Proud Wolf's Woman (28 page)

Yellow Woman shrugged. “It should not be his choice where he lives.”

“What do you mean?”

“In our tribe, it is not the woman who follows her husband to his kinship and family. Usually the man goes to the woman’s family. How else could she be taken care of if something happens to her husband? It is necessary that she remain within her own kinship circle for the sake of herself and her children.” Here Yellow Woman paused in her grooming of Julia’s hair. She looked around to catch Julia’s gaze.

“So you see, it is not unusual that he would go to another tribe, and that other tribe might not have such rigorous rules on marriage.”

“I see,” Julia said. “Is that really possible?”

Yellow Woman grinned. “Yes, it is possible, and if you truly love him and if he loves you, which I believe he does, there is a way that you two can marry.”

Julia sighed. “That’s what I thought at first, too.” She shook her head, causing her hair to fall from Yellow Woman’s hands. “But Neeheeowee is haunted by the ghosts of his former wife and child, who not only will not let him go, but who solicited a vow from him never to marry again. Yellow Woman, have you ever heard of such things?”

“Heehe’e,
yes,” Yellow Woman said, “but it is not always a wise man who courts communion with the dead.” Yellow Woman placed her hands on Julia’s shoulders. “There will be a way, my friend. You have his love, his passion. All who look at him can see it. It is up to you now to find a way to make that love blossom.”

“But I do not know your ways, your customs.”

Yellow Woman merely tilted her head. “It is up to you.”

“I would like to think so,” Julia said, “but I have no wish to cause Neeheeowee to break a vow, even though that vow hurts me.”

Yellow Woman sat forward, bringing her face around to look at Julia. “You are a good woman. There will be a way. Besides, nothing is forever. Our grandfathers understood this, and we have many ceremonies within our culture that can break such a pledge. Do not despair. You already hold his heart, and when you have that,” she said, “anything is possible.”

And Julia, listening to her, believed for a moment that perhaps it was true. Maybe, after all, there was a way.

Julia paced in front of the window, looking up now and again anxiously to scrutinize the scene outside her window. There wasn’t much movement that she could catch out there, it was too dark. The Indian camps stood off to her left. She could see those. Their campfires were bright, plus the singing and drumming from those areas drew the eye to look toward them, as well as the ear to listen to them. Julia grimaced, realizing that the incessant drumming was becoming a more and more commonplace noise to her.

She gazed outside once again. She could see figures dancing out there in the firelight, and she wondered if Neeheeowee were among them.

He hadn’t yet returned from dinner, and Julia had begun to wonder what was wrong. She worried, although, she tried to tell herself she had no basis for it. What, after all, did she truly know about Neeheeowee? To her, it appeared that his long absence was out of character, but on what did she base this?

She had come to know him on their journey, a time set apart from any other. She had never experienced what he might be like, how he might treat her when others were present. Perhaps his staying out till very late at night was usual for him.

She had no way of knowing.

Still, a voice within her reasoned, she knew him well enough to know that this was unusual for him. Something was wrong. What?

It made it all the worse since she had made up her mind as to what she would do, and she was eager to make it known to him.

She stared outside again. Stars glistened in the heavens above while a light breeze filtered in through the gauzelike window covering, the softness of the light wind bringing with it the scent of evening and the late spring aroma of prairie.

Julia sighed. The prairie in the evening was just as alluring as the prairie during the day, maybe more so. The hooting of an owl, the squawk of a nighthawk accompanied the ever present whine of the wind as it blew in upon her.

She closed her eyes and felt the sweep of the brief, strong wind. She wasn’t sure when it had happened, but somehow the lure of the plains had called to her. There was something out there, she felt. Something…although maybe it was just the sensation of knowing that one was a part of something tremendous. Maybe it was that which had seeped its way into her soul. Or perhaps it was the utter freedom of the open space that cried out to her; or mayhap it was the feeling of a wholeness of being.

