Ride The Wild Wind (Time Travel Historical Romance) (24 page)

“No, just separate beds and no sex. It will be a marriage in name only.”

He laughed harshly. “I will never agree to that.”

“Then it’s off.”

Anger rolled through him like a ball of fire. “Is the thought of lying
with me unbearable now?”

“It’s not that.”

A nerve in his jaw ticked. “Then do tell, because before we arrived here
you did not shy away from my touch. In fact, I seem to recall you enjoyed my
pleasuring. You even requested it on occasion. What has changed?”

“I don’t want to get pregnant.”

He stared. “You don’t want Indian children?”

She shook her head. “It’s not that. I don’t want to bring babies into
this world—specifically,
your
world where there’s so much uncertainty. I
would never put a child through the hell I had to live through. I only wish you
could understand where I’m coming from.”

Where she was ‘coming from?’ What nonsense was she rattling on about
now? He blew out a breath of exasperation, and dragged a weary hand down his
face. “You are an impossible, selfish woman, Halle.” As an afterthought he
added, “or Hope Brannigan or Star Woman or whatever you call yourself!”

Her eyes narrowed into slits. “Is that so? Well…you’re an impossible,
selfish man, Antonio Whitehorse, or outlaw, or damned frigging hero—or whatever
the hell you’re
calling
yourself
these days
!”

He kicked a rock with the toe of his boot and sent it soaring. “Very
well. Don’t marry me. I hope they choose One Ear for your husband. He has been married
more than four times and fathered more than ten children in this camp. He has
also been widowed for a while. Try telling the randy old goat you don’t wish to
bear his children!”

She put a hand on her hip. “Yeah? Well, you should return to your psycho
ex-wife who imagines she’s carrying your child! The two of you deserve one
another!”

“Perhaps I will return to
Doli!
” he shouted as he stalked away.

Her moccasin hit him square between the shoulder blades, stopping him in
his tracks. He wheeled around, jaw clenched, resisting the urge to haul her off
into the desert like some barbarian and make love to her. He’d make her forget
all about her nonsense when he was driving deep into her tight softness. And
she would be damned satisfied when he finished with her, too!

“Well, aren’t you at least going to wish One Ear and me a happy
marriage?” 

He refused to let her know how her threats affected him. “May you and
One Ear have ten ugly children—all with one ear!”

A hint of a smile began to form at her lips, but faded quickly. “Thanks!
I intend to name my firstborn son, Van Gogh! And by the way, I hope you and
your psycho ex-wife have a freaking wonderful life together!” she hollered
back. “Maybe all your children will inherit her charming personality!”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The following week, Halle and One Ear went on their first date.
 Antonio’s cousin, Tani  accompanied as a chaperone.  One Ear
wasn’t an unpleasant man, nor was he ugly for his age. He reminded Halle of a
junkyard dog—scarred on the outside and toughened by life’s cruelties, but just
one great big puppy on the inside.

She, Max, and One Ear went out on precisely two dates the following
week. She didn’t speak Navajo and One Ear didn’t speak English so their
communication consisted of a few grunts, nods, and a lively game of charades.

On the first date, he brought two beaded necklaces made of white shell,
bits of turquoise and hammered copper, along with a hide pouch filled with
sun-dried berries and some strips of jerked meat for her adoptive parents. On
the second date, he showed up
with a basket of dried corn and more
jerked meat—a separate bundle for Max. A far cry from roses and chocolates but
Max enjoyed the jerky snacks.

 Between dates with One Ear and adapting to Navajo life, she
immersed herself with chores hoping it might help her forget Antonio, as well
as give her time to plot an escape. Of course she had no intention of marrying
the one-eared man, but the jealous looks she received from Antonio in passing
were priceless. She hoped it was eating him alive to know she’d been dating.

On the warm autumn days, she and Max tagged along with Diego, Tani and
Antonio’s young son, Lukachukai, to collect flower blooms and clay pigments to
make dye for the weaver’s blankets. Lukachukai liked to draw with the colored
bits of clay on flat stones. While talented, the subject of his drawings
worried her. Guns and knives. People with wide, frightened eyes, their mouths
open as if screaming. She could only imagine what the child had witnessed in
his young life. But it was the amputated limb he kept hidden beneath a blanket
which broke her heart. He was such a cute little boy. How would he ever adapt
and become a warrior like his peers? Would they shun him as he grew older? She
suspected they already had and that’s why he’d withdrawn from the world. Other
than Tani and Diego, he didn’t interact with the other children in the
encampment. How well she identified with his emotional pain.

Halle also learned that Lukachukai hadn’t spoken to anyone since the
attack at a fort two years before which left him disfigured. Not even to his
father. If the child had lived in the twenty-first century, he’d likely have a
robotic hand and manage as a normal youngster. A few sessions of psychotherapy
might even break him out of his self-imposed cocoon.

One late mild autumn afternoon she and the children left camp to gather
baskets of pine needles for patching the hogan
’
s roofs. She learned they
wouldn’t be migrating south to the warmer valley for winter for
The
People feared soldiers might return there. Instead, they’d repair holes in
their existing homes and remain in their canyon stronghold until spring. Dry
Ponderosa pine needles, Tani explained, would be packed on to the roof and
chinked with mud between logs to keep the snow and biting winter wind out.

