Wild Desire (24 page)

He was fast discovering that he had made an even wiser choice than he had ever imagined when he had decided to marry this beautiful, amorous young lady. She was taking Thunder Hawk to heights of passion that he never knew were possible.

He lowered his mouth to one of her breasts and took his first taste of her sweetness. She twined her fingers through his hair and moaned.

“Thunder Hawk, I never knew paradise until now,” she whispered.

He lifted his gaze and met hers. “I will be good to you,” he said thickly.

The remembrance of the dreaded schoolroom came to his mind's eye in a flash. He brushed it aside just as quickly. That schoolroom was now a thing of the past.

“My wife,” he whispered against her parted lips, “I owe you more than you will ever know.”

He thrust into her one last, lingering time, then kissed her as together they found ultimate pleasure in one another's arms.

 

 

Pure Blossom was stretched out on her bed, pale and gaunt. She clutched at her stomach, and then her throat. She could not count the endless trips that she had made outside to retch at the back of her hogan. She had heard it called “morning sickness.”

She had just started experiencing this today. She had even been too ill to go outside and greet her brother and the woman he had taken as his bride.

Although shocked that Thunder Hawk had taken a bride without sharing his decision with his family beforehand, Pure Blossom could not feel slighted because of it. She was as guilty as Thunder Hawk when it came to behaving on one's own. She would not be pregnant now if she had shared everything with her parents and brothers.

“Oh, how I hate Adam,” Pure Blossom said, pummeling her fists against the blankets cushioning her bed. “How could he be so cruel? So cold-hearted? I will show him. This child that comes from my imperfect body will be perfect in every way. I shall flaunt the child before him one day. It will give me such pleasure to laugh in his face and deny him even the first touch of his child.”

She turned with a start when Leonida and Sage came into her hogan. She tried to get up, so that they would not realize that she was so ill, but it was too late. They had already seen her.

She did not even bother getting up. She did not dare to, anyhow. Every time she had tried to move to her feet and walk around today, she had retched. The quieter she lay, the less excited or upset she got, the less she would be ill.

Leonida went quickly to Pure Blossom's bedside. Sage stopped long enough to roll more logs onto the fire in the fireplace, then came and stood beside Leonida as they both stared down at their daughter, concern in their eyes.

“Darling, what's the matter?” Leonida said, sitting down on the bed beside Pure Blossom. “You are so pale. You're ill. Tell me where you hurt, darling. I'll try and make it better.”

Pure Blossom looked guardedly at her mother, then her father. Not wanting them to know the full truth, she cowered away from them and turned her eyes toward the wall.

But there was nothing she could do to stop the bitterness that was rising into her throat once again. And this time it came too quickly for her to flee outside. She leaned over the side of the bed opposite the side where her parents were standing and retched all over her neatly swept dirt floor.

Leonida paled and grabbed for Pure Blossom's shoulders, holding her until Pure Blossom was through. “Sage, get a basin of water and a cloth,” she said over her shoulder.

Sage hurriedly did as she asked, then stood over them as Leonida bathed Pure Blossom's face with the damp, cool cloth. “As pale as you are, I would suspect that you have thrown up quite often this morning,” she said, her voice drawn. “Was it something you ate, darling?” She cast a glance over at the stove. “I'll see to it that all of the food you have recently cooked is thrown out.”

Pure Blossom knew that it would be as simple as that to let her parents think that her illness had been brought on by food. But she did not like the idea of putting off the inevitable. As tiny as she was, she would soon be showing her pregnancy. Then no excuses on this earth could hide the truth.

“Mother, Father?” Pure Blossom said, easing the cloth away from her face. She scooted up into a sitting position. She combed her fingers through her long, loose hair. “It is not fair to you to keep the truth from you any longer.”

She could hear the intake of their breaths and could see the weariness in their eyes, yet she knew that nothing they were thinking could be anything close to the truth, especially since it included Adam.

“No blood that comes with the moon visited me this time. I carry a child in my belly,” she blurted out, wincing when she saw a horrified look creep into both of her parents' eyes.

“You . . . are . . . pregnant?” Leonida said, her heart feeling as though it had plummeted to her feet.

Sage was so stunned, he could not find any words to express his disbelief.

“Yes, I am with child,” Pure Blossom said, suddenly wailing as she flung herself into her mother's arms. “And the seed was not put into my womb by a man who loved me. At the time, I thought he did. But now I know that he was only using me. I am ashamed. So ashamed.”

“This man,” Sage said, his hands tightening into fists at his sides. “What is his name? Is it the one I fear?”

