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After Stephanie had regained her composure and wiped away her tears, she rode back to Adam. In one swift move she was out of the saddle. She stamped over to Adam and slapped him across the face.
“You are a deceitful liar, a coward, and a true son of a bitch,” she shouted. “Runner told me what you said to him about me being a part of a ploy to use him. How could you, Adam? Didn’t you know that I would find out? How did you expect me to react? I can hardly believe that you could stoop so low as to use me for your own monetary gains.”
“Sis, I . . .” Adam said, rubbing his hand over his throbbing cheek.
“Forget trying to make excuses,” Stephanie said, flipping her skirt around as she went to the tripod. Angrily, she lifted it and threw it down into the canyon. She then scooped up the pieces of the camera and tossed them also into the canyon.
“Sis, don’t,” Adam said, stopping her just as she reached the pack mule. “You’ll regret it if you throw away any more of the equipment. You may be angry now, but when you’ve regained your senses, you know that you’d regret throwing away that which is precious to you.”
“I just lost what is most precious to me,” Stephanie said, breaking into sobs. When Adam tried to pull her into his embrace, she fought him.
Through a torrent of tears she looked up at him. “Adam, I want no more part of you,” she cried. “After we get back to Wichita, I never want to see you again.”
“Sis, you can’t mean that,” Adam pleaded. “I’m your brother—”
“Thank God it is in name only,” Stephanie said. “I would hate being blood kin with the likes of you, for fear that some of your ugly, scheming ways might rub off on me.”
“What about the Santa Fe Railroad shareholders, who are expecting the photographs that you took?”
“The Santa Fe and its shareholders can all go to hell,” she said, mounting her horse again. “You can all take the same train there, as far as I’m concerned.”
Ignoring his shouts, she rode away from him. She was determined to find a way to make things right with Runner. She would not allow herself to lose him this easily.
Chapter 26
Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe—
All were for me
In the kiss of one girl.
—ROBERT BROWNING
As Thunder Hawk rode into his village with Sky Dancer snuggled against him, he was trying to muster up the courage to face his parents with the news that he was no longer just a son. He now had a wife. He and Sky Dancer had stopped midpoint between the two villages and had performed a simple ceremony that sealed their vows.
Now he had the task of revealing this truth to his mother and father. As his heart pounded harder the closer he came to his parents’ hogan, he knew that he dreaded facing them far more than he had dreaded Chief Red Moon. He had horses as payment for what he had requested of Chief Red Moon. He had nothing to offer his parents for their approval.
Perhaps I do have something to offer them, he quickly thought.
&nbs
p; A daughter-in-law.
Yet that could be the prime reason they would be upset with him today. Not because he had skipped school while acquiring a wife, but he had missed two days of schooling in a row. And he had to explain about the horses that he had used for his bride price. His father had often preached against stealing horses.
A slow smile moved across his lips as he recalled the recent raid on Damon Stout’s horses led by none other than his father. Surely his father could no longer condemn him for stealing horses, when he had now resorted to the same tactics himself, even if for different reasons.
Thunder Hawk held his chin high, thinking that his reason for stealing from Damon was honorable enough. In past history of the Navaho, he knew that stolen horses had paid for many brides.
He stiffened and his throat went dry when the approach of his horse brought his parents from their hogan. They stood watching now, surprised and puzzled by Sky Dancer’s presence on Thunder Hawk’s horse.
“Thunder Hawk, I’m frightened,” Sky Dancer said, as she offered her wide, dark eyes up to him. “What if I am not welcomed? What if they send me away? What if they send us both away? I wish that you would have told them of your plan to marry me. If they had disliked the idea, I would not know it. I would still be in my own village, sitting comfortably and innocently by the fire, weaving.”
“There were reasons why I could not tell them earlier,” Thunder Hawk said, tightening his grip on her waist reassuringly. He stared at his father as he talked. “I had hoped that you would be spared my parents’ wrath, especially my father’s. But I can see the anger building in his eyes as we approach. As for my mother? She will be stunned at first, then she will welcome you with open arms. Soon they will both be moved to love you. Who could not? You are the loveliest and sweetest maiden in the whole world.”
This caused Sky Dancer to giggle and relax once again against him. “In the whole world?” she teased, her eyes dancing into his as he looked down at her. “Something has blinded you, my husband.”
“Have you ever truly looked long enough to see your true beauty?” Thunder Hawk said thickly. “It reaches beyond the heavens. This Navaho is blessed to have claimed you as his, before anyone else had decided to.”
