Heart of the Hunter (21 page)

“I do, I do.” She stared at his chest, at the dark stain that
was spreading ever wider.
Oh God, please don’t let him die, not now…please,
I’ll be so good…

“Kelly…” He pressed his hand over hers. “Love…you…”

“I love you.”

She whispered the words past her tears, but he didn’t hear
them.

With a sob, she kissed him, willing him to know with his
last breath that she loved him.

She held tight to his hand, watching the shallow rise and
fall of his chest. A moment later, a long shuddering sigh wracked his body and
then he lay still.

It was over, she thought, and then she felt a warm breath
whisper past her cheek, felt a hand in her hair.

“Tekihila?”

Kelly opened her eyes, expecting to see Blue Crow kneeling
beside her. Instead, she found herself gazing into Lee’s deep black eyes.

She stared into his face, unable to speak.

“Tekihila,
are you hurt?”

“Lee?”

“Roan Horse is gone.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you not know me,
wastelakapi?”

“Blue Crow?”

“Han.”

“No.” She shook her head. “No, it can’t be.”

Taking her hands in his, he sat up, then slipped his arm
around her shoulders.

“How?” Kelly asked.

Blue Crow shook his head. How could he explain what he
himself did not understand? Still, he owed it to her to try.

“I watched his spirit leave his body,” Blue Crow said, a
note of awe in his voice, “and before I had time to think of what I was doing,
I willed myself to take his place.” He shook his head again, still unable to
believe what had happened. “I cannot explain it,
tekihila.
My spirit
lives in his body and yet a part of Roan Horse remains.”

“No.” Kelly shook her head. “No, it can’t be.”

“It is true,
wastelakapi.”

Kelly stood up, needing a moment to be alone. It was all so
incredible.

From the corner of her eye, she watched Lee…or was it Blue
Crow?…stand up. He moved toward the stranger’s body and searched the man’s
pockets until he found the key to the shackles. Removing the chains from his
feet, Blue Crow turned toward her, a question in his eyes.

At her nod, he knelt to remove the shackles from her feet.
Tossing the leg irons aside, he gazed up at her. His eyes were as black as ebony,
soul-deep and filled with love.

“A hundred years I waited for you,
wastelakapi.
Will
you now deny me?”

“It is you,” Kelly murmured, her voice filled with wonder.

She glanced toward the shelf where Blue Crow’s body had
lain. Nothing remained but the faded Hudson’s Bay blanket.

Blue Crow stood up and took her hands in his. “Will you be
my woman,
tekihila?
Will you share your life with me here and in the
hereafter?”

“I will,” Kelly replied breathlessly, and then he was
kissing her, his lips warm with the promise of a thousand tomorrows.

Epilogue

Kelly sat on the top rail of the corral, watching Blue Crow
put a young filly through its paces.

Three years had passed since the strange happenings in the
cave. They had been the happiest three years of Kelly’s life.

The first few days after the shooting, she hadn’t known how
to feel. She had been torn between the need to grieve for Lee and the need to
rejoice that Blue Crow was alive, truly alive. And then she would remember that
Blue Crow was alive only because Lee had sacrificed his life to save hers and
she wanted to cry all over again.

Most confusing of all had been watching Blue Crow.
Sometimes, when she gazed into his fathomless black eyes, she saw Lee staring
back at her and she had come to believe that what Blue Crow said was true, that
a part of Lee’s spirit had remained with them.

The morning after the shooting, they had gone back and
buried the man in the cave. His driver’s license identified him as Lucas Trask,
age 31, unmarried. That same afternoon, they had taken the gold into Coleville
and cashed it in.

A huge weight seemed to fall from Kelly’s shoulders as they
deposited the money in the bank. While they were opening the account, Kelly
overheard one of the tellers remarking that Harry Renford had quit his job
without giving notice and left town.

A week after the shooting, she had married Blue Crow in a
simple ceremony, witnessed only by the minister and his wife.

For a time, she had worried about the two bodies buried on
her property, but no one had come around asking after their whereabouts. Kelly
couldn’t help wondering if Harry Renford had been mixed up in the plot to steal
the gold, if that wasn’t why he had suddenly left town.

Kelly let her gaze wander over the ranch. The corrals were
filled with horses now. Cattle grazed in the pasture behind the house. Chickens
scratched in the dirt, a cat lay sprawled in the sun, a shaggy black dog slept
in the shade under the porch.

In the last three years, they had remodeled the house,
installing all new appliances, as well as wall-to-wall carpet in the living
room and bedrooms. At the end of last year, they had added on a nursery for the
baby that would be born in the summer.

And still they had more money than they could spend. At Blue
Crow’s suggestion, they had started a scholarship fund to help send
underprivileged Lakota kids to college. It gave Kelly a deep sense of
satisfaction, knowing that a large share of the treasure that Blue Crow had
guarded for a hundred years was being used to help his people.

Kelly smiled as Blue Crow walked toward her. Reaching up, he
lifted her gently to the ground. As always, whether they were apart an hour or
a day, they could not keep from touching each other.

She went into his arms readily, her head resting against his
chest, and knew she would ask no more of the future than to spend the rest of
her life in this man’s arms.

She felt Blue Crow’s hand slide between them to rest on her
stomach, now swollen with Blue Crow’s child. It was a boy, of that she had no
doubt, and his name would be Lee Roan Horse.

“Ohinniyan, wastelakapi,”
Blue Crow murmured.

“Forever, beloved,” Kelly replied, and hand in hand they
followed the path toward home.

Also by
Madeline Baker

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