Page 194 of Once an Angel
Biting off what sounded like a distinctly Anglo-Saxon oath, the chief shoved her hand away. She shrank against Justin without realizing it. His arm slipped around her waist, molding her to his lean frame. She
felt as if she'd flopped literally from stew pot to fire.
Taking their cue from their chief, the natives rose, shaking sand out of their raw flax skirts. An admiring murmur of "Pakeha, Pakeha" rose from their ranks. Emily looked around, but could see nothing or no one who might inspire such deference.
The chief jutted out his hand. All murmuring ceased. A fierce intelligence burned in his bright, dark
eyes. His nostrils flared as he pointed at Emily and bit off a string of guttural words that made her thankful she did not understand Maori.
She pressed herself to Justin, basking in his strength. "What is he saying?" she whispered.
His lips touched her ear. "You have offended hismana."
"His mama?"
Justin gave her a hard squeeze. "Hismana. His honor. His pride.Manais all-important to the Maori. Every slight, real or imagined, demands retribution. He wants to declare war on you."
She squirmed. "Why, that overgrown, jade-headed bully! Where's my rifle? Of all the arrogant, ridiculous—"
Justin clapped his hand over her mouth. The chief punctuated his newest accusation by leaning forward and poking her in the chest. She gulped.
"Cease!" Oddly enough, Justin's soft-spoken command stilled the irate warrior in mid-poke and threw
an unnatural hush over his men.
Justin kept one hand firmly anchored over Emily's mouth, but his other hand took eloquent wing as
Maori words spilled from his lips like song. Emily felt her body relax, lulled by the velvety timbre of his voice, hypnotized by the graceful flight of his fingers in the air. The natives hung on every word. Even
the chief cocked his head in reluctant attention. Justin's hand slid from her lips and cupped her chin,
tilting her face up for their regard.
Several of the men hopped back in fear, making signs in the air. A dreamy assurance melted through Emilys veins. He must be warning them never to trouble her again, telling them that she belonged only
to him and he would protect her even at the cost of his own life.
The chief made a disgusted gesture toward the white-haired man. He nodded and they climbed the hill, leading their men into the brush and leaving her and Justin alone in the clearing.
Justin released her. Emily locked her knees, fearful she might melt into a besotted puddle at his feet.
She grabbed his arm. "Thank you, Justin."
He shook her hand off, his lips twisted in scathing dismissal. "Don't mention it. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to meet with them as I'd planned to do before they were ambushed by Emily Scarlet, the
jungle princess."
He started up the hill, brushing dirt off his dungarees with a disgusted motion. Emily's hands clenched
into fists.
"What did you tell them?" she cried, refusing to be daunted by the note of desperation in her voice. She had to hear him say he cared. She'd waited to hear the words for almost half her life.
He picked his way over a thorny bush without slowing his pace. "I told them you were crazy. That you'd escaped from Bedlam and stowed away on a banana boat before the attendants could catch you."
He topped the crest of the hill. "I told them insanity ran rampant in your family and one of your
ancestors thought he was a kiwi bird and tried to leap from the London Tower, not realizing, of course, that kiwis don't fly."
