Savage Skies (23 page)

“I . . . am . . . so afraid of storms,” Shirleen sobbed, clinging to Blue Thunder as she trembled against his powerful body.

She was so gripped by her fear, she did not even notice that his clothes were wetting her own.

“I am here,” Blue Thunder said, gently stroking her back. “You are safe from all harm.”

“I wasn't when I lived with Earl,” she said, finally composing herself. She still clung to Blue Thunder even when she realized her clothes were becoming as wet as his.

But that didn't matter.

The fact that he was there with her, protecting her as no man had since she had left the protective home of her father and mother, was all that mattered.

“He is someone you need not think about again, or fear,” Blue Thunder said softly. “He will never come near you again.”

“But it will still be hard to forget the terrible memories that are evoked by thunder and lightning. I am afraid I shall always associate storms with . . . with . . . Earl Mingus,” she said, vividly recalling Earl's bizarre behavior during the most violent storms.

“Why is that?” Blue Thunder asked, stepping away from her. He gazed questioningly into her eyes, which were red from crying. “What has he to do with storms?”

He looked past her at the sleeping child. He found it strange that Megan would be sleeping through the horrible booms of thunder, which shook the ground upon which she slept, while her mother was so afraid of them.

Feeling much more at ease now that Blue Thunder was there with his wonderful way of soothing her woes, Shirleen was able to take a deep breath. Then she became aware of Blue Thunder gazing at Megan.

She turned and looked at her daughter, too. “She sleeps so soundly,” she murmured. “The experience she has just gone through has exhausted her. She woke for a minute when the
storm began, but I took her into my arms and rocked her until she fell asleep.”

“She will be alright,” Blue Thunder said, trying to reassure Shirleen of something he was not sure of himself.

But they both had to believe that in time Megan would be able to leave behind the dreadfulness of these past days, now that she was no longer the prisoner of a father who used her as a pawn.

“Yes, I know,” Shirleen murmured. She wiped away fresh tears from her eyes, then turned and looked at Blue Thunder standing there dripping wet. “You will catch your death of cold if you don't get out of those clothes. Let me help you.”

In a matter of moments his wet clothes were removed and he wore fresh buckskins.

Shirleen dried his hair with a soft cloth. Then they stood before one another, their gazes meeting and holding.

He noticed how she flinched when the thunder boomed again, and how her eyes took on a frightened look.

“Tell me what he did to you while it stormed to make you dread thunder and lightning so much,” he said. He took her hand and led her down onto the plush pelts beside the warm fire. “Once you release the memory from inside you by telling me about it, you will be rid of it forever. I will see that thoughts of that evil man never come into your mind or heart again when it storms.”

“He was . . . is . . . such a maniac,” Shirleen said. She nervously pushed her thick hair back from her face as she gazed into the dancing flames of the fire.

Then she looked quickly over at Blue Thunder. “Earl loved storms,” she explained. “He would go outside during the worst of a storm. He would stand there laughing hysterically as he gazed up at the sky. It was as though the demon in him was unleashed during storms.”

She lowered her eyes, swallowed hard, then gazed into Blue Thunder's eyes. “After the storm passed over, Earl would come back inside our home and throw me to the floor and force himself on me sexually. It didn't matter if Megan was standing there, witnessing this cruelty to her mother. She saw me wince and cry out as Earl became like a wild man when he finally reached sexual release.”

She paused, gazed over her shoulder to be certain that Megan was asleep, then looked into Blue Thunder's eyes, again. “Once he was finished with me, he would give me a kick, then leave the house for a long time,” she said coldly. “He . . . would . . . go away on his horse for hours at a time. I never knew what he was doing, or where he was going. I was just glad that he was finally gone so that I could compose myself and . . . and . . . try to help Megan get the horrible sight of what had happened to her mother out of her mind by telling her stories and singing to her.”

