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And if Dorey had her way about their future, she would stay in this village. While she was with Wolf Dancer, she felt safe. She had known she could trust him the moment she heard the kindness in his voice.
And he treated Dorey’s mother with such gentle care that she felt he might be the very one to put everything right in her mother’s world.
Her mother had not loved the man she’d married. She deserved to find a man she could love now.
Lavinia’s insides tightened as Wolf Dancer opened the door and peered outside. From where she sat, she could see past him to the two young braves standing there.
She could only conclude that these were the two boys who had abducted Dorey. They had yet to come and apologize to her. Surely that was why they were here now.
She glanced over at Dorey to see how she was reacting and found her daughter looking at the young braves, too. Lavinia saw a mixture of feelings in Dorey’s eyes, but the overriding emotion was anger. And Dorey had cause to be angry. She could have died in the murky waters of the Everglades.
Just as Lavinia had been bitten by a snake, Dorey could have been bitten, too, and she would not have survived the bite because she had been left alone to fend for herself!
Lavinia was surprised when Wolf Dancer welcomed the two young braves kindly—she thought they should have been reprimanded and made to apologize.
But she loved Wolf Dancer and everything about him, so she believed that however he had decided to treat the young men was surely best. He was a man of much intelligence, and also patience.
But she couldn’t help feeling he had been patient enough with those two young men as far as she was concerned. She would enjoy giving them a piece of her mind.
But she knew it was not her place to speak up, or scold them. Wolf Dancer would take care of this.
Wolf Dancer stepped outside with Running Bear and Deer Shadow. He saw the uneasiness in their eyes as they looked up at him.
“My chief, Deer Shadow and I would like to apologize to Dorey, and then we would like to invite her to join in the fun with us and our friends this morning,” Running Bear said as he peered around Wolf Dancer and made eye contact with Dorey, who was staring angrily at him.
Wolf Dancer looked from one boy to the other, then placed a hand on the bare shoulder of each. “You know the wrong that you did, do you not?” he asked, his jaw tight. “You know that it could have ended in tragedy?”
Both braves nodded anxiously.
“We are very sorry to have gone against all that my mother and father, and…you…have taught us,” Running Bear said. “We did not want to harm Dorey, only to spend time with her. We know nothing of her world. We have been on the island since we were born. Do you not understand why we wanted to learn about the white world? We were going to tell her of our ways, too. It would have been an exchange of knowledge between us.”
He lowered his eyes. “We should not have waited until it was so late in the day to take her to our tree house,” he said, swallowing hard.
Then he looked quickly up into Wolf Dancer’s eyes. “If we had brought her to the tree house at an earlier hour, we could have talked and then released her and let her return to her home before night fell,” he said. “As it was, she came in her canoe toolate for us to talk at length with her. That is why we left her there alone.”
“But we regret having done it,” Deer Shadow blurted out. “We have learned our lesson. You can trust us, Chief Wolf Dancer. We will never go against the rules of our people again. But…but…we do want the girl’s friendship now, for as long as she will be at our village. If she accepts our apology and wants to join our fun, will you allow it?”
Wolf Dancer had listened intently to what had been said, and he had heard true regret in the braves’ voices. He knew it was important for the young people to put this unfortunate incident behind them. If Wolf Dancer had his way, both Dorey and her mother would not want to return to the life they had left behind, but instead would spend their futures with him and his Seminole people.
He turned and gazed at Dorey. “You have heard,” he said quietly. “Do you hear the sincerity in their voices? They regret what they did to you. Can you accept their apology, or would you rather not join them in their fun today?”
Dorey had not been able to quell her excitement at the idea of joining the children in their games. She had seen the fun they had while she had silently observed them.
She understood why the young braves had captured her.
She herself had hungered for knowledge of the Seminole.
That was why she had sought answers in the books in her father’s study.
She rose to her feet, and as her mother, Twila, and Joshua watched, she went and stood beside Wolf Dancer. She could not help feeling nervous about what she was going to do, for although she did want to forgive these young men, she might never forget her fear while she was alone in the tree house, and later in the garita.
“Are you truly sorry for what you did?” she asked guardedly, looking from one boy to the other. She saw the humbleness of their expressions, and she knew deep inside that they did regret their actions.
“We are very sorry,” Running Bear said, tears shining in his eyes. “Will you let us make it up to you? Will you come and meet our friends and join in our games?”
Deer Shadow suddenly pulled out his right arm, which he had kept behind him, and smiled broadly as he reached out to Dorey and showed her what he had kept hidden.
“We made these game darts just for you,” Deer Shadow said, proudly displaying the darts, which had been made from corncobs and feathers.
