Read Savage Splendor (Savage Lagonda 2) Online

Authors: Constance O'Banyon

Tags: #Historical, #Romance, #Fiction, #19th Century, #American West, #Native Americans, #Indian, #Wife, #Disappeared, #Beloved, #Continuation, #Reuniting, #Lagonda Tribe, #Marriage, #Husband, #Queen, #King, #Night & Day, #White People, #True Love

Savage Splendor (Savage Lagonda 2) (9 page)

BOOK: Savage Splendor (Savage Lagonda 2)
13.52Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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Jantu, who was next in command after Palomas, sat beside his gravely ill leader, wishing he would awaken and tell him what to do. He did not want to face the fact that if Palomas did not regain consciousness he would have to give the order to return to the hidden valley.

 

Matio regained consciousness as the heavy rain fell on his face. He looked about him in a daze, not remembering where he was, or why he was lying on the ground. His head ached painfully. Reaching up, he tested the painful area and found his hand covered with blood.

Suddenly he remembered! He and Palomas had been shot by two white men. He remembered trying to warn Palomas, but pain had exploded in his head and he had fallen into darkness.

He rose unsteadily to his feet and staggered weakly forward. "Mara! My queen! Where are you?" he shouted. He dropped to his knees and examined the ground about him. It was no use, the rain had washed away every trace, every footprint. He remembered seeing Palomas fall into the water, but surely the white men had not shot the queen. They must have taken her, he reasoned. They would not harm her, would they? No, they would have made her their prisoner. He tried to think clearly, but his head was aching painfully. He could return to camp, perhaps Mara had been found and taken back there. No, if she had been found he would have been found as well, and taken back to camp. If he were to return to camp he would only waste valuable time. Perhaps the others were searching for her as well and he would meet up with them on the trail. He tried to pull himself over the high cliff, and he fell backwards many times before he finally succeeded.

Matio had no way of knowing how long he had been unconscious, but he calculated it had been at least two suns. He was extremely hungry and thirsty. He could do nothing about his hunger for the moment, but he could drink from the river to relieve his thirst.

Once his thirst was quenched he started moving in a northerly direction. Some unknown force, some instinct, was driving him, guiding his footsteps. He did not question the instinct's origin. He merely followed where it led him. He would push on until he found some clue that would help him locate his queen. Many times he fell to the ground in total exhaustion, only to rise again to forge on. When at last he fell to his knees, too weary to go further, he slumped over and slept, unaware that the rain had begun to fall again.

 

Mara awoke and looked about her in total confusion. Where was she? She sat up slowly and tried to remember. She seemed to be lying on a blanket with a crude structure over her head to protect her from the falling rain. It appeared to be some kind of animal skin stretched across four stakes that had been driven into the ground. It was no more than a camp….She frowned. She was in the woods, and apparently alone. Her mind was a blank. She felt unbridled fear. What was she doing here? She looked down at her hand and saw some strange object she was holding. It appeared to be a golden medallion of some strange sort. She turned it over wondering where it had come from. There was some writing engraved on it, but she did not bother to read it. It was heavy and she did not want to slip it over her head. Looking down at her legs, she noticed she was wearing leather moccasins. Without thinking she slipped the medallion into one of the shoes. She stood up slowly, testing her legs to see if they would support her weight. She felt shaky and weak, so she leaned against the trunk of a tree.

She had the strongest feeling that she did not belong in her surroundings. It appeared she was in some kind of a camp. There was a campfire, but it had evidently been put out by the rain that was falling. Mara looked upward and noticed the rain had ceased and the clouds were moving away leaving a bright, sun-kissed day.  She circled the camp, looking for something that might appear familiar to her. There were several animal traps hanging from the branch of a tree, and many animal pelts lying against the tree trunk giving off a not too pleasant odor.

