Again they made love.
The sun sent its slanted rays through the trees overhead, warning Lauralee that soon it would be evening. She did not want to worry Aunt Nancy. And she wanted to have a private talk with Uncle Abner about the stallion.
Feeling deliciously drained from making love, Lauralee rose shakily to her feet. Laughing softly, she began dressing. “If you had the energy to last through making love three times today, I am positive that you can endure a day’s travel on horseback,” she teased as Dancing Cloud moved into his own clothes. His shoulder was stiff and painful as he raised it to slip on his shirt.
“Tomorrow,” he said thickly. “We shall leave tomorrow. Nothing will stop us from starting our journey to my home tomorrow, my o-ge-ye. My people beckon me home. They grow weary of not having a chief to lean on for true leadership.”
Completely dressed, her hair thrown over her shoulders, Lauralee leaned into Dancing Cloud and clasped her arms around his neck. “No,” she said, smiling up at him. “Nothing or no one will stop us, darling. Yes, I feel sad leaving my aunt and uncle, but I am anxious to travel to your village to make an acquaintance with your people. Do you truly think they will approve of me? Or will they see me as an interference in your life, and also theirs?”
“When they see you and get to know you how could they not see the goodness and sweetness that I see in you?” he said, drawing her into his tight embrace. “Do not worry over such things. Enjoy life. Together, life is filled with much meaning, hope, and promise.”
Lauralee closed her eyes, blocking out her fears and doubts, at least for now. Dancing Cloud had a way to make her forget.
He was good for her.
He was her promise of all tomorrows.
* * *
Supper had been eaten. Lauralee had helped her aunt with the dishes. Her uncle was in his office, going over the day’s events in his mind. Dancing Cloud had taken a walk to commune with the Great Spirit.
Laying her apron aside, Lauralee hugged Nancy, then stepped back and gave her a pensive smile. “Is it truly all right if I go and knock on Uncle Abner’s door?” she asked softly. “I do so badly want to talk over something of importance with him.”
“Honey, Abner will welcome your interference tonight,” Nancy said, patting Lauralee on the arm. “Go on. Talk to him. He’ll enjoy having a few private moments with you.” Tears sprang into Nancy’s eyes. “We’re both going to miss you so, Lauralee.”
“I will miss you, as well.” Lauralee flicked tears from her eyes. “But I shall return and see you from time to time. I promise.”
“Honey, don’t make promises so quickly that might be hard to keep,” Nancy said, wiping her eyes with a lacy handkerchief that she had taken from her dress pocket. “The Great Smoky Mountains is far from Mattoon, like a foreign country across the ocean, to me.”
“But I truly shall try to come back and see you as often as I can,” Lauralee persisted.
Nancy took Lauralee by an elbow and led her out of the kitchen, down the dimly lit corridor, and to the foot of the staircase. She nodded toward the stairs. “Go on,” she murmured. “Go and have that talk with your uncle. I’ll wait in the parlor. I have some embroidery to do.”
Lauralee gave Nancy a warm hug, then scurried up the steps. When she got outside her uncle’s study, she stopped and inhaled deeply.
Then she knocked softly on the door.
“Come on in,” Abner said, smiling at Lauralee as she stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. “Lauralee. I hoped you’d come. I’d like some private time with you.”
“Oh?” Lauralee said, raising an eyebrow.
Abner gestured with a hand toward a chair that sat opposite his desk. “Come,” he said, his voice drawn. “Sit. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
Lauralee’s heart beat rapidly as she eased into the leather chair. She placed her hands demurely on her lap, her back straight, her knees weak. “Sir, today, while Dancing Cloud and I were sightseeing, we found the most beautiful horse at The Stables,” she said softly.
She continued to recount the experience of the day, and how rudely Dancing Cloud and she had been treated by the owner.
She proceeded to tell him her wishes to have the white stallion for a special gift for Dancing Cloud.
“Please do this for me, Uncle Abner,” she pleaded. “You are a man who is surely quite practiced at making business dealings. If I give you the money, will you please go and purchase the white stallion for me? I would so appreciate it.”
“You say that Kevin Banks was quite brash to you and you’re Cherokee, eh?” Abner said, as he placed his fingertips together before him. “Seems I’ll have to have a talk with that man.”
