Savage Arrow (29 page)

He flung aside the robe and dismounted.

Jessie sighed with appreciation when she saw his handsomely beaded outfit. She trembled as he approached her now, like one would approach any shy creature of the earth, gently, slowly, one step at a time. Indeed, her heart felt as shy as that of a young antelope trembling behind a cactus plant.

Then he took Jessie’s hands and led her out of the lodge. Lone Wing came and took the lovely steed away and placed him among his uncle’s other prized horses.

The drums began softly beating, and someone
played a flute in the distance. Several women started to sing softly as the shaman came and stood before Thunder Horse and Jessie. All the people of the Fox band stood around them, smiling and watching.

The drums and flute continued playing as the shaman, Hawk Dreamer, ministered to the two who were seeking his blessing today, as well as the blessing of the Great Spirit.

“You now speak words to each other that can come only from your hearts, for I have said all that I can to bless this union of my chief and his woman,” Hawk Dreamer said, slowly stepping back and suddenly disappearing amid the crowd.

Thunder Horse held Jessie’s hands as he gazed into her eyes. “Today I take you for my wife, to protect and love you forever and ever,” he said with deep emotion, his eyes searching hers. “What is mine is now yours, for my shaman has not only blessed us, Jessie, he has married us. We are now as one with each other. Your heart is joined with mine. Our souls are as one until the day we part from this earth, and even then they will remain united, for nothing can ever separate us. Not even death. Jessie, from here on, I will care for you and the children you bear me. You will never be out of my mind. My
mitawin
, my wife, you are with me now for always.”

Jessie was amazed that she was already married and had not even been aware of when Hawk Dreamer had joined them as man and wife.

But she was glad that the ceremony wasn’t as complicated as she’d thought it might be.

She was Thunder Horse’s wife!

She could hardly hold down her excitement, but knew that she must, for she had words to say to Thunder Horse, too, words to tell him of her love and commitment.

“My love, my chief, my husband, I will always be here for you, as your wife and the mother of your children,” Jessie murmured as his hands gripped hers gently. “However you want me to be, I shall be. I want never to disappoint you. When I bear children, I will eagerly hand them over to you to hold and to love. My darling Thunder Horse, my husband, I love you now and forever and ever.”

He drew her into his arms and kissed her gently at first, and then more ardently and passionately.

The singing began again, and the drums beat more loudly. Many other instruments added their voices to the music, sending the wonder of it heavenward.

And then Thunder Horse took Jessie by the hands and turned her so that they both faced all of his people, which now were definitely also hers. “My people, may I present to you my bride?” he cried.

Cheers and chants rose into the sky.

Dancers began dancing around the huge fire.

Thunder Horse grabbed Jessie into his arms and carried her at a half trot to their new lodge.

After the ties were secured to ensure their privacy, they stood and faced one another. Between two stones a fire burned with the coal-like glow of cottonwood bark. Across the stones lay a large buffalo bone, the meat cooking slowly.

Before Jessie and Thunder Horse had come into the lodge for their first night as man and wife, a woman
had been there to turn the meat so that it would cook evenly and thoroughly.

It would be their first meal as man and wife, awaiting them after their lovemaking. They would crack the bone and before they ate the meat, each would suck out the tasty marrow.

“It is done,” he said, his eyes dancing. “We are now husband and wife!”

“It is a day I shall never forget,” Jessie murmured, flinging herself into his arms. “And I shall never disappoint you. Never.”

Slowly he lifted the flowers from her hair, and then with his teeth he removed those from between her breasts.

He dropped those flowers to the rush mats on the floor, then slowly removed her dress so that he could devour every inch of her with his feasting eyes.

“You cannot say that I am much to look at now,” Jessie said, smiling shyly at him.

He laughed softly. She knew that her body was terribly out of shape with the baby rounding her belly into a ball.

