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“You have Dancing Cloud’s gift, you are beautiful, so let us go now so that my people will not have to wait any longer,” Susan Sweet Bird said, her voice filled with warmth and excitement.
Lauralee swallowed hard. She held the corn against her bosom and walked outside with Susan Sweet Bird. Her gaze went past the throng of people, to the cabin where Wilnoty would stay until after the celebration was over. Lauralee already missed her, her arms aching even now to hold her.
Wilnoty. Yes, she thought to herself, it was best that the child’s name had been changed back to her former name. For Soft Wind’s sake this had been agreed upon between Dancing Cloud and Lauralee. When Wilnoty had lived a full life, then joined her true mother in the hereafter, the mother must know her child by her name. Calling the child anything else would have been like placing one’s back to the remembrances of Soft Wind.
Lauralee’s gaze searched out Brian Brave Walker who stood with a gathering of young braves his same age. Tears stung the corners of her eyes to see how he so belonged. His smile was genuine as he gazed back at her. He was a child who had finally found his way in life, a place where he could fulfill his destiny.
Then she gazed at the Wolf Clan Town House. Dancing Cloud was already there, waiting for her arrival. Her cheeks grew hot with an anxious blush as she walked with Susan Sweet Bird toward it.
The people were quiet now. They parted and made space for Susan Sweet Bird and Lauralee to walk. Lauralee could feel their eyes on her and knew they were thinking about this white woman who would soon be as one with them. She felt a genuine friendliness reaching out between herself and Dancing Cloud’s people. She had been accepted. She felt as though she belonged.
Out of the corner of her eyes Lauralee saw Brian Brave Walker and his friends move closer to her. She could feel the sea of their proud faces tilted up to her like flowers to the sun.
Lauralee was bubbling over with joy from having finally reached this day. Now her life would finally come together.
One thing, however, would be missing from hers and Dancing Cloud’s joined futures. Their very own children born of their union. The miscarriage had been way too devastating ever to believe that she could get pregnant again.
She never allowed herself to dwell on this for long, for she would think herself cheated of the blessings that a child of her very own could bring into hers and Dancing Cloud’s life.
While she had been tormentedly alone in the orphanage, she had looked forward to having children of her own. She had vowed that she would give to them what she had so cruelly been denied as a child.
Her eyes wavered even now at the thought of not being able to give birth to a child, yet she just as quickly remembered the two children that she had been blessed with. She loved them no less than had they been formed inside her womb and nourished by her very own body. They were the world to her.
Whenever the thought of who their true father was came to Lauralee with dread, she just as quickly brushed the thought away.
Clint McCloud had been no more a father to them than had he not fathered them at all.
Lauralee regretted having not had the chance to have known their mother better. There had to be much good in that woman to have brought Brian Brave Walker up with such a caring and loving nature. His mother had truly been both mother and father to the child.
Lauralee walked up the incline that led to the Wolf Clan Town House. She sucked in a wild breath of excitement as she went inside.
Susan Sweet Bird parted from her and took her place among the others who were seated on “sophas,” or seats. Those who had seated themselves before the greatest throng of people entered, were the clansmen, elders who were spokesmen for Dancing Cloud’s Wolf Clan of Cherokee.
Lauralee’s gaze met Dancing Cloud’s as she walked slowly toward him. He sat at the right side of the sacred fire that was kindled atop a cone-shaped mound of earth in the center of the Wolf Clan Town House.
Lauralee smiled at Dancing Cloud, her gaze then slowly sweeping over how he was dressed. Her heart skipped a beat at his grandness. His attire was the ceremonial dress for a chief, a gold-dyed buckskin shirt and leggings with a matching feather headdress. He sat on a platform that was covered with beautiful pelts, autumn flowers sprinkled along the base of the platform.
His eyes were filled with warmth and pride. His back was straight, his arms folded across his majestic chest.
As Lauralee stepped up next to Dancing Cloud, she could hear the shuffling of feet behind her and knew that the Wolf Clan Town House was quickly filling with his people.
Out of the corner of her eye she caught the sight of the musicians as they gathered opposite the fire from Dancing Cloud’s platform. The musical instruments consisted of a wooden water drum, a cane flute, and several long-handled gourd rattles.
She looked beyond. People were settling down in a wide circle on blankets, leaving room for dancers who would soon perform.
Lauralee had been told that the wedding ceremony would be simple. There would be an exchange of gifts, in lieu of vows, which would last only a matter of minutes. She clasped her hand gently to the ear of corn that she was going to give to Dancing Cloud.
As he stepped from the platform and stood before her, Lauralee saw the ham of venison that he was going to give to her.
Susan Sweet Bird had explained to Lauralee earlier that the groom’s gift of venison symbolized his intention to keep his household supplied with game from the hunt.
The bride’s ear of corn signified her willingness to be a good Cherokee housewife.
They smiled into each other’s eyes as they exchanged their gifts.
Brian Brave Walker came and took the ear of corn away.
A young and beautiful Cherokee maiden came and took the gift of venison.