When the boys wandered away with Max, Tani turned to Halle and made a
startling statement.

“I heard that you will be marrying One Ear in a few days.”

 Halle eyed Tani. “Excuse me? I’m not marrying One Ear. I’m not
marrying
anyone
. Who’s flapping their tongues now?”

“Everyone knows,” Tani said with a shrug. “I just thought you just did
not want to tell me yet.”

“No, no, no. It’s sooo not happening girlfriend. I’m not marrying him.”

“Do you think One Ear has a pleasing backside?”

Halle’s jaw dropped. Never did she believe the shy teen would say such a
thing. “Tani!”

 Tani giggled. “I think he does. Have you not noticed?”

“Trust me. I never looked.”

“Has he kissed you?” Tani’s eyes lit up in anticipation.

“Ewww, no. He’s way too old for me.”

The girl
lowered her voice and leaned in close. “He
is
older,
but I hear he has a large penis and knows how to make a woman happy.”

Halle gave her companion a playful punch in the arm. “You’re only
sixteen! What do you know about that stuff?”

Tani gave a sly smile. “I know only what I hear from the women.
Sometimes they talk when they wash clothes or cook.”

“Then maybe
you
should consider marrying him.”

Tani shook her head. “He wants you
for his wife.”

“He only likes my hair. Probably dreams of the day when this camp is
filled with little crazy haired children like me.”

Tani’s nose wrinkled. “Do you think they would have red and black hair?
I have never seen such a color before you came. Lukachukai’s hair is dark like
mine, but in the light it shines with gold like his father’s.”

“The red came from a bottle of dye, Tani. The rest is what has grown
out.”

Tani nodded in apparent understanding.

“Don’t worry, girlfriend. I won’t steal the object of your wicked
fantasies. I have no intention of marrying One Ear—big linguini or not.”

“Because you still love Antonio?”

Halle’s throat tightened. Yeah, she still loved the rat bastard. God,
she was so pathetic. She looked away so as not to give her emotions away. “It
doesn’t matter how I feel about Antonio. Besides, the jerk has taken up with
his ex-wife again. It’s over between us.”

“Then you do know of Doli’s visit his first night back?”

Fire shot through her veins at the remembrance of spying him outside the
hogan with the evil witch. “Everyone knows about that night. Doli wasn’t
exactly quiet.”

“I awoke to voices, but pretended to be asleep,” Tani said. “It was
wrong of me to listen to their private conversation, but Antonio was angry. I
thought there was trouble. He told Doli to leave, that she could not be there.”

Halle hesitated, uncertain whether or not she wanted to know the truth.
“Did Antonio sleep with her?”

Tani shrugged. “I do not know. I only awoke to Antonio’s angry voice.
Doli was not in the hogan when I went to sleep. She must have snuck in during
the night. I do know Antonio was angry. You should go talk to him. He is
hurting.”

“
He’s
hurting?”

“My cousin has a deep wound in the heart which blinds him to truth at
times. But I know he loves you. I have seen the way he looks at you.”

“He only wants me in bed.”

“He has taken you to his bed yet?”

“No. Well, we haven’t really done anything important
yet.”

“Then why do you say such?”

“I won’t share him with other women.”

Tani touched her shoulder and Halle’s gaze met her friend’s. “No. You
misunderstand. My cousin is honorable. When he is with a woman, he takes no
other.”

“Tani, tell me the truth about Diego. Is he the son of a woman named
Elena Costanza?”

She nodded.

“Is he also Antonio’s son?”

“No. Lukachukai is Antonio’s only…” Tani hesitated. “He is the only
living child.”

Halle’d almost forgotten that Antonio briefly mentioned another. “He has
a child who died, too, right?”

Tani nodded solemnly, then looked away. “A daughter—two summers.”

From the expression on Tani’s face, Halle realized this was too painful
a subject so she decided to change the topic, hoping her friend might open up
later. “What really happened to Lukachukai’s hand? Why doesn’t he talk?”

“I cannot speak of it. Antonio would be angry. Besides, Diego and
Lukachukai are coming. Perhaps you should ask Antonio.”

They spent the next few hours collecting baskets of pine needles, then
trudged slowly back toward camp with heavy loads. They walked behind the boys
as they ran ahead, engaging Max in a game of fetch. Tani explained how soldiers
had invaded the neighboring valleys in recent months, destroying homes, burning
the Navajo’s centuries’ old peach orchards, and confiscating or killing most all
of their livestock. There would be little food for winter since their stores of
harvested summer crops had also been burned.

“That’s why Antonio led the raid on that fort other night – to get back
as much of your livestock as possible?” Halle inquired.

Tani nodded. “Without sheep for meat and milk, we will starve this
winter. Antonio is our only hope.”

Halle paused at Tani’s chilling words, recalling what Antonio said about
saving the women and children and elders at any cost, even at the risk of
sacrificing his life. What compelled a man to do such a thing?