Mara spotted a leather pouch, which she hoped would contain water. Lifting it to her mouth with shaky hands she took a sip to sample its purity. Finding it cool and refreshing, she drank deeply until her thirst had been satisfied. Now that she was no longer thirsty she looked about for something to eat. Spotting an iron skillet resting in the cold ashes of the campfire, she fell to her knees and scooped up the piece of meat in it and bit into it. It was not too tasty and she knew if she were not so hungry she would never have eaten it. She ate quickly, trying to alleviate the hunger pangs that were causing her stomach to growl in protest. After eating her fill, she felt somewhat better, in spite of the slight feeling of nausea that sent her back to the waterskin to sip the cool water.

Circling the camp once again she tried to find anything that would give her a clue to where she was. Once more she had the feeling of not belonging. Suddenly she heard a sound in the bushes, and she clasped her hands tightly together, not knowing whether to run or to stay and face whomever or whatever it was that was walking heavily toward her.

The bushes parted and Mara saw the tall form of a man appear. She held her breath as he walked slowly over to her. Her eyes were wide with apprehension as she studied him. He was an older man, with long red hair and a bushy beard to match. He was a stranger to her. She was sure she had never seen him before. His dress indicated that he was a trapper. He wore buckskin clothing and heavy leather boots, and over his shoulder he carried several small animal pelts. As she was studying him, he was also sizing her up. She lost some of her apprehension when his face eased into a broad grin.

"Well now, little lady, I see that you are up and about. Did you get you something to eat?" His manner was friendly without being too familiar.

Mara nodded an affirmative, still wondering who he was.

"Can you talk?" he asked as he swung the animal pelts over a low-hanging branch. He looked at her with curious interest. She noticed his eyes were a soft blue color. His face she could not tell much about, for so much of it was covered with his beard. She found nothing in his attitude to make her fear him.

"I do not know," she whispered, hearing her own voice for the first time and not recognizing it.

"My name's Zeke Caulfield. Me and my brother, Jake, found you a few days back. You been a mighty sick little gal. Me and my brother were afraid you wouldn't make it, you being so tiny and all." He smiled down at her and chuckled. "You might be small, but you are strong, ain't you? What's your name?"

Mara knitted her brow in confusion. "I . . . I do not know!" Panic encased her mind as she realized she could not remember her own name. "Oh, Zeke, I do not know who I am. Do you not know me?" she said in a pitiful voice.

Zeke covered the distance that separated them in two long strides. He took her hand awkwardly. "Don't you fret none, little lady, your name will come back to you given time," he said, trying to comfort her, but not knowing how.

"Well, well, so our little princess is awake at last," a second man said as he came up behind them.

Mara spun around to see a man who closely resembled Zeke, although he was an older version. His hair and beard were completely white, but he had the same soft blue eyes as Zeke, and Mara knew he would be the brother Zeke had spoken of.

"She don't recollect who she is, Jake."

The older man shook his head. "Is that a fact? Don't let that worry you none, little princess. A name ain't worth two whoops and a holler. Me and Zeke here aim to take good care of you till we can get you to a settlement where someone will likely know who you are."

Zeke led her over to the shelter and sat her down on the blanket. "What you need is some hot food so you can put some meat on them bones."

"Mr. Caulfield, where did you find me, and under what circumstances."

Jake was slapping a slab of bacon in the iron skillet. He paused to look at her over his shoulder. He gave his brother a warning glance that told him not to upset the little princess in her state of mind.

Zeke read his brother's message and spoke softly. "Why don't you call me Zeke, and my brother Jake? We ain't been called by our last name in many a year. As to how we found you, I will tell you this and no more for now. You was by a river and from the looks of you at the time you looked as if you had had a good dunking."

"Where are you taking me?"

"Me and Jake got us a cabin, not a far distance from here. We will take you there until you are feeling stronger, then we will take you to the closest white settlement."

Mara leaned back on the blanket. Her head ached and she felt very tired. Her eyes closed and she felt herself drifting off.

By nightfall Mara was still sleeping, so the two brothers decided not to awaken her, thinking she needed the rest more than the food. As they sat by the campfire eating bacon and beans they talked in hushed voices so they would not disturb her sleep.

