Savage Dawn (15 page)

Nicole was so glad to have finally gotten a good night’s rest, in a place where she felt safe, and loved.

It was early morning now and she had been given a basin of water for bathing. While she had washed herself, Eagle Wolf had gone down to the river where he had bathed with several of his warriors, and talked over the upcoming day’s activities.

But Eagle Wolf had returned now to his tepee, his long, black hair sleekly wet down his bare copper back. All that he had on was a breechclout that covered only what was necessary for modesty’s sake.

As Nicole sat there before the lodge fire, she felt especially pretty today. She was wearing one of several dresses that had been brought to Eagle Wolf’s lodge by the women of the village. They were gifts for the newcomer.

Today’s was a soft, white doeskin, embellished with various shells and beads along the hem of the skirt.

The neckline swept down low, leaving Nicole a
little self-conscious because the upper swells of her breasts were exposed.

As Eagle Wolf stood across the fire from where she sat, using a cloth to dry his long, black hair, Nicole caught his occasional admiring glance at that part of her body she rarely had shown to anyone.

She self-consciously swept a hand up over her breasts, eliciting a soft chuckle from Eagle Wolf as he caught her blushing.

“My woman, if you knew just how beautiful you look sitting there beside my lodge fire, with the glow of the fire on not only your cheeks, but also your breasts, you would not think to cover any of it from the view of this man who loves you,” Eagle Wolf said, glad when his words brought a smile to her face.

“I do find the dress so pretty,” Nicole said as she slowly moved her hand from her breasts. “And it is so soft. That was what I was doing. I was feeling the softness of the dress.”

She smiled and shook her head, knowing she wasn’t being completely honest.

“Oh, well, yes, I must admit that I was feeling a bit shy a moment ago,” she said, now laughing softly as she gazed into his dark eyes.

“And now?” he asked, tossing the cloth aside. “You are no longer shy? You are comfortable?”

“Yes, very,” Nicole said, again smiling. “And it is so generous of the women of your village to give me these beautiful dresses.”

She gazed down at the beads and shells on the skirt of the dress. She ran a hand slowly over them. “The shells and beads are so beautiful and delicate,” she murmured, then gazed up at him. “I love them. I love everything about all of the dresses.”

“You look beautiful in them,” Eagle Wolf said, then went and knelt beside her, his back to her. “Would you braid my hair for me?”

Surprised by his request, yet glad to have the opportunity to touch his beautiful hair, and to be so near him, Nicole nodded. “I would love to,” she murmured.

Then she said something that seemed to come from nowhere. “Will you braid mine after I finish yours?” she blurted out.

She had never worn her hair in braids. But now it seemed the natural thing to do after seeing so many of the Navaho women with braids.

“I can do yours first,” Eagle Wolf said, glancing at her over his shoulder.

“No, I want to do yours first,” Nicole murmured, already separating his hair so that she could braid it. “I have noticed that several warriors wear their hair in one braid, yet I have seen some wear two. Which do you prefer?”

“You braid it as you would wish to see it,” Eagle Wolf said, feeling more and more attached to this woman. They were united in every way a man and woman could be.

Except for making love. He would not initiate that until he knew she was absolutely ready.

He didn’t need to ask whether or not she was a virgin. He knew this already. She was not the sort of woman to give herself to a man until wedding vows would soon be spoken between her and the man she chose to love.

“One long braid fascinates me,” Nicole murmured.

“That is my favorite, too, so braid mine that way and then I will braid yours,” Eagle Wolf said, feeling her tugging on his hair as she carefully made each twist and turn.

“It has just begun to rain,” Nicole murmured, hearing the drops fall softly against the outside buckskin of the tepee. “I love softly falling rain. Do you?”

“Yes, I always have,” Eagle Wolf said, gazing upward through the smoke hole. The sky was not very dark, so he thought that this might be a brief rain.

He could smell its sweetness.