Tani stopped walking. “Is something wrong?”

Halle’s mind raced with a dozen questions. Yeah, there was definitely
something wrong—a missing piece of this puzzle. And she intended to find out
while she had an opportunity. “Why did Antonio leave The People? You said he
left Lukachukai and his mother, then returned, but from where? California? You
told me that’s where his Spanish family lived. Is that where Antonio went?”

“You must ask Antonio.”

“But I’m asking
you, Tani
. Please. I’m trying to understand why
he behaves as he does. He won’t talk to me anymore.”

With a sigh, Tani set her heaped basket down and dusted a spot on the
rocks to sit. “It is a very long and sad story. I cannot speak in front of Lukachukai.”
Tani asked Diego to take Lukachukai and Max to play some distance away.

Halle took a seat next to Tani once the boys had gone.

“Antonio will be angry that I told. I do not wish to make him angry.”

“I promise to never tell him about our conversation.”

Tani drew a deep breath, hesitating. “Antonio left The People
five
summers ago—leaving behind—” Tani
hesitated. “I should not speak aloud
the names of the dead for it is forbidden.”

“You can tell me. It’s all right. I’m not Navajo. And I promise to never
tell a soul.”

 Tani nodded, then swallowed hard before she began: “Antonio had
gone away many times before, but this was the longest. He and his wife, Ooljee
were no longer happy together, so he returned to the place they call
California, to the home of his Spanish grandfather. They called themselves De
los Santos. They had much livestock—cows and horses. A
rancho
, Antonio
said. Many years before, Antonio’s mother had been captured in a raid by
Mexican slavers. Antonio’s father found her at the market. He bought her and
took her as his wife, but she was unhappy with her new home among the De Los
Santos family so he brought her here to
Dinetah
where they lived
together many years before their deaths.”

Halle allowed a moment for this information to sink in. She knew Antonio
was only half Navajo, but he’d never told her about his wealthy family in
California. “Tell me more.”

With a sigh, Tani continued. “His grandfather was a white man’s doctor.
During the years Antonio spent with him, he taught Antonio to be a doctor, too.
He learned many things that are much different from The People’s ways. It was
Antonio’s wish to build what he called a hospital, to honor his grandfather.”

Halle had no idea Antonio was a doctor, or that he’d secretly desired to
build a hospital. She knew he possessed a few medical skills, but he’d never
mentioned his training. But it did explain how he knew so much about treating
injuries and brewing medicinal teas. “So Antonio and his wife divorced before
he left for California?”

Tani shook her head no. “They had not divorced, as she
had not
moved his belongings out of the hogan, but they were not living together
anymore. Still, it was understood by all that their marriage had ended.”

“Go on.”

“There were pony races at Fort Darcy one day. Ooljee
,
Lukachukai
and Mariposa traveled far with other women and children to sell blankets and
beads and baskets. The men went to have races. Bets were made on Navajo ponies
and soldier’s horses. Much money was involved. It was said that a soldier cut the
reins on one of our men’s fastest ponies, causing him to lose. They demanded a
new race, but soldiers said no and became scared when our people would not
leave the fort. Soldiers shot their guns into the air to frighten people away
but something went wrong. Everyone panicked. More guns were fired. Fighting
broke out on both sides. There were women and children caught in the middle.
Ooljee was trying to get Mariposa and Lukachukai to safety when she and the
baby were killed. They say she was shot, but Lukachukai’s hand was cut off by a
soldier. He almost died from fever.”

Tani
stopped speaking as her round, tanned face drained of color.

“
Tani
?
What—” Halle didn’t have to finish her question.
She knew the answer, felt it even before Tani spoke again.

“I was there,” Tani whispered.

Halle drew in a calming breath as she willed her stomach to cease its
flip-flopping. She couldn’t imagine the horrors Lukachukai endured, or the
grief Antonio must have felt at the loss of his wife and baby. And poor Tani,
witnessing the mayhem. She placed a gentle hand over Tani’s. The girl bit down
on her lower lip and looked away. Now it all made perfect sense—Antonio’s
fierce determination to fight to the death. “That’s why Antonio feels guilt for
what happened to Lukachukai?”

Tani nodded, but did not look at her.  “He was in the place called
California when it happened. He was not there to save his family
from
the attack. I think he hates the California place now. It reminds him of the
saddest days in his life. He has not returned there since their deaths. He has
been angry. I think, most of all, he is angry at himself.”

“None of this was Antonio’s fault. He couldn’t have known what was
coming.”

Tani glanced toward the boys, then turned back to her. “No, but it is a parent’s
duty to protect their children. He believes his medicine could have saved
Lukachukai’s hand if he’d been here. Perhaps little Mariposa’s life, too.”

Tears filled Halle’s eyes. Poor Antonio! She couldn’t imagine the depth
of grief he’d suffered, or the guilt he felt not only as a father, but as a
doctor. Still, he’d had no control over circumstances. Now she fully realized
the meaning of the sheaf of drawings she’d once found in his bag. He’d been
designing a prosthetic hand for his son, and sketching diagrams for the
hospital he hoped one day to build.