Pure Blossom became silent. She looked sheepishly up at her father. “You will not hate me if I tell you the truth?” she said, her voice breaking.

“I could never hate you,” Sage said, sitting down beside Leonida. He took Pure Blossom into his comforting arms. “This man used you. You are innocent. You perhaps loved too easily because it was the first time for you. His name, daughter. Give me his name.”

“Adam,” Pure Blossom said in a weak whisper, yet loud enough for both her parents to hear.

Leonida turned pale and gasped.

Sage's heart felt as though it had just been cut out.

He rose quickly to his feet and left the hogan. He ignored Leonida when she ran after him, asking him to stop. She knew him well enough to realize where he was headed. He was hell-bent on finding Adam, to beat him to a pulp. He was repulsed by the very thought of his daughter having slept with that man, much less that she now carried his child inside her body. Adam had taken advantage of his daughter's innocence.

He mounted his horse and rode away. He pushed his horse into a hard gallop all the way to the train. When he finally arrived there, he dismounted and stormed up the steps to the private cars. Not sure which one was Adam's, he opened one door and stepped inside.

“Where are you?” he shouted as he entered. When he realized that no one was there, he left that car and went into the other one.

Disgruntled to find that car also empty, he was tempted to tear up everything there and burn all of the belongings, but held his temper at bay and left. He felt it was best to deal with this later. His anger had become uncontrolled. He wanted to save it, until later, when he had Adam's throat trapped between his fingers.

Needing to find some peace within his heart over the pain that his daughter was suffering, he decided it was best to go and find a high place so that he could pray for guidance.

He had to wonder where he had gone wrong as a father, or what he could do to turn the tide back in his favor.

He had never felt as helpless as he did now.

His one blessing, as she had always been, was his wife, Leonida. She had always been there for him. She always would be. She was his past, present, and future. In her he would find the solace that he needed. He would return to her, instead of going to pray alone in the mountains.

Mounting his horse, he rode away. But this time, he traveled in a slow lope, his head hanging low.

Chapter 27

Exhausted, having stopped only long enough to take drinks from the rivers and eat small portions of the food that she had prepared for her and Adam's outing to Canyon de Chelley, Stephanie rode into the outskirts of Runner's village.

After Runner had ridden away in a hard gallop, she had not seen him again. But that had not stopped her pursuit of him. Determined for him to hear her out, she had had only one destination in mind after leaving Adam back at Canyon de Chelley, Runner's village. He should be there ahead of her and she would force him to listen, even if it was at gunpoint.

Her trembling fingers went to the derringer that was holstered at her waist. Yes, if Runner left her no other recourse than to draw the gun on him to force him to listen to her, so be it. She loved him. She could not lose him, especially since the loss would have been as a result of her brother's cruel schemes.

Stephanie's head drooped. After having only slept for a few moments when she had stopped to eat, she was finding it hard to stay awake, even though she could feel a silence falling on all sides of her as she worked her way through the village and past people who had left their hogans to stare at her.

She knew that she had to be a fretful sight to look at. She hadn't had a bath in two days and her hair hung around her face in loose tangles. As she ran her tongue across her lips she could taste dust and the salt of sweat. She could even smell the perspiration that had dried on her blouse.

It was almost laughable that she could dare come to see Runner in such a shape, when what she wanted most was to impress upon him the fact that she knew that he loved her. She doubted that any man would give her a second glance today, much less confess his love for her.

But if Runner truly loved her, as he had told her more than once, he should be able to look past her appearance, and Adam's lies, and grab her up into his arms and kiss her hurt away.

“Just a little farther,” she whispered to herself, as she glanced up and saw Runner's hogan not all that far away.

Her gaze shifted and she felt a knot forming inside her stomach when Sage stepped from Pure Blossom's hogan, Leonida at his side.

Through the haze of her weary eyes, Stephanie was close enough to tell that Leonida had been crying. Her cheeks were rosy and her eyes were bloodshot.

A frightened tremor raced through Stephanie when she saw the rage in Sage's eyes, and had to wonder at that. Did he hate her so much that the mere sight of her angered him?

Then her heart skipped a nervous beat. She turned her gaze back to Runner's hogan. Surely he
had
arrived before her; he had told them everything.

She was now filled with fear, for who was to say what she had ridden into? Were they so angry at her they might even scalp her? Yet, why
would
Sage be angry? He hadn't wanted Runner to marry her anyway.

No, it was something else.

After finally reaching Sage and Leonida, Stephanie drew a tight rein and slid clumsily from her saddle. She felt her knees buckling, and so reached for the saddle horn and pulled herself up, to her full height.

