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"How long have you known her?" Gloria asked sitting beside him now.
"Since she was ten." Aiden answered.
"Then why didn't you rescue her from them?" Gloria asked her expressive frown stared at him.
"I wasn't much older, only fifteen when I first met her. I came with an older fur trapper. He sort of raised me."
"Raised you, what happened to your folks?" Gloria asked.
"They died in an Indian raid."
"Both of them?"
"Yes, and this trapper came along and found me living in my folks house alone and took me with him."
Gloria glanced outside again but Mr. Winters came up to him, "So why didn't you rescue Lucy?"
"I asked Frenchie, the fur trapper the same question. He said she belonged there, she'd been there too long. She'd lost her real parents he thought in the wagon train raid, and the Cheyenne were the ones that cared for her and raised her. To love two families in one lifetime is something, but to love them both and leave it would be too hard to adjust, and we were both men, so we didn't think that right, having a little girl along with us all the time. I realized he was right. But it always kind of stuck in my craw to leave her, because she is white. If you knew how the white women scorn a woman that has been with the Indians, thinking the worse of them. That they slept with them too. She could never have fit in after four years with them."
"He should have taken her away then, so she could grow up with her own kind, into a lady, into a Christian." Gloria insisted.
"She is a lady, and her own kind then and now is Cheyenne. And she is Christian, she reads the bible even now. Probably knows it better than I. Either her white folks died or didn't care enough to look for her. That's why she thinks so much of you. You came after your child. It is the reason she speaks for you. Either way, she grew up Cheyenne. She loves her people, although, I have to admit, she does seem curious about the whites."
"Curious, she is white. I heard you tell her you wanted to take her to the fort. Why doesn't she stay while she's there?"
"I guess you'll have to see it for yourself ma'am. She could, but I'm afraid she'll never be accepted by her own people. Not now. And I for one don't want to see her hurt any more than she has been. I think when I do take her to the fort, you'll begin to see why she can't live with them." Aiden told her and moved away from Gloria.
"She's a white, not a half-breed, but a white. Why wouldn't she fit in?" Gloria insisted.
"You're not from around here, so you wouldn't know, I suppose. For the same reason you thought she slept with me!" He turned and walked away.
"I'm sorry, I regret that."
"Tell her, not me! You see, Lucy likes you Mrs. Winters. She wouldn't stick her neck out like this for someone she didn’t like."
Mr. Winters nodded, "He's right. She's been with them too long, my dear. I've heard stories at the fort. They tell of many white women who tried to come back or were forced to and didn't fit in. Some killed themselves, some ran off, and some died from broken hearts. She could never be a lady like you. She's more like a man, than a woman."
"I wouldn't go that far Mr. Winters," Aiden turned to look at them both, "she might not be a proper lady, but she's damned sure a woman!"
"Well," Gloria looked a bit sarcastically at the men, "She never had relations with that Indian husband of hers, so I'm not sure how much a woman she is either."
"What?" Aiden came up to her close and frowned into her raised eyebrow.
"She told me herself, she never had relations with him."
"And you tell us this, as though it is our business? How could you talk like that about her behind her back? She befriended you. She's fighting right now, for your daughter and here you are talking about her, behind her back. You are like the women of the fort, you think because she's been raised Indian, she is less a person. Well, you are wrong. She's more woman than you'll ever be!"
He walked outside, pacing he was so angry.
Angus walked out too and stared at him. "Some women no matter how refined, are ignorant." He told him.
"I'm realizing that."
"You really like this Lucy gal, don't you?"
"Always have," Aiden admitted and wondered why he admitted it. "Always will."
"Maybe you ought to tell her sometime. Because I think she likes you right back. Son, don't tell her you know."
