Free Savage Tempest by Cassie Edwards Page B

turkeys from the mountain ravines onto the plains. Ridingour ponies, we chased the turkeys until they tired; then we youths swept among the turkeys, snatching them from the ground.”
    â€œHow interesting,” Joylynn said. “I . . . I . . . remember my father bringing home wild turkeys for my mother to prepare. Thanksgiving was when they were the most sought.”
    â€œThanksgiving?” High Hawk asked, raising an eyebrow. “What is this thing . . . Thanksgiving?”
    â€œIt was a time for giving thanks,” she explained.
    And then, knowing that she wouldn’t be allowed to just sit by as the other women of the village worked, she asked, “What are my duties today?”
    â€œThe horse care falls to women,” High Hawk replied. “They care for the animals each day, usually in the morning after their morning meal.”
    â€œWhat . . . is . . . required of them?” Joylynn asked guardedly, though she was sure she was up to this task. She knew everything about how to care for horses.
    â€œThe women take the manure from the corral and dispose of it in the river,” he said, seeing that this comment made Joylynn wince. “Then they go to the coulees to cut grass, which they haul home on their backs and store for fodder. Sometimes the women cut cottonwood bark to feed the horses.”
    â€œAnd . . . which of those things . . . will I be made to do today?” Joylynn asked.
    â€œAll of it,” High Hawk said matter-of-factly.
    No.
    She couldn’t believe it.
    She had never realized an Indian woman’s life was so hard.
    But she would not allow herself to look weaker than they. She would show High Hawk and everyone else that she could take whatever he and his mother dished out to her.
    â€œAnd I assume you expect me to join the women even now?” Joylynn asked, challenging him with her eyes.
    â€œ
Ho
, now,” High Hawk said, amused at how she was trying to disguise her dismay at what was expected of her today. “The women leave as soon as they have fed their husband and children the morning meal. I imagine most of them are already outside in their husbands’ corrals, scooping up manure.”
    Although Joylynn had always taken special care of her own horse, never leaving manure standing in Swiftie’s corral, the fact remained that it was only one horse’s droppings. From what she had seen of High Hawk’s corral, there would be a lot of manure to scoop up and carry away.
    And that was only the one corral she could see.
    â€œDo I have to clean all of your corrals?” she asked.
    â€œOne is all that will be required of you today,” High Hawk said, rising and playfully holding aside the entrance flap for her. “The one behind my tepee.”
    â€œWell, thank
you
, kind sir,” Joylynn said sarcastically,hating to leave the tepee without changing into clean clothes. She even had the private chore of relieving herself to see to, and wondered where on earth she might go in broad daylight to do that.
    She would go into the thick shadows of the forest not far from his corral. She just hoped that the sentries wouldn’t think she was trying to sneak away and come upon her in the middle of her personal chore.
    She would never be able to live down the embarrassment!
    But knowing how asinine it was to think of being embarrassed by anything while being treated in such an ungodly way, she lifted her chin and walked briskly past High Hawk. Then she realized that she was barefoot.
    Sighing heavily, she turned and walked past him again into the tepee. After slipping her shoes on, she left again, her head held high.
    She found a wooden bucket beside the corral, and a shovel made of bone. She was glad that the day was not yet unbearably hot, as it had been yesterday. She hurried through the chore, all the while imagining that the stink of manure was soaking right into her pores. It seemed to take forever before she had hauled the