Where the Wild Wind Blows by Nancy Morse

Author:Nancy Morse
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Nancy Morse
Published: 2011-05-01T12:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

When Pretty Shield’s lungs, weakened from the harsh winter, drew their last breath, Black Moon carried his mother outside so that she could die in the arms of her mother, the Earth.

He stood now in taut silence while the women prepared Pretty Shield’s body for the scaffold, dressing her in her finest attire, placing on her feet the spirit moccasins with beaded soles, painting her face with the marks of honor to which she was entitled, and tucking the awl case and sewing kit beside her. As the burial bundle was hoisted atop a scaffold, Black Moon took one long last look and turned his scowling face away. One more thing he loved was lost.

When he had returned from the hunt and heard that Katie had ridden off with the bluecoats, he had walked around the village like a loaded gun about to go off. His heart was black over it, and he blamed everyone for not stopping her. People learned to stay out of his way. Only Good Deeds seemed to want anything to do with him, trying hard to catch his eye whenever he rode by.

Black Moon felt sorry for her. He would never have willingly given up the woman he loved the way his brother had given up Good Deeds. She had been betrayed, not maliciously, nor out of ignorance, but out of his brother’s love for the people and a misguided notion of the best way to show it. And now she walked around like one who was as dead inside, as he himself was.

On a crisp day in the Moon of Frost on the Tipis, when it was obvious to everyone that the red-haired woman was not coming back, Black Moon was approached by Good Deeds.

“If Black Moon cannot have the woman he wants, would he be willing to settle for someone else?” she asked.

“There is no one else,” he said flatly.

Good Deeds drew in a deep breath, and said, “There is me.”

Black Moon eyed the thin, frail girl. Clutched in her arms was a squirming infant wrapped in a blanket of blue trade cloth. “You do not want me,” he said. “I can give you nothing.”

“I do not ask for myself. I do not love you and you do not love me, and I know this thing with my brother stands between us. I ask only for the sake of the child.” She drew the blanket away from the baby’s face. “This is your nephew. Some day he will need someone to teach him how to be a strong warrior.”

“There are others who can teach him.”

“Perhaps. But who will protect him when Gray Wolf sees his resemblance to your brother?”

Black Moon looked down into the face of his nephew, then back up into Good Deeds’ beseeching eyes. “What kind of life would you have with me?”

“What kind of life will we have without you? You are our only hope.”

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