by Jenna Kernan
She still resisted, drawing away. His heart squeezed in his chest as the seconds slowed to a stop.
Finally she spoke. “Are you doing this for Jovanna? So she won’t lose me?”
“Yes.”
Cassidy’s face fell.
“And no. I realize it will be best for Jovanna. I know I can be both brother and father to her. Long ago, when my mother left my dad, I supported this family. I can do that again. But I asked for you to marry me because I love you.”
Tears rose, filling her lower lids and making her blue eyes seem to swim.
He released her hand and then unclasped the medicine bundle from his neck. It took only a moment to fish the ring from the mix of sacred objects he carried with him. His mother’s ring, already purified and blessed by the smoke of sage and cedar. He had polished the white gold band and cleaned the central diamond flanked by two additional smaller stones. Then he took a page from the white culture and dropped to his knees right there behind tribal headquarters.
“Cassidy, will you be my wife?”
She reached for the ring he offered.
“It was my mother’s. I always planned to give it to my wife, but you can choose another if you like.”
She hesitated and then offered her left hand. He slipped the ring over her left index finger. She righted it with her thumb and then extended her finger for him to admire. He kissed the back of her hand.
“You’re blowing my cover,” she whispered.
“Is that a yes?” he said.
“Yes.”
Cassidy lunged as he rose and they held each other as their mouths joined for a kiss filled with possession and promise.
She now held the heart of the man that made her want to put down roots. Instead of saving the world, Cassidy now wanted only to save this small corner of it. She could help him protect this family, his people and this place. His family would become her family, the one she had always longed for. Another blessing. A place, a purpose, a home, a family and a husband.
He stroked her cheek, smiling down at her.
“You make me want to sing.”
“And play the flute?” she asked.
He laughed. “Yes. I will play it for you.”
“I’m so lucky to have found you,” she said, resting her cheek on his chest. “All of you.”
“Do you still want to go to Washington?” he asked. “Because I would go with you if it makes you happy.”
“You would do that?”
“If it is what you want.”
“Maybe when Jovanna is a little older, for high school. We could go for a few years, then come back.”
“I could see about a job in DC. I have some contacts there.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Really?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Lobbyist, activists, even BIA has Native Americans on salary.”
“I didn’t know that.”
He smiled.
“Well, right now I think Jovanna needs her family and community the most. She needs Black Mountain.”
“Bear born of Eagle,” said Clyne.
She glanced toward the restaurant.
“Look.” She pointed.
There was her daughter in the center of the picture window, standing between her grandmother and brother Clay. Beside them, his brother’s wives crowded close. All of them were looking at them and cheering. She met the gaze of Selena Dosela, who stood beside Glendora. Her daughter’s mentor, she realized and smiled.
Clyne tucked her close to his side and stood tall. “You ever been to an Apache wedding?” he asked.
“Ours will be my first,” she said.
He laughed and set them in motion toward their family.
Epilogue
Four months later
Cassidy stood beside her husband in the circle of onlookers as her daughter prepared for the third most important day of the four-day ceremony. Jovanna had successfully completed ceremonies and rites with her mentor and the medicine man. On Thursday the men had made the wikiup for Jovanna where she received instruction. That night there was dancing and songs. The next day Jovanna was ritually molded by Selena into a new woman and then she danced for over six hours. She had danced and sang thirty-two songs. Once the ceremonies began, her daughter could not touch water and so was fed through a reed by her mentor. Saturday morning, Jovanna greeted the sun, still dancing with both Selena and Clay’s wife, Izzie, at her side. Lea, now a new mother with a three-month-old baby, had joined them on and off but had been there at sunrise.
Then, after only a few hours rest, Jovanna was preparing to dance for the last time. Glendora had made her ready for the blessing. Soon she would transform to Changing Woman to bring good health and fortune to the people assembled.
Earlier Cassidy had stood in the juniper wikiup with her new husband, Clyne, and their immediate family as the medicine man presented her daughter with the crooked oak cane that would give her strength for the rigorous dancing to come. Bright ribbons fluttered in blue, yellow, black and white from the wooden staff. Clyne had told her that these colors represented the four directions.
Jovanna still wore the colorful camp dress of the first and second day when she had carried the food she had prepared to the sweat lodge where the medicine man and her brothers prepared the sacred objects for this rite.
Cassidy’s husband, Clyne, stood beside her, whispering words to explain the Apache prayers. She was beside herself with curiosity to hear the name the medicine man would give her daughter. But that would come tonight after the songs were sung.
