Teton Splendor (19 page)

“Nervous?” she echoed, her eyes darting from the village to look at him. She’d never felt more nervous about anything in her life, but she swallowed back her apprehension and plastered a smile on her face.

Joseph reached over and ran his hand from the top of her head down the length of her hair, to rest his palm on her back. The gesture sent ripples of delicious chills down her spine.

“Two Bears will love you,” he said in a low voice. “Your mother was his only child.”

Sophia nodded. She’d learned more about her parents the night before while she sat at the table with the Walker family. Her French father had been secretly in love with her mother for years before he finally asked the chief to marry her. Two Bears had given his blessing to the white trapper. Alex Walker had explained that a union between a white trapper and an Indian woman was a common occurrence during the days of the fur trade. Such a union worked in favor of both the trapper and the Indian tribes. The trapper would be under the tribe’s protection while the Indians would benefit from the western goods the trapper could provide.

“Whispering Waters was overjoyed the day she came to me with the news that she was expecting,” Evelyn had said with a smile on her face. “She confided in me that she was afraid that she was barren because it took her more than two years to finally conceive. Laurent treated her as if she would break at any moment after he found out. I think by the time you were born, she was ready to toss him out.” She laughed.

Tears had welled in Sophia’s eyes at hearing Joseph’s mother talk fondly about her real parents.

Her horse shifted beneath her. Sophia sniffed, and hastily wiped her hand across her face. Learning about her real parents from people who had known them made them seem real for the first time.

“You all right?” Joseph leaned forward. His palm still rested on her back, the warmth from his touch a welcome reassurance.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said firmly. “Let’s go see my grandfather. You did say he spoke some English? I’m afraid the few words Summer Rain taught me will not help me hold a conversation. ”

“He speaks a little English. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble talking with him.”

He withdrew his hand, and nudged his horse down the hill. Inhaling a deep breath, Sophia followed. Before they even reached the village, children came running toward them, shouting and waving. Men and women stopped what they were doing to watch them approach. Sophia held her head high, and tried not to stare.

These are my people
.
This is how I might have grown up had my parents lived.

Joseph called out a greeting as he rode through the village. He reined his horse to a stop in front of a large teepee near the center. Children surrounded them like a swarm of bees to a fragrant flower.

Sophia didn’t understand the words he spoke to the children, but he reached for a leather pouch tied to his saddle, and opened it slowly, a wide grin on his face. Their anticipation was almost palpable. She stared at him, a renewed wave of love crashing through her for this man when he handed out various candies, ribbons, and trinkets to eager little hands. Wide-eyed and open-mouthed, the children accepted the gifts and rushed off.

Sophia raised her head and glanced around. Several women stood silently off to the side, curiosity written clearly on their faces. Each one of the people had raven hair, and their bronzed skin was a shade darker than her own. Self-conscious, Sophia touched her fingers to the top of her hand. No one here would ostracize her for her dark skin, but would they shun her for her lighter complexion instead? She glanced toward Joseph. Although his skin was darker than that of most men in Boston, he stood out as a white man among these people.

Joseph conversed with several men who walked up and greeted him with hardy handshakes and pats on the back. One man gestured to the teepee in front of them, and the smile froze on Joseph’s face. He glanced quickly at her, then back to the man speaking to him. Several feathers adorned the man’s long braids that hung from either side of his head.

“Wait right here, Sophie,” Joseph said quickly, then held open the flap to the tent, ducked, and disappeared inside.

Sophia swallowed the lump in her throat, and glanced around. Everyone stared at her, the expressions on their faces unreadable. She didn’t know what to do, but decided it might be best to dismount her horse. Riding astride in britches had definitely been easier and more comfortable than in a dress, but she managed to climb down from the saddle without her skirt catching on anything.

A woman walked up to her, and offered a tentative smile. “
Hakaniun
,” she said, and swept her arm in front of her, bowing her head. “
Kaakki?
”

Sophia recognized her name. She nodded, and returned the woman’s smile, holding out her hand. The woman stared at it, but didn’t move to shake it. She said more words Sophia didn’t understand, then solemnly stared toward the tent in which Joseph had disappeared. Other women surrounded her, talking and smiling, and some even touched the material of her dress. All she could do was return their smiles and wait for Joseph.

No sooner had the thought entered her mind, when the tent flap moved, and Joseph reappeared.

“Your grandfather is eager to see you,” he said. The serious, pained look on his face startled her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, and grabbed hold of his arm.

Joseph stared at her. “He’s ill. I knew he wasn’t well when I left this past spring, but I didn’t know how serious it was. We may have arrived just in time.”

