Free Meet the New Dawn by Rosanne Bittner Page B

Indians had killed his father only gave him more credibility. And, they had already killed his mother, before his very eyes, when first he came west with her many years ago. He had never forgotten that. But somehow his mind had blanked out the fact that onthat fateful day his own mother had offered her little boy to the Indians in exchange for her life. They had not taken her up on the offer, but had killed her instead. That was all that Charles Garvey remembered, and it was enough to instill the hatred for Indians that his father had nutured over the years.
    “So, your daughter goes east to live among the white eyes,” Swift Arrow said to Zeke.
    Zeke finished chewing a piece of tender venison. “I’ll miss her very much. And I have the terrible feeling that I’ll not see her again, Swift Arrow. She doesn’t want anything to do with her Indian blood. I fear she’ll never come back.”
    A fire at the center of the tipi crackled and popped, and Sweet Grass watched from the shadows.
    “You know better than any man that blood cannot be denied forever,” Swift Arrow told his brother. “All your life you have wrestled with two bloods. You could not deny either one.” He wiped at his mouth and leaned back, and Zeke rubbed at his eyes.
    “Sometimes I can hardly stand the guilt of how my family has suffered, Swift Arrow. Maybe I should have gone back east myself when I married Abbie.”
    “If you had not lived here among your People, you would have been only half a man,” Swift Arrow reminded him. “Abbie knew this. She wanted her man whole and happy.”
    Zeke stared at the flames. “She sacrificed so much to stay out here with me. And she suffered the most. Swift Arrow.” He met his brother’s eyes and knew what the man was thinking. He, too, loved Abbie, secretly, quietly. Zeke knew that was the reason Swift Arrow had come north so many years ago to live among the Sioux—to be away from the woman who belonged to his half brother, for to be near her brought great pain. He had objected vehemently when Zeke first brought his frightened, young wife to the Cheyenne, saying that a white woman would only bring them bad luck, for Swift Arrow had never had any use for whites. But Abbie soon proved her worth. She was not like other white women. She was strongand brave and willing to work and learn. And when Zeke had been forced to go away for many weeks, Swift Arrow had watched over her, and to his own surprise had found himself falling in love with her.
    “She is well?” Swift Arrow asked his brother quietly, thinking himself of the story Wolf’s Blood had told him about Abbie’s abduction and rape.
    “Considering all she has been through, she’s fine. She still weeps for Lillian,” Zeke answered. “It’s never easy for a woman to bury that which has come from her womb.”
    Swift Arrow nodded, while Wolf’s Blood only sat and listened quietly, petting Wolf and waiting for his turn to talk. Something was bothering his father, and it worried him.
    “It took her a long time to get over what Garvey did to her,” Zeke went on, poking at the fire then with a stick.
    “And Margaret?” Swift Arrow asked, thinking it best to change the subject not just for Zeke but for himself, as the thought of men hurting Abbie brought a hot rage to his own heart.
    “Margaret is as dark and beautiful as ever—all Indian like Wolf’s Blood. I’m sure Wolf’s Blood has told you the fine man she’s married to—Morgan Brown.” He leaned back and rolled and lit a cigarette. “I like Morgan. He’s a mulatto, so he understands the hardships mixed bloods suffer, understands some of the problems Margaret had. He’s a strong, tall, very handsome man. And you know how beautiful Margaret always was. They make a damned handsome couple, and their children will be beautiful. I trust Morgan completely. He helped me get back on my feet after the Comanches stole my horses. We work the ranch together now. And Margaret is pregnant. She’s