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Fire Thunder explained to his sister that this was something a small child must not interfere with. He asked her if she did not trust her brother’s judgment in all things?
Little Sparrow lowered her eyes, then looked up at Fire Thunder. She nodded, saying that yes, she had never doubted him.
She would not doubt him now.
Feeling tired, and hardly able to keep her eyes open, she stretched out beside her brother. Forcing her eyes to stay open, she watched Fire Thunder and Kaylene as they began to talk.
She wished that she could hear. She wished that she could talk—she had so much to say!
She so badly wanted to hear the words spoken between the white woman and her brother, to see what kind of relationship was forming. But she had to settle for watching their lips and trying to see by that how things were between them.
And she could also watch their eyes. Eyes said so much to someone like Little Sparrow, who had learned to observe people way more closely than those who took hearing and speaking for granted.
She badly wanted to continue watching, but her eyelids grew heavier . . . heavier. She curled up in a fetal position and allowed sleep to possess her.
Fire Thunder reached over and covered Little Sparrow with a blanket, then turned back to Kaylene when she continued to talk.
“My shoulder feels much better,” Kaylene said, reaching her hand beneath the blanket, feeling the bandage. “It is painful, yet not searing. What did you do to take away the pain?”
“Black Hair placed medicinal herbs directly on the wound after I bathed it,” Fire Thunder said, realizing that they were actually speaking civilly to one another. For the moment, Kaylene was not challenging his each and every word.
This enabled him to see the sweetness of her personality that he knew was there, hidden beneath the surface.
But he did not expect it to last for long. After she was stronger, he knew she would become as belligerent as before.
But in time, that would pass again, and her true self would always be there for him to marvel over.
“Had I not stepped in the way, you would have killed my panth
er,” Kaylene said, her voice suddenly drawn. “I gladly took the knife that was meant for Midnight.”
“Midnight?” Fire Thunder said. He stretched out beside her and leaned up on an elbow, facing her. “That is what you call the panther?”
“Yes, because he is the color of the darkest of midnights,” Kaylene said, closing her eyes for a moment when sleep fought to claim her.
“How is it that you have a panther for a pet?” Fire Thunder asked. He watched her eyes open again, mesmerized anew by their green color.
“It happened a long time ago,” Kaylene murmured. “I found the panther when it was quite small. Its mother had been killed. I took it in and cared for it. Midnight and I have a close bond.”
She paused and lowered her eyes. Fire Thunder could tell that what she had to tell him next might be painful . . . might be regretful.
“My father took advantage of my friendship with the panther,” Kaylene said, looking up at him again. “He . . . he . . . turned us into a carnival act. We became his favorite sideshow.”
“Sideshow?” Fire Thunder said, lifting an eyebrow. “I am not familiar with that word. What does it mean? What did your father force upon you and the panther?”
“Force is the right word,” Kaylene said bitterly. “I never wanted to do it. But he insisted.”
“Insisted?” Fire Thunder prodded. “What did he make you do?”
“A sideshow means an exhibition,” Kaylene said, recalling that first time she had slipped onto the back of her panther. She had been only ten. Although she had not wanted to be stared at, and she had not wanted to make her pet into something gawked at, she had felt a certain excitement in riding the panther around the roped-off area inside the tent. There had been a thrill in the applause.
She explained to Fire Thunder how she had performed with her panther, and how obedient he had been to her every wish.
“You see, my panther is special,” she murmured. “Please never harm him, for I am certain that he will come to me again. Our hearts are one and the same. Our bond can never be broken.”
“As long as your panther poses no threat to me or my people, he will not be harmed,” Fire Thunder said softly.
Tears sprang to Kaylene’s eyes when she suddenly thought of her father. Surely he was dead now. “What do you plan to do with me?” she blurted out.