"Reckon she will ever recollect who she is, Jake?"

Jake looked at the princess to make sure she was asleep and could not overhear him. "It's hard to say. Depends on how long she was a captive of them savages. I heard once of a woman was captured by them red devils who
never
remembered who she was. You recollect when we used to go to that Pawnee camp, where they had that red-haired white girl."

"Yep, she weren't no girl though, she was well past her prime."

"Be that the truth or not, it don't have any bearing on my story. I once tried to talk to her, found her alone by the river. When I tried to find out who she were, she stared at me blankly just as the little princess done."

"You ain't thinking she is like the princess? That redhead was as crazy as a bedbug."

"No, the princess ain't crazy. She sure is a pretty little thing. Don't appear to have been mistreated, least not so as it shows."

"Yeah, well it ain't likely they left her untouched. I 'spect by tomorrow we will have to tell her we took her away from two Injuns. Won't be too long before she will question how she is dressed."

"I reckon the best thing will be to start out for the cabin early tomorrow morning. It ain't good for her being out in this rain."

Mara slept peacefully that night, and when she awoke the next morning her stomach reminded her she had not eaten in a long time. Jake was frying bacon, which smelled heavenly to her. Standing up, she stretched her arms over her head and then walked over to Jake and sat down on a blanket he had placed there for her.

"That smells good, Jake, but how do you happen to have pork?"

"It ain't pork, Princess, leastwise not the kind you mean. This here's wild boar."

"Whatever it is, it makes my mouth water," she told him, smiling brightly.

"You can have all you want, and some nice flapjacks to go along with it," Jake told her as he turned the bacon to brown on the other side and dished up the golden-brown hot cakes for her.

Mara ate every bite of the three hot cakes and six slices of bacon, while Jake looked on like a mother hen.

"Where is Zeke?" Mara wanted to know as she helped Jake clean the cooking pans and handed them to him to pack away in a leather pouch.

"He is loadin' the packhorses, all except one. We want you to ride. It's a far piece to the cabin and you don't look like you could walk it."

"I think I am strong, Jake," she told him lifting the heavy pouch that contained the pots and pans to prove it.

He grinned at her and took the pouch from her and slung it over his shoulder with ease. "You are strong in the only way that counts, princess. You have my respect."

"I am glad, Jake, but what have I done to gain your respect?"

"I know about people, and since I first saw you I knowed you were special, and ain't nothing happened since you woke up to change my mind."

Zeke returned and threw dirt on the campfire. When he was satisfied it was safely out, he gathered up the remnants of the camp and shoved them into a leather bag, then turned to Mara. "We ain't got no lady's saddle, princess. Think you can ride astride?"

"I do not know, but I will try."

When she reached the horse they intended her to ride she walked around the animal speculatively. Jake bent down and laced his fingers together to give her a boost up. Mara placed her foot in his hands, threw her leg over the horse and settled down on its back. "It seems second nature to me, Jake," she said as she urged the horse forward in a walk.

"I reckon the nice ladies of the town wouldn't approve none, but I won't tell them if you don't, princess."

"Jake why do you and Zeke call me princess?" she said, watching him trudge along beside her. Zeke walked on the other side of her, leading the packhorse.

"Well, you ain't got no name as far as you know, and it just seemed right that you be called a princess."

Mara frowned, "Is it not strange that I do not know my name? That does not seem like something one would easily forget."

"Give it a day or so, you will remember, or I'll be a cross-eyed mule."

Mara smiled at the vocabulary of the two brothers. They were tough outdoorsmen, and yet with her they had been kind and considerate. She had no fear of them; the only thing she feared was not remembering who she was. It was a lovely day, the sun was shining warmly and the birds were singing. She saw a whitetail deer dart among the trees just ahead of her. When they reached the cabin there would be time enough to ask Jake and Zeke to tell her all they knew about her, and how they had come to find her.

BOOK: Savage Splendor (Savage Lagonda 2)
13.52Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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