Wild Ecstasy (20 page)

“It had better be valuable enough to warrant you being here in my office, when I can hardly stand to look at you, much less be in the same room as your stench,” Josiah said, his eyes filled with warning. He went to Tanner and leaned into his face. “When you had the gall to mix with my acquaintances at the ball tonight without a formal invitation, I had a good notion to shoot you on the spot. If not for my beloved wife's prohibition on blood spilling in her home, I'd have done it. Now, say your piece and get the hell out of here.”

Tanner gasped and took a step back from Josiah. “I've heard rumors that an Injun wearing eyeglasses was seen leading a raiding party tonight close to Victor Temple's trading post,” he said in a rush of words. “The ones who saw this were just passing through or I'd have brought them here to tell you what they saw, eye to eye.”

Mariah had stood by listening to Tanner's tale, then blanched and felt suddenly dizzy when he was through. She reached for the back of a chair and steadied herself, finding it hard to think clearly, much less speak in Echohawk's behalf.

And how could she? Hadn't she already been doubting Echohawk, even before Tanner had brought the news to Colonel Snelling? The knowing made her feel desperately ill to her stomach.

“An Indian wearing eyeglasses?” William Joseph said, kneading his chin. His eyes widened. “Why, Echohawk was wearing eyeglasses tonight. Everyone saw him. It was such a strange sight on an Indian brave that surely no one missed it.”

“Perhaps you saw Echohawk wearing eyeglasses tonight, but that doesn't mean that he is the guilty party,” Colonel Snelling said in Echohawk's defense. “I have never known Echohawk to be anything but wise and reasonable. I won't believe that he is guilty of this crime tonight.”

“Now, just how many Injuns do you see wearin' eyeglasses?” Tanner scoffed, his lips twisting into a smug smile. “None, I tell you. None. Only Echohawk, Josiah. Only Echohawk! I say he's guilty as sin!” He turned to Mariah. “He's the one, Mariah. He's got your pa hid away somewhere. Don't let Colonel Snelling tell you otherwise.”

“How can anyone ever believe anything you say?” Mariah said, finally finding her ability to speak. “My father despised you, Tanner. I know you didn't care beans about him. So why would you even care what's happened to him?”

“I don't want to see anyone at the mercy of Injuns,” Tanner quickly explained. “I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.”

“And you are so sure it was Echohawk?” Mariah said, her voice trembling.

“Positively certain,” Tanner said, squaring his shoulders.

“Well, I'm not,” Colonel Snelling said, slouching down in his chair behind his desk. He looked up at William Joseph. “Go out to the powwow and find Echohawk. Bring him back inside so that he can have his say in the matter. Echohawk must be given a chance to convince me that he
is
the son of his father—a man of peace.”

“I don't believe that Echohawk will be found at the powwow,” Mariah said, firming her chin defiantly at their surprised expressions. “He'll be at Chief Silver Wing's village. I assure you of that. He is innocent. And thank you for letting him prove it to you.”

“Mariah, how is it that you know where Echohawk has gone?” William Joseph asked, looking down at her with concern in his eyes.

“It's . . . it's not important now,” Mariah said, giving him a set stare, “but if he's left the powwow, he will have returned to his people.”

“It's a waste of time,” Tanner said, shrugging. “He won't be there either. He'll be runnin' scared.”

Mariah turned and glared at Tanner, suddenly feeling strangely suspicious of how adamant he was to get everyone to believe that Echohawk was the guilty party, when, in truth, Tanner had as much reason as Echohawk to kill her father.

The vile man was capable of all sorts of evil deeds!

All along, she hadn't wanted to believe that Echohawk was guilty, and she didn't now that Tanner had pointed an accusing finger at him. She especially wanted to prove Tanner wrong, not only for her own and Echohawk's sakes but also to possibly turn the accusing finger back at Tanner.

“I don't think I need any more advice, Tanner,” Colonel Snelling said, rising from his chair. He went to Tanner and took him by the elbow and ushered him to the door. “Now, go and find someone else to pester, will you?”

William Joseph chuckled; then his smile faded when he gazed down at Mariah, seeing so much seething hate for Tanner McCloud in the depths of her eyes. “Mariah?” he said, gently taking her hand. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, I'm fine,” Mariah said, then swung away from him. “William Joseph, we're wasting time standing here talking. Let's go to Chief Silver Wing's village. Let's prove Tanner wrong!”

William Joseph fell into step beside her, Colonel Snelling giving them a salute as they walked past him.

* * *

The rain had stopped. Daylight was just breaking along the horizon, and birds were chattering in the trees overhead when the search party arrived at Chief Silver Wing's village—what was left of it.

