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He wanted her to be free—free to love him.
Yet he knew that he must enter into his questions about her past with care. He did not want to give her cause for hurt, if the discoveries proved that she had been living a lie with the man and woman she had always known as her parents....
Chapter 11
You loved me for an hour,
But only with your eyes;
Your lips I could not capture
By storm or by surprise.
—SYDNEY KING RUSSELL
“How can you approve of a father who steals children?” Fire Thunder blurted out as he gazed down at Kaylene.
“You are accusing my father of something you only think he is guilty of,” Kaylene said in defense of her father. “My father surely took Little Sparrow in out of pity.” She swallowed hard. “And all of the others.”
“How much longer are you going to use that as a defense against not accepting the truth about your father? You have to know that Little Sparrow has told me how it truly happened, why she was there at your father’s carnival in a cage,” Fire Thunder said, placing a gentle hand on one of her shoulders. “My sister does not lie. Why should she?”
Knowing that he was right, that Little Sparrow wouldn’t lie about anything like that, Kaylene lowered her eyes. “I so badly want to believe that my father could not do such a terrible thing,” she murmured. She looked slowly up at him again. “Don’t you understand? Knowing that he did that makes me . . . feel . . . unclean. He’s my father. I am the daughter of a wicked man.”
She paled. “Oh, Lord,” she said, searching his face as she thought of something else that made her feel as though worms were crawling through her insides. “Good Bear. Please don’t tell me that you found Good Bear at my father’s carnival.”
“No, he was not there,” Fire Thunder said, lowering his hand to his side.
He turned and faced the fire, the flames leaping like his heartbeat, at being reminded of the small child, and his own part in his death. Would he ever feel less guilty for having laid so much responsibility on Good Bear’s shoulders?
When the child discovered that he had let his chief down, it was a shame so intense, mixed with fear, that sent him to death that no proud warrior would ever lay claim to.
If only Good Bear could have lived longer. If only he had been given the chance to become a proud warrior, Fire Thunder despaired to himself. Good Bear would have then known the true evil of dying at one’s own hand.
“Thank God,” Kaylene said, moving to his side. She lay a hand on his arm. “Where did you find him? Or is it too painful to talk about?”
“His parents are living a nightmare,” Fire Thunder said sullenly. “And, no. I do not wish to talk about it. I am also a part of that nightmare.”
“Fire Thunder, you know how distraught Good Bear’s parents were when they did not know where he had disappeared,” Kaylene said guardedly. “Think about my mother and what she is going through, not knowing my fate. It isn’t fair to her to let her believe that perhaps by now I am dead. Please take me to her. Let her know that I am alive. She is not guilty of anything. She should not have to pay for the sins of my father.”
“She is as guilty as he,” Fire Thunder grumbled, turning a frown down at Kaylene. “She stood aside and watched my sister being caged.”
“She had no choice but to,” Kaylene said softly. “As I, she feared my father too much to interfere in anything that he chose to do.”
“You feared him?” Fire Thunder said, forking an eyebrow. “Did he abuse you?”
Kaylene swallowed hard.
She turned away from Fire Thunder.
He took one of her hands and turned her to face him. “Did . . . he . . . ever harm you?” he asked thickly.
“Not purposely, or should I say, not physically,” Kaylene said, her voice drawn. “He would lose his temper so quickly. When I found out that Little Sparrow was at the carnival, and I was told that she was taken in out of pity, I truly wanted to believe that. When I hinted at anything different, my father flew into a rage. He threatened me. That is why I did nothing to free her when I saw her in the cage.”
“Think back, Kaylene,” Fire Thunder said, his heart beating quickly, he so badly wanted to tell her what he truly suspected—that the man might not be her father. It was possible that she was one of those children taken so long ago, that she had blanked it out of her memory.
But he had to take this slow and easy or he might cause a hurt within her heart that would not ever heal. “Were there other children? Did other children suddenly appear at your carnival? Could your father have done this time and again?” he asked warily.
Kaylene did not want to remember, did not want to recapture the other times, the other children, when they had happened to suddenly be there as workers in the carnival. Each time her father had said they were runaways, there on their own accord.