Her sisters-in-law had shared their Apache names. Gabe’s fiancé, Selena, was Sunflower Woman. Clay’s wife, Isabella, was Medicine Root Woman. Kino’s wife, Lea, was Morning Star Woman.
This evening Jovanna’s dance would be the most sacred as she and the five Crown Dancers joined to transform her into the physical embodiment of Changing Woman.
The medicine man left them and Cassidy went with the women to help Jovanna dress for her final dance. They returned to the wikiup where Selena stripped Jovanna out of her camp dress. Now her grandmother slipped the elaborately decorated white leather buckskin over her granddaughter’s head. The fringe, representing the rays of the sun, fluttered as the top piece settled into place. An eagle feather was tied to her hair by Selena, Jovanna’s mentor. Next Glendora tied the symbol of Changing Woman to a lock of Jovanna’s hair so that the tear-shaped abalone shell sat centered on her forehead.
Her daughter was transformed before her eyes, standing proud and straight as prayers were spoken and instructions given.
Jovanna moved to stand in the opening of the wikiup. The medicine man sprinkled yellow bee pollen over Jovanna’s dark head, the fine powder trickling down as bright as sunlight on dark water. He smudged more pollen on her cheeks.
Then they move from the domed hut of juniper and out to greet the guests, who cheered. Selena and Glendora remained in place. This was a dance that Jovanna would perform with only the Ga’an, the crown dancers.
The drums began and Jovanna bounced, bending both knees in time to each beat matching the drummers’ pounding rhythm with a strike of her sacred cane. Her brothers disappeared, going, Cassidy knew, to change into the Ga’an, the mountain spirits who would paint Jovanna’s skin white and make her Changing Woman.
The drum sounded. Jovanna bobbed, dipping over seven hundred times by Cassidy’s count for just one dance. Where did she find the strength?
The jangling of thousands of sleigh bells announced the appearance of the Crown Dancers. Cassidy turned to see them approach. Each of the four Cosen brothers now wore a black hood that completely covered their heads. They also wore moccasins and leather aprons. Strands of bells circled their calves and waists. Their torsos were now painted entirely in white, a mixture of corn flour an
d clay that Jovanna had ground with her own hands for this purpose. In addition there were symbols painted on their chests and backs by the medicine man. Each man carried a white wooden sword and Cassidy noted that each was different, as were their wooden crowns. The fifth dancer looked similar to the others but for the white mask and the different headdress. Also his body had been painted black. This was Luke, she knew, who was for this dance the Sacred Clown.
The crowns of the dancers did not resemble what she thought of as a crown except that they fit on their heads. They rose high and were constructed of painted wooden frames. She thought they looked like wooden fencing and were shaped like an open fan. She recognized something that resembled a moon on the top of one and something similar to a snowflake on another. One was a medicine wheel, or was it a hoop? She wasn’t certain.
Jovanna greeted their arrival by joining them as they circled. The dance went on and on, with all the players moving in coordination to the chanted prayer and the beating drum.
She knew they were spirits now, but she recognized the men beneath. Gabe was the most heavily muscled and his chest held the pattern of a wolf print, which she found appropriate for a police chief. Kino, the slimmest, had a symbol of what looked like two snakes on his chest. Clay, the tallest, had a series of large black spots on his chest. Cassidy finally stared at Clyne. Tall and handsome, his crown bobbed as he lifted his wooden sword. The others followed. What was the triangle on his chest symbolizing? It puzzled her and then she knew because of its flat top. Not a triangle. Black Mountain, the place closest to his heart, the land he had returned to in order to be at peace.
The men now surrounded Jovanna. The bowl of paste made from clay and cornmeal was given to Jovanna and she held it in two open hands. Clyne used a grass brush to paint his sister white. Down over her face. Across the beautiful leather dress, into her long loose hair went the paint, covering the dusting of bee pollen that had been sprinkled on her head and smudged on her cheeks, until even Cassidy had to admit, she could not recognize her child. She had transformed into a strange mysterious female—Changing Woman. White Painted Woman. White Shell Woman. Mother to all the Apache People. A sacred goddess.
Cassidy had a chill as she watched her move about the ring of spectators who stood in reverence at her passing.
Jovanna would not touch her face and no one would touch her now as the group made their way about the circle. Clyne used the brush of reeds to fling white paint from the bowl held by Changing Woman onto the assemblage. The Apache believed that her daughter now had the power to heal, bring rain and cure illness. Many in the crowd opened their hands to receive the blessings of Changing Woman as she passed.
Her daughter, who had come to her as a small girl, had at this moment become a woman.
Cassidy found herself bobbing in time, supporting her daughter as did they all. Encouraging her to have strength to endure the rigors of life.
