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“Kaylene, is it not enough that you know who your true mother was?” Fire Thunder said, bending to a knee beside her. “Leprosy. It is a bad disease. Do not chance getting it.”
“I will keep my distance, Fire Thunder,” she said in a rush of words. “I have come this close to knowing my true mother. How can you expect me not to go all of the way?”
Then a thought came to Kaylene. “Mother, who is my true father?” she asked softly.
“I have no idea,” Anna murmured. “Your mother would not confess such a truth to me. Perhaps she doesn’t even know herself who impregnated her.”
“I must find out everything I can,” Kaylene said determinedly.
She looked up at Fire Thunder again. “You will take me to search for my true mother in Laredo, won’t you?” she asked softly. “It is important for me to see her at least just this once. And to allow her to see me, the daughter she gave away. I want her to see the man I am going to marry!”
Fire Thunder rose to his full height. He took Kaylene’s hands and urged her to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her into his embrace. “My woman, I will do anything for you, you know that,” he said thickly. “Yes, we will go to Laredo. But if your mother is no longer there, the search stops there. Do you agree?”
“Yes,” Kaylene murmured, hugging him. “Thank you, darling. Thank you for giving me this chance.”
“But we must leave now,” Fire Thunder said, easing her from his arms. He turned to Anna. “If you are going with us, you must leave now. You must leave all of this behind you. You will start a new life among my people.” He glanced over at John. “And you cannot stay even long enough to bury your husband.”
Anna looked down at John, shuddered, then reached a hand out for Kaylene. “I am ready,” she said, proudly lifting her chin.
Kaylene took Anna’s hand. She squeezed it affectionately, then walked away forever from the life that she had known since she was a child.
A horse was brought for Anna. She mounted it. She looked around her at the men, women, and children who stared up at her. “This is all yours,” she said softly. “Do with it what you wish. I gladly rid my life of it.”
Kaylene smiled, then rode off with her mother at her left side, Fire Thunder at her right.
She looked straight ahead, her heart anxious for what lay waiting in Laredo.
Chapter 26
Her lovely yielding form I pressed,
Sweet maddening kisses stole.
—ROBERT DODSLEY
They had made camp for one night and headed out again for Laredo the next day. It was growing dusk when they saw Laredo not that far ahead in the distance.
Fire Thunder drew a tight rein. He wheeled his horse around and faced his faithful warriors. “Make camp here,” he said. “Only Kaylene and I will ride on into Laredo. We shall return after our mission is complete.”
Kaylene turned to Anna, whose shoulders were slumped with weariness from the long travel on horseback. “Mother,” she said softly. It did still seem right to call Anna mother. She had been Kaylene’s mother for too long now, to address her by anything else. It would seem disrespectful, somehow. “You will be safe here with the Kickapoo warriors. Rest. Eat. Then sleep. I am not certain if we will even return tonight. It’s according to what we find out about . . . about my true mother.”
Tears filled Anna’s eyes. “I wish you hadn’t found out,” she murmured.
“Knowing isn’t going to change all that much in my life now,” Kaylene tried to reassure her. “I am going to marry Fire Thunder. No matter whether or not I had found out the truth about my parents, I would have still stayed with Fire Thunder as his wife.”
Anna cast Fire Thunder a shy glance, then looked over at Kaylene. “I will never understand how you could fall in love with a man who took you captive,” she said softly, so that Fire Thunder wouldn’t hear.
“You will soon understand why I could have never hated him,” Kaylene said. She gazed at Fire Thunder, as taken now with him as the first time she had seen him on his horse with his warriors as they had passed by the carnival. She smiled at her mother. “I would wager a bet that you will soon be as smitten with Fire Thunder as I,” she said, laughing softly.
Fire Thunder rode up next to Kaylene. He eyed Anna, seeing her weariness, then dismounted. He went to her and placed gentle hands to her waist and lifted her from the saddle. “You need rest,” he said. “Take advantage of my and Kaylene’s absence. When Kaylene and I are through with our mission, we will have a long travel ahead of us again to reach my mountain.”
Anna gave him a nervous smile as she stepped away from him. She stared up at him, his height so much more than most men she had ever known. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I do appreciate your kindness.”
Kaylene’s insides warmed when Fire Thunder gave Anna a gentle hug, so glad that he was showing Anna the sort of man that he was. She could tell by Anna’s expression that she was surprised by Fire Thunder’s gentleness. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks flushed pink as he turned and went back to his horse.
“Wish me luck, Mother?” Kaylene said, her voice breaking when Anna came quickly to her and reached her arms up for her.
“May God be with you,” Anna said, hugging Kaylene as Kaylene leaned down low enough for the embrace.
