''Gray Falcon, what is wrong with you?" she asked softly, yet fearing to hear the answer. "Why are you nish-ska-diz-ee? You should be happy, not angry, that we have arrived to our land that you were eager to return to. Our people are preparing their wigwams with much love and pride in their

hearts. Now that you are chief, you have guided your people here, to the place of your boyhood dreams. Why are you not happy, Gray Falcon?"

"You read my mood wrong, Cedar Maid," Gray Falcon said, frowning down at her. "It is not an unhappy face you see. It is the face of a chief who is giving an order that must be carried out."

"What order?" Cedar Maid asked, glancing at Shane, then back at Gray Falcon. "You tell Shane something? What is it? I know him well. I read his mood right and I see that he is not happy!"

"While our people build themselves new wigwams, Shane is to move onward," Gray Falcon said, stubbornly lifting his chin.

Cedar Maid gasped. She turned quickly to Shane. "Where will you go?" she asked, her dark eyes pleading. "Shane, tell me that what Gray Falcon says is false. You cannot leave. Cedar Maid will go with you if you do!"

Suddenly realizing what banishment meantleaving the way of life that he had grown to love, and leaving Cedar Maid behind alsoShane felt as though his heart was being pierced by many arrows. Already he missed his sister. Their mother had gone to the hereafter many moons ago, and Cedar Maid had depended on Shane for protection.

Now who would she have? He could not take her with him. She would not be happy away from her people. Would she be treated fairly by Gray Falcon when left alone without Shane's protection? Or would Gray Falcon's resentment not be cast aside

when Shane was gone? Would he not also hold the same resentment against Cedar Maid because

she was Shane's sister?

Shane placed his fingers gently to Cedar Maid's shoulders. He swallowed hard, her gentle loveliness today almost stealing his breath away. Her white, fine buckskin dress clung to her wondrous curves; her hair was loose and worn very long down her back. Many said that, at the age of fifteen winters, she was the most beautiful maiden among all the Chippewa villages in both Canada and the Land of Many Lakes. Her beauty made her even more vulnerable, for she would be sought out soon by many willing to pay a high bride price for her. Shane wanted to be there to decide if the brave who paid for her was good enough for her!

But that was not meant to be. Because of Gray Falcon's jealousies, Shane would have to say farewell to Cedar Maid, and when he did, he would not look back. He would never return to this village and beg for permission to see Cedar Maid! If he was forced to leave the Indian life behind, he would also leave everything about this way of life behind. He would no longer speak in Chippewa. He would never wear his hair in braids again.

He was glad that he had retained his rightful name. If he had been forced to take an Indian nameah, how hard it would be to leave it behind!

"Shane, tell me you are not going," Cedar Maid said, breaking into soft sobs. "Tell me it is not so!"

"I've got to go now," Shane said thickly. "I

should have not stayed so long with your people. It is time for me to break my ties now and return to my own people. Please try to understand."

Cedar Maid broke away from his grasp and flung herself into his arms, hugging him tightly. "My people, the Chippewa, are your people!" she cried. "Do not abandon us just because you hunger for the white man's way of life. Oh, Shane, please take me with you if you must go!"

Feeling torn apart inside, Shane held her close, then eased her away from him. He firmed his jaw and looked down at her. "Deep inside my heart the Chippewa will always be my people," he said, fighting back a sob that would make him look less than a man. "But my true people live not even a sleep away, and I must go and make acquaintance with them again. It has been twenty-five long winters since I last saw them. It is time to make all wrongs right."

He looked over Cedar Maid's shoulder at Gray Falcon. "Though you do this thing because of ill feelings between us, I will pretend that you do it because you think it is best for me," he said. "I will go. I will entrust Cedar Maid in your care. Do not let harm come to her. She deserves a good life. She is nothing but sweetness."

Cedar Maid grabbed his hands. "Let me go with you," she cried. "My brother, my heart will break with missing you!"

Again Shane drew her within his arms. "Cedar Maid, I have no idea how the white man's world is going to treat me, and I am white," he said softly, weaving his fingers through her long, drifting hair.

"But I suspect how you, an Indian, would be treated. It is not best for you to leave your people. Stay. A husband will come soon and pay a great bride price for you. Be content in being a wife."

Cedar Maid jerked free from his grip and turned and defied Chief Gray Falcon with fire in her eyes. "It is all your fault!" she stormed. "You know that your father looks down from the hereafter disapproving of this that you do. You must change your mind. Do not force Shane to go!"

"Stop arguing!" Gray Falcon hissed. He drew an imaginary line in mid-air that signified that was the way it had to be and he would not listen to any further argument about it.

Cedar Maid spun around on a heel and looked pleadingly up at Shane again.

"I will come to see you some time," Shane said, lying. Even if it meant abandoning Cedar Maid, he would not look back. He would never try to combine two such different lives. If he were going to be forced to live in the white man's world, it would be as a white man!

Cedar Maid lunged into his arms again. "Oh, do come often," she sobbed. "My heart will be so lonely with missing you!"

Two braves on horseback approached, leading Shane's white stallion, already saddled behind them. Shane looked up into the eyes of his best friend, Red Raven, then at the old brave, Flying Wing. It was apparently Flying Wing who carried the secret of where Shane's true family lived. He looked at Red Raven. It was in his eyes that he knew what was occurringand that he would

soon lose his best friend to the white man's world. He had even painted black marks of mourning across his cheeks and brow.

"You have come to accompany me to my new world?" Shane asked, making the brother sign by touching two fingers to his lips and swinging his hand straight out from his mouth.

Tags: Cassie Edwards Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net