And magically, a night that had begun in fear and bloodshed and fury became…
Eden.
CHAPTER 22
They stayed among the Crazy Horse people for three more days, then they prepared to depart. They would head south to the site where the meeting between the representatives of the American government and the Sioux was scheduled to take place. It would take them two days to ride there. They would be traveling southeast, from Montana back to Dakota territory.
When they were ready to leave, Skylar bid a fond farewell to Hawk’s family and to the other people she had come to know during her visit. When they mounted their horses, she was surprised to see that Blade and Ice Raven would be accompanying them.
It was ironic, she thought, that she would be riding with all four of the warriors who had attacked her stagecoach and convinced her that she was about to be slaughtered and scalped just a matter of a few weeks earlier. Sloan made their number five. He and Hawk still wore the clothing they had donned each day during their visit to the camp: breechclouts, leggings, moccasins, little else. If it weren’t for her hair, Skylar thought, she would fit right in with them. She had become so involved in Sioux generosity that she had given away all the clothing shehad brought with her and now wore nothing more than doeskin herself.
Crazy Horse came out to bid them all farewell. What the men said, Skylar had no idea. They seemed to be parting in complete friendship, but for some reason, the words spoken between them made her uneasy. She smiled at Crazy Horse and waved goodbye to him. He smiled in return and raised his hand in farewell as well. She was glad that he seemed to like her, for she had to admit that she liked him, even though he was extremely warlike and might go to battle against the whites at any given time. He was still a man of integrity, one who had been backed against a rock time and time again. He didn’t intend to be an agency Indian, a drunkard, or a layabout. His way was free and steeped in tradition. She couldn’t blame him for being ready to fight for his own existence.
Earth Woman, who had apologized about the pepper and decided to become Skylar’s friend after the attack, bade her a warm farewell—one that seemed sincere. But then Hawk had told Skylar that both Crazy Horse and Sloan had severely chastised her—the incident had made them all vulnerable to the attack.
The children ran alongside them as they rode from the camp by the river. The men tossed down keepsakes to the children, Sloan providing whistles he had carved and cavalry buttons, Hawk, Ice Raven, and Blade dropping some of their arrows.
When they reached the more heavily wooded countryside, Skylar urged Nutmeg up closer to Tor. “Why are your cousins coming with us? I thought they had decided they wanted to stay away from the white community, with the Crazy Horse people.”
Hawk shrugged without saying anything for a moment, then he told her, “No one understands why parties of Crow Indians and others keep appearing to wrest you away.”
Skylar frowned. “I don’t mean to tread upon your feelings, but it is natural for many of the Indian bands in the West to attack whites.”
Hawk smiled wryly, shaking his head. “The attacks were just a bit too strange. You thought so yourself. Remember? You told me one of the men spoke English. Sloan had seen one of them before.”
“Is that so unusual?”
“Maybe not. It’s just that…”
“What?”
“Something seems not quite right.”
Skylar sighed softly. “Hawk, lots of things just aren’t right at all.”
“Beyond the obvious,” Hawk told her. He cocked his head toward her, a wry half-smile curved into his features. “Skylar, I don’t tend to be a superstitious man—perhaps I’m too grounded in my father’s white world—but having you abducted twice in less than a week seems a bit on the strange side. Even among warring Indians. To be less than careful would be entirely foolish. Between us, Sloan, Willow, Ice Raven, Blade, and myself, of course, we’re quite a powerful group.”
“I do believe you.” Skylar smiled. “So Ice Raven and Blade came along to protect me?”
“They won’t come to the conference on the Black Hills. They’ll turn back when we near the site.”
“That makes it all the nicer that they are willing to come so far.”
“We do our best to protect our women.”
“Wives,” Skylar murmured.
“What?”
She looked at him innocently. “Wives. In the plural.”
He grinned. “Such jealousy warms my heart, Lady Douglas.”
“I’m not jealous in the least.”
He reined in suddenly, catching hold of Nutmeg’s reins to pull her back as well. “I can be a very jealous soul myself, my lady. Thank God you hadn’t had much of a past when you came to me. But then, there’s so much about your past that I don’t know! Should I be jealous, worried?”
“I can’t imagine you worried,” she told him.
