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She had been lonely without the one she had left behind in Kentucky.
It truly saddened her that she would never see it again.
“Do you want to be mine?” Mary Beth asked, hugging the cat to her chest as she continued stroking it. She was glad when it began purring, which proved that it was content to be with her.
“Where did that cat come from?” Dancing Butterfly asked as she knelt down beside Mary Beth. “Why is it so small? Is it a baby bobcat?”
“All cats like this are small,” Mary Beth murmured. “They are raised to live in houses, not out in the wild. As you can see, this cat has had some hard times since it left the fort.”
“You have seen this cat before?” Dancing Butterfly asked, still gazing at the creature. “What is that noise it is making?”
“Yes, I have seen it before, and the noise is called purring,” Mary Beth said, now standing and walking with Dancing Flower toward a small curved dwelling made of willow limbs. “The purring means that for the moment, while I am holding it, it is contented.”
She gave Dancing Butterfly a soft smile. “I want to keep her,” she said. “I hope Brave Wolf won’t mind.”
“He is a lover of all animals, so, yes, he will allow you to keep it,” Dancing Butterfly said, stopping just outside the small hut. She gazed at the doorway, then looked at the cat. “I think it is alright that the cat accompanies you during your purification.”
“Purification?” Mary Beth asked, taken aback. “What . . . sort . . . ?”
Dancing Butterfly giggled. “Do not be afraid,” she murmured. “The ceremony is quick and harmless.”
“Do all Crow women have such purification ceremonies before they become married?” Mary Beth asked.
“They usually go through much more than purification,” Dancing Butterfly said, ducking down and entering the small structure.
“What else?” Mary Beth asked, leaning low and following her.
She sat down as Dancing Butterfly sank gracefully to the floor. The cat now rested on Mary Beth’s lap, curled up and asleep, though it still purred.
It was as though the cat had sought her out just from their one meeting. She knew that cats were smart. They were known to travel for miles and miles to get back home if somehow lost. Was it possible this cat had traveled many miles to find her?
“You ask what else the Crow women do before their wedding day?” Dancing Butterfly said, holding the bag on her lap, but not yet opening it. “They stay in a special hut such as this. They abstain from meat for four days, their sustenance only being wild roots during that time. On the fourth day, they bathe, get new clothes, which they smoke over a fire of evergreen leaves, then return to their loved one for the marriage ceremony.”
“Why wasn’t all that required of me?” Mary Beth asked, still stroking the cat.
“Because you are not full-blood Crow, and because too many things got in the way of such preparations,” Dancing Butterfly said, removing two tiny vials from her bag. “Your ritual this morning will be simple enough. Not much is required of you before you become my chief’s wife.”
“What is in those vials?” Mary Beth asked, eyeing them speculatively.
“Incense,” Dancing Butterfly murmured. “You will be purified with incense before returning to Brave Wolf.”
A familiar voice now spoke from outside the small hut. It was Brave Wolf’s mother.
Mary Beth glanced toward the entranceway just as the elderly woman bent down and gazed inside. She saw that Pure Heart was holding a ceramic platter, on which were small twigs that were aflame.
“I have brought fire,” Pure Heart said. “I shall leave it and go awaken Night Horse. Now that the soldiers are gone, it will be safe for him to attend the wedding.”
“I wish there were to be two weddings today,” Dancing Butterfly said, her voice proving her disappointment that she had not been asked by Night Horse to marry him.
“My child, when Night Horse gets over his guilt about all that has happened, and when he sees that his people have forgiven him, then he can make a true life among us again, with a wife and children he can call his own,” Pure Heart said solemnly. “But this transition has begun. He has accepted a lodge that a friend of his youth built for him. He sleeps there now. Perhaps one day you will sleep beside him as his wife.”
“He seemed so withdrawn last night after all the soldiers were gone,” Dancing Butterfly said, nodding a thank you when she took the small platter of fire from Pure Heart. “I worry about his frame of mind. I know that when I hid away with him during the time the soldiers were here, there was much shame in his eyes. I am not sure he can ever forget that shame and start a new, good life that might include me.”
“In time, my child, in time,” Pure Heart said. She groaned as she stood up again. “Do not take long. I am anxious for my firstborn son to finally have a wife who will then bear me grandchildren.” With that, she left the hut.
Mary Beth felt a blush rush to her cheeks at the mention of grandchildren. Then she concentrated on the matter at hand as she watched the procedure that would purify her.
Dancing Butterfly sprinkled incense from one of the vials into the flames, and then incense from the other. When smoke came up from both vials, intermingling, Dancing Butterfly held the container closer to Mary Beth, and with a hand waved the smoke so that it fully enveloped her.
