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“I was told, Mother, that you traveled with Gypsies,” Kaylene went on. “Could you tell me something about yourself and your Gypsy people? Where are they? Can you tell me who my true father is?”
Eloisa smiled slowly. “Yes, I can tell you about your father,” she said. “But until now I have told no one. I kept the secret, so that when he was alive, he wouldn’t have to be embarrassed by people knowing that he had loved a woman such as I, who was truly never pretty, but instead someone who knew well the art of loving a man.”
Kaylene’s heart sank when she realized that by her mother’s words—“when her father was alive”—that he was now surely dead.
She paled and gasped when her mother told her that her father was a great Comanche war chief. That meant that she, in part, was Indian!
“He is dead now for many winters,” Eloisa said solemnly. She gave Fire Thunder a frown. “He was killed in a battle with the Kickapoo.”
Everything became suddenly quiet between them. As for Kaylene, she was afraid to ask any more about her father, fearing that she might discover that her betrothed might have killed him.
She was glad when her mother broke the silence and told her at length about her Gypsy family, that they were now faraway, never staying put in anyone place for any length of time.
“They will never return this way ever again because they do not want to associate themselves with this old woman whose body has betrayed her,” Eloisa said sullenly.
They talked awhile longer, until Kaylene saw how weary her mother was becoming. And she knew that Fire Thunder was eager to return home.
And that was all right with Kaylene. She had succeeded in her mission to find her mother.
Now perhaps she could rest at night and proceed with the rest of her life with the man of her midnight dreams, and make a life with him that would be wonderful.
They said their good-byes and tears spilling from her eyes, Kaylene went back to her gentle mare.
Fire Thunder kissed her softly, then lifted her into the saddle.
For a while they rode down the hillside in silence, beneath the umbrella of the trees, and then through vast fields of wild flowers.
“How do you feel about my father being a Comanche war chief?” Kaylene finally blurted out, unable to hold it inside her any longer.
“How do you think I should feel?” Fire Thunder said, giving her a slow gaze.
“I’m not certain,” Kaylene said, sighing deeply. “It’s just that I know now that he died while battling the Kickapoo. Could it have been you?”
“Not all Comanche are my enemy,” Fire Thunder said solemnly. “Only those who crossed the border into Mexican territory, to raid and steal from those I promised to keep safe when a treaty was reached between myself and General Rocendo.”
He paused, then said, “There was only one Comanche war chief that I have actually gone to war against. And that was Chief Panther Crow.”
Kaylene stiffened at the name, reminded of her pet panther and how it had seemed to have come to her out of nowhere the day she had found it.
Could her father have been Panther Crow? Could he have been reincarnated into the panther and have come to her?
She didn’t voice this thought aloud to Fire Thunder. She would keep it close to her heart, the only secret she would ever keep from her beloved Kickapoo chief, her wondrous lover.
Then another thought came to her that shook her innermost being. She suddenly remembered those strange stirrings that she had felt after she had arrived at Fire Thunder’s village, while mingling with his people. So often she had felt as though she might have been an Indian in another life. Now she understood those stirrings!
It was wonderful to know that she was part Indian in this life!
It would be something she would carry proudly with her while she lived among Indians.
Yes, now she understood why she had so quickly felt as though she belonged with the Kickapoo.
Yet she could not help but feel as though she had been deprived of something precious in her life by finding out just now that she was part Indian. But she would make up for it now that she knew. She would learn everything Indian. She would live it.
The one thing that took away from this wonderful moment was the sadness she felt over the illness of her mother.
She vowed to herself that this woman would never forget her. She would go as often as possible to talk with her. Her true mother would no longer be alone in the world.
Then a thought came to Kaylene that excited her at the possibility of being able to do it. She looked quickly over at Fire Thunder.
