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"What is that, that she hangs?"
"It's called a dream-catcher. It is to keep out evil spirits as one sleeps." Aiden explained.
The squaw hung it and turned to Pumpkin talking with her a moment. Then she went to tend the meal for them.
She glanced many times at Lucy, and she chanted as she cooked. She seemed to watch her and finally she went to bend over her and pulled the cover up closer to her chin. She smiled at her and went back to her cooking.
"Why did she do that?"
Aiden smiled crookedly. "Because she cares. That is Walking Dove, Lucy cured her of a white man's disease once. She has never forgotten her. She respects Lucy greatly. Lucy was still a child when she cured her. She was only ten at the time. I was here, I saw it. You don't understand, you see here, Lucy is very important, they think she has special powers and they respect those powers. And I'm not so sure she doesn't have them. For a child healed this woman, and the woman is eternally grateful."
"Why is she singing?" Gloria wanted to know.
"It is a prayer for they consider her what we would call holy."
"Are you serious?" Gloria scrunched up her nose at the notion and almost laughed.
"Very. When they pray, they are taken to the sweat lodge and they pray and wait for the signs. She more than likely was in a trance for a while. That's why she is so weak. It takes a lot of their energy from them. They have visions and the spirits visit them."
"You don't really believe all that, do you?" Gloria laughed.
Aiden saw the woman that was cooking, he saw her frown and he shook his head as he whirled around at Gloria. "I wouldn't laugh if I were you. They take this very seriously. For them even to consider letting you have your child back is a miracle in itself. Especially after what Custer did to them. What Lucy has done for you, you cannot imagine. Any woman coming here by herself would have been immediately killed. If she has convinced them, you better thank God for her. Never mock what you know nothing about."
"But–"
"Gloria, shut up." Mr. Winters instructed.
She sent her husband an acid frown.
"How can they not give me my child back?" Gloria asked her voice going soft and tearful. "I've come so far, risked so much. I won't leave here without her."
"Even if she doesn't want to go?" Aiden asked with a raised brow.
"How could she not want to go? I'm her mother!"
"She is loved and cared for here and a month is a long time at her age. Children don't understand time." Aiden told her. "Don't get your hopes up too much, it's up to Peggy whether you succeed in taking her out of here. Peggy and Lucy."
"But she's my child. I came after her!"
"She's three years old. How much will she realize, when they have cared for her too?"
Gloria felt the tears fall and she shook her head. "She'll go with me. I know she will."
"For your sake, I hope so." Aiden told her, then after eating, he went to be with Lucy.
When she woke up, he smiled down at her. "How are you feeling?"
"Okay, I guess. How long have I been asleep?"
"Couple of hours."
"I am hungry," she admitted sitting up.
But the Indian woman came and handed her a bowl of food. She smiled at her and took it.
She ate every bite of it. "It was good," she told the woman in Sioux language and thanked her.
A warrior came in and saw Angus and told him they would speak of trades. Angus left with him. Pumpkin followed behind him.
