Shirleen looked through thankful tears at Blue Thunder as he stood there, smiling, watching the wondrous reunion of ina and micinski.
Then he suddenly became aware of the silence around him as the people of the village came out of their lodges, solemnly staring at him.
He looked at one person and then another. Finally he noticed someone standing at the doorway of his uncle’s lodge.
His people’s shaman, Morning Thunder.
He also realized that when he had first seen Shirleen, she had come from his own lodge, not his uncle’s, where she had promised to stay until he returned with his uncle’s wife.
Speckled Fawn also became aware that things were not as they should be. She could feel the color draining from her face when she, too, saw Morning Thunder standing just outside her husband’s lodge.
She looked quickly at Shirleen, who had promised to stay with Dancing Shadow while Speckled Fawn went to help rescue the younger woman’s child.
She gazed into Shirleen’s eyes. “What has happened?” Speckled Fawn asked in a faint whisper, for she was almost certain of the answer without hearing it.
“I am so sorry,” Shirleen said softly.
“He . . . is . . . dead?” Speckled Fawn cried out as she slid from her saddle. “My husband . . . ?”
“He died peacefully with a smile on his face, for he thought I was you,” Shirleen said, her voice catching. “He . . . even . . . spoke some last words to me, and they were about you, Speckled Fawn. Only you.”
“And I wasn’t there,” Speckled Fawn choked out. With tears streaming from her eyes, she broke into a run and was soon inside her lodge, at her husband’s side.
Shirleen turned to Blue Thunder. “I truly did all that I could,” she said, a sob catching in her throat. “I talked with him those few moments when he finally found voice enough to speak. He . . . did . . . seem content to die.”
“He was always a contented man, so it would not be different when he knew that he was on his way to the stars and beyond,” Blue Thunder said. He stepped over to Shirleen and wrapped his comforting arms around both her and Megan. “He had done all that he could for his people, and he knew that. He also had found great contentment in finally having a wife.”
“I am so glad that he found such happiness on this earth,” Shirleen murmured. “So few have that opportunity.”
“I have found much happiness myself, caring for my people,” Blue Thunder said thickly. “And that happiness has become twofold since meeting you. Now I can share more happiness with you, since I know yours is more complete because you have your daughter with you again.”
“I can hardly believe she is here,” Shirleen said. Megan had fallen asleep again, but this time against her bosom, not Blue Thunder’s.
“Let us take her where she can rest comfortably,” Blue Thunder said, slipping gently away from Shirleen. “I will tell you all about her rescue, and then I must go and sit with my uncle.”
With Blue Thunder’s arm around Shirleen’s waist, they walked toward their tepee, leaving their horses to be tended by the young brave who remained dutiful to his chief’s wishes. Around them, families were reunited and speaking softly of the death that had come into their village, as well as a new life.
After Megan was resting comfortably on a bed of pelts, Shirleen and Blue Thunder knelt together awhile beside the sleeping child.
They each kissed Megan’s brow, and then went to sit beside the lodge fire.
After Blue Thunder added wood to the fire and the flames were leaping upward, sending warmth and light throughout the tepee, Shirleen and Blue Thunder sat down on a thick pallet of furs, and he told her in depth how the rescue had transpired.
“And so Earl actually stole our daughter away only to spite me, not out of love for Megan,” Shirleen said, anger like a hot poker inside her belly. “He did not concern himself for one minute how the child was feeling. He only thought of himself, as always. He is perhaps the cruelest man that walks the earth.”
“Just be thankful that Speckled Fawn was able to get Megan away from Earl so easily, and that she succeeded in leaving the fort without being seen,” Blue Thunder said soothingly. “All else is no longer important.”
“Tell me all of it,” Shirleen said, moving to her knees in front of Blue Thunder, her eyes searching his. “Tell me everything.”
He reached out and gently touched her face, then proceeded to tell her all that she was eager to hear.
And when he was finished, she was awed by Speckled Fawn’s daring, but mainly so happy that everything had worked out and her daughter was with her now, forever.
“Your Megan is quite wonderful,” Blue Thunder said. He reached out and drew Shirleen onto his lap. She twined an arm around his neck and nestled close to him. “As are you, my woman.”
“You have no idea how happy I am at this moment,” Shirleen said, then leaned away from him and gazed into his eyes. “Yet so sad. I could feel Speckled Fawn’s grief when she realized her husband was dead. I could feel the sadness of your people.”
“It is sad in one respect, good in another,” Blue Thunder said. He twined his fingers through her thick red hair, pushing it back from her face and draping it over her shoulders. “My uncle has been only half a man now for so long. He is whole again as he walks the road to the hereafter with those who went ahead of him. He is a full man again, in all respects. When he laughs, he realizes that he is laughing. When he speaks, his words are true and from the heart. And when he gazes down from the heavens to see his wife, he knows that she mourns for him, but knows, too, that she feels him with her now, as if he were sitting with her, holding her hand. You see, my woman, his body no longer functions, but his spirit is very much alive.”