He recalled as a child how he’d enjoyed this sort of rain. He would run through it with his friends, splashing their bare feet in the puddles. They would play outside until all the mothers made their children come inside their lodges. This would happen instantly if a clap of thunder reminded them that there could be danger from lightning.

He and his friends would then scatter in all directions until they had gotten safely into their lodges with their mothers and fathers.

Eagle Wolf had always been especially proud to be with his parents, for his father was the chief of their people, a proud, stately man, the kind of leader Eagle Wolf aspired to be.

His mother had always been just as special to him, but in different ways. No one could have been as sweet and caring as his mother.

He could even now remember the warmth of her arms as she would embrace and comfort him when an extra-loud crash of thunder shook the floor of their tepee.

Today there was no lightning or thunder, only the continuing soft pitter-patter of the raindrops against the sides of the lodge.

“There are rains of two types,” Eagle Wolf said as Nicole continued braiding his hair.

“Soft and hard,” Nicole responded, laughingly. She knew this was not what he was about to say, but it felt good to be lighthearted and gay with him.

Eagle Wolf laughed. He was glad she could be so lighthearted after the sorrow these past days had brought into her life. Some people who experienced the same might never smile or laugh again.

But this woman was the sort who would never allow anything to take away her joy in living. She loved life as much as he.

And that, too, brought them closer together. In so many ways they were so much alike.

They would be happy as husband and wife, and
they would marvel at the children they’d bring together into this world.

“There is female rain and there is male rain,” Eagle Wolf said.

His comment was so unexpected, Nicole stopped braiding his hair for a moment, so that she could move around to gaze into his eyes.

“Female and male?” she asked. “How can there be…female and male rain?”

“This was taught me as a child by my mother,” Eagle Wolf said as Nicole returned to braiding his long hair. “She taught me that the soaking, yet soft rain is called female, because it is the rain that nurtures and nourishes. Not only plants, but also animals, as it settles gently upon them from the heavens.”

“Why, that is beautiful,” Nicole murmured, then went around and sat beside Eagle Wolf after securing his long braid with a short piece of leather thong.

“What is the male rain responsible for?” she asked.

“Male rain is not gentle in any respect,” Eagle Wolf said, reaching back and touching his braid, smiling his approval of how perfectly it had been formed.

“No?” Nicole said as he brought his hand away from his braid and reached over to grab a stick and slowly stir the ashes in the fire, causing sparks to fly upward through the smoke hole overhead.
“As most men are seen by women, the male rain is powerful,” Eagle Wolf said.

He dropped the glowing, fiery stick, then settled back from the fire, now gazing into Nicole’s grass green eyes.

“This is the destructive rain of the most vicious storms,” he said. “Ofttimes trees are destroyed during these storms, not nourished. Animals run and hide, as do women and children. But strong warriors never run from such rain. Instead, it rekindles their own inner fires, and makes them the sort of warriors who keep our people safe from harm.”

Suddenly, out of nowhere, blinding light from a streak of lightning flashed downward through the smoke hole.

The suddenness of it, the brightness, caused Nicole to flinch. When the ensuing thunder rocked the floor on which she was sitting, she flung herself into Eagle Wolf’s arms and clung to him.

He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. He could feel the rapidness of her breathing against his bare chest.

“I have always been afraid of storms,” Nicole said, realizing that she was trembling in his arms, and feeling embarrassed over it.

But nothing had ever been able to take the fear of storms away from her. When she had been a small child, a horrible tornado had torn through Missouri, destroying most of the homes close to Nicole’s.

It had uprooted some of the largest elm trees in the area. Some homes had caught fire from the lightning strikes. Some people’s lives were lost.

Her family had been fortunate not to have lost anything except for a few horses that had broken through their corral fence and run off.

“You are safe with me,” Eagle Wolf softly reassured her as he slowly caressed her back through the softness of her dress. “I will never allow anything or anyone to harm you. Nor will the Great Spirit. He sees everything and knows what you have been forced to endure. You will be always safe while you are with me.”