A small gasp escaped her throat. “Oh, no.” The nervous apprehension at meeting her mother’s father vanished, replaced by a sense of dread and concern.

“Go on in. He wants to see you alone.” Joseph nodded toward the teepee.

Sophia took a tentative step toward the structure. She turned her head. “Will you be here?” she asked.

“I’ll be nearby,” he said simply, and lifted the buffalo hide that served as the cover to the entrance.

She looked at Joseph, and their gazes locked. An almost imperceptible smile formed at the corners of his mouth. Sophia inhaled a deep breath and ducked inside the tent. She widened her eyes to adjust to the darkness within, and looked around. A fire blazed in the center of the circular structure, and an older woman sat beside a pile of furs. She looked up, and moved to the side, revealing a person lying on the palette. Only his wrinkled face and long silvery hair was visible under all the furs. 

Sophia moved closer, her heart pounding in her chest. The man under the covers turned his head slowly, and his eyes opened. A soft smile formed on his face, and he shifted. Moaning softly, he raised himself to a sitting position and held out his hands.

“
Kunu?”
Sophia asked tentatively, and knelt in front of him.

“Toko,
” he said, clasping her hands between his. His grip was frail and his skin cold to the touch. “Granddaughter. You honor me with your presence.” His voice was weak and raspy, but his words clear. His watery eyes moved up and down, appraising her appreciatively. “In my dreams, I knew you would look like your mother. My dreams have not deceived me.”

“I am pleased to be here, Grandfather,” Sophia whispered, trying to keep her voice even and the tears from her eyes.

“You look well, my child. Many seasons have passed since you were taken from us. Tell me, has the white man been good to you?”

“Byron Yancey?” Sophia’s forehead wrinkled. “He raised me as his own, and I’ve wanted for nothing,” she said when he nodded. “But I am happy to have returned home to my place of birth.”

The old chief looked pleased at what she said.

“My spirit soars at hearing you say this. I have waited for you to return. I can now walk with peace into the spirit world.”

Her heart jolted. His talk of death seemed so matter-of-fact.

He studied her in silence for a moment, and Sophia shifted her weight on her haunches. All her old insecurities came rushing back. Was he judging her?

Two Bears glanced toward the woman sitting quietly by the fire, and spoke to her. Sophia didn’t understand what he had said, but the woman smiled brightly, and raised herself up off the ground. Bright light streamed into the teepee when she lifted the flap and disappeared.

Sophia brought her attention back to her grandfather, who still held her hands. His grip tightened. “I will tell you a story about your father and your mother, but first I have one last request.”

“Anything, Grandfather,” Sophia said hastily.

Two Bears nodded and smiled. “You have been raised well, Granddaughter,” he said with an approving tone. His voice seemed to be getting stronger. Glad that she would be able to do something to make this old man happy, she squeezed his hand.

“What is it you wish?” she asked.

“I have chosen a man among my people, a great and worthy warrior, to be your husband. It is my wish that you become his wife so that I may know that you are provided for and my line will continue when I die.”

Sophia blinked, then stared. Her jaw dropped, just as her heart sank into her stomach. Husband! Wife! Her grandfather wanted her to marry a warrior from this tribe? A man she didn’t know?

Her hands slipped from the old man’s grasp, and she gasped for air. Frantically her brain struggled for a solution out of this situation. Her head turned toward the teepee entrance. Where was Joseph? Panic engulfed her, the urge to run from the dwelling so strong, she gripped the blanket at her feet. The world around her tilted precariously, and Sophia was afraid she might faint.

Chapter Nineteen

Joseph guided his horse along the banks of the wide stream. Thin wisps of smoke rose skyward between the trees, the only indication that the Bannock village was around the bend of the waterway. Rather than wait in camp for Sophie’s private meeting with Two Bears to end, a solitary ride was just what he needed to mull things over in his mind. Up ahead, an old abandoned beaver lodge hindered the water from flowing along its original course. The creek had long ago altered its channel around the dam.

With his eyes scanning ahead, and his ears trained on any unusual sounds, Joseph dismounted his horse and allowed the gelding to drink from the water. With his rifle cradled in the crook of his arm, he wandered through the thick sage. What did he expect to find? If the shooter had followed him and Sophie today, this provided a perfect opportunity to take another shot. The man could be concealed behind any one of the numerous conifers that blanketed this area.

His mind wandered to Two Bears. Disturbed at the frail condition of his long-time friend, Joseph wished he had returned sooner. The look of joy in the old man’s eyes when Joseph told him that he brought Raven back to him gave him a small spark of hope that Two Bears would recover to his former health.

