A Whisper in the Wind by Madeline Baker

Author:Madeline Baker
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance, Fiction, Historical, General
ISBN: 9781419941719
Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc
Published: 2012-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Elayna walked slowly along the riverbank, her thoughts drifting toward home. She wondered how her father was getting along, if her best friend, Nancy Avery, had married Sergeant O’Farrell, if the Army was still searching for her, if Lance was still waiting, hoping for her safe return.

Lance. Even if she was rescued and returned to Camp Robinson, she could never marry Lance, not now. And it was all Michael Wolf’s fault. He had stolen her virginity. She was ruined now. Damaged goods. No self-respecting white man would want her.

The thought did not distress her as much as it should have, but she didn’t stop to wonder why. Instead, she found herself thinking of Michael. There were times when she yearned for the comfort of his arms, for the sound of his voice murmuring soft Cheyenne words of love in her ear, but she knew if she surrendered now, she would never be able to leave him. And she did not belong here; she would never belong here. With an effort, she drew her thoughts away from Michael Wolf.

It was a beautiful day, bright and clear and warm. She paused in mid-stride to watch a sparrow dusting its feathers in a shallow depression beside the riverbank, smiled as she saw a large yellow butterfly alight on the petal of a lavender flower. A chipmunk scampered across her path and disappeared in the underbrush.

Still smiling, she continued walking, her troubles disappearing as she lost herself in the beauty of her surroundings. Leaving the river, she walked through the tall prairie grass, then gasped, her fingers flying to hold her nose, as a skunk strolled past, its tail held aloft.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the striped creature ambled past. The air smelled of pine and sage and earth, the sun was warm on her face, the grass soft beneath her feet.

Wandering aimlessly, Elayna thought about Michael’s family. They were kind and loving people. She could sense the genuine love and affection between Mo’ohta-vo’nehe and Hemene, the concern they had for their children, the respect Badger and Yellow Spotted Wolf had for their parents.

She had never imagined that Indians loved each other. She had thought of them as savages, but living with the Cheyenne had forced her to change her opinion of Indians. Even though she was an outsider, she could see that the Cheyenne people, as a whole, were a warm and caring people. They were gentle parents, rarely resorting to physical punishment when their children misbehaved. They held their old people in high esteem, revered their gods, respected life.

Though she still refused to learn Michael’s language, she had picked up a few words anyway. Mesevoz meant baby, nakohe meant mother, moheno was the word for horse, hotova’a meant buffalo. It was a strange language, though it had a musical sound on Michael’s tongue.

Michael. His image danced across her mind, unbidden but not undesirable. She had been drawn to him from the first, and not just because he was more handsome than any man she had ever known.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.