He frowned over at Lauralee. “Do you still insist on leaving tomorrow with Dancing Cloud?” he asked, his voice breaking.
“I love him,” she said, lifting her chin proudly. “I plan to marry him. So, yes, Uncle Abner, I plan to leave with him.”
“Then, dear, knowing that my arguments would be in vain, I give you my blessing,” Abner said, inhaling a quavering breath. “And I will do as you ask. I will go and purchase the stallion for you. It’s too late tonight to take care of the transaction, but I’ll be up at the crack of dawn to see that it’s done.”
“But Dancing Cloud said that he will be leaving that early,” Lauralee fretted aloud.
“Just tell him that you have reasons to wait for me to return once he sees that I am gone,” Abner said, smiling over at her. “He would not deprive you of a last farewell to your uncle, now would he?”
“No, I’m sure he wouldn’t,” Lauralee said, laughing softly. She left the chair and went around the desk and bent to her knees before her uncle. She flung herself into his arms. “Thank you for everything. Oh, so much for everything.”
Tears pooling in his eyes, he patted her back, then embraced her long and hard.
* * *
With the sweet fragrance of flowers all around him, Dancing Cloud was on his knees, looking heavenward. “Oh, Great Spirit, Wah-kon-tah, whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me,” Dancing Cloud pleaded to the stars, the moon, the sky. “I need your strength and wisdom these coming weeks. Please guide me safely home. I seek strength. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. Help me lead my woman into a world unknown to her . . . the world of my people.”
When he was through he bowed his head and listened. He soon felt the wind blow gently around and over him. He had been heard. He felt at peace with the days that lay ahead.
Chapter 21
When two mutual hearts are sighing
For the knot there’s no untying.
—THOMAS CAMPBELL
The sky was streaked with crimson ribbons as the sun rose slowly from behind the horizon. Feeling that it was important to keep his promise to Lauralee, Abner guided his horse onto the small street that led to The Stables. He wanted her to remember him and Nancy with pleasant memories. Even after she was gone, he wanted her to still consider them as her family. He had visions of her returning with her children to spend Christmas each year in the Peterson House.
Of course he knew the chances were small of this ever happening. The Smoky Mountains were quite far from Mattoon. And once Lauralee arrived there, she would be thrust into a world very separate from any that she had ever known. She would have much to learn. She would have to become Cherokee, herself, heart and soul, to survive among them. She might soon forget that the Petersons ever existed.
Abner set his jaw and his eyes narrowed angrily. He was still not able to understand why Boyd had asked an Indian to escort his daughter to Mattoon. But there was no sense laboring over the if’s and why’s of things any longer. Lauralee’s mind was made up. There was no way around the fact that she had chosen Dancing Cloud over living with her aunt and uncle.
Abner’s thoughts shifted elsewhere when he saw a group of men standing beside The Stable’s tall white fence.
His gaze went from man to man, recognizing them all.
Then he stared at one in particular. Sheriff Wes Decker. He was a tall and well-built man, who stood eye to eye with Kevin Banks, seemingly involved in a serious discussion. One of the other men was Sheriff Decker’s deputy. The other was Kevin’s stable hand.
They all turned and looked toward Abner as he swung his horse and buggy beside the fence. They sauntered over to him and before he had the chance to leave the buggy, Sheriff Decker was there, his gray eyes fixed on him.
“Is that Cherokee still stayin’ at your place, Abner?” the sheriff asked, slipping his massive hands inside the front pocket of his dark breeches.
“He’s leaving this morning,” Abner said, guardedly looking from man to man as they came and stood beside Sheriff Decker. “Why do you ask? What’s this small gathering about, anyhow, this time of morning?”
Kevin edged in close beside Sheriff Decker. “Abner, seems you’ve been housin’ a horse thief these past few days,” he said, peering angrily up at him.
“What’s that you say?” Abner said, his spine stiffening. He looked slowly from man to man again as they all edged closer.
“The Cherokee?” Kevin said flatly. “That damn grayback scum Cherokee was here admirin’ my white stallion yesterday with your niece. Well, seems he wanted to do more than just look. Abner, the stallion was gone this mornin’. Everything points to the Cherokee being guilty of horse stealin’.”
