“No, I’m sure he wouldn’t,” Lauralee said, laughing softly. She left the chair and went around the desk and bent to her knees before her uncle. She flung herself into his arms. “Thank you for everything. Oh, so much for everything.”
Tears pooling in his eyes, he patted her back, then embraced her long and hard.
* * *
With the sweet fragrance of flowers all around him, Dancing Cloud was on his knees, looking heavenward. “Oh, Great Spirit, Wah-kon-tah, whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me,” Dancing Cloud pleaded to the stars, the moon, the sky. “I need your strength and wisdom these coming weeks. Please guide me safely home. I seek strength. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. Help me lead my woman into a world unknown to her . . . the world of my people.”
When he was through he bowed his head and listened. He soon felt the wind blow gently around and over him. He had been heard. He felt at peace with the days that lay ahead.
Chapter 21
When two mutual hearts are sighing
For the knot there’s no untying.
—THOMAS CAMPBELL
The sky was streaked with crimson ribbons as the sun rose slowly from behind the horizon. Feeling that it was important to keep his promise to Lauralee, Abner guided his horse onto the small street that led to The Stables. He wanted her to remember him and Nancy with pleasant memories. Even after she was gone, he wanted her to still consider them as her family. He had visions of her returning with her children to spend Christmas each year in the Peterson House.
Of course he knew the chances were small of this ever happening. The Smoky Mountains were quite far from Mattoon. And once Lauralee arrived there, she would be thrust into a world very separate from any that she had ever known. She would have much to learn. She would have to become Cherokee, herself, heart and soul, to survive among them. She might soon forget that the Petersons ever existed.
Abner set his jaw and his eyes narrowed angrily. He was still not able to understand why Boyd had asked an Indian to escort his daughter to Mattoon. But there was no sense laboring over the if’s and why’s of things any longer. Lauralee’s mind was made up. There was no way around the fact that she had chosen Dancing Cloud over living with her aunt and uncle.
Abner’s thoughts shifted elsewhere when he saw a group of men standing beside The Stable’s tall white fence.
His gaze went from man to man, recognizing them all.
Then he stared at one in particular. Sheriff Wes Decker. He was a tall and well-built man, who stood eye to eye with Kevin Banks, seemingly involved in a serious discussion. One of the other men was Sheriff Decker’s deputy. The other was Kevin’s stable hand.
They all turned and looked toward Abner as he swung his horse and buggy beside the fence. They sauntered over to him and before he had the chance to leave the buggy, Sheriff Decker was there, his gray eyes fixed on him.
“Is that Cherokee still stayin’ at your place, Abner?” the sheriff asked, slipping his massive hands inside the front pocket of his dark breeches.
“He’s leaving this morning,” Abner said, guardedly looking from man to man as they came and stood beside Sheriff Decker. “Why do you ask? What’s this small gathering about, anyhow, this time of morning?”
Kevin edged in close beside Sheriff Decker. “Abner, seems you’ve been housin’ a horse thief these past few days,” he said, peering angrily up at him.
“What’s that you say?” Abner said, his spine stiffening. He looked slowly from man to man again as they all edged closer.
“The Cherokee?” Kevin said flatly. “That damn grayback scum Cherokee was here admirin’ my white stallion yesterday with your niece. Well, seems he wanted to do more than just look. Abner, the stallion was gone this mornin’. Everything points to the Cherokee being guilty of horse stealin’.”
“And what proof do you have of his guilt?” Abner asked tersely. “Dancing Cloud is housing only one horse in my stable. His.”
“I heard that he stole another horse here in Mattoon. He’s a smart Injun,” Kevin said, laughing sarcastically. “He wouldn’t take the stallion where you could see it. He has surely hid it.”
“Kevin, first of all the horse that Dancing Cloud took the night he left the hospital has been returned to the rightful owner. He never intended to keep it. It was a means by which he could get to what he called in his Cherokee beliefs as ‘healing water’,” Abner said, his voice smooth and even. “And as for you. Why do you think that anyone would believe anything you say?”
Abner left his buggy and went and stood eye to eye with Kevin. “As I see it, if someone could be so quick at humiliating my niece, they could be as quick to make up a lie.”
Kevin shuffled his feet nervously, his eyes wavering. “So you know, then, that she was here with the Cherokee,” he said tightly. “That’s proof enough that the Injun had the chance to admire and want the stallion. He was surely making plans on how to steal it the minute he saw it. I lived out west for a spell. I learned damn quick that Injuns cain’t be trusted. Especially one who wore gray during the war.”
“The war is long over, Kevin,” Abner grumbled. “You’d best put it behind you. I’d say there’s been enough commotion around here since the Cherokee was ambushed by someone whose opinions of the Indian match your own. Why, Kevin, I might just accuse you of shooting Dancing Cloud.”
Of course Abner knew that Kevin didn’t. But making him uneasy about perhaps being accused of such a heinous crime seemed the right thing to do. Kevin deserved taking down a notch or two over having treated Lauralee in such a callous manner.
“I’d be the first to confess that I hold no love for any Rebel in my heart,” Kevin stammered out. “But to accuse me of ambushin’ a gray coat ain’t right, Abner. All I want to do this morning is get back my stallion and see that the man who stole it gets thrown in jail.”
“Seems as though we have enough to go on to make an arrest,” Sheriff Decker said, patting a heavy pistol holstered at his right hip. “Abner, you’ll probably be the judge to hand down the Cherokee’s sentencing. So don’t you think it’s best to cooperate with me and accompany me to your house to arrest the Indian?”