An eerie feeling gripped Mariah at the pit of her stomach and she grew numb as she looked slowly around her. There were now only the remains of wigwams where they had once stood stately beside the river. Stripped clean of their rush mats and bark coverings, they gave the appearance of skeletons standing across the land.

William Joseph edged his horse close to Mariah's. “Seems that Tanner may have been right about Echohawk,” he said, his voice drawn. “I hate it like hell, Mariah. Like hell.”

“I still don't believe it,” Mariah murmured. “There has to be an explanation. There just has to be.”

A soldier rode up next to them. “All signs of departure have been erased from the land,” he said. “We'll have one hell of a time trackin' them.”

“We'll do our best,” William Joseph said, resting his hand on a holstered pistol at his right hip.

Mariah's eyes lowered; then she nudged her horse with her knees and rode along with William Joseph. She dreaded finding the answers—which would surely condemn Echohawk. Not only had he fled the fort upon the discovery of what had happened to her father, but apparently he had also encouraged Chief Silver Wing to pull up roots and run.

“We need to rest before moving on,” William Joseph said, dismounting. “Let's make camp for a while. We'll sleep, then leave again around noon.”

Mariah did not like this decision of William Joseph's—to make camp where the Indian village had just been vacated. It did not seem right, as though they were trespassing on hallowed ground.

But having no heart to argue, she dismounted and helped make camp while some of the men went in search of food.

After they had eaten and she was finally alone snug in her bedroll, she found that sleep would not come for her. Although it had been a full day and night since she had slept, her mind kept wandering to Echohawk, and where he might be.

Loving him so much, she felt guilty for being a part of the search for him, but if it would lead her to her father, and if it would clear her beloved's name . . .

Mariah tossed and turned in her bedroll for a while longer, then decided that no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't going to be able to go to sleep.

She rose on an elbow and looked into the distance, recalling the burial grounds where Echohawk's father lay. Something compelled her to slip out of the bedroll, draw a blanket snugly around her shoulders, and sneak from camp. She led her horse a short distance from the campsite, then mounted it and rode away. She was not sure why, but she had to go to the burial grounds.

Chapter 20

—Webster

 

 

 

Fog pressed in on Mariah as she rode beside the river, the early-morning sun peering through in shadowy orange sprays. She turned her horse in another direction and rode briskly across a wide stretch of meadow, the dew on the knee-high grass sparkling like tiny diamonds.

Mariah's heart began to race when she saw ahead the butte to which she had gone with Echohawk not long ago to visit his father's gravesite.

As the day grew brighter with sunlight and she came closer to the butte, something else made her almost go limp with joy.

Blaze!

Blaze at the foot of the butte!

Her gaze darted upward, now able to make out a man standing at the edge of the butte, watching her approach.

“Echohawk!” Mariah marveled, not understanding how she had been drawn there, yet clearly for this purpose!

She took one long lingering look, seeing that today he was dressed in only a brief breechclout, the wind fluttering it against his muscled thighs. She swallowed hard, lost in desire, admiring his stance of a noble leader.

And his leadership was being threatened.

She looked to the heavens and silently mouthed a prayer: Oh, God, let me help him. Please prove to me that I have been wrong to doubt him! Please let him be innocent!

A soft breeze brushed against her face, a caress, and she shivered, believing that somehow she had just been given an answer from the Almighty.

And at that moment she suddenly felt a gentle peace wash over her.

Smiling, sending a silent thank-you to the heavens, she nudged her heels more deeply into the flanks of her horse and rode hurriedly on, soon losing sight of Echohawk as she drew rein beside Blaze in the shadows of the butte.

Her pulse racing, she quickly dismounted. As she turned to climb the steep terrain, she found that it was not necessary.

Echohawk was there.

He had come to her. . . .

“No-din,” he said, momentarily standing before her, his eyes heavy with doubt.

But when she moved into his arms and hugged him, all doubts were erased and he embraced her long and hard.

“Echohawk,” Mariah said, clinging, her cheek against his powerful bare chest. “Oh, Echohawk, I've been so worried about you. Thank God you are all right.”

Echohawk embraced her for a moment longer, then eased her away from him, holding her at arm's length. “You came,” he said thickly. “All night long I summoned you here. It was with the Great Spirit's blessing that you came.”

“It was you?” Mariah said, gasping softly. “You are the reason that I felt compelled to come to the place of your father's burial?”

“That is so,” Echohawk said, nodding.

“But what if I were followed?” Mariah asked, taking a quick glance over her shoulder, having not once thought of that possibility while forging onward through the night.

