Vanessa trembles in the dark, and begins to thrash, fighting her way from under a heavy weight. Her eyes fly open wide, and she screams at the sea of death surrounding her. Body parts rain down on her, and she struggles to breathe, gasping for air. Harris hears her in the loft above and bounds up the ladder to wake her.
Clawing and shoving she pushes her way through, only to scream in terror when she recognizes her Mother’s mutilated face. “Nikiya!” she screams. A movement to her right has her turning, and she comes face to face with a strange Indian dressed like a white man.
Blood Eagle seizes her hand and pulls her from the rubble of dead. Together they climb free and collapse onto the shadowed ground, her sobbing and him trembling with an awareness of what he’s being shown.
A growl rumbles the ground, and both start falling through the air. Vanessa slams into her body and weeps when she hears Harris calling her. “Nessa!” She leans over the bed and vomits, dry heaving and sobbing she shuts her eyes against the horrors.
Later, after he cleans up and is wiping her face with a damp cloth, Vanessa looks at him with haunted eyes and says, “He’s coming.”
Chapter 29
The early morning sunrise calls to Vanessa and she hurries through the bushes to the river carrying a basket of supplies. Lifting her face to the sun as it rises, she soaks it in and whispers a prayer to thank her Father for the first time since her accident. How does one say thank you for protecting her and keeping her safe, when so many others died? Her mother taught her how to pray for the departed. It is with the hope of honoring her memory and spirit that she asks for guidance for the souls of her tribe. Shoshone believe that death is but another step in the journey of life. Though the body dies the spirit does not, and Vanessa has struggled to remember that. With her body in so much pain and her heart so full of fear and doubt, everything else was blocked out. No more. Peace soaks inside as she builds a small fire to keep her warm.
This cabin is stocked with fishing string and hooks, and she sits in the morning sun tying hooks to the line at different intervals. Then tossing the line into the water. Harris has taken such fantastic care of her, and she wants to surprise him with breakfast.
A chill fills the air as the sun burns off the mist and she grins thinking of how surprised he will be when he sees how many fish she caught. Thinking about her nightmare, she wonders about its meaning as she works. Six fat trout, wriggle in the basket, and she sighs pulling the line back to the shore once more.
Dreams have meaning, she just has to figure out what this one is trying to tell her. So much death, when she closes her eyes, it’s always with her. If she died right now, what would she regret, the fact that she didn’t mourn properly or that she didn’t live to the fullest possibility of the word? Waking up, safe in his warm arms and watching his chest rise and fall, Vanessa can’t imagine her life without him. Yet, she knows all too well, just how quickly it can be taken away.
Will Harris love her the way he did his first wife. No.
Will she love him as much as Ahote? “Who are you kidding,” she murmurs. Kimani wanted to be loved, to belong. Ahote offered her that but her heart has always belonged to Harris and now, so does Vanessa’s. Decision made she wanders back to the cabin and cleans the fish before going inside to start breakfast.
Harris wakes up to the scent of frying fish and his stomach growls. “Please tell me that I’m not dreaming,” he rolls from the bed with a thump.
Vanessa laughs softly and flips the fish in the cast iron skillet. “Biscuits and fish,” she teases.
“I’m starved.” Harris slides down the ladder and moves behind her at the stove, pinching a hot chunk of fish from the plate beside the fireplace hearth and popping it into his mouth. “Marry me,” he growls in appreciation as the full flavor hits him.
“I’ll think about it,” she quips, and Harris stops moving.
“What did you say?” His hands grip her arms and turns her slowly to face him. Her eyes meet his with a challenge.
“I said, maybe. If you still want...”
Harris stops her sentence with his mouth. He treats her to the passion she has ignited in his body. His arm snakes around her waist pulling her against his bare chest and slipping his tongue in between her luscious lips.
Vanessa’s knees buckle, and he catches her, while she whimpers against his mouth. Harris invades her senses, touching, tasting and claiming her as she revels in it. She pushes him back, “The fish,” she reminds him, and he grins.
“What if I say that I’m not hungry for fish?” He watches as she draws a shaky breath and removes the fish from the pan, before sliding the pan back to the side of the cooking grate. The second she sets the fork down Vanessa swirls around and stares at him.
Later, neither will remember who moves first, but they leap towards each other and erupt. This time Vanessa slides her hands around his neck, tugging his mouth down to hers and slides her tongue over
