Savage Courage

Suddenly Dancing Willow’s eyes flared with anger. She flung the dress she had brought to the floor.

That violent action caused Fawn to gasp and blanch and back away from Dancing Willow.

Dancing Willow stepped up to Shoshana and spoke into her face. “You will shame my people if you wear a white woman’s dress when you marry their chief,” she hissed. “And the dress you will wed in is not just any dress. It is the dress of the wife of the very man who killed so many Apache . . . who . . .”

Dancing Willow swallowed hard, for she could not say what she was thinking. It was hard to speak of how that man had taken the scalp and life of her stepmother, and had also taken her own father’s life.

“It is insulting,” Dancing Willow said instead, her chin held high.

“To you, everything about me is insulting,” Shoshana replied. “You would rather I had stayed angry at Storm when he said I was his captive. But our love is too strong for anything to keep us apart.”

She took a step away from Dancing Willow. “I will wear my adoptive mother’s dress today, and there is nothing you can say or do that will change my mind,” she said tightly. “I know what George Whaley was guilty of doing to your people. But his wife had nothing to do with it. She had no role in any of the bad things her husband did. She had no control over him. She was a quiet woman, who bent to the will of her husband. I had a very happy life with this woman. She was the one who was responsible for my childhood happiness. She was precious to me. I am remembering her in this way.”

Dancing Willow said nothing for a moment, then untied a small buckskin bag from the belt of her dress. “I am sorry I have made your day unpleasant,” she said, her voice soft and filled with . . . false . . . apology. “Shoshana, I have brought you something else. At least please take it, even if you do not take my dress.”

As she held the bag out, Shoshana hesitated to take it. She just couldn’t feel comfortable about anything Dancing Willow did. It was not credible that she could be so hateful one minute, then sweet and understanding the next.

Yet there she was . . . offering a gift.

Shoshana wanted to refuse it, but she knew she must accept. If she made overtures of peace with Storm’s sister, she knew it would make him happy.

For him only she held out her hand and accepted the small bag Dancing Willow placed on her palm. Shoshana saw a gleam in Dancing Willow’s eyes that made her realize the Seer was up to no good.

“Please open it, Shoshana,” Dancing Willow murmured. “It is my way of apologizing for causing you distress on your wedding day.”

“You are so kind,” Shoshana murmured, though she did not mean what she said at all. She was truly ill at ease about this bag. But she had no choice but to open it.

She slowly untied the leather strings that held the bag tightly closed.

“It is something you can wear on your wedding dress,” Dancing Willow said as again Shoshana paused before fully opening the bag. “It will bring you good luck in your marriage. I truly do apologize for not having been friendly to you, Shoshana. This gift is to make up for my actions. I have just found it so hard to trust anyone who is white . . . or should I say . . . who lived with whites.”

“But, Dancing Willow, how can you feel that way when your very own brother, your people’s chief, is in part white?” Shoshana said, searching Dancing Willow’s eyes.

“My brother’s heart is all Apache,” Dancing Willow said, her jaw tense. Then it relaxed again. She smiled at Shoshana. “Go ahead. See what I have brought for you to wear on your dress. It is lovely, Shoshana. Lovely!”

Shoshana gave her mother a questioning gaze.

Her mother nodded. With Fawn’s encouragement, Shoshana smiled and opened the bag.

A huge black spider leapt out onto her dress. She was afraid to move or scream.

Fawn stood there, frozen in fear.

Storm stepped into the tepee just in time to see what was happening. He moved hurriedly around Dancing Willow, who was standing there smiling and gloating.

“Do not be afraid,” he said as he held his hand out to the spider and let it crawl onto his palm. “Do you see, Shoshana? It is not poisonous. It was meant to frighten, to discourage, not to kill.”

He turned and glared at Dancing Willow. “You shame your brother . . . you shame yourself . . . when you do things like this, especially to the woman your brother is going to marry,” he said dryly. “Dancing Willow, if you do anything else to the woman I love, you will no longer be my sister.”

Dancing Willow paled. She gasped. Then she hurriedly apologized.

“I will never ever do anything like this again,” she said, her voice breaking. “Truly, I will not.”

Storm gave her a lingering gaze, then took the spider outside and placed it on the ground. When he went back inside, he drew Dancing Willow into his arms.

“I understand why you are doing these things,” he said thickly. “Big sister, I promise never to put you far second in my life again. I am here for you always.”

“I truly apologize for what I did,” Dancing Willow said, clinging to Storm. “And thank you for forgiving me . . . for understanding that I have been feeling so neglected. I was wrong to behave so childishly. I never shall again.”