Savage Tempest by Cassie Edwards Page A

behind her. Someone was approaching her through the trees.
    Her eyes widened when she found High Hawk’s brother coming toward her, smiling. She held the hatchet at her side as he kept approaching, his one leg dragging as he struggled to walk as straight as possible. It was obvious that he was embarrassed by his appearance. He looked into her eyes one moment, smiling, then down at the ground, his smile erased, the next.
    â€œGood morning, Sleeping Wolf,” Joylynn said as he stepped up to her.
    She felt awkward, not knowing what else to say to him.
    She could not help wondering what had brought him into the forest.
    â€œI have come to help,” Sleeping Wolf said, taking the hatchet from her. “I watched. I saw how hard it was for you to remove the bark. Let me do it for you. My mother need never know.”
    â€œI . . . I . . . don’t want to be deceitful,” Joylynn murmured. She stepped away from the tree as he came closer, but the first time he tried to cut a strip of bark from the tree, he dropped the hatchet andfell to the ground, groaning with pain as he grabbed at his back.
    â€œOh, no,” Joylynn said, bending quickly beside him to help him up.
    But before she had the chance, he managed to get to his feet and hurried away as fast as his crippled body would take him. Obviously, he was embarrassed at his failure to help her.
    Too stunned at first to do anything but watch him, Joylynn then ran after him, hoping to soothe him. She was stopped when Blanket Woman stepped from behind a tree, blocking her way. Her eyes were filled with venomous anger.
    â€œI saw what happened,” Blanket Woman said, leaning into Joylynn’s face. “I had come to check how you were doing, and what do I find? My crippled son trying to help you, then falling and embarrassing himself in front of you, a white woman.”
    â€œYou look at me as though it is my fault,” Joylynn said, taking slow steps away from Blanket Woman. “I didn’t ask him to help me. He just came and took my hatchet, and before I knew it, he . . . he . . . was on the ground.”
    â€œDid you not hear me say I saw how it happened?” Blanket Woman said tightly. “I do not fault you for what he did, but I would fault you if you went to him and made him feel even more foolish.”
    â€œI would never do that,” Joylynn said softly.
    â€œThen turn around and go back to what youwere doing before my son interfered,” Blanket Woman said, taking Joylynn by the arm and turning her back toward the cottonwood forest.
    â€œI have to admit that I did not peel even one strip of bark from the tree with the hatchet,” Joylynn said reluctantly. “I just couldn’t do it. How on earth do the other women manage it?”
    â€œIt takes practice,” Blanket Woman said, releasing her hold on Joylynn as they stepped up to the tree where Joylynn had done only a small bit of damage.
    It did not take long for the older woman to cut several strips of bark, and she did not stop until she had many piled up on the ground.
    â€œShouldn’t I be doing that?” Joylynn asked, her voice drawn.
    Blanket Woman turned a glare Joylynn’s way, then continued her work.
    â€œPlace the bark in the basket,” Blanket Woman said, laying the hatchet at the bottom of the basket before Joylynn put the bark in it.
    Blanket Woman placed her hands at the small of her back, stretched and groaned. “I have done enough of your labor today,” she said.
    Joylynn wanted to say that she hadn’t asked Blanket Woman to do it for her, but she held her tongue. She was grateful for whatever help she could get.
    Joylynn started placing the bark in stacks in the basket but stopped when Blanket Woman placed a sudden hand on her wrist.
    Joylynn looked questioningly into the older woman’s faded brown eyes.
    â€œI have something more to say about Sleeping Wolf,” she said tightly. “Stay away from