Free Brave Beginnings by Ruth Ann Nordin Page B

Placing it on the stove, she grabbed a few
potatoes and started slicing into the first one. “I feel like I’m
dreaming. It’s too good to be true, isn’t it?”
    “You’re not dreaming. Woape told me he’s been
pining for you ever since you left. Members of his tribe insisted
he find a wife, and they wanted him to marry another Mandan. They
were ready to force his hand on the matter. You got out there just
in time. That’s a good sign, Julia. It’s God’s doing, I tell
you.”
    “Can you imagine if Gary and Woape came out
here a week later?” She shivered at the thought.
    “The timing was perfect.” She patted her
niece’s arm. “While you take Chogan to the preacher and make it
official, I’ll see what I can do about getting your room ready. A
couple needs a bigger bed than the one you got, and he’ll need
space for his things. You should get him some clothes. I’ll give
you the money once we’re done with breakfast.”
    “I’m the luckiest woman in the world. Chogan
truly is a wonderful man.”
    Her aunt gave her a knowing smile. “That he
is, and I’m happy you finally found a man you can get excited
about. You wouldn’t have been happy with Ernest.”
    Julia knew her aunt was right. Ernest had
been kind, but he wasn’t Chogan. “Maybe Ernest will find someone
better suited for him.”
    “I hope so. Now, let’s get breakfast going.”
Erin motioned to the potato Julia stopped slicing into. “Chogan
might be patient, but patience has its limits. I saw the way he was
looking at you, and he’s eager to be your husband.”
    Blushing, Julia returned to the task at
hand.
     
     
    ~~********~~
     
     

Chapter 8
     
    Chogan assumed that as soon as they left the
man Julia and her aunt called the preacher, they would return to
the house where he and Julia could be alone, but when Erin and
Woape took Penelope back to the house and Julia didn’t follow, he
realized he was wrong.
    “You will need clothes,” Julia told him when
he asked her why they stayed outside the preacher’s house.
    White man’s clothes. He knew this was what he
agreed to when he came here to live with her. He had to shed off
his past and embrace the new. And she was right. The white man
would not let him work here unless he dressed like other white men.
He glanced at his clothes and then back at her. He couldn’t imagine
his life without her; he loved her more than he loved his first
wife. But his first marriage had been an agreement between
families. This second marriage was a choice.
    He took her hand. “We get clothes.”
    “Oh. We probably shouldn’t hold hands.”
    He frowned. She hadn’t rejected his touch
before. “Why not?”
    She looked at him and, seeming to understand
the injured tone in his voice, she smiled. “I’m sorry. It’s not
that I don’t want to. It’s just that I don’t think it’s
allowed.”
    “People in tribe do.”
    “But we are here.”
    She was right, and he shouldn’t have been
surprised, and yet, he was. Many things would be different. “I
learn.” He pulled the robe around himself and waited for her
instruction.
    She appeared uncertain, as if a silent battle
waged in her mind.
    “It is good. I learn quick,” he assured
her.
    “No. It’s not that. It’s...” She shrugged,
peered up at him and whispered, “I do want to hold your hand.”
    Her meaning dawned on him. So she wasn’t
afraid he couldn’t adjust to this new life. That made him feel
better. “I understand. We hold hands when alone. In house.”
    “Yes.” Looking relieved, she motioned down
the sidewalk. “Uncle Clarence gets his clothes fitted at Anthony’s
store. We will get your clothes there.”
    He nodded and followed her, all too aware of
the stares people sent their way. Turning his gaze to Julia, he
wondered if she noticed it too, but she didn’t seem to. Perhaps she
did but ignored it? Or maybe he was keenly aware of it because he
was the one who was out of place. That made him more sensitive to
the