Love Forevermore by Madeline Baker

Author:Madeline Baker [Baker, Madeline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Butterfly Kisses Press
Published: 2016-08-21T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

February 1906

Zuniga sat outside Wild Eagle’s lodge, listening to the soft seat of the medicine drum, listening to the shaman’s soft chant.

“Go away, sick,” Crooked Leg sang in a voice weak with age. “Go away, sick. Go away, sick.”

There was a pause in the singing, and Zuniga knew that the aged medicine man was spitting into the fire, sprinkling sacred cattail pollen over Wild Eagle’s ailing wife.

“Go away, sick. Go away, sick.” The shaman’s voice drifted out of the lodge.

Zuniga gazed into the darkness. The singing and the praying would go on all night.

Rising, he walked through the lodges of his people, nodding to some, stopping to say a few words here and there. Wherever he went, he heard people talking about the schoolteacher and how she had married one of the bluecoats.

Abruptly changing direction, Zuniga left the lodges. Swinging aboard his dun stallion, he rode across the dark land until, without conscious thought, he found himself at the schoolhouse.

Reining his horse to a halt, he stared at the darkened building, remembering how patiently Loralee had taught him to read, how pleased she had been with each new accomplishment. He had never admitted it to her, but after his first token show of resistance, he had enjoyed learning to read and write and cipher.

Closing his eyes, he recalled each detail of her face: the clear brown eyes, the full red mouth, the finely shaped nose, her stubborn chin, the skin smooth and unblemished. The image of her body came to haunt him, and he felt the heat rise in his loins. He had made love to other women, nameless street girls who sold their body for the price of a cheap bottle of booze, but none had ever satisfied him the way Loralee had. He had used the others and forgot them as soon as his desire had been quenched. But Loralee had been in his thoughts day and night since the first time he had seen her.

Riding on, he wondered what it would have been like to marry Loralee and settle down somewhere, and then he laughed. He was not cut out to be a husband. He was a man who had always lived alone, keeping his thoughts and fears to himself. Even with Nachi, he was alone, always a man apart from others. He had few friends, though many would have been his friend if he would let them. But he did not like to be close to people, did not find it easy to share himself with others.

He had what he needed. A few close friends, a cousin whose company he enjoyed, Nachi. And there was Kelly. Once he had sought her company on a regular basis, but he had not shared her bed since he met Loralee.

He reined the stallion to a halt beside Shadow Lake and stared at the man reflected in the dark water, a man too proud and stubborn to admit he had lost the only thing he ever wanted.

Muttering an oath, he touched his heels to the stallion’s flanks and headed for home.

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