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Renewed pain entered his expression as he recalled that fateful day. Though so many of his childhood memories had been lost to him by the passing of time, the moment of his mother's death and the strange color of the eyes on the man who was responsible for her death, were etched onto Shane's brain like the fossil a leaf onto stone.
But Shane felt compelled to learn more of Melanie first, and of his true brother and father who were now only heartbeats away! What could it hurt to delay the search for Trapper Dan a few hours? It had already been twenty-five years!
Melanie glanced at Shane as he urged her down to the ground beside the fire, then sat down beside her. "I know of your mother," she said, almost afraid to let him know that she was aware of that most intimate detail of his life. "It had to be unbearable, Shane. I am sorry for you for having to experience it."
"The day she died my life was changed," Shane said, picking up a stick and idly stirring it around in the ashes that had fallen away from the fire.
"My family as I had always known it was lost to me. Another family took me in, and that is all I have since known. Until today, I had no knowledge of where my true family resided. Until today, I was content to live without them. But now? Suddenly everything has changed in my life again and I am confused."
"Shane, I want to helpif you will let me," Melanie said, placing a hand on his arm. "Do you want to tell me where you have been? And with whom?"
Shane looked down at her hand resting on his arm, then up into her eyes. She was not only courageous and beautiful, she was compassionate. He looked into the fire and began talking in a monotone, seeing his life being relived in his mind's eye as he spoke.
"The day my mother was murdered by white men dressed as Indians, I watched for my father to return and rescue me, but he never came," Shane said thickly. "I recall very little about my early life, but I do remember lying down beside my mother for warmth that day after she was slain. I fell asleep crying and was awakened when strong arms lifted me up from the ground. It was not my father. It was a Chippewa Indian. I was taken to his village and there I became as a part of his people. Until today, I was happy to be a part of them. But the old chief who rescued me that day died not long ago and his son did not want me to be a part of the village any longer. I was sent away."
Melanie was stunned by his story. Yet she now
understood so much about himwhy he had a sort of savage eagerness about him. He had lived with Indians all these years. She was surprised that he could still speak the English language.
There was so much that she would have liked to know, but she did not want to pry him too deeply for answers. She wanted him to trust hernot become angry or suspicious of her.
"Shane, I know why your father didn't arrive in time to rescue you after the massacre," she said, recalling Jared's torment when he had relayed the story to her more than once. "Shane, your father's boat had gone ahead of the one you traveled and was almost overturned in severe rapids," she began, telling him the whole ordeal of his father that day.
Shane's heart pounded. It was good to finally know that his father had tried to rescue him that day, that when people came searching for him as a child, his father may have been among them.
"For many years your father searched for you," Melanie said, as though she had read Shane's troubled thoughts. "After a while he quit searching, but within his heart he never gave up hope that he would see you again one day." She moved to her knees and faced him. "Shane, he will be so happy. When will you go and see him? When?"
Doubt of himself and his acceptance assailed Shane. He brushed past Melanie and rose to his feet. He went to the edge of the butte and looked down at the darkened land below him; in the moonlight he could still see the dark forms of the
longhorns grazing lazily.
Melanie went to Shane. She followed his gaze, and when she looked at the lamplight flooding from the windows of her house, she grew anxious. If Terrance had arrived home and discovered her gone he would become alarmed and would come looking for her. It was best that Terrance didn't see Shane until Shane had made his appearance at the Brennan farm.
Turning to Shane, Melanie again placed a gentle hand on his arm. Though she felt the urgency to leave, she still wanted to know just a little bit more about him and if he wanted her to go to his father and tell him that he was near.
"Shane, you said earlier that you only found out today where your father resided," she said softly. "Why didn't you know earlier? Why didn't you come looking for him?"
Shane swallowed hard. He turned and faced Melanie and placed his fingers gently to her shoulders. "So much of my memory as a child of four was scarred by sadness and death," he said. "I forgot my last name, even my brother's first name. All I could recall was my father's name because I had heard my mother address him as Jared so often. I could not recall where my father was traveling. It could have been to Canada as far as I knew. A child of four is only aware of what makes him comfortable from day to day. Hardly anything more. So through the years I was only called Shane because that was the only name I knew to tell the Indians to call me."
"You speak kindly of the Chippewa," Melanie
said, again looking at his fringed buckskin outfit. "They were good to you?"
"They took me in and raised me as one of their own," Shane said, nodding. "I would still be there today had the old chief's son not resented me through the years because his father treated me like a son. Jealousy led him to make the decision to send me away. He was told by his father shortly before his death exactly where my true family resided. So now I am here."
"But the old chief's son did you a favor," Melanie said. "By sending you away, you have found your true family. Doesn't that make you happy, Shane? You can live a normal life now."
She stood on tiptoe to come closer to his face, and smiled. "Shane, your father is very wealthy. You can share in the wealth," she said softly. "You will never want for another thing. You can have all the comforts that you have been denied through the years."
Shane did not like her referring to the Indian way of life as not normal, but he understood her feelings. They were as most white people's feelings toward the Indian. This could be the hardest part of living in the white man's world again. Resentments and prejudices.
But now he knew that he could stand up against any ridiculebecause he wanted to be near Melanie. Though they had only just met, he knew that she was going to be his woman!
With her lips so close and her eyes smiling so warmly into his, Shane could not help himself. His steel arms enfolded her, drawing her into his arms.
"Melanie," he whispered. "Sweet Melanie. I am grateful for what Gray Falcon has done, for if he had not done it, I would never have found you." He locked her against his body and kissed her with a fierce, possessive heat.
Melanie was too weak with desire to protest. She twined her arms about Shane's neck and clung to his rock hardness, giving herself up to the rapture. It was as though she had known him forever. The kiss, the embrace, the wondrous feelings were so right! How his kiss inflamed her heart!