She leaned dizzily against the horse, then was seized by a shadow. Taking a large gulp of air, she fell to the ground in a dead faint.

“My Lord,” Leonida said, rushing from Sage's side. She fell to her knees beside Stephanie and cradled her head on her lap. “Stephanie. Wake up, Stephanie. What's wrong?”

She looked over Stephanie, wincing at the frightful state that she was in. It looked as though she had been to hell and back. Leonida could tell that something had driven Stephanie hard, and the reason why would remain a mystery to her.

Sage came toward Stephanie. He stared down at her for a moment, then sighed and grabbed her up into his arms and carried her into Runner's hogan, the only available place to take her.

Leonida followed Sage into Runner's hogan.
It has been a day of days
she fretted to herself. First Thunder Hawk springs a wife on his parents. Then Pure Blossom springs her own surprise on her parents.
And now this?
she despaired to herself. Although Stephanie was less than family, the fact that she had come to the Navaho in such dishevelment meant that this had been her destination.

Leonida knew what had drawn her there: Runner.

She poured water into a basin and grabbed up a cloth and went to the bedside, where Sage was unfastening the two top buttons of Stephanie's shirt, to make it easier for her to breathe.

Leonida sat down on the bed beside Stephanie. “I wonder where she's been?” she said, gently washing Stephanie's face. “It looks as though she may have traveled many miles. If I didn't know better, I would think that she's been without sleep and has scarcely eaten.” She glanced up at Sage. “What do you think, Sage? Don't you find this all very peculiar? Stephanie doesn't seem the sort to behave irrationally.”

“I am sure it has something to do with Runner,” Sage said, going to squat on his haunches beside the fireplace. He began placing wood on the grate, stacking it so that it would light easily once he set a match to it. “I only hope our son is all right. She could have been coming to us with news—”

“About Runner?” Leonida gasped out, finishing his sentence. She dropped the cloth into the water and went to Sage. She knelt down beside him and placed a hand on his cheek. “Darling, could she have been coming here to tell us that our son has met with a mishap? She didn't get the chance to say anything before she fainted.” Leonida buried her face in her hands. “Oh, Lord, don't let it be so,” she murmured. “If anything should happen to Runner. . . .”

“Mother? Father?” Runner said as he came into the hogan, as unkempt and as drawn as Stephanie had been before her collapse.

Leonida jumped to her feet and ran to Runner, embracing him tightly. “Thank the Lord,” she cried. “I thought something had happened to you.”

Runner was looking past her, over her shoulder. He stiffened when his gaze fell upon Stephanie. Although he was angry at her, and hurt by her deceits, an alarm seemed to sound inside him as he saw her lying there so still and pale. Her clothes and her hair looked as though they had gone through a fierce battle.

Yet he had to hold himself at bay. Adam's words were running through his mind, over and over again. This woman was a liar. She was deceitful. She was a schemer. He could not allow himself to care about her at all.

Yet there she was. She had beaten him there, only because he had stopped long enough to commune with the Great Unseen Power before returning home. Otherwise, he had driven himself to get back to the sanctity of his hogan and the peace he found within its walls.

“What is she doing here?” he finally asked, easing from his mother's arms.

“I'm not sure,” Leonida said, giving Sage a troubled look. He had not yet turned his face to Runner. He stared unblinkingly into the fire as it was taking hold, casting a golden, warm light on his handsome copper face.

“What has happened to her?” Runner asked, going to stand over Stephanie. His heart bled as he gazed down at her. Helpless and pitiful, she looked so innocent. No matter what he knew about her, it was hard not to bend to his knees and draw her next to him, to hold, to coddle.

But again Adam's harsh words burned even more strongly in his mind and he only held himself stiffly over her.

Leonida came to Runner and slipped an arm through his. “She had just arrived, then fainted after she dismounted her horse,” she murmured. She looked up at Runner. “Darling, you look as though you may have traveled the same road as she. I haven't seen you unshaven since you were a child. Are you aware of the stubble on your face? And your hair—it is windblown. And your clothes are filthy. Where have you been? Surely you weren't gone this long looking for Thunder Hawk.”

“I have traveled as far as Canyon de Chelley and back again,” Runner said in a dull, monotone voice. “That is also the path of Stephanie's journey.”

Sage gave Runner a stiff look over his shoulder, then rose slowly to his feet. “She went with her camera to the sacred place of our ancestors?” he said, glowering down at Stephanie.

“Yes,” Runner said, nodding. “That is where I found her and Adam.”

