that Lee-Lee had disappeared?

She felt as though she had let Jade down by not
helping her escape her cousin’s madness. But doing so would have jeopardized her own bid for freedom.

With so many concerns weighing on her mind, Jessie put her head in her hands and cried while Thunder Horse knelt beside his father and prepared him for burial.

He gently and lovingly placed new embroidered moccasins on his father’s feet, as well as a new robe, also with fancy embroidery work to match his moccasins, all of which Sweet Willow had prepared for her father’s burial.

After taking one long last look at his father, Thunder Horse slowly wrapped him in a red death robe, for in the Sioux culture, red was the color of honor.

When all of this was done, and prayers had been said over his father, Thunder Horse stepped outside and beckoned eight of his heftiest warriors to come to him. When they did, he gave them instructions about how to carry their late chief’s body to the sacred cave.

After they went into the tepee to await him, Thunder Horse announced to his people that the time had come. All but a few guards and the elderly, who must save their energies for the long trip ahead, would go to the cave for interment.

Jessie went to stand with Sweet Willow and Lone Wing as Thunder Horse stepped back inside his father’s tepee. Before long he reappeared, helping to carry the body of his beloved father.

With moans and wailing filling the air, the slow procession started off toward the sacred cave.

Jessie felt chilled through and through although it
was a warm, bright day, with only a few soft, puffy white clouds floating overhead in the blue sky.

Birds sang their sweet songs in the trees and eagles soared peacefully overhead, following the procession as though they knew the powerful man who would soon be placed with the other fallen chiefs of the Fox band.

To Jessie, it all seemed magical, mystical. She had a strange feeling that something was about to happen.

She looked slowly around her, at the people whose faces were like masks of sadness, and then sought the warriors who seemed to be lagging behind for a purpose, their powerful bows in one hand, their quivers of arrows on their backs. Their eyes seemed ever searching, and that added to Jessie’s apprehension.

She hugged herself with her arms, then walked onward, trying to banish such concerns from her mind and think only of Thunder Horse’s sorrow. He was carrying more than one burden on those powerful broad shoulders today.

The procession seemed to take forever, but finally she saw the entrance to a cave up ahead. She stopped suddenly when Thunder Horse and the others abruptly came to a halt. She smelled the smoke of a campfire, and wondered where it came from, and who had built it.

She watched as Thunder Horse stepped away from the warriors who held his father’s body. Her eyes widened when other warriors went to him and stood around him, talking and glancing toward the cave’s entrance.

And then suddenly they went inside, their bowstrings
notched with arrows. Everyone waited, looking questioning at each other.

Sweet Willow stepped closer to Jessie. “It appears that someone is inside the cave.”

“The smoke,” Jessie said. “Do you think it is from a campfire inside the cave?”

“I believe that’s what my brother thinks,” Sweet Willow said, nodding.

The color drained from Jessie’s face, for she supposed that Reginald had decided to ignore all the Sioux’s warnings and had returned to take more silver from the cave, regardless of the nightmares he had been experiencing. Wouldn’t it be the best way for him to get back at Thunder Horse and his people?

Jessie raised her eyes heavenward and prayed that what she was thinking wasn’t so.

Suddenly everything was quiet.

There was no birdsong in the trees any longer.

The eagles had flown away.

A strange sort of eerie thunder rumbled in the distance, where dark clouds had suddenly appeared and lightning could now be seen, sending its lurid streaks downward into the land. To Jessie, it was as if the gates of hell might be ready to open.

“Reggie, oh, Reggie, what have you done?” she whispered to herself. “May the good Lord be with you if you are the one who is found inside that cave.”

Jessie’s throat was tight and dry as she waited for Thunder Horse and his warriors to come out of the cave. She hated to think that Reginald would be daft enough to return there.

She grimaced when she heard Thunder Horse shouting from inside, asking if anyone was there.

“Your life will be spared,” he called. “Just come out with your hands over your heads.”

There was a moment of total silence, and then Jessie gasped and her eyes widened when she saw two warriors come out of the cave followed by Jade.

And surely the young woman behind her was Lee-Lee!

They were walking with Thunder Horse, their eyes filled with fear, their hands trembling as they held them up in the air.

Thunder Horse stepped around them as they all came into the sunshine. He gazed from one to the other.

It was apparent that they hadn’t yet spoken their names to Thunder Horse, or he would have looked at Jessie and smiled. He knew how concerned she had been about them.

Since it was evident that Jade and Lee-Lee were too afraid to speak, Jessie ran to them and flung herself into Jade’s arms, hugging her.

“Jade, you are alright,” she cried. “How did you manage to break away from my cousin?”

She stepped away and gazed at Lee-Lee, then smiled slowly as she took one of the young woman’s hands in hers. “And you must be Lee-Lee,” she murmured.

Thunder Horse stepped up next to Jessie. “These are the women you were concerned about?” he asked, seeing now that the fear had left Jade’s eyes, as well as Lee-Lee’s.

He smiled at Jade. “You must be the one who is named Jade and the other is your daughter Lee-Lee,” he said.