“I did not beckon anyone else,” Echohawk said dryly. “Only you. So no one followed. When William Joseph awakens and finds you gone, only then will you be missed.”

“They will come looking for me,” Mariah worried, looking quickly up at Echohawk.

“But they will not find you,” he said, smiling smugly. “You are going with me and my braves to learn the truth. William Joseph and his men will be looking elsewhere.”

“How did you know that I was with William Joseph?” Mariah asked, her eyes wide.

“My scouts watch. They see many things,” Echohawk said, dropping his hands from Mariah. “Come. We must go. My men wait in the forest.”

“Where are you taking me?” Mariah asked, not hesitating to mount her horse as Echohawk helped her into the saddle.

“Where you will see my innocence,” Echohawk said, going to Blaze, quickly mounting. “And then, my
ee-quay
, woman, we will prove to Colonel Snelling that he has been right to put faith in me.”

“You are being accused of burning my father's trading post and of his abduction,” Mariah said, easing her horse closer to Echohawk's.

“And did you also accuse me of such crimes?” he asked, examining her through his eyeglasses. His eyesight was improving more quickly each day, yet not enough to cast aside the white man's magic.

Mariah lowered her eyes so that he would not see the guilt in their depths. Then, knowing that she must, she looked slowly back up at him and locked her eyes with his. “I could not help but doubt you,” she murmured. “You had spoken of vengeance more than once to me. And when you fled after hearing William Joseph tell me of my father's tragedy, what was I to believe? You could have stood your ground and defended yourself. But you fled, Echohawk! You ran away. And not only you, but Chief Silver Wing's entire village.”

“And do you think that had I stayed and professed my innocence I would have been exonerated by the white man's law?” he said in a growl. “No, No-din. It would have not been that way. Not even Colonel Snelling has the power to keep the white men from hanging an Indian who in their eyes is guilty. Once white people are enticed to kill an Indian, no one can stop it.”

“You think someone purposely spread the word that you did this to my father?” Mariah asked, thinking of Tanner McCloud and how he had so adamantly spoken against Echohawk to Colonel Snelling.

“
Ay-uh
,” Echohawk said, frowning at Mariah. “One man alone has done this. My scouts probed and found out who. It is the man I call Yellow Eyes. It is he who has caused much sadness in my life. It is because of him that my people's number has been reduced, my beloved Fawn among those who were killed during the massacre led by Yellow Eyes and his renegade Sioux companions led by White Wolf. It is time for Yellow Eyes and White Wolf to die!”

“Yellow Eyes?” Mariah said, her heart skipping a beat. She was picturing Tanner McCloud's eyes, having always wondered why the whites were so yellow. Echohawk must be referring to Tanner!

“
Ay-uh
,” Echohawk grumbled. “Finally I have found him. It is good to know that the evil white man with the eyes of a coward is near. I am going to make him pay for his deeds.”

“This man you call Yellow Eyes,” Mariah said guardedly. “Do you know his true name? Could it be Tanner McCloud?”

“
Ay-uh
, that is what he is called by the white men,” Echohawk said.

Anger suddenly raged through Mariah. Her eyes narrowed. “Then I was right,” she said, circling her hands into tight fists. “He is the one who did this to my father.”

Then she looked anxiously over at Echohawk. “You said that you would take me with you to find Tanner,” she said, grabbing up her reins. “What of my father? Once we get to Tanner's hideout, we will surely find my father there. Echohawk, now that you know my father's role in the most recent raid against your people, is it in your plans to kill him?”

“And what would you have me do?” Echohawk asked, his jaw tight.

Mariah swallowed hard, not knowing how she could answer him, not wanting to be forced to choose between the man she loved with all of her heart and her father, whom she despised. It would be far too easy for her to make the choice. Oh, but how torn she felt at this moment!

“So you see?” Echohawk said, leaning a gentle hand to her cheek. “The answers are not always so easy to sort out within one's heart.”

With that he grabbed his reins, wheeled his horse around, and rode away.

Mariah stared after him for a moment, then rode in pursuit, soon pulling up beside him. “Where are we going?” she asked, the warmth of the autumn sun welcome on her face. “Where is my father?”

“Nothing is known about your father,” Echohawk returned, glancing at her. “Yellow Eyes is the only one I truly seek at this time. And my scouts discovered that he hides from the world across the river from the Falls of St. Anthony. This is my destination.”

Soon they met and joined with several other braves, and rode on together through the forest. Mariah had heard of the beautiful Falls of St. Anthony but had not seen them.

She had also heard of the river's treacherous waters at the foot of the falls, which she would soon be crossing.

* * *

It was late afternoon when they arrived at the Falls of St. Anthony. Mariah was stunned by the drama of the rushing, turbulent water as it fell headlong over the falls to the river beneath.

