Savage Dawn Page 6

  “Very,” Eagle Wolf said solemnly, slowly nodding. “Nothing could stop it. Not even our people’s shaman, who is skilled at healing.”

  Nicole recalled earlier how he had grabbed her by the wrist and said that she would die. “Earlier you told me to leave, that I was going to die,” she said. “Did you say that to me because of your concern that I would get the same disease as you? Did you also believe that you were going to die?”

  “My wife died, so, ho, yes, I expected to also,” Eagle Wolf said. “I felt that I needed to warn you.”

  Nicole remembered how frightened she had felt at that moment, and was so glad to know now that he had not meant he would kill her, himself, if she stayed there.

  She truly felt as though she could relax now, and continue offering him help without fearing that in the end his thank-you would be to kill her.

  “Will you allow me to continue helping you?” she asked. “I can stay with you long enough to bring down your fever by bathing your skin with cool water from the stream. I can even feed you, so that you can regain your strength and return to your people a strong, well man.”

  “Why would you do this for me?” Eagle Wolf asked, more amazed by this woman as each moment passed. “I a Navaho and most whites would call me a savage.”

  “You are a human being,” Nicole said softly. “I do not judge people by their skin color. My parents taught me differently.”

  “Where are your parents?” Eagle Wolf asked. “Why are you traveling alone? Why are you not with them?”

  She didn’t think she could bear to talk about how she had found her parents. The pain of speaking about it would be almost the same as being there again.

  Instead of answering him, she asked a question of her own. “Are you strong enough to move closer to the stream?” she blurted out. “It will be more convenient for me as I bathe your feverish brow with cool water. The water will help bring down the fever.”

  Again touched deeply by her kindness, he nodded. With Nicole’s help, he stumbled to the stream, then collapsed in a dead faint beside it.

  Nicole gasped at just how weak he was; his fainting was proof of that. She hoped that she wasn’t too late to help him.

  She believed this man was not to be feared, but admired. There was something majestic about him, as though he might be more than a mere warrior.

  He had the demeanor of a mighty chief.

  As she slowly bathed his face, her eyes were drawn again to admire his handsomeness. She relived how his voice had sounded, so deep, so masculine, and so kind.

  As she continued to bathe his hot flesh, she prayed that the treatment would work. She would hate to see such a man as he die!

  Her jaws tightened in determination, vowing to herself that she would not let him die.

  She wondered about this wife who had died. Had she been so beautiful that he could not see beauty in another woman?

  Could he ever care for a woman whose skin was white?

  Knowing how foolish she was to allow herself such fantasies, Nicole forced her thoughts elsewhere as she continued to bathe his body.

  The future. What did it hold for her? Where could she go when she felt it was safe enough to wander from this mountain?

  She truly did not want to return to St. Louis and live with her aunt Dot and uncle Zeb. She had felt stifled there.

  So then…where could she go?

  Who else but them could she turn to?

  She again gazed at the Indian. She could not deny that she was drawn to him. He had awakened feelings within her that she had not known existed, and she knew that was because he was a man who had made her feel like a woman.

  Chapter Ten

  As the setting sun painted an orange glow on the mountain, and the birds called to each other as they settled into their nests for the night, Nicole was feeling a loneliness she had never known before. This would be her first night of having no parents.

  As dusk fell, Nicole hugged herself.

  When Eagle Wolf groaned softly in his sleep near the campfire she had managed to build, she looked down at him.

  Before he had drifted off to sleep again, Eagle Wolf had told her how to build the fire. She had never had a reason to know how before now.

  After she had gotten the rest of the campsite ready for the long night ahead, she had pulled her own blanket from her travel bag, and a shawl, which she’d wrapped around her shoulders to ward off the chill she felt as fog drifted in on all sides of her.

  Starved, Nicole had found berries enough to fill her emptiness until she got the courage to hunt something more substantial. But not until morning.

  She did not dare wander from this place in the dark. Nicole had no doubt that mountain lions were aplenty. And once again, she only now heard the frightening call of a wolf.

  She peered up at the moon, which had now replaced the sun in the sky. She shivered at how ghostly it looked as it shone through the fog. She scooted to the edge of her blanket, closer to the fire, then looked over her shoulder when she heard crickets begin their nightly song.

  As a child, she had listened to them from her bed. She had always loved their chirping. Even when she was a child, they had brought peace to her heart.

  When she thought of them now, she recalled the time when she had decided to call the song of the crickets “night music.”

  She felt a growing inner peace even now as she listened to another familiar night sound that she had heard while in her home on the shores of the Mississippi just outside the bustling city of St. Louis. An owl was hooting in the dark.

  When she saw fireflies with their flashing lanterns begin to rise from the grass all around her, tears came to her eyes. She thought about the times she had gone outside on early evenings with her mother and played amid the fireflies, giggling when one landed on her arm.

  Those were such innocent, wonderful, happy times. She would never know them again, unless she had her own child one day to share such things with.

  She had never thought about children of her own before, but now, strangely enough, she did.

