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Then he gasped with fright as the panther just barely sank its teeth into the flesh of his neck, as though John Shelton was another panther who was forced to submit and cower beneath Midnight’s power and prowess.
Kaylene was stunned to see Midnight there. But she had been foolish to think that he would stay leashed when he sensed that she was in danger.
And hating the man who had taken a whip more than once to him, to force him into obedience, Midnight was obviously taking pleasure in what he was doing to John Shelton.
With John rendered helpless, the men who had accompanied him swung their horses around and fled in a tearing gallop.
Fire Thunder stepped up beside Kaylene and glared down at John.
Midnight’s teeth were dangerously close to his jugular vein, so John lay perfectly quiet on his back, his eyes pleading up at Kaylene.
Kaylene stared down at him for a moment longer, her thoughts again filled with whether or not this man was her true father.
She tried to see some likeness of herself in his features and saw none. She tried to think of some of her features that might be her mother’s. There were none.
“Kaylene, for Christ’s sake, get Midnight off me,” John managed to whisper. He scarcely breathed when the panther’s teeth sank somewhat deeper into his flesh. He could feel a small trickle of blood flowing down his neck from a small puncture wound.
“Midnight, come here,” Kaylene said, slapping her hands at him.
Obedient to her every whim, wish, and desire, Midnight swung around away from John, and went to Kaylene. He hissed and bared his fangs at John again when John glared at him.
Under any other circumstances, Kaylene would have leaped into her father’s arms, so glad to know that he was alive.
But too much held her back. His attack on the Kickapoo. And her questions about her true parentage.
She looked past him, at those Kickapoo who were helping their wounded into their lodges. Tears sprang into her eyes when she saw Little Sparrow kneeling beside the wounded brave, holding his hand as his parents knelt over him, inspecting the wound.
She looked over at Running Fawn’s lodge. Where was she? Even Black Hair wasn’t there.
She suddenly recalled that Black Hair had gone on a hunting expedition. Surely Running Fawn had taken advantage of his absence and might even now be with her girlfriends, having fun with their Mexican boyfriends.
“White man, get on your feet,” Fire Thunder demanded as he glared down at John, his rifle aimed at him. “You are lucky I do not send a bullet into your heart for what you have done today to my people.”
John cowered beneath the threat of the rifle, then slowly rose to his feet. He glanced over at Kaylene. “Daughter, tell him to aim that firearm elsewhere,” he pleaded. His hand went to the puncture wound at his throat. He wiped the blood from his flesh with his fingers, then lifted them before his eyes.
His gaze went to Midnight. “If that damn animal wasn’t so important to me, I’d kill it right now with my bare hands,” he said through clenched teeth.
First, his reference to Kaylene as his daughter made her wince, as doubt again filled her as to whether or not she was.
Secondly, how he spoke so threateningly to her panther, and then stated the reason why he wouldn’t truly harm the animal—that Midnight was too important to him, made Kaylene once again wonder about her importance to him.
“You call me daughter,” she blurted out, taking a bold step toward him, as two warriors came and grabbed each of his arms, to hold him steady between them. “Am I? Am I truly your daughter? Tell me the truth! I was stolen as a baby, wasn’t I? You raised me only to use me, didn’t you?”
Kaylene felt lightheaded and sick to her stomach when she saw his reaction to her questions.
Chapter 19
I was young and foolish,
And now am full of tears.
—WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
Seeing how her father paled at her question, as a child might do when caught stealing and by him not quickly saying that what she said was foolish! Hogwash! Untrue!, Kaylene knew without him speaking that he was not her father.
She fell
back a step or two, as though she had been slapped.
