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The more Shirleen told about how horribly treated she had been by that maniac, the more determined Blue Thunder was to prevent Earl Mingus from boarding the riverboat. Blue Thunder was going to make certain Earl could never abuse another woman as he had abused not only his beloved Shirleen, but also his precious former wife.
As the thunder continued to roar and the lightning raced across the heavens, sending its bright flashes through the buffalo covering of the tepee, Blue Thunder reached for Shirleen. He brought her over to sit on his lap, facing him.
“I have something to tell you,” he said thickly as she searched his eyes with her own. “I was not sure if I should tell you just yet about it, but after hearing what that crazed white man did to you, I feel this is the exact time that I should tell you something about Earl . . . and . . . my wife.”
“Earl and your wife?” Shirleen said, her eyes widening in wonder. “What is there to say?”
“While Speckled Fawn was drinking with Earl, he bragged about something that horrified her,” he said angrily. “It is so horrible I cannot rest until vengeance is mine. And it shall be, soon.”
“What did Speckled Fawn tell you?” Shirleen asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“That hideous man bragged to Speckled Fawn that he raped and killed an Indian woman . . . who was my wife,” Blue Thunder said, his voice revealing a mixture of emotions—hate, sadness, and, yes, a deep need for vengeance.
“What?” Shirleen gasped, clutching her throat. “He told her . . . what?”
Both thought of Megan at the same time and turned to look at her before saying anything else about the horrors Earl had committed.
When they found that she was still sleeping soundly, a blanket drawn up to her chin, they looked into each other’s eyes again.
He repeated what Speckled Fawn had told him, how the rape had occurred, and then the murder.
“Lord, oh, Lord,” Shirleen said. “I knew he had a sadistic side, but I didn’t know he could be so completely evil.”
“You are fortunate you were not harmed worse than the beatings, my woman,” Blue Thunder said, twining his arms around her and drawing her against his chest. “It could have been you. He could have killed you, too, with the same knife that he used on my wife.”
Suddenly a memory came to Shirleen that caused her to jerk quickly away from Blue Thunder. She swallowed hard as she gazed intently into his eyes.
“There was a day, about a year ago, when Earl came home from a hunt empty-handed and with a look of sadistic glee on his face that made me shudder,” Shirleen said, even now cold inside at the memory. “When I asked him about what happened while he was gone, why there was blood on his clothes even though he
had caught nothing, he just laughed at me and said, ‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’ ”
She swallowed hard again. “That must have been the day he raped and killed your wife, for Earl didn’t touch me that night, which was unusual. Normally he never let me go to sleep without forcing me to do my wifely duty. He was a man with a never-ending appetite for sex. But that day? He seemed so pleased with himself, he did not need what he usually demanded from me.”
“When I am through with him, he will never again take sadistic pleasure from a helpless woman,” Blue Thunder said tightly.
“When will you go after him?” Shirleen asked.
“Soon,” he said, then eased her from his lap and placed her next to him. He reached for a blanket and brought it around both their shoulders. “As soon as the storm ends, my warriors and I will set out to find him. He will regret all of the wrongs that he has done to so many.”
He purposely changed the subject. “As soon as the ground is ready to receive my uncle, we will bury him,” he said softly. “But since the ground will not be ready for two sleeps, I will leave and take care of that other matter in the meantime.”
“I feel so blessed to have had those last moments with your uncle,” Shirleen said, recalling how Dancing Shadow had spoken to her and smiled. For a moment she had thought he was improving, whereas in truth he was moments away from taking his last breath. “I discovered during those moments why everyone loved him so much.”
“He will be missed,” Blue Thunder said. “But he had a full life. He helped so many of our people when he was our shaman. He will never be forgotten.”
He turned to her and smiled into her eyes. “And soon everyone will see how much I love you, for there will be a wedding at the first opportunity,” he said, then drew her against him and gave her a sweet kiss.
He wanted Shirleen with every fiber of his being tonight, but for now, he would just r
elish these moments with her and her daughter.
But soon they would be man and wife and would hold each other and make sweet love each and every night.
He hoped they would bring a brother or sister into the world for Megan to love and adore. But whether that happened or not, she would no longer be an only child, for she would have Little Bee as her sister.
There would be much laughter around their lodge fire on cold winter nights. There would be popped corn passed around to brothers and sisters, for that was a special treat that Blue Thunder had shared with friends because he had no brother or sister to share it with.
He smiled at the thought of their future together, when all ugliness and sadness was finally a thing of the past!
