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So relieved, so jubilant, over knowing that finally she was going to be able to be with Dancing Cloud, Lauralee wrenched her hands from his an
d drifted into his arms.
“I have missed you so,” she murmured, oblivious of eyes on her as Brian Brave Walker glared at her. “Please tell me I was not selfish, darling, for wanting so badly to be with you. I . . . I . . . have been so lonely these past two weeks.”
“It is not selfishness that causes such despair inside your heart,” Dancing Cloud said, hugging her to him. “You were thrust into a different world so quickly and I was not there to help you in your adjustment. I wish it could have been different.”
He looked over her shoulder at Brian Brave Walker. His insides recoiled to see such a loathing in the young brave’s eyes as he gazed at Lauralee. Dancing Cloud realized now that the young brave had not adjusted well, either.
Dancing Cloud knew that he had a double duty now to make things right for his woman who he wished soon to make his wife, and for this boy he wished to make his son.
He wanted them to be family.
Yet he knew that he must first search and delve into this child’s background to see where he had come from, and from whose lives. He had only speculation to go on. He had to believe that he had been orphaned recently by some tragic incident. Surely the boy had blocked it out of his memory. Why else would he not talk about it?
But realizing that Lauralee should be his prime concern at this moment, he held her away from him and wiped tears from her eyes with the flesh of his thumbs. “Shall we walk and talk?” he said, glad to see the suggestion bring a smile on her lovely face.
“Ii, yes, let’s,” Lauralee said, rising and taking his hand, to leave.
A sudden commotion outside the cabin drew them apart. Dancing Cloud went to the door and stepped outside. Lauralee’s heart beat loudly as she listened to the muted conversation. She crept closer to the door to try and listen better.
She jumped with alarm when Dancing Cloud came back in the cabin in haste. Her insides cried out, “No!” when he gave her an apologetic look as he gazed down at her. She knew without him even telling her that he had to leave again!
“A delegation from the Cherokee Nation has arrived,” he said solemnly. “I must meet with them in council. They have brought an urgent invitation to our Wolf Clan of Cherokee to remove and incorporate upon equal terms with the Cherokee Nation in the Indian Territory. I must meet with them to give them my adamant response.”
He clasped his hands to her shoulders when he saw the despair and an almost desperation in her eyes. “It will not take me long to tell them that my full-blood Cherokee will remain to live apart from those who have chosen a different sort of life,” he said thickly. “It will not take long for me to tell them that my people are safer from aggressions among our rocks and mountains than they would ever be in a land shared with the white man. I must make them understand that my people can be happy only in the country where nature has planted them.”
Seeing the importance of what he said, and had to do, and having to put her selfishness aside again after only having thought that she was to be reunited with Dancing Cloud again, Lauralee placed a gentle hand to his cheek.
“Go,” she murmured. “You are chief. You have your duties to your people.”
“You are also my people now,” he said thickly. “I do this for you, as well. We want a future that is free of white man interferences. The only way we can achieve that is by staying on my mountain.”
He paused, then felt compelled to give her further explanations. “It is important that you know that although I disagree with my mixed blood Cherokee brothers and sisters, a common ancestry promotes an understanding between the Cherokee full bloods and mixed bloods,” he said. “We are poles apart in many respects, but under the skin we are still brothers. We have Cherokee traditions in common and no amount of white blood can dilute the remembrance of what happened in centuries past to the Cherokee people.”
“I truly understand,” Lauralee said, fighting back tears that threatened to make her look selfish and childish again. “Please do go on.”
Susan Sweet Bird came to them. She moved to Lauralee’s side. “I will walk with Lauralee and Brian Brave Walker,” she said softly. “I will fill their time while you must be away again.”
Dancing Cloud swept Susan Sweet Bird into his arms and gave her a hug, then stepped away and gave Lauralee one last lingering look. He then left the cabin, his shoulders squared proudly.
“Come, let us walk away your sadness,” Susan Sweet Bird said as she took Lauralee’s hand. She turned her sightless eyes Brian Brave Walker’s way. “Come, child. Walk with us. Acquaint yourself more with my people and the ways in which we live. Perhaps in turn you will want to tell us about your own people and home.”
Lauralee watched Brian Brave Walker move slowly to his feet, his eyes half cast downward. As he inched his way toward her and Susan Sweet Bird, Lauralee’s heart slowed its beats. She so feared that he would again walk on the far side of her, beside Susan Sweet Bird, instead.
And when he did just that, lacing his fingers through Susan Sweet Bird’s, Lauralee looked quickly away and swallowed back her pride and hurt. Somehow, some day she would find a way to make him accept her. For certain it was the color of her skin that made the difference! She had to find a way to make him look past that and see the love that she offered him.
The evening shadows were lengthening and the September air was much cooler as they began their leisurely walk through the village. Everyone smiled and spoke to Susan Sweet Bird. Some stopped them and made over Brian Brave Walker.
Yet there were still obvious reservations on how the people felt about Lauralee.
But she tried to understand by thinking that she had not been seen enough with Dancing Cloud to prove that she was his woman and worthy of their acquaintance.
Hopefully after this council today everything wou1d change.
He would finally be with her.
As they wandered, Lauralee saw women pounding corn as they made flour outside their cabins. Young girls came from the forest carrying baskets they had woven, filled with hickory nuts, walnuts, and pecans. Some women came from the direction of the river carrying pottery jars filled with fresh water.