“No matter how your belly grows, you will always be beautiful to me,” Thunder Horse said hoarsely. “A child growing within a woman’s womb causes a radiance within the woman. I remember my sister when she was carrying Lone Wing inside her belly. She glowed. I recall how her husband could hardly take his eyes off her. Yet surely he did not love her as much as I love you, for I love you with every ounce of my being.”

“As I love you,” Jessie murmured, closing her eyes
in ecstasy as he kissed a slow path across her belly, and then downward, where she throbbed with need of him.

She threw her head back and sighed as he touched her with his tongue where she was already tingling and alive.

She wove her fingers through his thick hair and brought him closer to her. She felt as if she were floating on wings, as he brought her close to that realm of total rapture.

But wanting to be with him when she reached that treasured moment, she leaned back away from him.

He smiled at her, then removed his own clothes and soon lay over her. Their bodies moved together as though one, their lips meeting passionately in lingering kisses.

A flood of emotions overwhelmed Jessie as Thunder Horse, her husband, groaned against her parted lips while he moved slowly with acute deliberation within her. Gradually he moved faster with quicker, surer movements, each thrust almost sending Jessie over the edge into total bliss.

But she wanted it to last longer than this.

This was what she and Thunder Horse had waited for. The long journey now seemed far away. Finally they were together in their new lodge, married, she was so happy she felt she might burst from it.

Even now, she felt his hunger in the hard, seeking pressure of his lips. He held himself up and away from her, his eyes slowly moving over her.

“You awe me with your beauty,” he said huskily. “My
mitawin
, my wife, I shall love you for eternity.”

“As I shall always love you,” Jessie said, hugging his words to her.

She sucked in a wild breath of joy as his steel arms enfolded her again and he pressed himself more deeply inside her. She was overwhelmed by a need she was familiar with, now that her husband had taught her the true meaning of what it was to be loved. The ecstasy spread and swelled within her until it almost blotted out all other sensations.

Yet she still clung to the moment, wanting it to last as long as possible before reaching the ultimate pleasure with her new husband.

Thunder Horse reveled in the touch of her soft flesh against his, as licking flames spread through him. He could not get enough of her tonight as his hands moved over her.

He then reached his hand between their bodies, where they had come together as man and woman had since the beginning of time. He moved slightly away from her so that he could caress her warm and secret place, feeling a tremor go through her body as he touched that most vulnerable spot of a woman.

He flicked it with his forefinger, rubbed it, then moved down where he could touch her with his lips and tongue. He could hear her suck in a breath of pleasure as he moved his tongue over her. His hands were on her breasts, kneading.

But when he heard her breath coming more quickly, he knew that he had readied her for the ultimate bliss and moved over her with his body again. He thrust his
manhood inside her again and felt the euphoria that came with the final moments of ecstasy.

Then he could not hold back any longer. He clung to Jessie as his body exploded in spasms of desire. Simultaneously he felt her body jerking and quivering against his as she reached her own peak.

They clung for a moment, their breaths mingling as they kissed, and then Thunder Horse rolled away from her and lay on his back, gazing up through the smoke hole where the stars and the moon had taken the place of the sun in the heavens.

Outside, the celebration continued with much music and laughter, all of which was filled with hope for all their tomorrows.

“It will be a good life here in the Dakotas for my people,” Thunder Horse said as Jessie sat up beside him. “It was good to find the lone buffalo today before our celebration. It means that a herd cannot be that far away.”

Jessie said nothing to that, for she knew that most of the buffalo had been annihilated by the white man to starve the Indians.

It was as though God had placed this one buffalo near the village for their night of merriment. The largest portion of the animal now cooked slowly over the outdoor fire, the tantalizing aroma of its drippings filling the air.

“There should be many deer for your hunt,” Jessie said reassuringly. “And for our children, too.”

“This land that the government has put us on impresses me,” Thunder Horse said, wrapping a blanket
around them so that they sat beneath it together, their shoulders touching.

“Yes, it seems very nice,” Jessie murmured, not wanting to think negative things at such a time as this.

But she could not help worrying that what they had would not be everlasting. She just didn’t see the government being that generous when all along they had tried to make the red man disappear from the face of the earth.

