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“I guess that must have been hard to do, huh?” Lee questioned.
“Not really. We have everything here we need.” Chase gestured to the camp.
Lee looked about him for a long time, at the squaws who prepared meals, at the children playing and laughing, and the young warriors dressed like farmers. “I think you’re right.”
“No doubt you faced some hardships lately,” Chase said, throwing an arm over Lee’s shoulder.
“A few…”
“She’s a beautiful woman, she will be happy here. No one will bother you,” Chase promised once more.
“The war’s over, Chase, but the people…they don’t forget it. I love her. I couldn’t give her up.”
“Of course, you couldn’t. And now you don’t have to.”
“Coming here…it’s like a dream. It’s the only place I could think of where we would be accepted as people,” Lee tried to explain.
“Was it hard to give up your home?” Chase asked.
“No, because she is my home…”
Chase smiled. “You’ve answered everything as I knew you would. It is right for you to be here. Even Burning Tree says so.”
“Why does it take three days to marry?”
Chase cocked his head. “No one’s ever asked that question before. Come, we will draw up plans for the cabin.”
The next few days were busy; Lee kept trying to get a peek at Hattie, but she was nowhere to be seen. Burning Tree summoned him into his teepee.
“Come, sit by the fire and tell me why you want this marriage.”
“Because I love her,” Lee answered without thinking.
“Yes, you do, but why her? What made you decide a woman of color would be your choice?”
Lee felt defensive. “I’ve known
her since she was a kid. I fell in love with her then. I have never had another woman but her. Don’t want another woman. We belong together; it is in my heart and soul.”
Burning Tree sprinkled something into the fire and it roared, making Lee move about a bit.
“Sit, it will not burn you. You have answered well. From the heart, as it should be. You have suffered greatly because you chose her, have you not?”
“Well, we’ve had some hard times, if that’s what you mean.”
“I have seen those hard times. I know you well, Lee Nelson. You have defended her well, and taken care of her and now you seek to bond with her to make it holy. It is good that you should do this. You are an honorable man, as Chase has said. I have seen your troubles and strife. I have felt your sorrows in my own heart. Now you come to us, to be one of us, to live among us in peace. You are welcome here, and I will marry you to your woman.”
Lee stood up. “That’s wonderful. Thank you.”
“Yes. Now sit, my son, and we will wash the impurities from you before you wed. You will be cleansed when you walk away from here. You must build your home for your family now and live in peace with the Shawnee brothers.”
Lee sat in the tent as Burning Tree increased the fire several times, making it hot, and he began to sweat.
Burning Tree nodded. “When the sweat stops, you are cleansed and may go forth to build.”
Lee nodded.
The next day, he, Chase, Joe and Sam began working on their new home.
