AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then Little Sparrow crawled on the bed beside Kaylene. She leaned over and kissed her softly on the cheek.
“Kaylene, you are all right, are you not?” Running Fawn asked, seeing something in Kaylene’s eyes that she had not seen before. And there seemed to be a sensuous glow on her cheeks, pink and soft, instead of flushed as she had been in the council house.
“What?” Kaylene said, suddenly brought out of the sensual trance in which she had become enveloped while alone with Fire Thunder. She had pretended she was still unconscious while he had kissed her, not wanting anything to break the spell by telling him that she was awake. She had wondered just what else he might do while he thought she was unaware of it?
Her two friends had poor timing. They had come just when she had hoped that his hand would wander and cup one of her breasts as he had done once before.
But she knew that not too much time would pass now when he would approach her again sexually, and she would not turn her back on him, or anything that he offered.
She now knew that she never wanted to leave him, except to find answers to questions that plagued her about her parents.
But after that was all settled inside her heart, she would stay with Fire Thunder . . . if he still truly wanted her!
“Yes, I am fine, just fine,” Kaylene finally said, as she beamed from Little Sparrow to Running Fawn. “Even more than that, I feel wonderful.”
“Our people’s shaman has worked his magic again,” Running Fawn said, leaning over Kaylene, softly hugging her. “Now are you not glad that you went to the curing ceremony? It was not all that bad was it? You only fainted because of the heat and exhaustion. Otherwise, Bull Shield has made you well and put a pleasant pink glow on your face. In your eyes there is such a happiness.”
“Yes, the shaman worked a miracle today,” Kaylene said, returning Running Fawn’s hug.
She smiled to herself, knowing that the shaman had nothing at all to do with how she felt at this moment.
Fire Thunder, and only Fire Thunder, was the cause of her joyous bliss.
Chapter 13
O were my Love yon lilac fair,
Wi’ purple blossoms to the spring,
And I a bird to shelter there,
When wearied on my little wing.
—ROBERT BURNS
Several days had passed. Kaylene’s wound was finally healed enough for her to take walks. But until she got her full strength back, she could take only short jaunts through the village.
The evening meal had been eaten. The sun was slowly sinking in the west as Kaylene wandered now through the village, her panther devotedly at her side.
Kaylene kept Midnight with her as often as possible, even though seeing him with her made the Kickapoo shy away. Kaylene even knew that some called her a witch because of her panther companion.
Some had even said that she was a sister to the big cat, that she was part cat, herself, with her green eyes, and her sleek, black mane of hair that was almost the identical bluish-black coloring of her panther’s pelt.
None of these things bothered Kaylene.
And she had even stopped asking Fire Thunder to allow her to leave the village, to go to her mother.
In truth, the more Kaylene thought about things, the more she was hesitant to hear the answers that her mother might give her. Sometimes truths hurt too much.
For certain, her heart still ached over knowing that her father was responsible for so many cruel deeds to humanity.
Father? she thought despairingly to herself. Was he?
Or was she wrong to think that she had been raised by people who had wanted her for no better reason than her father had wanted the other children?
Yes, they had treated her special. They had even shared their personal wagon and tent with her.
But when she had grown old enough to perform, her father had not hesitated ordering her to. She had then become just another performer, nothing more, nothing less.
