“Me too,” Lavinia said, yet she was not sure at all that her daughter was even still alive.
Chapter Twenty
Give me a kiss and to that kiss a score.
—Robert Herrick
The morning air was suddenly filled with a woman’s scream. The sound filled Lavinia with alarm.
She looked up questioningly at Wolf Dancer. They could all hear the woman shouting that there was a stranger in the garita, in the food supply!
Wolf Dancer and Lavinia exchanged quick glances, both suddenly thinking the same thing, yet not saying it out loud in case it was a false hope. Could the stranger be Dorey?
“I shall go and see,” Wolf Dancer said, leaving with Joshua.
Somehow, Lavinia found the strength to get out of bed and make her way to the door. Just as she stepped outside she saw a warrior leading Dorey toward Wolf Dancer. Her daughter’s eyes were filled with fear, yet she appeared unharmed.
Lavinia’s eyes lit up when Dorey spotted her, and then Dorey saw Twila. She was shocked to see them there. She had spent the night so afraid and alone,and all along, her mother and her best friend in the world had been so near!
“Mama,” Dorey cried as she ran toward her, her arms outstretched. “Oh, Mama, I’m so sorry that I didn’t listen to you.”
“It’s alright,” Lavinia murmured as Dorey flung herself into her arms and clung to her. “Everything is going to be fine now that I know you are safe and well.”
“But you?” Dorey asked, stepping away from her mother and seeing how pale she was. She had felt the weakness of her mother’s embrace, and knew that something was wrong. “Mama, how did you…how did Twila and Joshua get here? Mama, are you alright?” She stopped and stared at the Indian robe her mother wore instead of her own clothes. “Mama, tell me why you are here and whether you are alright.”
Wolf Dancer was happy for both the mother and child, that they were reunited and nothing had happened to Dorey while she was lost and alone in the Everglades. But he noticed that Lavinia was struggling to stand. He knew it was too soon for her to be on her feet for any length of time.
Yet he also knew she was well enough to leave the shaman’s lodge so that it would be free for others who were ill and needed his magical touch.
“Come with me,” he said, hurrying to Lavinia’s side and sweeping an arm around her waist. He was glad to feel her relax against him, glad to know she accepted his touch.
He wanted much more than this, and now believedthat she wanted the same. It was in her eyes when she gazed into his. It was in her voice when she talked with him.
“You aren’t taking me back into Shining Soul’s hut?” Lavinia asked, relishing the strength of his arm around her waist as he walked beside her.
“You are wel
l enough to give up the shaman’s care,” Wolf Dancer said. He glanced over at Dorey, who fell into step beside her mother, while Joshua and Twila walked behind them.
Then he looked at Lavinia again. “I am taking you to my own home. It is spacious. You will be comfortable there, as will your daughter. There is room enough for us all there.”
Dorey was taking all of this in, realizing there was more than just respect between her mother and this handsome man. She believed he must be Chief Wolf Dancer, for he had an air of command about him.
As they made their way through the village, people stepped aside, their eyes on him, showing affection and love. He walked onward toward the larger two-storied home Dorey had seen from the garita. She had assumed that this was the chief’s home, and she had been right.
“Dorey, oh, Dorey, where have you been?” Lavinia asked as Dorey stepped closer to her side. “I was so afraid for you. Twila and I looked for you in the swamp, but there was no sign of you or your canoe anywhere. And then…I…had the misfortune of being bitten by a snake. If not for Twila, who sucked the poison out of my wound, and thenWolf Dancer, who rescued me and took me to his shaman, I would be dead.”
“I’m so sorry, Mama,” Dorey said, swallowing hard. “I had not meant to travel so far, and then suddenly I was taken captive by two young braves.”
“I know all about what they did, and I am sorry you had to go through such an experience,” Lavinia said, sliding her free arm around Dorey’s tiny waist. “But now we are all going to be alright. Even Joshua. Did you see him, Dorey? Wolf Dancer saved him after he was shot down by an arrow.”
Having been so excited to see her mother, Dorey had been aware of nothing else. Now she realized that Joshua was there and that he was alive, when all along no one thought they would ever see him again.
She looked over her shoulder at Joshua and Twila. “I am so happy that you are alright, Joshua,” she murmured. “We all thought—”
“That I was dead,” Joshua finished, interrupting her. “I would be, if not for Wolf Dancer and Shining Soul. They saved me, Dorey, just as they have saved your mammy.”
“Mama, I can’t believe that you left your room to go into the Everglades looking for me,” Dorey said, gazing up at Lavinia. “What about Uncle Hiram? If he knows you left your room, he will expect many things of you. Mama, what are you going to do about Hiram and his plans for you?”