“Our children will be happy here,” Thunder Horse said as if he was trying to convince himself of what he was saying.

“We will make it so,” Jessie said, then watched as he reached for a chunk of buffalo meat.

He gave it to Jessie. She took a bite, then handed it back to him. She was reminded of the weddings she had attended in Kansas City, where the bride and groom gave each other bites of the wedding cake. This meat was their cake!

“It is good,” Thunder Horse said, chewing.

“Yes, it’s good,” Jessie said, not wanting him to realize just how much she disliked the taste.

She preferred deer meat. Perhaps it was just as well that deer would be the main meat found in these hunting grounds instead of buffalo.

He laughed softly. “It is not all that good,” he said, his eyes twinkling as he gazed into hers.

Jessie laughed, too, as she tossed the greasy, tough piece of meat into the fire. “No, not really,” she agreed.

He reached for her and gently laid her back down on the blankets.

Her body became liquid as his eyes touched her, and then his fingers caressed her breasts.

He covered her with his body again, his lips trembling as he touched hers in a gentle and lingering kiss and thrust himself deep within her again.

The night was new to them, and they clung and rocked and found ecstasy again . . . and . . . again. . . .

The Moon of the Popping Trees—December

The years had flown by, it seemed. Jessie had had her first child, a son, whom they named Little Thunder, and then another, a daughter born of her love with Thunder Horse, whom they named Pretty Heart.

She was radiantly happy, and Lone Wing and Lee-Lee were making plans for their marriage now.

After eating their venison roast for supper, Jessie and Thunder Horse were sitting beside a slow-burning fire in their tepee, reminiscing about these past five years.

“It is not the ideal life here on the reservation, but we are making the best of it, as are all the other Sioux who have now been directed here to the Rosebud Reservation,” Thunder Horse said. “We are all one big family on the reservation, looking out for the best interests of each other.”

“It is good that the government didn’t force your
people into performing pretend hunts for whites in order to get your meat,” Jessie said. “
Ho
, the buffalo are long gone. But there are plenty of deer for our venison roasts.”

“
Ho
, there have been many black-tailed and whitetailed deer and elk, even grizzlies,” Thunder Horse said, nodding. “And there is plenty of stored food now that will last us the full winter.”

Jessie got up and held the entrance flap aside. She peered out onto what looked like a winter wonderland, where the snow sparkled beneath a winter sun.

The branches of trees were snapping and cracking all around the tepee like pistol shots. Inside, the tepee was lit and warmed by the immense logs her husband had provided for the lodge fire.

“The children are wrapped warmly in their buffalo robes with the hair inside,” Thunder Horse said, going and standing with Jessie as he, too, peered outside at the loveliness of the land.

“After the heavy thaw, a crust has formed on the snow, making it better for sledding, don’t you think?” she asked, gazing at Thunder Horse.

“
Ho
, and I am certain that Lone Wing and Lee-Lee have become children again as they sled with our son and daughter,” Thunder Horse said, closing the flap.

He took Jessie’s hand and walked with her back to the fire, where they again sat, their shoulders touching. “Lone Wing used his skills to make a sled for our children,” he said. “Hear them even now? Their laughter fills my heart with such joy.”

“The first time I saw the sled I was amazed at what it
was made from,” Jessie said, laughing softly. “Who would have guessed that you could make a sled from old buffalo ribs and hickory saplings? It is clever how the runners are bound with rawhide, the hair side down. The sled slips so smoothly over the icy crust.”

“It is good that Lone Wing made use of the ancient buffalo bones he found before the first snowfall,” Thunder Horse said. “It was he who saw them as a perfect sled.”

“He is such a wonderful young man, so talented in so many ways,” Jessie murmured.

“My pride in him is no less than if he were my own son,” Thunder Horse said, smiling at her.

He reached a hand to the hem of Jessie’s skirt. “We have privacy now, which is rare during the day. Do you think we should take advantage of it?” he asked, his eyes shining.