Dancing on Coals by Ellen O'Connell

Author:Ellen O'Connell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
Published: 2011-10-28T22:00:00+00:00

GAETAN WALKED A short way from the wickiup and stopped, staring up at stars hanging like ice chips in the night sky. The woman had no idea the gift she had given him. For years he had lived with the burden of believing Nilchi would have stayed at the white school if he had the choice. Gaetan had given him no choice.

He would never have asked his brother such a thing outright. No Chihinne would. The woman, so fierce she’d make plans to murder them all in their blankets if she got a wrong answer, wanted to know, so she asked. He felt a terrible weight lifting from his shoulders.

Grief washed through him the way it always would at the thought of Nilchi, but living with the memory of a younger brother who had been annoyed at an overprotective older brother was easier than believing Nilchi had never forgiven him for the school.

Gaetan wore no coat, carried no blanket to throw around his shoulders. The sharp wind cutting through his wool shirt started him moving. He crossed through the center of the camp, his steps slowing as he approached Sigesh’s wickiup.

Going to see what the white woman was up to had been a spur of the moment decision when he saw the children headed that way. He knew now he needed to check on her each time he returned to the camp. Checking on her didn’t require spending time with her, but the thought of listening to her practicing Apache with the children held a strange appeal. Watching her narrow the strange blue-gray eyes as she worked on a difficult sound and then laugh when she mastered it pleased him. And after all there were things he had wanted to know, and now he did.

His intention had been to go to Sigesh tonight. Sigesh never talked about anything except her own wants and needs, but she would accommodate him, and he could spend the night by her fire.

Only he didn’t want to be accommodated. The change in the white woman’s expression when she saw him today reminded him of the way her face lit up when she saw him the night she sat with Agocho. She had feared for herself that night. That was all. Thank you, Gaetan, for keeping me safe.

He had blankets and supplies cached across the valley in a cleft in the mountain that provided protection from the wind. Resigned to a night no warmer than on the trail, he turned his steps in that direction.

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