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Falcon. Shane's insides turned cold as he watched Gray Falcon's body twitch and convulse strangely, then become much too quiet. His fingers trembling, Shane placed a hand over Gray Falcon's mouth. When he felt no breath, he gave Red Raven a look of knowing.
"I am now chief?" Red Raven said, as though he doubted the truth of this moment.
"I know that you left the village, never to return," Shane said, rising to his feet along with Red Raven. "And that you never thought Gray Falcon would be the one to summon you back, to declare to your people that you would soon be chief. But it has happened. You are chief! You will carry the title well!"
"If only you were here to share the future of my people with me," Red Raven said, placing a hand on Shane's shoulder.
"That is not my destiny," Shane said, sighing. "Melanie and our children are my destiny." He smiled slowly at Red Raven. "Once you have seen your people through these hardships of winter and death, will you come to my house and pay a visit?"
Red Raven nodded. "Ay-uh, many times I will make a visit," he said.
"There is someone I would like you to meet," Shane said, in his mind's eye seeing Daphne and how she looked all swollen with child. Like Melanie, she was even more beautiful. Red Raven would make a wonderful husbanda wonderful father!
"Oh?" Red Raven said, forking an eyebrow.
"We will talk of it later," Shane said, swinging an arm around his friend's shoulder. "Let us now join in mourning with your people."
"The burial rites must be swift," Red Raven said, walking from the wigwam beside Shane. "We have much meat to prepare. We have milk to feed my people's children!"
"Milk from a black cow is more healthful than that from a cow of any other color," Shane said. "I have brought only black cows to your people."
Red Raven hugged Shane fiercely. "Thank you, my brother," he said thickly. "Mee-gway-chee-wahn-dum for everything. Because of you, much is now possible for my people." He swallowed hard. "For our people, Shane. For our people."
Chapter Thirty-four
Four Years Later, Mid-June
The day was delightful, soft and bright, with a brisk wind from the southwest. The air was heavy with rich, earthy scents.
Shane loaded a huge picnic basket at the rear of his buggy and offered Terra
nce a smile as Terrance helped his wife, Daphne, up into their buggy. After giving birth to two children already, Daphne was heavy with child again.
As far as Shane was concerned, things had not worked out as planned for Daphne. She and Terrance had fallen in love. Their courtship had been brief. Before Red Raven even had a chance to meet her, she was already married to Terrance.
Surprising to Shane, however, the marriage was working out. Terrance treated Daphne's first child as though it were his own, and he could not be more attentive and caring to a woman as he was his wife. She had seemed to change him into a gentle man overnight, into a man of heartmost definitely into a man who now had compassion for all Indians, since his wife was a full-blooded Chippewa.
Puffing, pregnant again, Melanie waddled down the front steps of her home, balancing her round ball of a stomach between her hands. She was perfectly content to be a wife and mother, having long ago left her tomboyish ways behind her. Her four-year-old daughter, Sara, came skipping down the steps beside her, carrying her baby doll wrapped in a blanket. Sara would be no tomboy.
Sara giggled flirtatiously when she saw Daphne's four-year-old-son, Jonathan, peeking at her from behind his parents' buggy. Oh, how she adored his copper complexion, his devilishly brown eyes and high cheekbones. He looked so Indian, and Sara was intrigued by all Indians. She loved to travel to the Chippewa village to visit her "uncle" Red Raven and "aunt" Blue Blossom. Married now, they had the tiniest baby girl named Sunshine!
"Come along, Sara," Shane said, sweeping his daughter up into his arms. "You and Jonathan can play hide-and-seek later. Right now we must take ourselves for a ride into the forest for that picnic your mother and I promised you."
"Is Jonathan's sister, baby Elizabeth, going?" Sara chirped, placing a hand to her father's freshly-shaven cheek.
Melanie, eight months pregnant, went to Sara
and smoothed some of her golden locks of hair back from her brow. "No, she's not going, honey," she said softly. "Daphne and Terrance thought it best to leave their baby home. Jonathan tests their patience enough on these outings."
Shane sat Sara down in the back of the buggy alongside the picnic basket, then swung his arm around Melanie's thick middle. He leaned her back up against the side of the buggy and gazed into her eyes. "Happy?" he asked, amused at how much weight she had gained while pregnant this time. She was like a little butterball, all bouncy and sweet.
Melanie stood on tiptoe and brushed a kiss across Shane's lips. "Very," she murmured. "Darling, how can I not be? When passion calls, you are always there."
Shane's mouth closed over her lips. They kissed as though it were the first time.
