“There was also Sharon,” Stephanie said. “Why did you have to kill her? You did kill her, didn’t you, Adam?”
“You saw how she lived? In squalor. Had I known about the child, I would have taken him from her long ago.”
“But killing her?” Stephanie persisted. “Why did you feel that to be necessary?”
“I did not want her for a wife, but I wanted my child.” He paused and coughed.
“I never thought that I would ever be connected with the killing,” he continued, then smiled clumsily up at her. “And I wouldn’t have been, had Maria Gonzalez not come today and shown Jimmy to everyone.”
“You would have kept silent about your child?” Stephanie said, her eyes wide with disbelief. “I would have never known?”
“I was going to wait and see how the trial turned out,” he said, clutching hard to her hand as he now fought for each breath. His eyes closed, yet he continued speaking. “If I was to be hanged, my lawyer would have opened a letter stating that the child should be brought to you. Had I been set free, I would have gone for my child and no one would have been the wiser. Maria. Damn Maria. Because of her, Damon even found out somehow that I killed his sister.”
“Because of her, though, Adam, I now have Jimmy,” Stephanie said softly. “Had she not come today, and Damon still shot and killed you, how would she have ever known to bring Jimmy to me to raise?”
When Adam didn’t respond, Stephanie stiffened. She stared down at him, scarcely breathing. “Adam?” she said, then shouted, “Adam! No, Adam. Oh, God, no.”
She leaned over and placed her cheek next to his, sobbing. “Oh, Adam,” she whispered. “No matter what you did, I still love you. Please hear me say that I still love you.”
A firm hand on her shoulder made Stephanie flinch. When she looked up, and through her tears saw that it was Runner, she nodded and turned one last time to Adam and let her gaze travel over his face, then slipped away from him and stood.
“It is best that he is gone,” Runner said, his voice drawn. “He was wandering down the wrong road of life. He had already traveled that road too far to find his way back.”
“I know,” Stephanie said, wiping tears from her face. Gently, she took Jimmy into her arms and made sure the blanket was tucked snugly around him.
Colonel Utley came to her and stood over Adam. “Do you want to see to his burial, or do you want to ship him back to Wichita?” he said gruffly, giving Stephanie a quick glance.
“If you will, send someone to stop the train that Adam arrived in,” Stephanie said shallowly. “Take Adam to his private car. Send him back to his mother that way.”
“It’s as good as done,” Colonel Utley said, stooping to inspect the wound on A
dam’s chest.
“Let’s get away from this place,” Stephanie said, looking up at Runner through bloodshot, tear-swollen eyes. “Take me and Jimmy home, darling.”
“We are not yet married and we already have a son,” Runner said, chuckling as they walked together to their horses. Once there, Runner held Jimmy while Stephanie mounted her horse, then he handed the child to her.
“We shall make the child the best of parents,” Stephanie said, snuggling Jimmy close to her bosom in the crook of her left arm.
“It will not be hard to find someone among our Navaho mothers to lend a milk-filled breast to Jimmy until he is weaned,” Runner said, swinging himself into his saddle.
As they rode away from the throng of people, Stephanie forced herself not to look at Damon as he was being carried away. Nor did she take a last look at her stepbrother; she had already said her last, solemn good-bye.
Her eyes widened when she remembered someone else that had to be told the news about Adam: Pure Blossom. And Pure Blossom had not yet gotten the courage to tell Gray Moon about the child that she was carrying inside her womb, much less about the man who had planted his seed inside her.
“How do you think Pure Blossom will react to Adam’s death?” Stephanie asked as she gazed over at Runner, the fort now left far behind them.
“It is time that Pure Blossom faces up to many things,” Runner said, scowling. “By sunset tonight, Gray Moon will know all the truths about my sister. If Pure Blossom does not have the courage to tell him, then her brother will.”
They rode in a slow trot so that Stephanie would have no trouble holding the child safely in her arms. And when they arrived at the village and their horses were let loose inside the corral, they went together to Pure Blossom’s hogan. Runner had decided that Pure Blossom would be the first to be told about Adam’s death, and about Adam having fathered another child.
Gray Moon was sitting dutifully at Pure Blossom’s bedside. She was resting comfortably in a sitting position, her back against a cushion. She was laughing playfully with Gray Moon until Runner and Stephanie entered. She could not help but wonder about the child Stephanie was carrying.
Runner and Stephanie went on the opposite side of the bed from where Gray Moon was sitting. They knelt down on their knees beside the bed. With trembling fingers, Stephanie drew a corner of the blanket away from Jimmy’s face, so that Pure Blossom could get a good view of it.
“The child?” Pure Blossom said, leaning closer to take a better look. “Why did you bring this child into Pure Blossom’s hogan? Whose child is it?”
“Adam’s,” Runner blurted, knowing that perhaps what he was doing was cruel, but quite necessary. “The child is Adam’s. The child’s mother and Adam are dead. Stephanie and I will raise Jimmy as our own.”