Bittersweet Ecstasy Read Free

turbulently in Singing Wind, who as a child of nine had tended Rebecca’s needs after her miscarriage in the Blackfeet camp. Singing Wind was beautiful and tempting, full of life and energy. She could turn most men’s heads, and many warriors were pursuing her. But Singing Wind did not appear ready or willing to settle down yet. Clearly she loved her freedom and wanted to be a female warrior. Raised in a tepee of males, she had learned to ride, shoot, fight, and hunt. She was like a wild creature, one who was sensual and earthy. Shalee had realized that Sun Cloud could not keep his eyes and thoughts off that particular vixen. Often, Shalee had wondered if she should encourage that match and union, or if she should wait until those two settled down a little more. There was no doubt in Shalee’s mind that they were well suited for each other, just as there was no doubt that both were resisting their attraction.
    Since Shalee’s—Alisha Williams had lived as Shalee for over forty years and would die as Shalee—arrival in this forbidden land, many friends and family members had been slain and many villages had been destroyed. The threat of the whites was growing rapidly like a fatal disease that seemed determined to consume all Indians in its path. For the whites to obtain a quick or final victory, they had to defeat the “Sioux”; and to defeat the “Sioux,” they had to defeat Gray Eagle and the Oglalas. Only one white leader had obtained a real treaty with the Indians, and many now prayed for the return and help of Derek Sturgis.
    Many also prayed for the return of Rebecca Kenny, who had disappeared without a trace last spring. Bright Arrow and his friends had searched for his wife until nohope remained for her rescue and return, yet Bright Arrow and Shalee had been unable to accept Rebecca as dead. Somehow, both felt that the Great Spirit would return Rebecca, who had been given the Indian name Wahea, which meant Red Flower, because of her fiery curls. In the lonely tepee of Bright Arrow, his seventeen-year-old daughter Tashina looked after his chores and cared for him, but Tashina was beautiful and many suitors hungered for her, unaware her heart was lost to a Cheyenne warrior, the son of her father’s best friend. Bright Arrow’s twenty-two-year-old daughter, Little Feet, had married a Sisseton chief years ago; she lived in another village with her husband and two sons, but a warrior in the Oglala camp still remembered, loved, and desired her…
    In the Dakota Territory, it was April of 1820. Fortyfour years had passed since the lives and hearts of Alisha Williams and Gray Eagle had become entwined. Many new perils and adventures awaited the aging lovers and their two sons…

Chapter One
    Miles from the Oglala camp, the youngest son of Gray Eagle and Shalee eyed tracks which brought a mischievous grin to his handsome face. The warrior’s midnight eyes sparkled with anticipation as he stealthily followed the unconcealed trail which snaked through the forest along the riverbank. Sun Cloud had been told only to discover where the white trappers had made camp to steal the Great Spirit’s creatures from their lands, then return to camp to report their location without endangering his life by attacking them alone. He had obeyed his father’s orders, as he had promised when they had come upon the fresh tracks during their hunting trip, until a new set of prints had urged him to close the distance between him and his foes. A keen hunter, he could read the signs which had been made by someone light of body and wearing Blackfeet moccasins, for each tribe’s leather shoes made a different design upon the face of Mother Earth. At last, he had sighted the person who also had found the white men’s tracks and was furtively following them: Singing Wind, adopted daughter of the Blackfeet chief!
    Sun Cloud’s dark eyes narrowed in annoyance and apprehension as he watched the Indian girl slip fromtree to bush to tree as she