Nakoa's Woman Read Online Free PDF Page B

position. Two strong hands held her head and applied something cool and comforting to her wound. The burning in her head lessened, and with relief she opened her eyes. It was her captor; she knew this although he now wore no paint. The hideous face that had come at her from the mists was gone. In the morning sunlight she saw before her a handsome man. Here was a new strength too, more masculine than she had ever seen before. His black eyes were fierce with pride, and she wondered at the fact that he was Indian. He held no resemblance at all to the poor begging savages that she had seen back East.
    She was staring at him, and she soon became conscious that her appraisal was making him angry. He stopped treating her wound and just as boldly studied her. His eyes traveled from her own to her lips, to her breasts and waist and hips and then back to her breasts. Fear of him made her heart hammer, and she dropped her eyes and felt her face grow hot. He said nothing. When she looked at him again, the boldness upon his face was gone. He knew her fear.
    Slowly he raised his right hand in front of her, palm out and even with his shoulder. He rotated it a few times, trying to tell her something. She looked at him in perplexity. He placed the fingers of his right hand against the palm of his left, sliding his right off as if he were cutting meat. “Iksisakuyi?” he said.
    He was asking her if she wanted food. “Yes,” Maria said. “Please! I am hungry.” When she nodded her head he understood her meaning. He handed her a calfskin bag in which was a mixture of meat and berries that she began to eat greedily. He signaled that she was not to eat so fast, and when she persisted, he angrily took the bag away from her. He then motioned her to get up and when she refused, scowling because he had taken away her food, he pulled her to her feet. “Menuah,” he said, pointing into the forest. He made sign that she should follow him, and she meekly walked behind him. She now saw the other Indians, and when they passed them, one of them called out something, and her captor laughed. Deeper in the forest, she lagged behind him, and impatiently, he reached for her again, holding her at his side for the rest of the way.
    They came to a river, and he indicated that she was to drink. When she had quenched her thirst, he made sign for her to remove her clothing. Maria refused, and he again signed that she should bathe. She gestured for him to leave her alone, and he shrugged his shoulders, walking away from her. Watching the trees for a sign of him, she removed her dress and washed it, but she would not take off her chemise and stand where he might see her naked. When she had bathed, she lay upon a large rock and waited to dry her wet chemise. Birds called happily from the trees, and the water rushing by her made such a sweet and melodious sound that for a while she forgot grief. The air was pungent with the smell of warming pine and spruce. The sun was so warm that she could feel her chemise drying and the gathering of perspiration between her breasts. Still exhausted, she began to doze, with the water continuing to murmur contentedly at her.
    Two hands touched her face, and then lips fiercely found her own and held her in a long and agonizing kiss. The Indian’s eyes were closed, and his face was even darker with passion. She gasped and began to struggle against him, but he effortlessly removed her chemise from her entire body. Maria felt an agony of terror and embarrassment. When she tried to cover herself, he held her hands, and then his lips went back to her own, down to her throat, to her breasts, and his hands caressed her hips. His excitement was so intense that he shuddered in his postponement of raping her, but rape her he would, and Maria now knew this was why he had taken her to the river and away from the others.
    More than terror made her weep. More than the humiliation of being stripped and appraised, assaulted where she never had