Why?
He doubted that he would ever know.
“Let’s go inside, Michael,” White Fire said, forcing a smile as he leaned over and lowered Michael to the ground. He slid out of the saddle, then took Michael by a hand. “I’ve someone I’d like for you to meet.”
“Flame?” Michael said, smiling up at him as they walked toward the door.
His spine went stiff. “No, I don’t believe she is here after all,” he said sullenly.
“Where did she go?” Michael asked, his eyes innocently wide as he stared up at White Fire. “I thought she was waiting on us. Didn’t you tell me that she was here? That you were going to be married today?”
“Sometimes things change,” White Fire said, his jaw tight. “But there is someone waiting for us. It is someone who will be raised with you as your sister.”
“A sister?” Michael said, surprise leaping into his eyes.
White Fi
re stopped and knelt before Michael. “She has skin the coloring of mine,” he said softly. “She is Chippewa, Michael. Her mother died recently. Her mother was a friend. I have taken the child in, to raise as mine.”
“I will like having a sister,” Michael said, beaming. “Is she older or younger?”
“She is younger,” White Fire said, sighing deeply to know that Michael had such a giving heart. That he was willing to take Dancing Star into his life as quickly as his father had accepted her. “But she is old enough to enjoy things that you enjoy. She does not yet know how to ride a horse, though. Michael, will you help teach her?”
It was so hard talking calmly while his heart was aching over Flame’s absence.
“Yes, I will help teach her,” Michael said, smiling proudly. “Will she get a pony, also, from the Chippewa?” He spoke the word “Chippewa” awkwardly, finding it also hard to pronounce.
“Yes, she will also get a pony from my friends, her relatives, the Chippewa,” White Fire said, drawing Michael into his arms and hugging him. “Now let us go and tell Dancing Star to open the door. I am certain that when Flame left, she instructed the child to lock the door until we arrived. Everyone has to be careful in the wilderness. Doors must be locked at all times against intruders. Do you understand that if I am ever called away, that you will also make sure the door is locked?”
Michael nodded.
White Fire rose slowly to his feet and went to the door and knocked on it. “Dancing Star, it is I, White Fire,” he said, his eyebrows rising when she didn’t come immediately to the door and open it.
White Fire asked her three more times to open it, and fear began to ebb its way into his heart when she still didn’t come to the door.
“Where is she?” Michael asked softly.
“I am not certain,” White Fire said.
He hurried to the window and gazed through the pane. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Dancing Star sitting on the floor against the far wall, visibly shivering, her eyes wide with fear.
He knew then that something had happened while he had gone to get Michael.
It came suddenly to him that just perhaps Flame had not made her own decision to leave! Perhaps someone had come and forced her. Only that could explain the child’s obvious fear.
White Fire rapped his knuckles against the windowpane. “Dancing Star!” he shouted. “Open the door! You have nothing to fear! It is I! White Fire!”
Finally he saw her stir. Their eyes then met and held.
Then she leaped to her feet and ran to the door.
White Fire hurried to the door just as it was opened.
As he knelt down on one knee, Dancing Star flung herself into his arms. “A man came and took Flame away!” she cried, sobs wracking her body. “He forced her! He . . . half . . . choked her when she fought against him!”
White Fire’s heart sank at the thought of someone forcing Flame in such a way. Then guilt washed through him at the thought of his having so quickly doubted her.
He placed his fingers on Dancing Star’s shoulders and gently held her away from him so that their eyes could meet. “Dancing Star, did the man mention his name?” he asked slowly, trying to break through her fear to get answers from her. “Did Flame say his name as he took her away?”