Page 40 of Freedom's Kiss
One of the elder’s lips moved, but she couldn’t make out any words. His face, sagged by time and hardship, remained unaffected. The muscles along Nokosi’s back tensed, his hands in fists at his side. The elders looked at each other, their heads shaking. The one speaking took a deep breath that expanded his chest, and he let it out slowly, dejection aging him further. Nokosi took a half step closer and let his gaze roam over each of the men’s faces, giving Winnie a view of his profile. His jaw bunched, his carved features hardening. He said something and then turned and stalked back toward her. He passed her without a word, the wind his quick movements created causing hairs on her arms to stick up. She followed in his wake, hoping that when they were alone, he would speak.
He stopped at the edge of the makeshift village, his eyes scanning the trees, body alert.
Winnie pulled up beside him. “My heart’s trippin’ against my ribs. The news isn’t good, is it?”
Nokosi’s shoulders remained rigid. Any emotion he may have felt refused to let itself be seen on his stoic face. “Our courageous brothers have fought valiantly and heroically, answering the unprovoked attack on Fowltown. For weeks they battled at Ocheesee, cutting off supplies routed on the Apalachicola River. Unfortunately, boats were dispatched, and due to cold weather Crazy Medicine, the Creek who led the attack, was forced to retreat.” Nokosi paused his recitation and glanced down at her. “Since that time, American general Andrew Jackson has invaded Florida, though the Spanish still claim the land as theirs. He built a garrison along the Apalachicola and has sought retribution by terrorizing Seminole settlements.” He returned his study to the woods. “The Spanish Fort of San Marcos de Apalache has been captured.”
Winnie absorbed the news. What did it all mean?
Nokosi continued, though the words seemed to pain him. “The American army has captured Crazy Medicine as well asMekkoHomathlemico. They both hung.”
Winnie swallowed. “What’s Jackson doin’ now?”
A tic in his jaw was all the emotion Nokosi let pass. “He has crossed the Apalachicola and now marches toward Pensacola and Fort San Carlos de Barrancas.”
Winnie’s chest deflated. “We’re beat.”
Nokosi remained immobile “As a people, we are wounded, but no man can ever break us.”
Winnie wasn’t so sure. “How long before you go back?”
“The elders have given me a week to regain my strength before returning to the fight.”
Seven days. Would he come back whole the next time? And what did his report mean for the Seminole and the blacks who sojourned with them? If Jackson and the Americans won…
She shook her head, reminding herself of the passage in Matthew that Martha liked to quote to her.Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the dayisthe evil thereof.
Without a word, Nokosi reached down and grabbed her hand, tugging her around a wild azalea bush and back onto the narrow deer trail that led to the small lake where she’d caught the trout. She placed her feet in his prints, their trek not making a sound among the thin trees of the needle-nose pines. When they made it to a clearing, he dropped her hand and turned to her.
“Your father and brother send their greetings.”
Her breath hitched. “You’ve seen them? They’re well?”
He nodded. “Asa fights with the rage of a wounded animal meeting his torturers. He is fierce, and the sight of him causes the enemy’s heart to run cold. He has kept your brother safe.”
Winnie exhaled and closed her eyes against the relief flooding her.
“Pakse.”
The soft way Nokosi said his special name for her, like a caress, caused her to blink her eyes slowly open. The stern lines that furrowed his brow smoothed, and the immovable hardness that hovered about his person drifted away like fog on a breeze. He looked down upon her with a tenderness she’d never seen directed her way by anyone.
“I have missed you, Pakse.”
She swallowed, unexpected tears burning the back of her eyes. “I missed you too.” It had been excruciating to watch every last person she loved walk away from her and into danger. What if they all ended up like Temperance? Could she bear such a loss again?
But every day she’d tried to put her worry into God’s hands. One time she snuck away to the river where Nokosi had shown her the otters. She was surprised when she’d found one with its teeth sunk into the leathery neck of an alligator. Though more than twice its size and weight, that tough little weasel had brought down an animal without any natural predator. The sight had given her hope. Maybe the united band of people fighting the enemy from the north could be victorious.
“Do you know why I call you Pakse?”
His hands remained at his side, but Winnie yearned for them to lift. To touch her in some small way. Rest on her shoulder, squeeze her hand, trail a finger across her cheek. A physical connection that matched the way she already felt bonded to this man in front of her. Unable to move or to speak, she shook her head. Though she knew what the word meant, she didn’t know why he called her by it.
“Paksemeans tomorrow, and that is what you are to me. You are my tomorrow. You are the sun that shines on my day and the stars that light my night. You are the breath that fills my lungs and the beat of my heart in my chest. All of me, all of my days, all of my tomorrows, are wrapped up in you.”
How could a man known for his strong silence be speaking such words to her? Warm liquid spilled from the corner of her eye even as her lips quivered in a smile.
He lifted his hand and collected her tear on the pad of his thumb. “I do not know what the days ahead look like for our people. I only know what my future holds.” He stepped forward, closing all distance between them.
She felt the rise of his chest against the underside of her chin as she stared up at him with bated breath.
