Part 33 (1/2)

He told me that the Apache raid, and that they make war, and that these are separate things. They raid for foodstuffs and other things they need, they do not raid to kill. When they make war, they do so to kill.

But they do not kill children, and they do not slaughter animals needlessly. He says there is enough trouble between the 245 whites and the Indians. He doesn't usually have much use for the Comanche himself, and the tribes have warred for generations, but he cannot see the Comanche blamed for a white man's sins.”

”You had quite a long talk with him,” Jamie commented.

”Jealous?” she asked sweetly.

He grunted.

She braced her hands upon his chest, staring deeply into his eyes.

”I.

like him, Jamie.”

Jamie laced his fingers behind his head as he watched her eyes.

”Want to stay with him?” he asked.

Words, gentle words, self-betraying words, hovered on Tess's lips. I like Nalte, but I love you, she almost said. But she could not dispel the memory of Eliza hanging on to him, trying to force him to love her in return. She would never do that, she swore. It was dangerous to fall in love with Jamie Slater.

If nothing else, Tess wanted her dignity left to her.

She forced a smile to her lips and asked lightly, ”Trying to get rid of me?”

”You are a h.e.l.l of a lot of trouble,” he told her frankly. ”Yes, but you've already come this far.”

”So I have.”

”And I really am worth it.”

”Are you?” His eyebrows shot up.

She nodded. Then she moved very low against him again. She let her hair float over his chest as she lowered her lips to his slick bronze flesh.

She s.h.i.+mmied her body against him as she inched lower down the length of his body, her thighs locked around him, moving sinuously against him.

She felt the quick rasp of his breath, and she let her lips linger upon the spot where she could hear the frantic beating of his heart.

Then she moved lower and lower, daring to touch him instinctively, exploring what was intensely male about him with little subtlety and tremendous fascination. Her body undulated upon his. She discovered her own prowess and power, and drove him nearly to madness. All that he had demanded of her she took in return. He shuddered violently beneath her touch, his fingers digging into the earth when she caressed him as boldly with her lips and tongue as he had done to her. He shouted out hoa.r.s.ely, and she was soon pinned to the earth as he took her almost savagely, with a driving, explicit hunger that seemed to rend the very heavens.

And when the stars had exploded to dance within the night sky and go still again, he whispered tenderly against her ear, ”My love, you are worth it indeed.”

They stayed by the water a little while longer. Whatever came in the future, Tess knew that she would dream of this place as long as she lived.

She began to s.h.i.+ver, and he covered her in the doeskin dress once again, and then he suggested that they return to the tepee in the village.

They slept that night alone together in the teix~ where she had been taken earlier that day. They slept, having shed their clothing once again, wound into one another's arms within the warm shelter of an Apache blanket.

When morning came, they were still together.

During the next few days, they were Nalte's honored guests. They attended the ceremonies for his sister, Little Flower, and Tess was amazed to find that she had discovered a strange peace here, living with the Apache. Nalte spent time with the two of them. Sometimes he ignored Tess and engaged in long conversations with Jamie in his Apache tongue.

But sometimes he spoke in English, including Tess. Once, when they were alone, Jamie having gone to join a bunting party, Nalte took it upon himself to teach her something about the Apache ways.

He explained to her about the Gan,” or Mountain Spirit Dancers. In their masks, they impersonated the Mountains Spirits. They evoked the power of the supernaturals to cure illness, drive away evil and bring good fortune. They a.s.sembled in a cave, and under the guidance of a special Gan shaman, they donned their sacred costumes. They held great power, and therefore they were obliged to honor severe restrictions.

They were not to recognize friends once they were in their attire, nor were they to dance incorrectly or to tamper with the sacred costume or clothing once it had been left within a secret cache. To disobey any of the restrictions could bring calamity down upon the dancer or his family or tribe. To disobey could bring about sickness, madness, even death.

”We are a people of ritual,” he told her.

”We celebrate the Holiness Rite and the Ceremonial Relay. For the Holiness Rite the shaman must go through arduous procedures, imitating the bear and the snake, and curing the people of the powerful bear and snake sicknesses.

The Ceremonial Relay tells us of our food supply--game and the harvest of nature. Runners symbolize the sun and the animals, and the moon and the plants. If the sun runners win, game will be in plenty for us. If the moon runners win, then we will feast on the harvest of the plants.”

”You live a good life here,” Tess said.

”I live a good life, yes, but I fear the day when white men come to take it from me.”

”But surely, here” -- ”They will come, the white men will come. War will tear apart the mountains, and blood will stain the rivers. It is inevitable.

But when the time comes, I will remember you, and Slater, and I will know that all whites are not the same. Yes, it is good here. Now. And you, I think that you are at She smiled at him.

”I do not believe it, but yes, I am at peace here.”

Nalte stared at the fire that burned in the center of the village.

”You might have been happy had you stayed,” he said quietly.

”And maybe not. Our women are the gatherers. The first green vegetables are the yucca, and the women collect them. Then they must collect the me seal stalks and roast them and grind them into paste. We eat the mescal as paste, and as the cakes you have been given with your meals. It is a hard life.”

”A ranch is a hard life. And so is a newspaper,” Tess said softly.

She looked at him quickly.

”A newspaper” -- ”I know what a newspaper is. I lived in a town for many years when I was a child. I was captured with a war party and taken in by a minister's wife. I learned a lot about your society. A newspaper is a powerful weapon.”

”It isn't a weapon at all,” Tess protested. ”More powerful than a gun.

Be careful with it,” Nalte warned her. Then he asked her if she was Jamie's wife. She flushed as she told him that she was not.

”But you are his woman,” Nalte told her.

”It--it isn't the same thing,” she said.

The Indian was lowering his head, smiling, and she remembered belatedly that he had chosen to let her go because of Jamie.

”When an Apache marries, he goes to his wife's family. If she lives in a distant territory, then the man leaves and joins her family. Within it he may rise to be the leader, then he may become the leader of many families, and ultimately a great chief. But always, when it is possible, he joins his wife's family. He works for his wife's parents and elders, and he is known by them as 'he who carries burdens for me.”

He speaks for her, and the man and the woman exchange gifts. A separate dwelling is made for the couple. She is his wife.