  She hated to believe that she would remain so alone in the world all of her life. Now she longed to find a man she could share her life with.

  “Your name?”

  It was almost eerie the way that male voice interrupted her thoughts of finding a man to share her life with. It was as though her thoughts had carried to Eagle Wolf, awakening him.

  She blushed and then gasped softly when she saw that he was moving to a sitting position.

  His face was no longer flushed, and his eyes were clear. Both things surely meant that his fever was gone.

  His warm, wondrous smile, and his voice as he again spoke to her, made Nicole’s heart skip a beat. Her reaction confirmed just how attracted she was to him.

  “What is your name?” Eagle Wolf asked again, wondering why asking her such a simple question should bring color to her cheeks in a blush.

  He had been too ill earlier to even think about her name, much less ask it.

  But now?

  Something inside himself, beyond mere curiosity, made him want to know more about her.

  He brushed aside the fact that she was white. She was like no white person he had ever known.

  She was generous and kind. She was absolutely beautiful, both outside and in.

  It was because of her that he was beginning to feel like himself again, instead of an injured animal, at the mercy of any who might come across him while he was ill and alone.

  “Nicole,” she murmured. “Nicole Tyler.”

  “How is it that you are not afraid of Eagle Wolf?” he asked.

  “When I first saw you, I must admit that I was afraid,” Nicole said softly. “But then I realized you were ill. I hoped to help you, and I believe that I have.”

  She paused, then said, “I have, haven’t I? You do look as though you are feeling better. I don’t believe you have a temperature any longer.”

  Eagle Wolf smiled over the fire at her. “
Ho, it is gone,” he said, slowly nodding. He laughed softly and good-naturedly. “Eagle Wolf sees you now as a white shaman.”

  Again Nicole blushed, for she knew that Eagle Wolf was teasing her.

  “Why are you traveling alone?” Eagle Wolf suddenly asked.

  The question unnerved Nicole. She had not been able to tell him about her parents earlier. Could she do it now?

  If so, would the burden of the pain and sorrow she was carrying in her heart be lessened? And was this man the right one to tell such a thing to?

  Yet it did seem so right to talk to him and even share her grief with him.

  She had never met a man who seemed so sincerely kind and caring. Surely it was because she had been the same to him.

  “It was not my intention to be alone,” Nicole finally blurted out, lowering her eyes so that he would not see the wetness of tears as she fought the urge to cry.

  “Then why is that you are?” Eagle Wolf asked, lifting an eyebrow. “Surely you know the risks for a woman traveling alone in this land where so much danger is present.”

  “Yes, I truly know the danger,” Nicole said, slowly raising her eyes, so that she could look into his. She swallowed hard. “I now know it much better than most people would.”

  “Do you mean that you are in danger with me, because I am an Indian?” Eagle Wolf asked, hoping that his assumption was wrong. He had not wanted to put fear in her heart, but trust.

  “Oh, no,” Nicole quickly said. “Certainly not. You have given me no reason to be afraid.”

  “Then what did you mean?” Eagle Wolf asked, now truly curious.

  Then a sudden remembrance came to him. He recalled seeing this woman riding toward the burning town called Tyler City. He had not yet asked her the purpose of her journey.

  And then he recalled her last name.

  Tyler!

  The name of the town that had burned had been Tyler City. Was she associated with that town somehow?

  “You seem hesitant to answer me,” Eagle Wolf said. “I saw you riding toward Tyler City as it burned. Your last name is Tyler. Did you have family there?”

  That question stunned Nicole into silence.

  He had seen her even before she had found him on the mountain. He had actually seen her riding toward Tyler City. She was sure he had guessed who her father was.

  Did that mean that he knew her father by reputation? Did he know him as a gambler, known for cheating while playing poker?

  She inhaled nervously, for she was suddenly awakened to just how widespread her father’s reputation might be. Would his shame now follow her around for the rest of her life whenever she was asked her last name?

  At this moment she could not help resenting her father as much as she mourned him. He was at peace in death, while she would never know who might point an accusing finger at her because of who her father had been.

  She would have to live with his bad reputation forever.

  “I see that my question has made you uncomfortable,” Eagle Wolf said. “I can understand why. Surely upon your arrival in Tyler City you saw the worst thing possible for a daughter. Surely your parents did not live?”

  “No, they didn’t, and I truly do not wish to talk about it,” Nicole murmured, slowly looking up into his dark eyes. “It causes such pain in my heart even to think about it, much less…talk about it,” she said softly.

  “I do understand,” Eagle Wolf said thickly. “I, too, have lost those I loved. I have told you that my wife died from measles. I also lost my father and mother.” Eagle Wolf gazed sadly into the dancing flames of the fire. “It is now only myself and my brother…”

  He stopped at that, guessing that she did not even have a sibling to share her grief. In life, there were so many things that could cause heartache, but one must learn go on living.

  The same philosophy applied to him. Although he had recently lost his wife, he could not help noticing the beauty of this woman, Nicole. Should it be the will of the Great Spirit that he love this woman, and that she love him, then so be it.