“And what proof do you have of his guilt?” Abner asked tersely. “Dancing Cloud is housing only one horse in my stable. His.”
“I heard that he stole another horse here in Mattoon. He’s a smart Injun,” Kevin said, laughing sarcastically. “He wouldn’t take the stallion where you could see it. He has surely hid it.”
“Kevin, first of all the horse that Dancing Cloud took the night he left the hospital has been returned to the rightful owner. He never intended to keep it. It was a means by which he could get to what he called in his Cherokee beliefs as ‘healing water’,” Abner said, his voice smooth and even. “And as for you. Why do you think that anyone would believe anything you say?”
Abner left his buggy and went and stood eye to eye with Kevin. “As I see it, if someone could be so quick at humiliating my niece, they could be as quick to make up a lie.”
Kevin shuffled his feet nervously, his eyes wavering. “So you know, then, that she was here with the Cherokee,” he said tightly. “That’s proof enough that the Injun had the chance to admire and want the stallion. He was surely making plans on how to steal it the minute he saw it. I lived out west for a spell. I learned damn quick that Injuns cain’t be trusted. Especially one who wore gray during the war.”
“The war is long over, Kevin,” Abner grumbled. “You’d best put it behind you. I’d say there’s been enough commotion around here since the Cherokee was ambushed by someone whose opinions of the Indian match your own. Why, Kevin, I might just accuse you of shooting Dancing Cloud.”
Of course Abner knew that Kevin didn’t. But making him uneasy about perhaps being accused of such a heinous crime seemed the right thing to do. Kevin deserved taking down a notch or two over having treated Lauralee in such a callous manner.
“I’d be the first to confess that I hold no love for any Rebel in my heart,” Kevin stammered out. “But to accuse me of ambushin’ a gray coat ain’t right, Abner. All I want to do this morning is get back my stallion and see that the man who stole it gets thrown in jail.”
“Seems as though we have enough to go on to make an arrest,” Sheriff Decker said, patting a heavy pistol holstered at his right hip. “Abner, you’ll probably be the judge to hand down the Cherokee’s sentencing. So don’t you think it’s best to cooperate with me and accompany me to your house to arrest the Indian?”
Although Abner wanted a way to keep Lauralee in Mattoon, he sure as hell didn’t want to see Dancing Cloud jailed, which would, indeed, keep Lauralee with him and Nancy for some time to come. Abner knew that if an Indian was accused of anything and jailed, there was hardly a chance in hell of him getting off without being hanged.
Especially a gray-coat Indian.
“Wes, the evidence is way too weak to make the arrest, and you know it,” Abner said, placing his fists on his hips. “And you know as well as I that Kevin’s word isn’t worth spit.”
“I’ve got a witness,” Kevin said, his eyes gleaming as Abner looked quickly his way. “If I have to I’ll go and get him now. It’s Jason Pratt. The little boy that lives yonder? He told me that he saw the Indian lurking around the stables after dark. Ain’t that enough proof of the Indian’s guilt?”
Abner scratched his brow idly as he thought back to the previous night. He couldn’t account for all of Dancing Cloud’s time. The Cherokee had excused himself after dark so that he could go into the woods and commune with his Great Spirit.
Did Dancing Cloud, instead, go to The Stables and steal the stallion? Abner wondered.
Abner had been too intent on searching through law books to help him with his decisions in court to notice much of anything, especially when Dancing Cloud came into the house. The law books had been studied way into the night after Lauralee had come to him, to ask his assistance in purchasing the stallion.
He narrowed angry eyes at Kevin. “You’d better be telling the truth and that young man who you said was a witness to the crime had better be able to testify in court that he saw Dancing Cloud take the horse, or by God, Kevin, I’ll throw the book at you. You’ll wish you never messed with Judge Abner Peterson.”
Worrying about Lauralee’s reaction to Dancing Cloud’s arrest, yet knowing that for now there was nothing more he could do to stop it, Abner climbed back into his buggy. With the sheriff and his deputy riding on each side of the buggy, they made their way through the town, down Broadway, then swung into Abner’s circular drive.
