Walks the Fire (15 page)

He studied her face and asked, “What would you have me do?”

“Trade something for her.” Jesse knew she must plan carefully. “It will save his pride. Tell him I need a slave. Tell him I want one of my own people to help me. Oh… tell him
anything,
just get that girl away from him!”

“I will try, Walks the Fire, but Howling Wolf is proud. You had better pray.”

Hepzibah woke with a start, sobbing miserably the instant she remembered where she was. The tent flap opened at her first sound. Two women entered the tepee. The sun shining behind them obscured their features. Hepzibah watched them approach without sitting up.

“Are you awake?”

Hepzibah was too startled to reply. She had heard her own language from these savages! As her eyes adjusted to the new light, she saw the women. One was the scarred-face one. But the other! Gray eyes, red hair—and white skin! Freckles stood out on the hands and arms. She was white! Dressed like a squaw, but white—and speaking English! Hepzibah stammered a reply.

Jesse smiled, “It must be quite a shock to awaken in an Indian’s tepee and see someone like me.”

Hepzibah nodded and sat up.

“You have been brought to us by Howling Wolf. He says he found you in the Blue Hills.”

“I… went to pick flowers. I went for a walk. Elder Smith warned us to stay close, but I just went for a walk. I didn’t think,” she paused, “Oh, I just didn’t
think.”

“Where are your people?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t walk far. They must be looking for me. Oh! You won’t—you won’t
hurt
them, will you?”

“
I
certainly wouldn’t hurt them,” Jesse replied. “But we must think of a way to get you back to them. Howling Wolf rode out just a while ago to find your people and trade for you. He wants to keep you.”

The realization sprouted new terror in Hepzibah. She gasped. “Oh, no! I can’t… oh, don’t say it… I couldn’t live…” Jesse’s Indian garb confused her, “But you…”

Jesse explained, “I have lived with these people many years. I have no one else. My family is here now. But
you,”
she smiled warmly, “are a different story altogether. We will try to see that you go back where you belong.”

“Oh, thank you!” Hepzibah stammered. She turned to Prairie Flower and managed a smile. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would do…” Hepzibah began to cry.

“Hush, now. Let’s get you cleaned up. And you
must
eat. My friend here is one of the best cooks in our village, and you will like her food.”

Hepzibah managed a little uplifting of the corners of her mouth. The knot in her stomach relaxed a bit.

Jesse and Prairie Flower presented her with a bowl of stew for breakfast, and Hepzibah was surprised to find that she was hungry. She wanted to ask the white woman more questions, but as soon as she had begun eating, Jesse had left. Hepzibah remained alone with Prairie Flower, who tried to bridge their language gap by smiling and urging Hepzibah to eat more.

Rides the Wind leaped up on Wind after Jesse left him. With three of his best ponies in tow he started out toward the Blue Hills. He had taken great care to single out one mare that Howling Wolf had always watched with envy. The mare was in foal now to Wind, and she would make a desirable trade.

Riding swiftly, Rides the Wind caught up with Howling Wolf just as he crossed the Blue Hills. Smoke from campfires could be seen in the distance. Howling Wolf heard the approach of Rides the Wind and turned. When Rides the Wind was within earshot, he shouted, “So you come to trade for a new woman, also?” He added a coarse jest about Jesse’s childlessness. Rides the Wind’s silence and stony glance silenced further comment, and Howling Wolf waited for him to speak.

“You have found a new woman among the Blue Hills,” he said.

“Yes, a New Prairie Flower to replace the old hag your wife finds so helpful.”

Rides the Wind ignored the comment “It is my wife of whom I am thinking now, Howling Wolf. She is a good woman, but she is clumsy in the ways of our people. She needs help with so many things. I would like this girl to be her slave.”

Howling Wolf eyed Rides the Wind suspiciously. “If Walks the Fire is clumsy in the ways of our people, how can another white woman help you? Better to take another wife from among our people.” He added another coarse jest.