Suddenly someone else stepped up with excitement shining in his eyes. Lone Wing smiled at Lee-Lee and then up at Thunder Horse. “
Ho
, this is Lee-Lee,” he said, grinning broadly.

He wanted to embrace her but knew that it would not be appropriate. “Lee-Lee, I am so happy that you are no longer in that crib, and that you are safe,” he said, turning to her. “When I went to the crib today, you . . . were . . . gone. I feared what might have happened to you.”

“Mother came for me,” Lee-Lee said, her eyes shining as she gazed into Lone Wing’s. “We came to live in the cave until we felt it was safe to come to you at your
village. If we had come, would your uncle have welcomed us?”

Lone Wing cast Thunder Horse a quick glance, then turned back to Lee-Lee. “
Ho
, he would have, just as he will welcome you and your mother now,” he said, nodding.

He turned and faced Thunder Horse again. “Can they come with us as we make our journey to our new home?” he asked, searching his uncle’s eyes. “They would not be safe to stay in this area. Reginald would find them and . . . and . . . probably kill them.”

Thunder Horse placed a gentle hand on Lone Wing’s shoulder. “Nephew,
ho
, they are welcome among us for as long as they want to be with us,” he said.

He felt other eyes on him.

Turning, he saw Jessie smiling brightly at him.

He returned her smile, then looked first at Jade and then at Lee-Lee. “It is good that you are no longer with Reginald Vineyard,” he said kindly. “You will find much peace and love among my people.”

Lee-Lee gave Lone Wing a quick, bashful glance, then nestled close to her mother, whose arm swept around her waist.

“I am sorry if we disturbed anything in the cave,” Jade said. “But we knew that would be the one place Reginald would not look for us. I know how he fears the cave. I have witnessed the nightmares caused by his disturbing the spirits of the cave.”

“You do not have to worry about nightmares, for all know that you went there for good reasons, not bad,” Thunder Horse said, then turned to his people. “We
will proceed with the burial. There is not enough time to have the usual ceremony. It is best that we get my father inside the cave and then leave as soon as possible for the reservation. When I make promises, I do not break them, ever.”

He watched as his father’s body was taken into the cave. Then he went to Jessie and embraced her and gazed down into her eyes. “I want to sit for a while with my father and then I will join you,” he said sadly.

“I understand,” she murmured, then hugged him. “I will be waiting for you.”

She stepped away from him and went to stand with Lee-Lee and Jade. Lone Wing joined the others who now stood closer around their chief.

“My people, I need some time with my father,” Thunder Horse said, then gazed at the warriors who had just came from the cave. He nodded at them. “Escort our people to the village, then return to the cave at sunset to help me roll into place the boulder that will make it difficult for anyone else to enter our sacred burial cave.”

His warriors nodded, each embracing him in turn.

As they departed, Jessie felt uneasy about leaving Thunder Horse there alone. And she felt vulnerable without him.

She wondered if she would ever get over fearing what Reginald might do, especially now that he had lost not only her, but also Jade and Lee-Lee. She could not begin the journey to the Dakotas soon enough, for surely once they were gone, Reginald would forget them all.

It didn’t seem to take as long to return to the village
as it had to go to the cave, but just as they reached the point where they could see ahead into the village, Jessie felt her knees buckle.

“No!” many voices cried as others saw what Jessie had seen.

Sobbing and wailing, many broke into a mad run toward the village. Jessie stopped with Jade and Lee-Lee, stunned speechless by what lay ahead.

Bodies lay strewn all over the ground. The defenseless elders of the tribe had been ruthlessly slaughtered. The proud warriors who had stayed behind to stand guard had also been ambushed.

Killed!

Whoever had attacked the village had done it in a silent way—with arrows, which led Jessie to believe that an enemy tribe had come and taken advantage of Thunder Horse’s absence.

As Jessie stopped just inside the edge of the village, tears spilled from her eyes. Even the “Old One,” their band Historian, was dead.

“There is one survivor!” Jessie heard the warrior named Two Stones cry out. “It is not one of us, but a white man!”

“White?” Jessie whispered, again staring at the many arrows lodged in the backs and bellies of the fallen.

This ghastly deed wasn’t the work of an enemy tribe, but of white men? She shivered at the realization that Reginald must have had a role in this.

She knew he would not have been among the actual murderers, for he was too frail and cowardly to do something so daring.

She ran over to where warriors stood around the one survivor. Two Stones knelt beside him and held his head off the ground by a grip on his thick red hair.

“Who did this?” Two Stones asked through gritted teeth. “Who rode with you? Who . . . was . . . the leader?”

“I . . . am . . . part of an outlaw gang led by Bulldog Jones,” the man gasped out, although his shirt was covered with blood from a chest wound; the arrow still protruded from it ominously.

When the man said the name of the man who’d killed her father, Jessie ran to the bushes and vomited. She couldn’t believe that this man was still wreaking havoc and death everywhere he went . . . even killing those who were too old to defend themselves.

And why? Why would he do this?

Nothing had been taken from the tepees. Was it for the sheer pleasure of murdering that he’d led the attack? Jessie wondered.

Jade came and wiped Jessie’s mouth clean of vomit with the tail end of her dress, then held her for a moment.