Lauralee was placing her last satchel in her buggy when she heard the clatter and commotion of approaching horses. Dancing Cloud came from the house and down the steps of the back porch when he also heard the horses. He moved to Lauralee’s side and watched the approach of Abner and the two lawmen.
“What could they want?” Lauralee asked, giving Dancing Cloud a quick glance. “What are the lawmen doing with my uncle?”
Dancing Cloud did not respond. He stiffened, his eyes looking suspiciously from one lawman to the other.
Then his gaze shifted to Abner. Dancing Cloud’s insides froze when he saw the look on Lauralee’s uncle’s face. He was solemn. His eyes were filled with a strange sort of apology as he stared back at Dancing Cloud.
Abner drew his horse and buggy to a stop. He dropped the reins into the seat and stepped to the ground, the sheriff and his deputy dismounting at the same time.
“Uncle Abner, what’s the matter?” Lauralee asked weakly. Her heart thumped wildly over the strange behavior of her uncle and the two lawmen as they walked toward her and Dancing Cloud.
“Step aside, miss,” Sheriff Decker said, slipping a pair of handcuffs from his rear pocket. “I’ve my duties to perform.”
Lauralee’s eyes widened and she became dizzy with fear as she watched the sheriff reach out for Dancing Cloud with his free hand.
“Hold your wrists together, Cherokee,” Sheriff Decker said thickly, his eyes never leaving Dancing Cloud’s face. “Don’t give me no fight. You wouldn’t have a chance in hell of escaping.”
“Why are you doing this?” Lauralee cried, going to grab the sheriff’s arm. “What are you arresting Dancing Cloud for? It’s a mistake. It has to be a mistake!”
“Horse stealin’ is a serious crime, miss,” the sheriff said, frowning down at Lauralee.
“The horse I borrowed has been returned to its rightful owner,” Dancing Cloud finally said after somewhat getting over the initial shock of what was happening.
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Sheriff Decker grumbled. “There’s a witness that said you stole Kevin Bank’s white stallion last night. I’d
say that calls for an arrest, wouldn’t you?”
“I did not take the white stallion,” Dancing Cloud said, his jaw tight, his throat dry.
Sheriff Decker nodded toward his deputy. Deputy Dobbs came in a rush to the sheriff’s side.
“Watch him,” the sheriff growled. “Draw your gun on him if he even looks like he’s going to resist arrest.”
Knowing that he had no other choice but to do as he was ordered, yet knowing himself who had framed him, Dancing Cloud held out his hands, his wrists quickly in the handcuffs.
“Get his horse, Dobbs,” Sheriff Decker said. “Bring the horse to the Indian.” He narrowed his eyes at Dancing Cloud. “I’m helpin’ you onto your horse. Don’t try any funny business, do you hear? Handcuffed, you can’t get far.”
Lauralee ran to Abner. She clutched his arms frantically. “Do something,” she cried. “Tell them they are arresting the wrong man. Dancing Cloud didn’t steal that horse. You and I both know it. They are arresting an innocent man.”
“Honey, I’ll see that justice is done,” Abner said, easing Lauralee’s fingers away.
“Justice?” she cried. “You call this justice? Lord, Uncle Abner, just how much more humiliation do you think Dancing Cloud can take? Why can’t you stop this? Let us be on our way. Please, Uncle Abner. Please stop this. You are a man of power in the community. One word spoken and he’d be released.”
Abner clutched his fingers to her shoulders. “Lauralee, it’s not that simple,” he said hoarsely. “Now settle down. We’ll get this straightened out. You’ll see.”
“He shouldn’t have to spend one minute behind bars!” Lauralee screamed. She ran after Dancing Cloud as he rode away, the sheriff holding the reins of his prisoner’s horse. “Let him go!”
She stumbled, then jerked away from her uncle when he came and tried to comfort her.
She turned and ran to the stable. She took one of her uncle’s horses from a stall, saddled it, then swung herself into the saddle. “By damn I shall stop this if I have to shoot that damn sheriff and deputy!” she screamed at her uncle, then rode away, getting only a slight glimpse of her aunt at the door, her face drawn and pale from the commotion at hand.
Wild Abandon Page 20