Sophie. Raven. A soft smile spread across his lips. She loved him. She loved the Tetons. His future couldn’t look any better. He was eager to ask her to be his wife. They would have to wait until spring to be wed, though. There were no white settlements close enough to find a preacher who could marry them, so he would be forced to wait until he could take her to Fort Laramie or another army outpost and see about getting married.

Joseph chuckled. How was he going to survive the long winter months with her so close, yet so far out of reach? He couldn’t keep his hands to himself now; he’d surely go insane once the snow began to fall. Sophie’s passionate responses whenever he held her and kissed her drove him beyond the brink of rational thought.

His own parents didn’t have a wedding in the traditional sense at first. His father had laid claim to his mother at a trapper rendezvous, and they only married in the church a year later. How would Sophie react if he said he wanted her to be his wife without benefit of a real wedding?

She hasn’t even said she’d marry you, fool
.
Don’t put the cart before the horse.

What if she wanted to return to Boston for some extravagant wedding there? Joseph mentally shook his head. He knew her well enough by now that those things didn’t matter to her, even though she had grown up spoiled and pampered.

Movement across the creek caught his attention, and Joseph gripped his rifle, only to relax his hold a second later. A moose emerged from the thicket, and waded through the creek. Joseph grabbed his horse’s reins and moved downstream. Although this was a cow, the rutting season was getting under way, and a bull moose in defense of a female was one of the most dangerous animals he could encounter here.

The large animal wandered along the creek in the opposite direction, and Joseph stopped. He glanced up at the sky. The sun was well past the highest point. Perhaps it was time to return to camp. Would Two Bears have finished his conversation with Sophie? Would she finally believe that she belonged, and fit in? Her constant worry about acceptance unsettled him. He tried to imagine what it must have been like for her, growing up in Boston, and always feeling like she didn’t belong. He had a difficult time relating, but it had obviously left a large wound inside of her, a wound he hoped to heal. His lips widened in a slow smile. He knew exactly where she belonged.

Joseph gathered the reins and turned to swing up into the saddle. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement from the treeline. He froze, and cocked his rifle. It wasn’t a moose this time, of that he was sure. He pointed his rifle toward the trees. The figure of a person emerged fully into the open. A woman wearing a buckskin dress. The long fringes at the ends danced and swayed seductively with her movements as she approached.

Joseph cursed. He hadn’t seen her in five years, but he recognized her instantly. Her long unbraided hair flowed in the breeze, and she carried her head proudly. Her beauty hadn’t diminished over the years.

Feather in the Wind.

She moved in the same graceful way that had enticed him all those years ago. His only reaction now was annoyance. Joseph lowered his weapon.  What the hell was she doing here? She was no longer a member of the Bannock tribe.

“Nu umi kin numpu,”
she called to him, and smiled broadly.

“
Piwuupu
.” Joseph returned the greeting. He didn’t disguise the cold tone of his voice that mirrored his lack of interest in this woman. His jaw muscles tightened.

She stopped mere inches from him, and boldly raked her eyes over him as if she was choosing a choice piece of meat.

“You look well,” she said, and slid her hand up his chest. Joseph gripped her wrist and eased her arm away from him.

“You look well yourself. What are you doing here?” The question was merely a formality.

She laughed lightly. “Surely you know,” she purred, and stepped closer until her breasts brushed up against him.

“Go home to your family, Feather,” Joseph commanded. His hard stare didn’t seem to affect her determination. She hadn’t changed since the last time he’d seen her, the day she rode from the village with her brother and his warriors. She hadn’t even looked back. His only emotion that day had been anger, not a sense of loss. Thinking back, he should have been heartbroken. He smiled slowly, realizing clearly what it meant. If Sophie told him she was leaving, his heart would split in two. He was absolutely sure of it.

“You are pleased to see me,” she said, and licked her lips. She obviously interpreted his smile the wrong way.

He released the woman’s wrist and stepped back. “It isn’t good that you are here.”

“My husband is dead, Walker. So is my brother. I wish to return to you and be your wife again. Surely you remember how it was between us.”

She rubbed up against him, and her arms reached around his neck. His body didn’t react to her the way it reacted with Sophie in his arms.

“We were young and foolish.” Joseph pried her arms away from around his neck. “Your new husband had brothers. One of them will take you as his wife.”

The smile left her face. “I do not wish to be a second or third wife,” she hissed.

Of course she didn’t. Joseph scoffed. She’d always liked to be in control. A first wife held all the power.

“I have no desire to take you back as my wife,” he sneered. “I will be married soon to another woman who owns my heart.” Maybe that would get her to leave.

Anger blazed in her eyes, the same anger he remembered when she was about to display her vile temper. Why had he been so blind to it all back then?

