Wild Abandon

Lauralee turned quickly around when she heard someone enter the cabin behind her. When she found Dancing Cloud there, her feelings rushed out in a torrent of tears.

Sobbing, she ran to him and flung herself into his arms.

Dancing Cloud held her tightly, his eyes locked on Clint McCloud. Totally nude and lying in a pool of blood, the man was slumped over, his knees drawn beneath him.

“Dancing Cloud, is he dead?” Lauralee asked, clinging tightly to him, her cheek pressed hard against the soft fabric of his buckskin shirt. “I dropped the pistol. It went off. Is he dead? Truly dead?”

Dancing Cloud leaned a bit sideways, enabling him to see Clint’s eyes. “His eyes are locked in a death stare,” he said thickly. “Ii, yes, I would say that he is dead.”

Lauralee crept from his arms. She moved behind him and leaned out only enough to see Clint. “Please make sure for me,” she murmured. “I’ve got to know that we have nothing else to fear from that man.”

She shivered and clasped and unclasped her hands nervously as Dancing Cloud went to Clint and kicked him over onto his back. She bit her lower lip nervously as Dancing Cloud stooped down onto his haunches and placed his fingertips to Clint’s neck.

“There is no pulse,” he said, turning to give Lauralee a reassured stare. “We are finally rid of this vermin. The growth of the cancer stops here, today.”

He went to Lauralee, gave her a comforting hug, then stepped away from her and held her at arm’s length. “Your nursing skills are needed,” he said thickly.

“What do you mean?” Lauralee said, seeing the concern in his eyes. “Who needs me? Where is this person?”

Dancing Cloud explained about having found the Indian woman at the foot of the cliff. He explained that she had helped him find the cabin.

Lauralee paled. “Oh, no,” she cried. “That must be Brian Brave Walker’s mother. Where is she? I must go to her.”

“Brian Brave Walker?” Dancing Cloud said, arching an eyebrow.

“Clint McCloud was his father, the Indian woman was Clint’s wife, Brian’s mother,” Lauralee blurted out, seeing the disbelief in Dancing Cloud’s eyes.

“He . . . ?” Dancing Cloud said, numb from the knowing.

“Yes, he,” Lauralee said, taking his hand. “Now let’s go to Brian Brave Walker’s mother. I shall do what I can for her while you also work your magic with your herbal medications.”

Hand in hand, they left the cabin and the man who had been like a dark thundercloud over both their lives for too many years to count.

Chapter 30

A mind at peace,

A heart whose love is innocent.

—LORD BYRON

The sound of a steady beat from a drum filled the evening air just outside Dancing Cloud’s cabin. Low chants rose and fell in rhythm with the drumbeats.

Several days had passed and Lauralee had hardly left Soft Wind’s bedside after Dancing Cloud had brought her to the bed on the loft. Lauralee had bathed her fevered brow and force-fed her broth when she barely awakened.

But no matter what Lauralee did, nor no matter how dedicated she was to her patient, she had seen Soft Wind slowly slipping away. The head wound had been too severe to heal. There were other broken bones, and one of her lungs had collapsed. The end seemed inevitable. It would come soon. Very soon.

Lauralee realized today that Soft Wind lay closer to death than ever before. She could tell by the strange sort of rattling sounds emerging from deeply within her one lung.

And it had been a full day and night now since Soft Wind had been able to take any nourishment.

Brian Brave Walker edged in next to Lauralee and gazed down with tear-filled eyes at his mother. He fell to his knees beside the bed and clutched her thin, frail hand in his.

“Mama, please don’t leave me,” he cried. “Papa is dead now. You can live a life of peace. You are among your own people, Mama. Can’t you hear their chants? Everyone wants you to live.”

A knot forming in her throat, her heart going out to this small child, Lauralee tried to take Brian Brave Walker’s hand to draw him into her embrace.

She jumped with a start and gasped when he turned and gave her a look that made her want to shrink away to nothingness. The hate in his eyes was so intense, it seemed to burn into Lauralee’s very soul!