“You ordered them away, my son?” Sage said, eyeing Runner speculatively.

“Yes.” Runner said. “I also broke Stephanie's camera and the film plates.”

Sage smiled, well pleased. “You did well, my son,” he said, patting Runner's back.

“Then this is why she came to our village?” Leonida said, bending to her knees beside Stephanie again, smoothing the cool, damp cloth across her brow. “Because she was angry with you? This was what was driving her so hard? I don't understand. Surely she told you what she thought about what you did while you both were at the canyon. Why did she have to come here? To tell you again?”

“There were other things that were said besides talk of photography and cameras,” Runner said, walking away. He slipped his shirt over his head and tossed it onto the floor. He grabbed up a towel and started toward the door. “I am going to the river. I plan to bathe and to shave. If she awakens, tell her to leave. I wish not to have council with her, ever again.”

Sage smiled and nodded.

Leonida frowned and watched Runner walk away.

Then Leonida looked over at Sage. “There is much here that has not yet been sorted out between this woman and our son,” she said.

The voices awakened Stephanie. She stirred and blinked her eyes, then rose up on an elbow and looked blankly around her. “Where am I?” she murmured, then jolted with alarm when Sage stepped into view.

Her gaze caught Leonida stooping over her, a cloth in her one hand, her eyes showing mixed emotions in their depths.

“How did I get here?” Stephanie said, looking guardedly from Leonida to Sage.

“You fainted,” Leonida said, dropping the cloth back in the basin. She moved to her feet and carried the basin outside. She stopped and took a nervous breath. She was torn with how to treat Stephanie, yet still wished for things to work out between Runner and Stephanie. She went back inside and knelt again at the bedside.

“I'm going to bring you some food, and then you will have the strength to leave,” she said. “And I believe you should, Stephanie. Runner is very angry at you. I doubt he would speak to you if you stayed.”

“Then he is here?” Stephanie said, easing her legs over the side of the bed. Weakness seized her. She fell back down on the bed, panting.

“I'll be back soon with some stew,” Leonida said, then left.

Sage came and stood over Stephanie. “I want you to eat and then leave,” he flatly ordered. “You and your brother have brought my people only heartache. Especially my son, Runner. He allowed himself to fall in love with you. Now he must learn how to fall out of love, for you are not deserving of such a son as this.”

“Except for going to Canyon de Chelley, I didn't do anything wrong,” Stephanie pleaded. “I am innocent of everything else that Adam told Runner about me. Adam is a liar. I despise him, Sage. Please believe me when I say that my intentions toward Runner and your people are pure. Please give me a chance to prove it?”

“My son does not get this angry at someone without good reason,” Sage said flatly. “So it is with him that you have your true argument.”

Stephanie felt completely drained as he walked away. When Leonida brought her a large bowl of mutton stew, she ate it ravenously and drank goat's milk as fast as Leonida could refill the cup.

Her srrength having returned, her purpose revitalized, Stephanie left the bed.

Leonida stepped away from Stephanie, wanting so badly to tell her that she admired her for being so independent, but she kept her feelings to herself. The rift was between her son and this woman and no one else should interfere, especially not a mother.

“I want to thank you for your kindness,” Stephanie said softly. “And it has not been misplaced. I have been wronged by my brother. He lied to Runner. But I can't go into it now. It's complicated.”

Stephanie paused, then added, “But I do want you to know that I honestly love your son,” she said, her voice breaking. “I would never do anything to hurt him. I would especially not pretend that I have feelings for Runner to help Adam in his schemes. It's not true. Now I have to convince Runner that it isn't.”

“You will find Runner down by the river,” Leonida said. “He should be finished with his bath by now.”

She found herself sympathizing with Stephanie. Her instincts told her that the young woman had been duped by Adam.

Shameful, shameful Adam
, Leonida thought sadly to herself.
He had been such a sweet boy to have grown up into such a deceitful, shameful man.

Forgetting her filthy clothes and unpleasant odor, Stephanie gave Leonida a lingering hug, then fled from the hogan. As she stepped outside, she ran bodily into Runner.

When she gazed up at him and saw the utter contempt in his eyes, she felt as though she was being shredded into a million pieces by the sharpness of his gaze.

But that did not dissuade her from what she had to do. He had to understand. He had to believe her.

“Runner, please listen to reason,” she said, jumping with a start when he brushed past her and went inside his hogan.

She turned and gaped, then flinched when he appeared at the door again and glared at her. “I do not want to listen to you, nor do I want to see you again,” he stated flatly. “Nothing you say will change my mind. Do not waste any more of my time.”