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At this moment, Lauralee felt torn between two worlds. That which would reunite her forever with true family, and that which would unite her with the man she loved.
“If you don’t promise me, you might change your mind,” she blurted. “Give me your word, Dancing Cloud, that you will return for me. I doubt you would want me to travel alone to come to you, when you were so adamant to escort me from Saint Louis to Mattoon.”
“I will come for you,” Dancing Cloud reassured. He gestured toward the sky with a hand. “When the moon is full again I will be here for you.”
“God be with you,” Lauralee said softly.
Watching him ride away sent a wave of melancholia through her.
But when Nancy spoke from behind her, Lauralee turned around and stared up at a most beautiful woman, whose dark eyes matched the darkest of all midnights. Although quite fleshy, Nancy’s face was beautifully sculpted. Her brown hair was tied up in a tight chignon. She was short and heavyset, her large breasts straining against the inside of her dress.
“Nancy!” Lauralee cried, breaking into a run until she reached the porch. “Aunt Nancy!”
Lifting her skirt, Lauralee went up the three wooden steps, then stood eye to eye with Nancy Peterson on the porch. She soaked in the wonder of being with Nancy as though she were being reunited with her true mother.
“Lauralee?” Nancy said, reaching a thick, short hand to Lauralee’s face, gently touching it. “You are Lauralee?”
“Yes, Aunt Nancy, I am your niece Lauralee,” she said, then found herself engulfed within soft, thick arms. She returned the hug, the fragrance of her aunt’s perfume pleasantly flaring her nostrils. The perfume was surely from France!
And, ah, the clothes that Nancy wore, Lauralee marveled to herself. Her dress was pure silk, pale yellow flowers dotting across a white backdrop of the expensive fabric.
“I’m so glad that you made it safely from Saint Louis,” Nancy said, then took a step away from Lauralee and held her by the hands at arm’s length, studying her. “And look at you. You are beautiful and such a picture of health.”
She looked past Lauralee, only barely able to see Dancing Cloud as he rode on away from them. “And your escort?” she said softly. “He was an Indian. I wish Boyd had not assigned the Indian to escort you to Mattoon. It has stirred up much gossip.”
Nancy sighed and placed a hand to her brow. “Abner was so anxious to tell everyone that you were coming, he did not think about how telling everybody who your escort was going to be would get so many tongues to wagging.”
She sighed again. “And I am certain you drew much attention along the roads as you traveled them with the savage,” she said solemnly.
Lauralee blanched of color and gasped. “Aunt Nancy, Dancing Cloud isn’t a savage,” she quickly corrected. “He’s one of the most gentle men I have ever met. In fact, I . . .”
She started to blurt out that she was going to marry Dancing Cloud soon, yet felt this was not the time. It was obvious that her aunt had different feelings toward Indians than Lauralee. Nancy’s feelings mirrored most white people’s.
Lauralee was glad that her father had not been among them!
“You were about to say?” Nancy said, taking Lauralee by an elbow. She took her inside the house where they entered a foyer that led to a room on the right and left sides. A kitchen was at the end of the long corridor. A grand, oak staircase to the upstairs rooms was to the left of the door that led into the parlor.
“I was going to say how wonderful it is to see you, Aunt Nancy,” Lauralee said, smiling over at her. “My father spoke so highly of both you and Uncle Abner.”
“After receiving Boyd’s wire, requesting that Abner and I make room in our lives for you, I have counted the days until you arrived,” Nancy said. She suddenly grabbed for the staircase banister and steadied herself. She closed her eyes and breathed hard, frightening Lauralee.
“Aunt Nancy, what is it?” Lauralee asked, placing a hand on her aunt’s arm to support her. “You are so suddenly pale. Are you dizzy? Do you have these spells often?”
“It’s nothing,” Nancy said, breathing hard. “Just a slight heart problem.”
“Your heart?” Lauralee said, her eyes widening. “Aunt Nancy, that’s serious. While working at the hospital in Saint Louis I became acquainted with many heart patients. Please don’t take your illness too lightly. You must take precautions not to have a heart attack.”
“You are making too much of this,” Nancy said, laughing softly. She straightened her back. “I’ll be fine. Just fine.”
“I will make certain of it,” Lauralee said, lifting her chin proudly. “I am here now to see that nothing happens to you.”
“Abner is in his study upstairs,” Nancy said, looking up the stairs. “I will show you the rest of the house, and then we shall see if he can be disturbed.”
Nancy ushered Lauralee into the dining room to the left. “You see, Lauralee, Abner is a powerful judge,” she said, almost too wistfully. “He is not content to keep his work at his office. He often brings it home and works by lamplight into the wee hours of the morning. Too often he does this. I get quite lonesome.”
“You shan’t be lonesome anymore,” Lauralee reassured, yet even as she said this to Nancy she knew that nothing she promised could last for long. When Dancing Cloud returned for her, she would say her goodbyes to the Petersons.
As she toured the house, Lauralee became in awe of everything. The beautifully wallpapered walls of the dining room where a huge oak table sat beneath a chandelier that displayed at least a hundred candles ready to be lighted. The china and crystal in the hutch were illumined by a beam of sun that splashed through a lacy froth of curtains at the window.