Looking up, she saw that the waterfall wasn't terribly high, but tumbled rocks and boulders below gave the place a wild and dangerous air, churning the rapidly flowing river into a cauldron that threatened death to any who might fall into it. The river here was divided into two halves by a long, narrow island. Rising from the churning rapids, the forested island would provide the perfect sanctuary to outlaws or renegades, for it was cut off from the rest of the world. Tanner McCloud was on this island, somewhere deep within the forest.

And, perhaps, her father. . . .

They made camp, planning to attack Tanner McCloud's encampment early the next morning. Hungry and bone-tired, Mariah welcomed this pause, and now, having eaten a delicious meal of cooked rabbit, she sat with Echohawk in a cozy lean-to beside the simmering logs of the campfire. Echohawk's braves had fanned out from the camp to stragetic spots, keeping watch for any sudden intruders in the night.

It was nearing dusk, the air filled with a damp chill. Echohawk placed a blanket around Mariah's shoulders and drew her next to him. He gazed down at her without his eyeglasses, seeing her clearly and wonderfully as his. Nothing would separate them again.

He knew that he would have to think through this question of her father, should he be found at Tanner McCloud's hideout. No-din came first. If that meant having to let her father go, to keep from causing her further pain and guilt, then that was how it must be.

And perhaps because No-din was with Echohawk and his people, her father would not cause any more problems for the Chippewa. He would surely think twice before doing anything that would endanger his daughter.

“The falls are lovely yet frightening,” Mariah murmured, snuggling closer to Echohawk. “This wild and picturesque beauty is surely unequaled.”

“Many spirits abide here,” Echohawk said, looking into the distance as the tremulous laughter of a loon came wafting over the water. “Do you hear the loon? The great northern diver is restless tonight. He does not like sharing his habitat with strangers.”

“I have been told that ghosts haunt this spot,” Mariah said, trembling. “There have been many deaths in the crashing waters of the falls. I . . . I even fear having to cross them myself.”

Even now she could hear the crashing of large tree trunks as they drifted over the falls, plunging down into the chasms of the rocks, tumbling then into the foaming and roaring rapids, never to be seen again.

“
Ay-uh
, there have been many deaths here,” Echohawk said solemnly. “The Chippewa tell of a warrior who, in the darkness of night, was deceived by the false beacons lighted by the ancestors of his enemies and paddled his canoe into the rapids. He never came out alive. And that is only one tale. There are many more.”

“How awful,” Mariah said, gazing around her when the loon's cries seemed closer.

“There was a song written about this warrior's death in the rapids,” Echohawk said, turning to her. “Shall I sing it for you?”

“Please do,” Mariah said, smiling at him.

“‘The Great Spirit calls,'” he sang softly. “‘And I must go to him. The angry waters take my strength, and I must bow my head to them. No more will I sing in this life . . . but more wisely in the next.'”

Echohawk took Mariah's waist in his hands and eased her onto her back on a thick pallet of furs. “My heart has been so lonely without you,” he whispered. “Stay with me forever, No-din. Forever.”

Mariah twined her arms around his neck, oblivious of the night's chill, aware only of Echohawk's mouth closing over hers in a fierce kiss, and of the warmth of his hand easing beneath her dress. She raised her hips, making it easier for him to remove her undergarment. After that was tossed aside and Echohawk closed his hand over her throbbing center, she sucked in a wild breath of ecstasy. When he thrust a finger within her, and his tongue began probing between her lips, the pleasure was so intensely beautiful, the world seemed to be melting away beneath her.

Moving over her with his body, his breechclout now cast aside, Echohawk smoothed her dress up past her hips and moved gently into her, then pressed endlessly deeper as she raised her hips and strained to meet him.

Mariah sucked at his lips and tongue, her hands traveling over his muscled back and then around to where she could get occasional touches of his satin shaft as he moved generously in and out of her.

She closed her eyes, a spinning heat seizing her, rising and flooding her whole body, pushing at the boundaries of her senses. That she was with Echohawk again, sharing the wonder of his embrace, was all that mattered. Their bodies and souls fused, becoming one entity.

When he moved slightly away from her, she reached out for him and drew him back. Placing her hands at the nape of his neck, she brought his lips to hers and kissed him passionately, as once again he entered her. Her gasps of pleasure became soft whimpers as she felt the pleasure mounting, then sweeping through her as his body reached a matching passion, finally subsiding exhaustedly into hers.

They lay there for a long while, Mariah gently stroking his back. “I'm sorry for having doubted you,” she whispered. “You do forgive me, don't you?”