Savage Courage

“Please be the teacher to our children that your grandfather and father were to you,” Shoshana said, then gazed quickly ahead when she heard a horse approaching down the narrow pass.

She soon saw that it was one of Storm’s warriors who had stayed behind at the village to keep watch on the band. Storm did not completely trust Colonel Hawkins to leave his people alone.

Would Mountain Jack’s escape bring the soldiers up the mountain in search of the evil man? After Mountain Jack died, Shoshana had thought it might be best to take his body back to Fort Chance in order to prove that he was dead. Then the soldiers would have no need to search for him.

But Storm and Shoshana had chanced going there once. A second time might prove deadly.

They had decided to leave the body for the soldiers to find when they came looking for him.

“Who is that coming toward us?” Shoshana asked, drawing rein just as Storm stopped to await the warrior’s approach.

“This warrior is called Two Wings,” Storm said, nodding a welcome to the warrior.

“What takes you away from the stronghold?” Storm asked the warrior, whose eyes went to Shoshana and lingered there.

“From our lookout I saw you coming up the pass,” Two Wings said. “I chose not to wait for the signal of your arrival.”

“And why did you decide that?” Storm asked. “What do you have to say that could not have waited until we arrived?”

“I have sad news,” Two Wings said thickly, his eyes sliding over to Storm, then back to Shoshana.

Shoshana’s heart skipped a beat. The face of her mother flashed before her eyes.

“Tell us, then,” Storm said, drawing the warrior’s eyes back to him.

“It is No Name, who

m we now know as Fawn,” Two Wings said, his voice drawn. “She passed on to the other side peacefully in her sleep, a smile on her face.”

“No!” Shoshana choked out, tears spilling from her eyes.

She was heartbroken over the news, yet she had been half expecting it.

But it seemed so unfair that she had only recently been reunited with her mother, only to lose her again. But this time she was truly gone. There would be no chance meetings again, not until Shoshana joined her in the sky.

Storm saw how the news had devastated Shoshana. He reached over and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her over to his horse and onto his lap.

He held her close as she sobbed and buried her face against his chest.

“It is unfair,” he said to her, as though he had read her thoughts. “But I urge you to look at what happened in another way. Fawn has not been well for some time now, yet she lived long enough to be reunited with you, Shoshana, her daughter. And did you not hear what Two Wings said? Your mother died with a smile on her face—a smile of happiness over having gotten to see and be with her daughter before she took her last breaths of life.”

“Yes, I know,” Shoshana sobbed out. “I know how wonderful it was that we spent time together again after having been separated for so long, but—”

“My wife, your reunion was, in itself, a miracle,” Storm said softly. “That Fawn survived when so many others died on that terrible day, that she had the will to survive until she held her daughter one last time, is a miracle. She went happily, Shoshana, peacefully in her sleep. She is in the sky even now, gazing down at you with a smile.”

“Yes, it was a blessing that we were together again, if only for a short while,” Shoshana said, wiping tears from her eyes as she gazed up at Storm. “I will bury my mother without feeling resentment or regret, without feeling cheated.”

To herself, Shoshana was thinking how glad she was that she had revealed to her mother that she was pregnant before she died. Her mother at least knew that, although she would never get the chance to hold the child in her arms.

But yes, her mother would be watching from the heavens. She would see, and Shoshana would feel her mother’s presence everywhere she went.

“I am all right now,” Shoshana murmured. She inhaled a deep, quavering breath. “I am ready to go to my mother and help prepare her for burial. I know that your customs vary from those I have learned in the white community. Will you please teach me what is right for the burial of my mother?”

“I will teach you as I help you,” Storm said, then placed her back in her own saddle.

With Two Wings riding ahead of them, Storm and Shoshana traveled onward in silence. When they reached the stronghold, Shoshana went to her mother’s lodge and dismounted.

A young brave came and took her horse away. Then Shoshana went inside where their shaman, White Moon, was kneeling beside her mother’s bed of rich pelts and blankets.