Rides the Wind hastened to close the haggling. “You have always liked this mare. She will bring you a foal after the snows. A foal from Wind. I will give you these other two in addition. Walks the Fire does not give me rest, asking for help. I am tired of her complaining.” He hated the deception but had grown tired of the game.

Howling Wolf looked at the horses greedily. The addition of four ponies to his meager band would raise his status in the tribe considerably. And a foal out of Wind in the spring was especially tempting. He thought about the white girl and how she had fought him when he carried her to the camp. Perhaps she would be more trouble than she was worth. He could just as easily take another woman from among his own people, and perhaps that would be simpler, after all. Let Rides the Wind add another white woman to his tepee. People might not like that. Perhaps it would lower him in their eyes and make Howling Wolf appear wiser.

Howling Wolf nodded and accepted Rides the Wind’s offer.

Rides the Wind quickly handed over his ponies. “I will help you drive them back to your herd,” he offered. Howling Wolf accepted, and the men rode back to camp in silence, Howling Wolf rejoicing at his wise trade, and Rides the Wind troubled by what would happen next.

When they re-entered the village, Rides the Wind trotted quickly to his own tepee. He entered and said only, “She is yours. Do what you want with her.” He left quickly, remounted Wind, and was about to canter away when Jesse laid her hand on the horse’s neck and asked, “Do you not wish to meet her?”

Rides the Wind shook his head. “I have done as you wished. She is yours. I do not wish to see her.”

Jesse wondered at his lack of curiosity, but she did not press the matter. Instead, she headed for Prairie Flower’s tepee, realizing too late that she had not even thanked her husband for his help.

Hepzibah sat up expectantly when Jesse came back. “Well, my dear,” she said, “it seems that you are now my property.”

“Yours?” Hepzibah questioned.

“Yes, my husband has arranged for you to be my slave.” At the fear in Hepzibah’s eyes, Jesse quickly added, “So now I can do with you as I please. And it pleases me to take you back home. Let’s get started before your family follows you here and causes more trouble.”

Hepzibah was on her feet, “Oh, thank you! Thank you! How can I ever thank you?! But…” she added, “don’t you want to come back too? We would make you feel very welcome, you know… and you could go on the journey with us. I’m sure Elder Smith would give his permission.”

Jesse shook her head. “No. My only family is here. I have a husband and a son. I am quite content here, my dear. Now, quickly, come along! What is your name?”

“Hepzibah. Hepzibah Miller.” Jesse said the name slowly.

“What’s your name, ma’am?” Hepzibah questioned. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

“In English I would be called Walks the Fire,” Jesse responded. She was surprised to hear herself use her Lakota name. She added, “Before I came here, I was known as Jesse King.”

Hepzibah was full of questions, but Jesse quieted her by leading her outside into the blazing sun. They crossed the village. Everyone stared and grinned as Walks the Fire led her new slave to her own tepee. A few children ran up to touch Hepzibah’s long dress. Feeling cotton for the first time, they pronounced it thin and useless for prairie life. When they entered her tepee, Jesse introduced Old One and Two Mothers and ordered Hepzibah to stay with them until her return.

“Can you ride a horse without a saddle, Hepzibah?” she asked.

“I never tried.”

“Then, I will show you how, but we must try to move quickly before Howling Wolf gets back. If he learns that we have tricked him out of his New Prairie Flower, he will be very angry, and we will be obliged to return you to him.” At the prospect of being once again under the power of Howling Wolf, Hepzibah’s willingness to ride bareback doubled. When Jesse returned with Red Star, Hepzibah clambered up behind Jesse and clutched at the pony’s sides with all her young strength.

Jesse headed for the Blue Hills immediately, unaware of the lone rider that followed at a distance.