Whatever it was, Julia felt the vigor of it lift her spirits, carrying away the weight of her worries, as though her troubles were mere phantoms, easily carried away by the wind. Julia sighed, barely hearing the door open and close behind her, and so when Neeheeowee spoke to her, she jumped, not expecting him to arrive before her so quietly.

“You are ready to go?”

“No, I mean…” Julia stopped and looked more closely at Neeheeowee. He wore all of his clothes. And though this might sound a strange observation to make, Julia had become used to seeing him in various states of undress; usually in nothing more than breechcloth and moccasins. So to see him before her in leggings and breechcloth, long shirt and moccasins seemed odd. “No, I am not ready to leave. I thought we left in the morning. Are you planning to travel through the night, now?”

“Haahe,
yes,” he said. “This is not a safe place for us right now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Little White Man tells me that many soldiers have been spotted on the road traveling toward this fort.
Also, there is a party of Comanche just arrived into the camps outside. Although there is an uneasy truce between my people and the Comanche, I do not wish to expose you to that danger, for the Comanche can be a cunning enemy.”

“That’s all very well, Neeheeowee, but I would rather leave after a good night’s sleep. What difference does it make if we leave now or before first light in the morning?”

He paused before he spoke, his features completely unreadable. “It makes a great deal of difference. Prepare your things,” he said. “We leave at once.”

“But I—”

“Unless you have decided you wish to remain here and go with the white travelers, you will have to come with me now.”

Julia frowned, but she didn’t argue. Instead she asked, “Where do you go to now?”

He shrugged.

“I have a request, then, if you have no particular place where you are headed.”

“I am listening.”

Julia shot a quick look at Neeheeowee and nodded before she shifted a lock of her long hair back behind her shoulder. She moved away from the window to walk over to the vanity. Once there, she looked in the mirror, seeing before her a woman who looked both Indian and white at the same time. Gone was the red paint Neeheeowee had spread over her face; gone were the braids. Instead Julia had freed her hair to hang loose, falling down almost to her waist.

She sat down at the vanity noting that she was still dressed in the Cheyenne dress given to her so long ago at the Kiowa camp. It had been washed and cleaned, the tear in the back mended so that it barely showed, and Julia realized there was a reason she still wore the dress, why she had not donned the white man’s clothing offered to her. And it wasn’t because she had become Indian.

She was still very much herself, a white woman in Indian clothing: But she had realized something very vital to her. She loved Neeheeowee. She might never find another one such as him again. Now that she had him, she did not intend to let him go. But she would not live with him, she could not. Not until he married her.

And to do that meant she had to stay with him. The problem now, as she could see it, became one of how to remain close to him and still keep her resolve.

She wasn’t sure she could do it.

She sent him a quick glance and then, standing up, she said, “This has been a very hard decision for me because, as you know, there is much feeling between us. At first, I thought to leave you. But there is nothing at the fort for me anymore. You were right when you said that my husband is dead. We had no children and my parents disappeared while making a trip east over five years ago.”

She glanced away. “My husband and I…we did not have a good marriage. You might even remember him because he is the one who used to torment you and your friends all those years ago at the fort. I was unhappy with him. I do not want to be unhappy again. While I have feelings for you now, without marriage, I am afraid those feelings would begin to fade. How long could I stand to feel the inferior of others? How long would it take before I would want to feel at peace with myself again? To be able to walk freely with my head held high?” She gazed back at Neeheeowee. “I am afraid it would not take me very long.”

“Then you wish to leave now?”

“No,” she said, glancing quickly toward Neeheeowee. But there was nothing to be read there upon his features. Stoically, he kept hidden any emotion he might feel. “I…I cannot bring myself to leave you. Besides…” She held his gaze, watching emotion sweep across Neeheeowee’s face, though it was just as quickly masked.

