Savage Tempest by Cassie Edwards Page B

I? I am not Pawnee.”
    â€œIt is better that you wear something that makes you blend in with us Pawnee women,” Blanket Woman snorted out. She shoved the dress back into Joylynn’s arms. “Now. You . . . change . . . now!”
    Understanding that she had no choice but to do as Blanket Woman said, and seeing that the older woman was back to her normal hateful self, Joylynn kept the dress in her arms, but she stood stiffly glaring at Blanket Woman. “Leave, and then I will change,” she said tightly.
    â€œI do not believe you will, so I shall stay until you are wearing the dress of my people and what you are wearing has been thrown into the fire,” Blanket Woman said, angrily placing her fists on her hips. “Now, white woman. Change now!”
    Joylynn felt cornered. She did not want this woman to see her belly, because when Joylynn was nude, there was no hiding that she carried a child within her womb. She lifted her chin angrily. “I . . . absolutely . . . refuse,” she said. “You leave, and then I will change into this . . . this thing that you call a dress.”
    â€œAnd now you even insult what I have sewn?” Blanket Woman huffed. She stepped closer to Joylynn. “You take off that ugly white woman’s dress or I will do it for you.”
    Truly believing that the older woman would carry out her threat, Joylynn realized that she had no choice but to risk Blanket Woman learning her secret. She laid the doeskin dress aside, then slowly pulled her own gown over her head.
    Before she had it totally removed, she heard a gasp. She felt weak in the knees to know what had caused Blanket Woman’s surprised reaction.
    â€œYou . . . are . . . with child?” Blanket Woman said, then rushed from the tepee, leaving Joylynn alone with her fears.
    â€œNow what?” she murmured, slipping into the doeskin dress. Actually, she thought it soft and absolutely beautiful, not ugly.
    She slid her feet into the buttery soft moccasins, then sank down on a blanket before the fire.
    Oh, how she dreaded High Hawk’s reaction to her pregnancy. If he had loved her at all, as she now hoped he did, surely that love would turn to hate, for had she not deceived him by disguising the truth about her condition?

C HAPTER E LEVEN
    Blanket Woman could hardly get to the council house quickly enough. She was so eager to tell High Hawk the news, she barged inside and interrupted the council.
    The men of the village were meeting to discuss her missing husband. Search parties had gone out in all directions again, and thus far, none had brought good news home with them.
    Her husband was gone, perhaps . . . forever!
    Ignoring the stares of the men who sat around the fire with her son, Blanket Woman stepped up to High Hawk as he rose quickly to his feet. “Come outside with me,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “I have something to tell you.”
    Seeing the anger in his mother’s eyes, he stepped outside with her and placed his hands gently on her shoulders. She stared up at him with a familiar determination in her eyes. Never had he known sucha strong-willed person. Yet he realized the white woman seemed to be just as determined.
    But he would never compare Joylynn to his mother. There were vast differences in their personalities. There was a softness about Joylynn when she let down her guard with him.
    His mother’s softness had left her long ago!
    â€œWhat do you have to tell me? What is so important that you would interrupt the council of warriors?” High Hawk asked.
    â€œIt has been proven to me today that you were absolutely wrong to bring the white woman to our village,” Blanket Woman blurted out.
    â€œAnd how was it proven?” High Hawk asked, weary of his mother’s interference.
    â€œShe . . . is . . . with child,” Blanket Woman said. Her words brought alarm into her son’s eyes, and he jerked his hands from her