“I do feel so safe, yet the lightning and thunder always frighten me,” Nicole murmured, still clinging, even though she was no longer really afraid. She did believe that Eagle Wolf and his Great Spirit, as well as her own God, would keep her safe.

“When I was a child, lightning struck many things and set them afire,” Nicole murmured. “My neighbor’s house went up in flames during one of our worst storms. And then there were the tornadoes that we had to endure more than once. Some even called our portion of Missouri ‘tornado alley.’”

“I am not familiar with tornadoes,” Eagle Wolf said, releasing her as she nudged herself away from him.

“It is a horrific sort of wind,” Nicole murmured, visibly trembling at the remembrance. “It
just seems to fall down from the darkened sky, swirling and swirling, taking everything in its path. I grew to dread them so much. I hope I never see any again.”

“We have no such winds on our mountain, yet we do have winds that sometimes bend the corn in half so that the tassels touch the ground,” Eagle Wolf said somberly. “I will protect you from those winds and anything else that threatens you. Know this, Nicole. You are safe with me.”

He took her hands in his. “Our shaman has been known to speak and stop the winds,” he said softly. “Our shaman understands power and how to control it, even the power of lightning. You see, objects struck by lightning hold within them the power of holy beings. A shaman can use this kind of power to heal, or to bring sickness to an enemy.”

“Are you saying that lightning-struck objects can be used for both good and bad?” Nicole asked.

“
Ho
,” Eagle Wolf said, nodding. “Lightning is used both for protection and healing, as well as to cause death and destruction.”

“I have always been afraid of lightning and now I will be even more afraid of it,” Nicole said, again shuddering.

“I did not tell you these things to frighten you, but to teach you things my people know,” Eagle Wolf said, thickly. “Sometimes learning can be fearful, but only if those who are taught
these things allow it to be. You are with me. You have no need to fear any of these things.”

“You are right,” Nicole said, smiling at him. “If I ever doubt that again, I will remind myself what you have said to me, more than once. I truly feel safe, Eagle Wolf, now that I am with you.”

Eagle Wolf placed his hands on her cheeks and drew her close to him, until their lips were barely an inch apart. And then he swept his fingers behind her, twining them through her hair, which he had not yet braided.

He brought her lips to his and gave her a kiss that was so hot she felt as though she might melt through the bulrush mats beneath her.

She had never known what true desire was until she had met Eagle Wolf. Now she knew how it felt to want someone so badly she ached from it. She felt a hunger she had never experienced before. Her body, heart, and soul were crying out to make love with this wonderful man.

But she could not be brazen enough to initiate such a thing. She did not want to remember their first lovemaking in such a way.

Yet she did ache for him, oh, so badly.

Eagle Wolf’s body ached more than he had ever felt before. His need for Nicole at this moment was almost unbearable.

He kissed her with a passion that had only now been unleashed within him. These feelings were far more intense than he had ever felt for the woman he had made his wife.

This woman in his arms was meant to be there. They had been destined to meet.

And they were destined to marry and have children.

But he did not want to rush her into lovemaking. He did not want her to think that was the only reason he’d rescued her.

He knew how she had felt about the Mormon and his impure intentions. Eagle Wolf desired her, too, but he wanted her for herself. And he wanted her forever.

Perhaps tomorrow they could make love. But not today, nor to night.

“I will love you always,” he whispered against her hot lips.

“I love you, too,” Nicole whispered back to him. “I have never felt like this. I…I…feel as though I am flying above myself. Everything in me feels light and wonderful.”

“We are flying together,” Eagle Wolf replied. He held her away from him so that they could look into each other’s eyes. “I want you, Nicole. All of you. But I don’t think it is right yet to blend our hearts and souls in the way my body is aching to do. I want you to have more time to think and be sure. So much has happened in your life. I want you to know your heart and mind completely, to be sure you wish to accept what I am offering you. I want you to marry me. Will you be my wife?”

Nicole was thrilled that this man truly loved her enough to marry her.

Promises of protection were one thing. But a promise of marriage was the ultimate commitment.