Tykota's Woman(86)

"Did you finish packing?" Hannah asked.

It was painful for Makinna to think about leaving. "Yes. Everything is ready to go."

"You can still change your mind," Hannah said hopefully.

Makinna wanted to stay, but she couldn't. If she remained, she would only watch for Tykota every day, and she could not live that way. "I have to go. You know I do."

"`Looks as if it might rain hard," Hannah observed. "We could use some rain."

Makinna's heart wrenched in pain as she remembered how Tykota had taught her not to fear the thunderstorm. "The earth being reborn," she muttered sadly.

Hannah set her sights on the sky. "More than likely it will pass us by."

Makinna heard footsteps coming up the walkway, and she assumed it was one of the cowhands coming to speak to Hannah. She stood up to give the man room.

She walked to a corner of the veranda and stared up at the sky, leaning her head against a wooden column. She was overwhelmed with melancholy. She was happy for her sister, but, unlike Adelaide, she would never know the joy of marrying the man she loved.

As Tykota stepped onto the veranda and approached his mother, he placed a finger to his lips and nodded toward Makinna. Hannah understood immediately and smiled as joy burst through her heart. She knew why he had come. In fact, she'd been expecting him. "I'll just go inside," she whispered. "Convince her to stay, Ty"

Makinna heard the door open and shut, but she kept watching the sky, still remembering that other storm so long ago when she had first begun to realize that she loved Tykota.

"Were you, perhaps, thinking of me, Makinna?"

She whirled around to find Tykota standing behind her. She pressed a hand to her stomach to stop the fluttering there. Then lightning flashed, and her gaze collided with Tykota's.

"Are you well enough to have ridden a horse here?" She immediately felt foolish for asking such a mundane question, but it was all she could think of to say.

He held out the arm that was in a sling. "So it would seem."

To keep him from knowing she was falling apart inside, Makinna tilted her chin upward. "Your brother sent word as he promised. We knew that he'd taken you back to your tribe."

Makinna's hair glistened in the soft light, and Tykota wanted to reach out and touch it, but he restrained himself.

"I wasn't sure you would come back to Biquera, Tykota."

His voice was deep with feeling. "Why would you think that, Makinna?"

Her words were almost inaudible. "I don't know. I thought..." She paused. "Well, I'm glad you came now, or I would have missed seeing you."

"Oh. Why is that?"

"I'm going away tomorrow. Oh, you probably don't know yet that John Kincaid and my sister married."

"There is nothing that happens on this ranch that I don't hear about, Makinna. I even heard that you were leaving. But I do not think you will."

"And why is that?"

He stepped closer but still didn't touch her. "What makes you think I will allow you to leave?"

A flash of lightning made a jagged pattern across the sky, and he held out a hand to her. She stared at him, then gave him her hand. His clasp was warm, and she trembled when he raised her palm to his lips and placed a passionate kiss there.

"I forgot to thank you for removing the bullet from my shoulder, Makinna."

She could not speak because he was gathering her closer to him. When she would have pulled away, he glared at her, and she relented. Blissfully, she lay her head against his shoulder.

"I have been so worried about you," she admitted.

There was uncertainty in his voice, a trait he had seldom displayed before. "When Mangas told me you were going back to New Orleans, I feared I would not get here in time to stop you."

Makinna's heart was thundering inside of her, and there was a tightening in her throat. "I don't know what you mean."

He tilled her chin up and smiled down at her. "Do we play games, beloved?"

"No, I"

"Your lips beg to be kissed."

"You shouldn't say things like that." She shook her head. "Don't do this to me, Tykota."

"I will never hurt you again, Makinna."

There was something different about him, but she didn't know what it was. He seemed calmer and somehow... lighthearted. "If you were to speak the truth, Tykota, we have both hurt each other."

"I always speak the truth with you." He smiled. "Well, almost always. Some thoughts about you are private, and I keep those to myself."

She moved away, not trusting herself to be so near him. "What about the tribe, Tykota?"

"They will do much better with Coloradous to lead them."