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“I shall do everything within my power to make your brother happy,” Stephanie whispered back. “Oh, Pure Blossom, I shall be your best friend, if you will allow it.”
“That would please me so much,” Pure Blossom said. She gave Stephanie a final warm hug, then allowed Stephanie to walk away from her. Gray Moon was the last to come to her, to give her his own warm offerings.
Stephanie slipped an arm through one of Runner’s as she watched Gray Moon kneel down beside Pure Blossom, his arms engulfing her in a long embrace.
“I have dreamed of you often,” Gray Moon whispered into Pure Blossom’s ear. “I just never acted out my dreams. I should have. The rattlesnake almost took them from me.”
Pure Blossom’s eyes widened as she leaned away from him to peer into his dark eyes. “What are you saying? Is it because you pity me? Or because you truly care?” she asked, her pulse racing at the thought of a man truly wanting her.
“I have cared ka-bike-hozhoni, forever,” Gray Moon said quietly, his fingers running through her hair. “I placed too many things ahead of allowing myself to totally love a woman.” His voice caught in his throat. “When I found you lying there, I knew then I was wrong to postpone anything ever again that was of value to me.”
So moved by this tender scene, Stephanie turned her eyes away. She leaned against Runner and closed her eyes, so glad that someone had come into Pure Blossom’s life to make her forget the harm Adam had done her.
Then her eyes widened and her throat went instantly dry when she remembered that Pure Blossom was with child.
Adam’s child.
When Gray Moon heard about the child, would he then feel as free as now to speak of his love for Pure Blossom? Or would he turn his head away in disgust?
Chapter 33
My beloved spoke and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away with me.
—SONG OF SOLOMON
Several days later—
The slow-rising sun flung crimson banners across the sky, but the valley was still in chilly shadow. Her pack mule heavy-laden with her belongings, which did not include any camera equipment, Stephanie stood beside Runner as the engine of the train belched large puffs of smoke into the air as it began taking the private cars away.
Stephanie shifted her gaze and felt a brief tinge of sadness as she watched the work gang ripping the tracks up from the ground, the private spur being dismantled. When she had sent a wire to Wichita, about what Adam had done, and about her decision not to give the Santa Fe shareholders any of the photographs that she had taken, an immediate corporate decision had been made to drop the plans for Adam’s private spur and his town.
“Are you comfortable with your decision not to be on that train?” Runner asked, his eyes following the train as it picked up speed. “Are you certain that you want it to take away all of your photography equipment?” He turned his eyes down to Stephanie and took her hands, drawing her around to face him. “When we first met, your camera seemed most important to you. And now it is on the train, and you are here. How do you truly feel about that, Stephanie?”
“I must admit that I had some misgivings over knowing I won’t be taking any more photographs,” she murmured. “It always made me feel so alive.”
“And now?” Runner persisted, his eyes searching her face. “How do you feel? Do you feel a heavy loss?”
She reached a hand to his cheek. “Not really,” she said, sighing. “You see, darling, I now only feel truly alive when I am with you. My career was important to me only because I had not yet found my true direction in life, or my true purpose for living.” She smiled up at him. “Darling, with you I have found the link that was missing in my life. You are my everything.”
Runner drew her into his arms and gave her a gentle, lingering kiss, then drew away from her and gazed at the pack mule. “You did not take many of your belongings from the train,” he said softly.
“I left most of my travel clothes behind,” she said. Leonida had promised t
hat many beautiful Indian velveteen skirts and blouses would be awaiting her arrival in the village.
She looked at the train again, following it as it rumbled down the tracks toward Gallup. “Other than that, I am only taking with me what the mule can carry,” she murmured. “And that should be enough.”
“You are giving up so much,” Runner said, drawing her around again to face him. “Will you regret it later?”
“Never,” she said with determination.
“We have one last stop to make before going on to my village,” Runner said. “Are you dreading it much?”
Stephanie lowered her eyes to hide the despair in their depths over having finally faced up to the truth that Adam was a demon, someone she had truly never known.
