For now he knew that was best. He was not sure just how much he should say to her when he apologized. Should he take advantage of this moment, when she was vulnerable, to tell her that he intended to keep her, to make her love him so that she would stay willingly? Or should he allow things to develop slowly between them? Surely she still held much resentment deep within her heart for what he had done to her father.
Could she ever truly forgive him?
Or would she someday understand why it had to happen that way?
Such a man as her father could not be allowed to continue abusing children. If Fire Thunder had not stopped him, then who would have . . . ?
Back at the camp, where the fire was still burning high, Fire Thunder laid Kaylene on a blanket beside it.
Then he saw Little Sparrow being held by another warrior. She was wriggling to get free, wanting to see what had happened. Fire Thunder had always ordered his men to, at all costs, keep his sister from harm.
As at all other times, tonight they had obeyed him. When they heard gunfire they had not known the cause, and did not know if their chief was hurt or not. So they had not wanted to take his sister there, possibly to see her beloved brother injured.
“Set her free,” Fire Thunder said as he gave Little Sparrow a nod and a smile. Then he spoke to her slowly, telling her that he was all right.
She watched his lips carefully, understanding each word.
He could see her look of shock as she turned and went to kneel beside Kaylene. She clutched frantically to Fire Thunder’s arm as she pleaded up at him with her eyes.
“She will be fine,” Fire Thunder explained. He clasped her shoulders. “Little sister, you just sit down now and be calm. I have to see to Kaylene’s wound.”
A warrior brought Little Sparrow a blanket and slipped it around her shoulders.
Eyes wide, Little Sparrow clutched the blanket and watched Fire Thunder as he tended Kaylene’s wound. A part of her heart ached from seeing her newly found friend injured. Why did Kaylene lie so quiet? Why did she sleep so soundly?
Was Kaylene dying? Little Sparrow thought in fear.
But she did not disturb her brother with any more questions. He had to fix Kaylene’s wound. And it was obvious to Little Sparrow that he had deep feelings for the white woman by his gentleness with her, and by the way he would occasionally gaze at Kaylene’s face, as though he adored her.
This made Little Sparrow feel somewhat better. A hope blossomed inside her that just perhaps her brother did love this woman. Although Little Sparrow was only eight, she had been told in sign language by her older friends about love, and how it sometimes happened between two people. Some said that it happened at first sight! Had it happened this way for her brother?
She smiled at the thought, then winced and turned her eyes away when Fire Thunder took a dampened buckskin cloth and began bathing the blood from Kaylene’s wound.
Black Hair came and knelt beside Fire Thunder. He opened his small buckskin pouch.
Fire Thunder nodded to him and watched as Black Hair slowly sprinkled the medicinal herbs on the knife wound. The wound soaked up the herbs like a sponge, the blood quickly disappearing.
“It will heal well now,” Black Hair said.
He tightened the drawstring and slipped the tiny pouch in his rear pocket as Fire Thunder wrapped Kaylene’s wound with soft buckskin.
Black Hair stood up and ushered the warriors away from Fire Thunder, giving his chief privacy.
His assistance no longer needed, he himself went back to his bedroll and stretched out under the blankets. He watched for a while how his chief tended to the white woman. He knew without a doubt that this woman was in his chief’s blood, in his life, forever.
Sighing heavily, wishing it were not so, Black Hair turned his back to Fire Thunder, and closed his eyes. His thoughts drifted to his daughter. He hoped that she was asleep in her bed. He wished that she would find a Kickapoo warrior with whom to share her love instead of wasting it on someone not of their beliefs and customs.
Hopefully, in time, he could turn his daughter’s life around. He did not want to see it wasted. She was his life, for he had sworn never to marry again. Losing one wife in a lifetime was enough. If he also lost his daughter . . . ? He was not sure if he could bear it. Life would surely lose its meaning.
Fire Thunder gently drew a blanket over Kaylene, up to her chin, then sat down beside her and looked at her at length.
But when he heard the cry of the panther in the distance, and felt the danger, he reached for his rifle and placed it close beside him.
Little Sparrow sat with her gaze on Kaylene, waiting for her to awaken.
Kaylene’s eyes slowly opened, and she found Little Sparrow there. Little Sparrow was so glad to see her friend awake, she hurried to Kaylene and softly kissed her cheek.
She then turned to her brother. In sign language she asked Fire Thunder to return Kaylene to her mother, that although Little Sparrow wanted to have Kaylene as a friend for always, it was not fair to keep her from her family. It wasn’t right to hold her captive.