The more Shirleen told about how horribly
treated she had been by that maniac, the more determined Blue Thunder was to prevent Earl Mingus from boarding the riverboat. Blue Thunder was going to make certain Earl could never abuse another woman as he had abused not only his beloved Shirleen, but also his precious former wife.

As the thunder continued to roar and the lightning raced across the heavens, sending its bright flashes through the buffalo covering of the tepee, Blue Thunder reached for Shirleen. He brought her over to sit on his lap, facing him.

“I have something to tell you,” he said thickly as she searched his eyes with her own. “I was not sure if I should tell you just yet about it, but after hearing what that crazed white man did to you, I feel this is the exact time that I should tell you something about Earl . . . and . . . my wife.”

“Earl and your wife?” Shirleen said, her eyes widening in wonder. “What is there to say?”

“While Speckled Fawn was drinking with Earl, he bragged about something that horrified her,” he said angrily. “It is so horrible I cannot rest until vengeance is mine. And it shall be, soon.”

“What did Speckled Fawn tell you?” Shirleen asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“That hideous man bragged to Speckled Fawn that he raped and killed an Indian woman . . . who was my wife,” Blue Thunder said, his voice revealing a mixture of
emotions—hate, sadness, and, yes, a deep need for vengeance.

“What?” Shirleen gasped, clutching her throat. “He told her . . . what?”

Both thought of Megan at the same time and turned to look at her before saying anything else about the horrors Earl had committed.

When they found that she was still sleeping soundly, a blanket drawn up to her chin, they looked into each other's eyes again.

He repeated what Speckled Fawn had told him, how the rape had occurred, and then the murder.

“Lord, oh, Lord,” Shirleen said. “I knew he had a sadistic side, but I didn't know he could be so completely evil.”

“You are fortunate you were not harmed worse than the beatings, my woman,” Blue Thunder said, twining his arms around her and drawing her against his chest. “It could have been you. He could have killed you, too, with the same knife that he used on my wife.”

Suddenly a memory came to Shirleen that caused her to jerk quickly away from Blue Thunder. She swallowed hard as she gazed intently into his eyes.

“There was a day, about a year ago, when Earl came home from a hunt empty-handed and with a look of sadistic glee on his face that made me shudder,” Shirleen said, even now cold inside at the memory. “When I asked him about what happened while he was gone, why there was blood on his clothes even though he

had caught nothing, he just laughed at me and said, ‘Wouldn't you like to know?' ”

She swallowed hard again. “That must have been the day he raped and killed your wife, for Earl didn't touch me that night, which was unusual. Normally he never let me go to sleep without forcing me to do my wifely duty. He was a man with a never-ending appetite for sex. But that day? He seemed so pleased with himself, he did not need what he usually demanded from me.”

“When I am through with him, he will never again take sadistic pleasure from a helpless woman,” Blue Thunder said tightly.

“When will you go after him?” Shirleen asked.

“Soon,” he said, then eased her from his lap and placed her next to him. He reached for a blanket and brought it around both their shoulders. “As soon as the storm ends, my warriors and I will set out to find him. He will regret all of the wrongs that he has done to so many.”

He purposely changed the subject. “As soon as the ground is ready to receive my uncle, we will bury him,” he said softly. “But since the ground will not be ready for two sleeps, I will leave and take care of that other matter in the meantime.”

“I feel so blessed to have had those last moments with your uncle,” Shirleen said, recalling how Dancing Shadow had spoken to her and smiled. For a moment she had thought he
was improving, whereas in truth he was moments away from taking his last breath. “I discovered during those moments why everyone loved him so much.”

“He will be missed,” Blue Thunder said. “But he had a full life. He helped so many of our people when he was our shaman. He will never be forgotten.”

He turned to her and smiled into her eyes. “And soon everyone will see how much I love you, for there will be a wedding at the first opportunity,” he said, then drew her against him and gave her a sweet kiss.

He wanted Shirleen with every fiber of his being tonight, but for now, he would just relish these moments with her and her daughter.