Jovanna was surrounded by a circle of her family, clans and tribe. Only her grandmother, Diane, was absent, having decided to move back east to her family after Cassidy and Clyne’s May wedding on Black Mountain.
Jovanna moved in time with the beat as she danced about the inner circle giving her blessing to the gathering and received their blessings in return for fertility, happiness, health and long life.
After the dancers had circled they danced again. But none would touch Changing Woman until all the sacred songs and dances were done. She did not know where her daughter found the strength. Perhaps from the mountain itself. But she went on and on as the sun set.
As her daughter passed again, the white paint flew from the bundled grass brush. Flecks of white splattered on Cassidy, Glendora and the wiggling baby Tao, who gurgled in his great-grandmother’s arms, the blessings falling upon them like rain.
A runner entered the ring, lighting the central bond fire.
The Crown Dancers, bobbed, their bells jangling, now dark silhouettes against the fire’s light. As they chanted and spun, the orange flames illuminated their painted bodies until Cassidy thought they did seem more spirit than man.
Suddenly and with no warning Cassidy could recognize the drums ceased. Silence echoed.
It was done. The Ga’an spirits disappeared from the ring, returning to the mountain.
The medicine man spoke, giving blessings to all who supported this woman as she danced for them. At last he gave Jovanna her name. First he said the names of her family and Cassidy heard her name uttered with the Cosens’.
As he spoke Glendora translated.
“He says, she is Bear from her father and Eagle from her mother. He says, this woman has returned to the place of her birth after vanishing like the moon above.”
Glendora listened and smiled, nodding her approval of the name.
“Your daughter has earned the name Mountain Moon Woman because she is strong as the mountain and, like the moon who disappears, she always comes back.”
Clyne appeared beside her, slipping his arm about his wife’s waist.
“That was wonderful,” Cassidy said.
Jovanna came toward them. Cassidy clasped her hands before her to keep from reaching out.
“It’s okay,” said Glendora. “It’s over. You can touch her now.”
Cassidy drew her arms around her daughter, who sagged in weariness against her. Clyne’s arms encircled them both.
“Welcome home, Mountain Moon Woman,” said Cassidy and kissed Jovanna’s painted forehead. Then she released her daughter so she could accept congratulations from others.
Clyne dropped a kiss on Cassidy’s lips. He tasted of chalk and smelled of sweat and leather. She wondered if now would be a good time to tell him that he was soon going to become a father to not just Jovanna, but the new life kicking inside her.
“I think some of that bee pollen got on me,” she said.
He smiled and nodded. She swept her hand down over the slight swelling of her stomach.
Clyne’s eyes went wide as understanding dawned and he gave a cry of pure joy and elation as he swept her up in his arms.
He set her down before her and spoke in Apache.
“What did you say?” she asked.
“I said that I love you, Cassidy Walker Cosen, now and forever.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from WARRIOR SON by Rita Herron.
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Warrior Son
by Rita Herron
Chapter One
Deputy Roan Whitefeather didn’t belong on McCullen land.
Yet here he stood at the edge of the party celebrating Ray McCullen’s marriage to Scarlet Lovett like the outsider he was.
Even though he was blood related to the McMullen men. Even though Joe McCullen was also his father.
He was alone. And he would keep it that way.
Maddox, Brett and Ray had no idea that he was their half brother. Hell, he hadn’t known until a few months ago when his mother died and he’d found that damn birth certificate.
And after the trouble the McCullens had this past week—two fires on the ranch—and the bombshell that Joe had a son named Bobby with his mistress, Barbara, Roan would keep the truth about his paternity quiet.
A noise sounded from the hill to the right, and he pivoted, senses honed. Since they still hadn’t apprehended the person responsible for the fires, he had to keep an eye out for trouble. With the entire family in celebratory mode, their guards were down. Which would give anyone with a grudge against the McCullens the perfect opportunity to attack.
Maddox, the town sheriff and Roan’s boss, stepped in front of the group gathered on the lawn by the creek and raised his champagne glass to toast the happy couple.
For a moment envy mushroomed inside him as he watched Ray kiss Scarlet, and the other brothers and their wives congratulating and hugging one another.
They had weathered some storms, but they were one big happy family now.
The only family he’d ever known was his mother and the people on the res.
He didn’t need family or anyone else, he reminded himself.
Still, he’d protect the McCullens because it was his job. And his job was all that mattered to him.
Although questions nagged at him. If Joe McCullen had known about Roan, would he have spent time with him? Would he have brought him to Horseshoe Creek and introduced him to his half brothers?
