float over his chest as she lowered her lips to his slick bronze flesh.
She shimmied 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
hoarsely, 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 shiver, 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 assembled 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.
"But I tell you, Sun-Colored Woman, that it is the same among the Apache
and the whites. When a man loves a woman, when he claims her for his
own, when he is willing to give his life and his pride and his honor for
her, that is when she is truly his wife, in his eyes and in the eyes of
the 249 great spirits, be they our gods or the one great God of the
whites." He touched her cheek almost tenderly, then left her. She
thought about his words for a long time to come, and she wondered if
Jamie did love her. Did he love her enough to stay with her, or would he
tire of her, as he had tired of Eliza?
She had made love with him always of her own volition. She had wanted
him as she had never known want before.
But sometimes she wished that she had never given in to the temptation,
for she felt that she had tasted forbidden fruit.
She had found it very sweet, but she would perish when she could taste
it no longer. ~ Nights were theirs. She never spoke, but came to him
with her skin warmed by the fire, her body bathed by the stream, her
hair soft and fragrant from the sun. She lay down be- side him, and she
loved him, and she tried not to think of the future.
On the fourth night of Little Flower's puberty rite, when the maiden had
become a woman, Jamie was silent, holding her gently, staying
motionless.
Tess knew that he didn't sleep, and she shifted against him, asking him
what was wrong.
"We're free to go home tomorrow," she whispered to him.
"Yes, or the next day," be said absently.
"Nalte has been involved with his sister and us. He may be busy with
tribal business tomorrow."
"what difference will a day make?"