"Not in this." Makinna shook her head. "I should be comforting you."
"I don't need comforting, Makinna. You may think me coldhearted, but I don't miss Tom, and I no longer feel guilty for not being the kind of wife he wanted. I even have hope that I may find the kind of love I always needed."
"John Kincaid," Makinna said softly.
"How did you guess?"
"I saw the way he looked at you, and I knew he was developing strong feelings for you. But you must be sure that you love him."
"The feeling is new for me, and it's too early to call it love, but I have never felt such softness toward a man, this need to be closer to him and learn all about his life."
Makinna stood and pulled her sister up with her. "Then by all means you should return to Texas."
"Not without you."
"No, you don't, Adelaide. You are not going to trick me into returning to Texas."
"Sometimes I believe you are too smart for your own good, Makinna. But I do like John more than any man I know."
Makinna kissed her cheek. "Then go back."
"How would you like to sail around the world, visit exotic places, and stay as long as we want to?"
"I wouldn't want to any more than you do."
"Then what will we do? We have to be out of this house within two days."
"I don't know. I wish I did."
Tykota stared at his mother long and hard. "What are you saying-that Makinna is not coming back?"
"I don't think she will, Ty." She wanted to hold him and comfort him as she had when he was small, but he was a man now, and he would not welcome such a display from his mother. "She left this letter for you."
He ignored the letter. "Just what did she say?"
"Makinna wanted me to make you understand that she loved you enough to let you go."
"What is that supposed to mean? I know that if I loved someone, I would not let her go."
"But you did, Tykota. Right from the first, you let her know that there could be nothing between the two of you," Mrs. Silverhorn reminded him.
"I later learned that I could not live without her. Everything else became meaningless." There was desperation in his voice. "I want Makinna with me for the rest of our lives."
"Make me understand, Ty. What were your plans for the two of you? Were you going to take her back to your valley and shut her away from the only world she knew?"
"No. I was going to live in her world. I was going to live here at Biquera."
Hannah Silverhorn blinked back tears. "That's what I wanted for you. But Makinna was wise enough to realize that too many people made demands on you, even I, with the best of intentions. She did not want her love for you to interfere with your duty or your own choices. She was afraid that if you walked away from your people, you would one day resent her for it."
"Interfere with my life? She has done that since the first day I met her! If I had known that she was leaving me forever the night she asked me to go, I would have taken her away with me."
"And what would the two of you have done, Ty?"
He glanced at the ceiling. "I have found it difficult to live among my people. No matter how well Mangas taught me our ways and laws, I have lived too long apart from them, and I feel a restlessness stirring within me."
"Is there no woman of the Perdenelas that you could, if not love, at least respect, and who could one day bear you fine sons?"
"There are too many women at Valle de la Luna who would be only too willing to do just that. But none of them touch my heart. None ever will."
Hannah Silverhorn nodded sadly, feeling his pain deep in her own heart. "I will leave you alone to read your letter. Later, if you feel like it, we will talk." She pressed Makinna's letter into his hand and quietly left the room.
Tykota stared at the letter. At last he went to the chair by the lamp, opened it, and began to read.
My dearest Tykota,
When you read this, I shall be gone. Do not be angry with me, and try to understand why I do this. Never doubt that I love you with all my heart and always will. But, loving you as I do, I could never be the one who stood between you and your people. What happened between us was beautiful and rare. I will always remember our last night together and put it in a secret place in my heart to be cherished always. As you go through life, I know you will realize that my leaving was best for you. Just know that there will always be someone somewhere who loves you with all her heart and wishes you only happiness.
The letter was unsigned. Tykota crushed it in his fist and hung his head. She did not love him as much as he loved her, or she never would have left him. And he felt hopeless and bereft that he would never see her again.