“Your brother, the wild one, said that you had gone to the big white man’s villages far in the east to bring back the granddaughter of Two Bears. It is a white woman you crave now, is it?”

Joseph laughed. “The color of her skin has nothing to do with it.” He turned away from her, effectively dismissing her. He mounted his horse, then glared down at the Blackfoot woman.

“Leave this place, Feather, and don’t return. The next time you become a captive of the Bannock, you will not be treated as kindly as before,” he warned, then nudged his horse into a gallop. He wasn’t about to give her a chance to unleash her temper on him, and he was more anxious than ever to return to Sophie.

Only when the village came in view did he slow his horse. He couldn’t get away from Feather fast enough, and part of him wondered if she would be bold enough to follow him. Hopefully his warning that she might be held captive again would deter her and send her home to her own people. Reining his horse in near the chief’s tent, Joseph sprang lightly from the saddle. Several people paused what they were doing to stare up at him. A few women held their heads together and whispered.

He frowned at their reaction. He was no stranger to this village and its people. He’d spent several seasons with them when he was wed to Feather, practically a member of the tribe. Today they all acted as if he was an unusual curiosity.

Ignoring the people, Joseph approached Striped Badger, the woman who had tended to Two Bears earlier. If he remembered correctly, she was a sister to his deceased brother’s wife.

The old woman looked up at him from grinding nuts on a flat piece of stone on her lap.

“
Waha Pahamittsi
will see you now,” she said, and motioned with her hand toward Two Bears’ tent.

Joseph nodded, and lifted the flap to enter the old chief’s lodge. He glanced around the interior of the lodge, surprised that Sophie wasn’t present.

“
Nu umi Kin numpu
,” Two Bears called to him from his palette. Glad to see the old chief was no longer lying down as he had been earlier, but sitting upright, Joseph moved around the fire toward him. He waited until the chief motioned with his hand for him to sit.

“I wish to thank you for bringing my granddaughter home to me. She has grown into a fine woman,” he said. Even his voice sounded stronger, which was encouraging. Joseph nodded, glad to hear that Sophie had made a good impression.

The chief reached for a carved wooden bowl on the ground, and lifted it to his lips. His weary eyes sought Joseph when he set the bowl back down.

“We discussed many things. She has told me of her life with her white father, but she is also happy to have returned here. She was pleased to hear stories of her true mother and father.” He paused, then his wrinkled face smiled. “I have made a request of my granddaughter, and she has consented.
Wakanaa Kaakki
.”

Joseph stared. He strained his ears, even as a sudden jolt of dread hit him, and his pulse drummed so loud in his ears it drowned out all other sound. Had he understood the old man correctly? Two Bears switched from English to his native tongue, but Joseph clearly understood that Sophie had consented to be married. He leapt to his feet. This wasn’t possible. Anger engulfed him, and he stared down at the old man. He’d never been angry at Two Bears over anything, but rage shot through him at this moment as if he’d been hit by a bullet. Sophie was his. He’d be damned if he’d lose her to one of the warriors.

“You can’t do this,
kunu
,” Joseph said hastily, clenching his jaw. “Raven . . . 
Kaakki
. . . I love Raven, and wish to be her husband.”

His hands balled into tight fists at his sides, and the pulse pounded in his ears. Inhaling a deep breath, Joseph tried to maintain his composure. No one told Two Bears what he could and couldn’t do. He was still the leader of this village, and although he sought council from other members of the tribe, no one went against his wishes when he’d made a decision about something. Joseph ran a trembling hand over his face. He regretted his impulsive outburst, but only for a moment. He wasn’t about to lose Sophie to another man.

Why hadn’t he thought of this, that Two Bears would make plans to find a husband for her? It made perfect sense. The chief thought he was dying, and to his way of thinking, it was his responsibility as her only living relative, to make sure she would be provided for. He should have mentioned to the chief when he first visited him that he planned to marry Sophie.

Two Bears calmly motioned for him to sit. The corners of his lips twitched. Whether it was annoyance, anger, or something else, Joseph couldn’t read in the old man’s face. Reluctantly, he lowered himself to the ground again. Part of him wanted to bolt from the lodge and find Sophie, and take her as far away from the village as possible. Hell, he’d ride all the way back to Boston with her if he had to.

The old chief reached for his arm and gave a weak squeeze. “
Toko
, the man my granddaughter has agreed to marry counts himself as a warrior among us. I believe I have chosen well.”

“What if I ask her to marry me? What if she consents to take me as her husband instead?” Joseph groped for the words. He swallowed. Panic nearly engulfed him. The thought of another man touching her, of . . . no! This couldn’t be happening. He’d fight any man for the right to marry her.