Across the River by Jeanie P. Johnson

Author:Jeanie P. Johnson [Johnson, Jeanie P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781973235934
Google: zidVtAEACAAJ
Amazon: 1973235935
Goodreads: 36545256
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: 2017-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

We stood, merely staring at each other, neither of us saying a word. I clutched the cloak closer around my body. I didn’t want Wolf to see I was carrying a child. He would know it was his. Slowly, he turned and closed the door, then walked up to where I was standing speechless and frightened.

“Why have you left me?” he asked at last in his own language.

He knew I understood his language so I couldn’t pretend like I didn’t know what he was saying. I shrugged and responded in his own language as well.

“Why should you care? You were going to give me to Running Dog,” I hissed, gaining my confidence and acting braver than I actually felt.

That answer seemed to take him off guard, and he blinked and then said in a low voice, “I would never have given you to Running Dog.”

“Why are you here?” I asked, changing the subject. “I thought your tribe was leaving the area?”

“I could not leave. I had to see you first. I knew you would go back to your home. At first, I was angry you had left. I would have hunted you down, only my mother said it was best if I followed through with my promise to marry We-lung-ung-si since we would have to leave and build a new village and looking for you would take too long. There was no time to try and bring you back, she told me. So I went on a vision quest to ask the Great Spirit if I should let you go while I marry We-lung-ung-si instead. Only my thoughts were filled with your face alone. I couldn’t focus on my vision quest. It seemed like the Great Spirit was telling me you were the one I must be with. I had to have you back again so I came to find you.”

“Why would you want me?” I asked. “You thought I was barren and was going to let Running Dog have me!”

“I told my mother that so she wouldn’t keep questioning me about getting married. If you had become filled with my child, I could have requested to marry you instead.”

“Why would you wish to marry me instead? You don’t even like me!” I accused.

Wolf reached out and took a strand of my hair between his fingers.

“The flame of your hair burns my heart!” he muttered. “At first you were my captive. I was to bring you to the tribe to take the place of the ones we had lost by the white man’s hand. It was the custom. We would adopt you and you would become one of us. As we traveled I knew you were the one I wanted, only I had already been promised to We-lung-ung-si. Once I brought you to our village, and they adopted you, I would be expected to leave my village to marry We-lung-ung-si. I would never see you again! The only way I could keep you was as my slave. You could stay my slave forever, never to be one of the tribe, even if I did marry someone else.

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