As they rode along in the morning sun, Jesse answered Hepzibah’s questions as briefly as she could. She found the girl’s exuberance a bit wearying. She could not, after all, explain in a short ride all that had happened to transform her from a white settler into the wife of Rides the Wind. She found that she really did not care to defend herself or her adopted family’s ways to this young, foolish woman.

It was not long before Jesse saw the dust of a large number of riders in the distance.

“Your people are coming for you,” she said to Hepzibah, pointing at the horizon. Hepzibah raised one hand to shade her eyes. “Slide down and wait here. I will be watching to make certain that they find you. Goodbye.”

Hepzibah did not slide down. Instead, she said, “but you must wait so that we can all thank you. Please wait.”

Jesse shook her head. “To know that you are with your own again is thanks enough. And,” she added, “to know that perhaps now you will obey Elder Smith and not go searching for wildflowers when you should be working in camp.”

Hepzibah blushed. Obediently, she slid down from Red Star. Jesse turned and cantered Red Star away, stopping behind the first hill. Dismounting, she crawled back up a few feet until she could peek over the rise and watch the reunion that took place only moments after she left Hepzibah’s side.

A party of a dozen or more riders thundered toward Hepzibah. Her blue calico dress bobbed up and down as she waved and called to them. One heavy-set man jumped from his horse and swept her up in a great bear hug. The entire party looked in Jesse’s direction as Hepzibah gestured. Soon, she was hauled up behind the man who had hugged her, and they pounded away, lost from view.

Jesse smiled to herself and turned to go. Rides the Wind was standing behind her, having dismounted from his own horse.

“I did not thank you. What did you have to promise Howling Wolf to buy your poor wife a slave?”

He shrugged, “Only three ponies…”

Jesse cried out, “Three ponies! You are kind, Rides the Wind. It was a great price to pay to help a young girl, and you did not even meet her.”

He looked down at her in amazement. “I did not give away three ponies to help a stupid white girl. I gave three ponies to help Walks the Fire. She is gone?”

Jesse said softly, “She is gone.”

He brought up the subject again. “Do you sometimes wish to return to your people?”

Jesse didn’t hesitate to reply, “I lived among the whites for twenty-one of their years. As they count time, I have been among the Lakota for four more years. The day you took me as your wife, we promised, ‘Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.’ This promise was forever. I wish to be with Rides the Wind, among his people for all the time that God gives.”

Rides the Wind and Jesse walked back to the camp together. Howling Wolf patted his new ponies and watched them enter the village, wondering at the stupidity of a man who would pay so much for a slave and allow his wife to give her away. And if Howling Wolf thought that Rides the Wind entered his tepee to beat his wife for her ungrateful attitude, nothing was said to convince him otherwise.

Fourteen

… her husband… praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
—
Proverbs 31:28-29

No children came.
Jesse waited hopefully for each moon’s passing. But still, no children came.

Rides the Wind loved to tell stories and delighted in the myriad questions asked by his growing son. He shared legends that had been handed down through generations of Lakota, skillfully weaving God into them so that even Jesse and Old One listened, fascinated. A favorite became the story of a hunter who fell onto a cliff and escaped by tying himself to two grown eagles and flying off. Two Mothers’ eyes would grow wide as Rides the Wind built up to the dramatic moment when the hunter stepped off the cliff with only the power of the eagles to save him.

“But it was not the power of the eagles that saved him,” Rides the Wind would remind his son. “It was God who gave the eagles strength.”

He told stories to help Two Mothers overcome childish fears. “Now, my son, why do you fear the storm? It is only the warriors of thunder and lightning. When you are tempted to be afraid, remember that God tells the lightning where it may go. Pretend that the noise and the light are from two warriors called Thunder and Lightning. They ride beautiful, swift ponies and carry lightning in their hands. As they race the wind, their ponies’ hooves strike the clouds. That is thunder. When they throw their lightning sticks, it flashes brightly in the sky. When God says ‘Enough!’ the warriors ride down to the earth, bringing the rain to water their ponies.”