  But it was too soon, just now, to think about such possibilities. Their relationship was too new to consider being in love.

  He must never forget that being a chief required many things of him. He must use utmost care choosing a woman to bring into the Owl Clan as his future wife.

  “I am suddenly hungry,” Eagle Wolf said, glad that he had found a way to break through the awkward silence that had fallen between himself and Nicole.

  He nodded toward his tethered horse and the parfleche bag that still hung at its right side. “My bag is on my horse,” he said. “In it is food that I packed for my journey. It is called pemmican. I would share it with you tonight if you can get it for us.”

  Nicole was so glad that all talk of her parents, especially her father and how they had died, was forgotten by Eagle Wolf.

  He had surely seen the hurt that it had brought to her heart, and understood. He, too, had recently lost loved ones.

  She hurried to his bag and opened it. After searching through it, she found what she guessed must be the pemmican he had spoken about.

  It was wrapped in a thin strip of buckskin.

  She took it back to him.

  He unwrapped the buckskin and tore the meat into two equal pieces, giving Nicole one. She chose to sit beside him, rather than across the fire from him.

  They ate in silence for a moment, then Eagle Wolf began talking again about his wife.

  “My wife Precious Stone and I were not married for long,” he said sadly. “It was a marriage of convenience only. I wanted children, for children are the future of our people. My clan has been depleted by wars with our enemy, the Ute, and with the United States government. Finally, I led my people to safety, to a place where no white men dare go. There my people will prosper again.”

  “You said that you led your people to safety,” Nicole murmured, trying to sort through this information he had suddenly revealed to her. She was surprised that he would be so open with her, especially about a wife he had not really loved.

  “I am chief of the Owl Clan of Navaho,” Eagle Wolf proudly stated. He noticed that her eyes widened in wonder.

  “I did not know,” Nicole said softly. She didn’t tell him that she had guessed he might be a leader of his people.

  A chief! She was in the presence of a powerful Navaho chief.

  Yes, she was impressed.

  “When my father died at the hands of the white man’s cavalry, I was named chief after him. After the battle was ended and our people were victorious over the white-eyed soldiers, I took them to safety on this mountain and here we shall remain,” Eagle Wolf said thickly.

  Nicole knew, from his description of the battle, how he had fought and won, that he must have killed many white men. But she couldn’t fault him for that. Eagle Wolf’s father had most likely died right before his eyes, shot by a soldier who saw Indians as nothing but savages.

  No, she did not blame him for fighting for his people’s survival.

  She had always thought it wrong that the white man had taken everything from the Indians. She knew the government was still trying to make certain all Indians were rounded up and placed on reservations.

  It was disgraceful, and she was ashamed to say she was part of a nation that had wronged the Indians so badly.

  “Tell me about yourself,” Eagle Wolf said. “But only what you are comfortable telling.”

  “I love children,” Nicole said, then found her cheeks burning suddenly with a blush when she remembered that he had just spoken about children being the future of his people. She hoped he wouldn’t think she had said that to impress him. She had only meant to tell him about wanting to be a teacher.

  “I went to school and received my teaching credentials,” Nicole blurted out. “It was my deep desire to teach children, for I do love them so much.”

  At her words, a new thought came to Eagle Wolf, but he decided not to voice it aloud. If Nicole loved teaching ch
ildren so much, could she not teach Navaho children what she had learned to teach white?

  His people’s children could learn the ways of white people so that they could avoid their tricks.

  But the presence of one white person in his stronghold could lead to others discovering it. No matter how he was attracted to this woman, he could not chance taking her to his home.

  Nicole suddenly realized just how weary she was from the long day she had just gone through. “I am so tired,” she said softly. “I must retire for the night. Will you be all right while I sleep?”

  She glanced hesitantly at his weapons. Was she being foolish to trust that he would not kill her as she slept?

  Eagle Wolf noticed Nicole looking at his weapons.

  Although he thought she did not see him as her enemy, he understood her hesitance.

  “Do not be afraid to sleep,” Eagle Wolf reassured her as he reached out and gently took one of her hands in his. “White woman, I understand why you might still be afraid to trust me, for it is rare that white people trust men with red skin. I assure you that you are safe while you are with me. When I look at you, I do not see the color of your skin, but the kindness of your heart.”

  He gently squeezed her hand. He saw that his words caused a flush to rise to Nicole’s cheeks. She now looked trustingly into his eyes.

  “I thank you for what you have done for me,” he said, then slowly eased his hand from hers.

  He nodded over the fire toward her blanket, then again gazed into her eyes.

  “Go now,” he softly encouraged. “Sleep in peace. I shall do the same. Tomorrow is another day, but tonight we must rest.”

  Nicole smiled sweetly at him, then rose and walked over to where she had spread the blanket for herself earlier. She stretched out on the blanket, sighed, and was soon fast asleep.

  Chapter Eleven

  The moon scarcely showed through the smoke that continued to rise from the burned town of Tyler City. As Jeremiah and his friends rode toward the grayish haze that lay heavy in the air, he knew that he had found the city that had been erased from the map in a single day.