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“Perhaps so,” Dawnmarie said, gently smoothing a lock of hair back from Kaylene’s brow. “I believe in reincarnation. I feel that I, too, have lived before. I wish I knew when, where, and who I was.”
Then, when Kaylene heard the braying of a burro outside as it passed by, she thought of Running Fawn. This might be her returning. She jumped to her feet. She knew for almost certain now that Running Fawn had been with her gentleman friend. She wanted to warn Running Fawn that her father had not returned from the hunt just yet, and that it would be best if she hurry to her lodge in case he arrived soon. Although she felt that she was involving herself in some sort of conspiracy, she felt too much for Running Fawn now, and the depth of their friendship, to ignore her as she knew Fire Thunder wanted her to.
“Dawnmarie, will you excuse me for just one moment?” she said softly. “There’s someone I must see.”
“Go right ahead,” Dawnmarie said, stretching her arms, yawning. “I will catch a moment of sleep before our men come back to us. The journey has been long. I am bone weary.”
“Why not go and stretch out on the bed?” Kaylene said, nodding toward Fire Thunder’s bedroom. “You will be much more comfortable than sleeping in the chair.”
“I have learned to sleep while even riding on the horse,” Dawnmarie said, laughing softly. “I can surely rest quite comfortably while sitting straight up in this comfortable chair.”
Kaylene gave her a hug, then rushed from the lodge. When she stepped outside, she stopped and looked at Running Fawn as she slid from the burro’s back, staring at John Shelton in the cage.
Then Kaylene rushed to Running Fawn’s side. “Where have you been?” she whispered harshly. “Running Fawn, are you trying to get exiled? Or perhaps be placed in this cage? Where have you been? So much has happened.”
“My father?” Running Fawn whispered. “Has he returned from the hunt?”
“No, but you know as well as I that he could at any moment,” Kaylene said. “Why do you do these things, Running Fawn? It is as though you want to be caught.”
“I love Pedro, that is why I go to him,” Running Fawn said, leaning close into Kaylene’s face. “As you love Fire Thunder, I love Pedro Rocendo!”
She turned slow eyes to John, then looked past him and paled when she saw the activity in the village: how some wounded people still lay outside their lodges, being nursed.
She implored Kaylene with wide eyes. “What has happened here?” she whispered, yet knowing, and dying a slow death inside over having been too cowardly to come home and warn her people of an attack after seeing the armed men.
“This man in the cage, who claimed to be my father throughout the years, came and attacked your village,” Kaylene said solemnly. “He is the only one that was captured. The others got away.”
Feeling sick inside for having failed her people, Running Fawn lowered her eyes. She sobbed. She grabbed Kaylene’s hand. “I . . . am . . . responsible,” she softly cried. She looked desperately up at Kaylene. “I saw them approaching with their firearms. Pedro encouraged me not to come and warn my people.”
“You knew and still you did not tell?” Kaylene gasped out, paling. She stepped back from Running Fawn. “I doubt I shall ever understand you.”
“Please do not tell my father or Fire Thunder,” Running Fawn pleaded, suddenly clutching Kaylene’s hands. “I had to tell someone. We are friends. I felt I could safely tell you. I had to get the burden out from inside me.”
“Secrets like this are hideous,” Kaylene said, shuddering uncon
trollably.
Running Fawn pulled Kaylene into the dark shadows of the lodges. “Please swear to me that you will not tell!” she cried. “You are like a sister to me. Sisters look after each other. They confide. I have confided in you the worst of what I have done. Please promise that you will keep my secret.”
Seeing how upset Running Fawn was, and how she seemed truly sorry for not having warned her people, Kaylene felt sympathy for this friend who seemed to have trouble knowing right from wrong. Kaylene drew Running Fawn into her arms and comforted her.
“I won’t tell,” she whispered, stroking her fingers through Running Fawn’s thick hair.
“I wish I had met you sooner,” Running Fawn murmured. “Friends like you are rare.”
“I am your friend,” Kaylene said. “But, please, Running Fawn, try to change your ways. No man is worth losing everything over, is he?”
“Would you give up Fire Thunder for any reason?” Running Fawn asked, leaning away from Kaylene, their eyes locking. “You love him heart and soul, do you not?”
“He is my world,” Kaylene conceded.
“And so Pedro is the world to me,” Running Fawn said.
Running Fawn turned with a start when she heard horses entering the village. She swallowed hard when she recognized her father in the lead. Horses dragged many travois behind them, heavy laden with meat.
“Father!” Running Fawn gasped.
Without another word, she turned and fled into the darkness.