But soon they would be man and wife and would hold each other and make sweet love each and every night.

He hoped they would bring a brother or sister into the world for Megan to love and adore. But whether that happened or not, she would no longer be an only child, for she would have Little Bee as her sister.

There would be much laughter around their lodge fire on cold winter nights. There would be popped corn passed around to brothers and sisters, for that was a special treat that Blue Thunder had shared with friends because he had no brother or sister to share it with.

He smiled at the thought of their future together, when all ugliness and sadness was finally a thing of the past!

But tomorrow?

He would ride from the village with vengeance like hot coals inside his belly. He would not rest until he knew that Earl Mingus no longer drew breath.

“I feel much better about the storm now that you are with me,” Shirleen said.

“Storms pass, but other things of the heavens never die,” Blue Thunder said, hoping to distract her from her fear of the storm. He gazed into her eyes. “Have you ever been intrigued by stars?”

“Always,” she murmured. “I have spent many hours staring up at the night sky, oh, so mystified by the moon and stars.”

“You are aware of what is called the Milky Way by your people?” Blue Thunder asked, smiling into her eyes.

“Yes, I have often looked at it in wonder,” she said, remembering those nights when she had sat on her father's lap on their front porch as he rocked her in the white wicker rocking chair.

“My people call it
moch-pe-achan-ka-hoo
, the backbone of the sky,” Blue Thunder said. “We believe it is as necessary to the support of the heavens as the backbone of any animal to its body.”

“That is a beautiful way to think about it,” Shirleen said. “My father would have loved that description of the Milky Way.”

“Would you like to hear what my people think about the moon?” Blue Thunder said. “It
is not believed to influence men or plants, nor to have any other property except to give light by night. My people believe the moon is eaten up by a number of moles, and Wakonda makes a new one upon the destruction of the old moon.”

He placed his hands at her waist and lifted her to sit on his lap, facing him. “My woman, I know you feel sad about my uncle's death, but where he will live upon his spirit's arrival in the heavens is a place much better than any upon this earth. It is an Indian paradise, where there is perpetual summer, abundance of grass, beautiful women, and every comfort Dancing Shadow might ever wish for. Also, he will see his friends and relatives. No quarrels, wars, or bodily pain exist there. All live in perfect harmony. So we should not mourn his departure from this earth, but rejoice in his going to a better place.”

“I am a religious person and attended church regularly with my parents before I left home with Earl, but no preacher ever spoke so beautifully of heaven,” she murmured.

“That is because your heaven and the Assiniboine's are vastly different,” Blue Thunder said softly.

“Then which Heaven will I go to once I become your wife?” she asked.

“My people's because that is where I will one day go, and we shall never part once we have joined our hearts as husband and wife,” Blue Thunder said. He smiled as she flung herself
into his arms and gave him a wonderful hug, making it clear that she did not want to part from him ever, even in death.

He now knew that he had definitely chosen the right woman to be his wife.

“My woman, I have something for you,” he suddenly said. He had not planned to give her the special gift just yet. He had thought to present her with this gift on their wedding day, but she had gone through so much of late, perhaps the gift would make her feel loved and appreciated even more than his words of encouragement.

“A gift?” Shirleen said as he gently lifted her from his lap. He took her hand and encouraged her to stand.

She turned and watched him go to one of his buckskin bags in which he stored his personal belongings.

When she saw what he took from it, her eyes widened. The fire's glow revealed a necklace that Blue Thunder now held spread out between his hands as he came back and stood before her.

She could not take her eyes off it as the silver reflected the shine of the lodge fire. The silver was adorned with many dazzling turquoise settings in the shape of teardrops.

“This was my grandmother's necklace, but never worn by her,” Blue Thunder said thickly. “My grandfather had it made for his wife, to present to her as a special gift. The day before he had planned to give it to her, she died.”

“How . . . sad . . .” Shirleen stammered.