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Mary Beth hurried to her feet and smiled weakly at Pure Heart. She could guess why the kind old woman had come. No doubt she had seen how hideously Mary Beth was dressed and wanted to turn her back into a lady.
“On his way to the council house, my son Brave Wolf came and asked a favor of me,” Pure Heart said in just as perfect English as Brave Wolf spoke. She held the heavily beaded dress out to Mary Beth. “He asked that I bring you a dress.” Her face crinkled into a smile. “At one time I was more your size than I am now. Now I am so thin my son says that I am no heavier than a feather and if a strong wind should come along, it would sweep me into the air and carry me away.”
She gazed at her dress, then smiled again at Mary Beth. “I took this dress from those I wore when I was young and pretty like you,” she murmured. “The dress is now yours.”
“Mine?” Mary Beth asked, amazed that Pure Heart should be so generous to her, a stranger . . . and a white one at that.
“It would please me if you would accept the dress,” Pure Heart said. “My son Brave Wolf has never taken a wife, so he cannot ask any other woman to lend you her clothes.”
Mary Beth’s heart skipped a beat at those words. Now she knew Brave Wolf wasn’t married and the knowledge filled her with sudden joy.
She could hardly wait to see him again, yet when she did, how would she behave now that she knew he was free to be loved?
And, ah, yes, she did love him. She wasn’t sure of the moment it had happened, but nonetheless, it had happened!
Pure Heart stepped closer to Mary Beth and placed the dress in her arms. “Brave Wolf told me of your kindness to Night Horse when he was found,” she murmured. “I, too, would show kindness. This dress is only a small way of thanking you.”
“Night Horse looked so ill, how could I not have helped in whatever way I could?” Mary Beth said softly, pulling the dress up against her. She was truly glad to accept it, even though she might look more Indian than white when she wore it.
Then she gazed into the old woman’s faded eyes. “How is Night Horse now?” she blurted out.
“The fever is less,” Pure Heart said. “And soon it will disappear altogether. Our people’s shaman, Many Clouds, is with Night Horse now. That is the only reason I could leave my son’s side during his time of illness. Night Horse and Many Clouds are in the sweat lodge, where my son’s illness will be sweated out of him as Many Clouds brushes smoke across his eyes with feathers. Thus the evil spirits that are responsible for making my son foreign even to himself will be gone. When Night Horse is wet with sweat, he will be taken to the river where the cold, cleansing water will heal him. Women are not allowed in the sweat lodge or I would have accompanied my son and Many Clouds there.”
“I hope that Night Horse will get well soon,” Mary Beth murmured.
Pure Heart placed a gentle hand on Mary Beth’s face. “Brave Wolf sees something in you that is special,” she murmured. “So does his mother, even though I never thought I could see goodness in any white eyes. They are takers. They are selfish. Thanks only to the efforts of my husband and Brave Wolf, thus far the white eyes have not taken from our Whistling Water Clan of Crow.”
“I understand your feelings, even though it was people of your color who took my husband’s life,” Mary Beth said, swallowing hard. “I know that there is good and bad in whites, and Indians. I’m glad to know that I am among a good people. I do so appreciate your kindness toward me.”
“I must go now,” Pure Heart said. “My son’s time at the sweat lodge should be almost over. I want to be in my tepee when he is brought back.”
“Thank you so much for the dress,” Mary Beth said. “And . . . for not seeing me as the enemy.”
“Anyone with such a beautiful smile and such softness in her voice could surely be no one’s enemy,” Pure Heart said. She patted Mary Beth’s cheek, turned, then stopped and looked back at Mary Beth. “I am called Pure Heart.”
“I am called Mary Beth,” Mary Beth said, delighted that she had made such a friend in Brave Wolf’s mother!
Pure Heart nodded, smiled, then turned again and left the tepee.
Still marveling over what had just transpired, Mary Beth held the dress out before her. She sighed at its loveliness and at the generosity of its giver. She had two special allies . . . Brave Wolf and his mother!
Yes, she was happy about how things were and she was glad to have the beautiful dress. She threw off the ugly breeches and shirt and replaced them with the pretty white doeskin dress.
She ran he
r hands down the front, around the beautiful beaded designs, and sighed at the softness of the doeskin. Feeling how prettily it hung on her body, she smiled. She wondered how Brave Wolf would see her.
She didn’t have any longer to wonder about it. Her pulse raced when Brave Wolf came into the tepee, stopped, and gazed admiringly at her.
Oh, Lord, the longer she was with this man, the more she cared for him.
Now that she trusted him and knew that he was not married, she could allow herself to feel things for him that she had never felt for any other man.
When he stepped up to her and gently drew her into his arms, she allowed it.
“Mitawin, woman, I cannot help having feelings for you,” he said huskily. “There is so much goodness in you . . . so much love.”
He placed a finger beneath her chin and lifted her face so that their eyes met and held. “My heart tells me to kiss you,” he said thickly. “Will you allow it?”
