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He glanced over at Black Hair’s horse. He nodded toward a warrior. “Get his horse,” he said softly. “Place Black Hair across the saddle. Let us take him home. Soon Black Hair will be riding the spirit of a horse long since gone from this earth on his trip heavenward.”
Kaylene watched solemnly, thinking how complicated life was. Only a short while ago she had felt so blessed and happy to have been able to talk and be with her true mother.
Only moments ago she had been content to know that her very own mother might soon live near her, so that they could talk whenever they chose to.
And now, it was the worst of times, when the man she loved was filled with such despair over the loss of a loved one.
It always seemed that it was hard to keep a good, hard grip on true happiness, for there was always someone, or something there, to tear it all down again.
Chapter 28
She walks among the loveliness she made.
—VITA SACKVILLE-WEST
Several weeks had passed. The mourning period was now over for Black Hair. Fire Thunder no longer wore narrow strips of braided buckskin around his neck and waist to show his mourning. Nor was his entire face covered in the black ash of mourning.
As Fire Thunder had said, Black Hair’s storms of life were over. He was at peace.
And so Fire Thunder was now at peace with Black Hair’s death, yet would forever miss him.
Kaylene was all aflutter inside because this was the day when Fire Thunder was going to make his formal announcement to his people about his upcoming marriage to her.
She sat before a roaring fire in Anna’s cabin as Anna brushed her hair for the coming ceremony. Although Kaylene had lived among the Kickapoo for many weeks now, the formality of the ceremony was required so that she would be living by the rules set down by them. She would be practicing their customs.
“You have so many things to learn about Fire Thunder’s people,” Anna said softly, as though she had read Kaylene’s thoughts. “Take this for example—that I could not brush your hair in Fire Thunder’s cabin. I shall never understand, Kaylene. It seems so wrong. Soon his cabin will be yours. Is he going to force you to step outside every time you want to brush or comb your hair? You can’t tell me that he tends to his own long hair outside his lodge.”
“Yes, he does,” Kaylene murmured. “It is taboo for anyone to brush or comb their hair in a Kickapoo lodge. Now I will be the first to admit that I find that strange, also. But it is just one of those things I must accept. I am hellbent on learning everything Kickapoo and living among them as one with them.”
“I am grateful, oh, so grateful to Fire Thunder for allowing me to live here, and for giving me this fine cabin. But I too often feel as though I am an intrusion in your lives,” Anna said, her voice breaking.
Kaylene looked over her shoulder at Anna. “I understand that so much has changed in your life,” she said thickly, “And I can see how you might feel as though you are intruding . . . as though you don’t belong. Please listen when I say that I am so happy that you are here.”
Kaylene rose from the chair and turned toward Anna. “And one day you will feel as though you belong,” she softly encouraged her. “You are so much the same as I, in how we never had roots until now. It is a difference I love. But you were with the carnival for much longer than me. It will take longer for you to adjust.”
Anna laid the brush aside as Kaylene stepped closer. She drew Kaylene into her arms. “You could hate me, yet you don’t,” she whispered, stroking Kaylene’s back. “Thank you, darling, for caring . . . for taking me in when I felt I had lost everything.”
“I’m glad to be able to give you something back after all that you did for me,” Kaylene murmured.
She swallowed hard when she recalled how she had felt hate for Anna the first time she realized that Anna had deceived her by making her believe that she was her own daughter.
Kaylene was happy to know that she hadn’t been abducted like the others. She had been taken in to raise as a daughter. How could she hate Anna when she had taken pity on her as an infant?
If Anna had not done this, Kaylene shivered at the thought of what might have happened to her. For certainly, she would never have met Fire Thunder.
A shadow filling the open doorway brought Kaylene from her mother’s arms. She smiled as Fire Thunder stepped into the room with the grace of a deer, his gaze roving over her.
; Kaylene squared her shoulders and straightened her back as she allowed him a longer look before going to him to fling herself into his wonderfully strong arms.
She ran her fingers down the front of the dress that she had purchased in San Carlos on her last shopping spree with Anna and Little Sparrow. It was blue silk, with puffed sleeves and a fully gathered waist. White lace trimmed the low bodice and the edges of her long sleeves. She wore dainty slippers.
All but for the flowers that her mother had not yet placed in her hair for the ceremony, Kaylene was ready to go out and face Fire Thunder’s people.
Kaylene looked at Fire Thunder and the way he was dressed in a neat suit of buckskin, with fringe on the sleeves, across the shoulders, and down the trouser legs. He wore high moccasins made of the softest, cream-colored skins. His hair trailed down his back, braided and decorated with shells.
Kaylene was taken anew by his handsomeness, by his gentle smile, and by the shine in his blue eyes. She had never thought that love could be this strong between any man and woman, especially after being raised in a family where man and wife scarcely ever embraced. Even smiles were vague between them. It seemed to have been a business transaction between John and Anna Shelton. Nothing more; nothing less.