He didn’t, however, say anything, and so Julia continued, “I have discovered within myself a desire, a love perhaps, for the prairie. I find I yearn to be out on it. But I have found amongst my talks with Yellow Woman tonight something more. I have discovered that I desire to see my friend, Kristina. I know she still lives with the Lakota, and I wonder how she fares. It is within my ability now to go and see her, if you will take me. But I must tell you. I will not sleep with you. I will not make love with you again until the day we are married. And I would ask you to help me keep this resolve. So if you agree to take me, you would have to agree, also, to keep away from me.”

Neeheeowee swallowed. It was the only movement that exposed his emotion. At length, however, he said, “I will take you to her if that is your decision. I will also try to keep away from you, but I cannot give you my word on that because I am not sure I can do it. I will try. It is the best I can promise you. You will have to decide if that is good enough for you.”

Julia glanced at him and had the oddest impression of time standing still.

She hesitated. At last, though, she nodded. “If that is the best you can do, I will accept it.”

He inclined his head briefly before moving farther into the room. “We go at once, then. I will leave now to speak with my cousins and Little White Man. When I return, we will go.”

Julia, hoping she knew what she was doing, agreed.

Chapter Fifteen

“We will need horses in order to cross the prairie to your friend, Kristina,” Neeheeowee informed her as they set out from the fort on foot. “I gave the gentle mare to Little White Man, and it is just as well. The mare would only hinder us crossing the plains. She was too slow.”

“We will ride there?” Julia asked, gazing out over the land where they traveled.

“Haahe,”
he said and nodded. “The distance there is great and would take us too long on foot. I am now in my own country and that of my brothers the Arapaho and Lakota. I do not need to be careful to cover my tracks and so there is little reason why we should walk. We will obtain some horses.”

Julia looked at Neeheeowee, wondering how he intended to “get” horses. She had heard that Indians often obtained horses by stealing them from one another or from the white man. Is this what Neeheeowee intended?

She sighed, deciding she had to say something. “I must tell you, Neeheeowee, that I do not believe it right to steal horses,” she said.

“Steal? A horse?” Neeheeowee gave her a puzzled glance. “I do not steal. I might capture a horse from an enemy and this, like counting coup, is a great honor.”

Julia held her ground. “I believe it is stealing.”

Neeheeowee shrugged. “Sometime I will enlighten you as to the honors of counting coup and what it means to us and why. But not now, I think. And do not worry about this ‘stealing.’ You will like what we will be doing, I think.”

“I cannot—”

“We will be journeying to Black Lake,” he said. “You have heard of it?”

She shook her head no.

“It is a spot of much mystery and much beauty. The water there a man cannot drink, its taste is bitter, but the wild horse loves it there. The wild pony comes to this lake to drink of the bad-tasting water, even to roll around in it in delight. Julia,” he said, “I take you to capture the wild pony.”

Julia gasped, immediately contrite. “You do?”

He nodded. “You are in the land of the Cheyenne now. This land is full of wonders, but mostly it is full of buffalo and wild pony herds. Did you not know that it is from these pony herds that the Cheyenne have obtained so much of their wealth? The Cheyenne have little need to capture ponies from another, not when there are horses in these herds so easily taken.”

“I didn’t know that.”

He looked back over his shoulder. “No two tribes are alike. We may be allies with some, but we are not the same. Sometime I will have to teach you the differences.”

Julia smiled back an acknowledgment, saying only, “I would like that.” But deep within herself, she felt brighter. What he said gave them a future. And to Julia, who remained unsure as to how to find a place in this world for the two of them, it gave her cause to hope.

For the moment it was enough.

Black Lake was truly a land of enchantment. Situated, along with other small lakes, near the upper snag of the Sand Creek, the lake lived up to its description. Shallow and small in diameter, probably not more than four to five hundred yards across, the lake, which appeared black from a distance, sat in a valley that looked more like a fairyland of trees and deep, blue sky than wilderness. Horse trails from every direction led up to its shores, their routes deeply entrenched and heavily traveled. Off in the distance the sharp peaks of the Rocky Mountains loomed large.

Immediately Julia began to think of fairies and goblins and stones of magic and adventure, and as she looked out over the lake she said to Neeheeowee, “It’s beautiful.”