Black Horse by Veronica Blake Page B

tepee, so that he wouldn’t have tosee the immense shame that had undoubtedly lit up her face again. Would he never allow her to forget that stupid episode?
    Probably not! But once they were married she would relish the idea of bathing with him.
    By the time Meadow saw Black Horse returning from his bath, she had managed to calm her racing heart. But she still did not trust herself enough to leave her tepee to stir the stew again until she was sure he was back in his own lodge. She told herself that she would have to learn to accept the fact that he would always have that little incident at the river to hold over her head. Of course, if they did get married, the sight of his naked body would be a daily occurrence. She grabbed a rag and wiped away the sweat from her entire face and neck. At this rate, she was going to melt away before she even had a chance to become Black Horse’s bride.
    “Are you ill, mi-cun-ksi ?” White Buffalo asked worriedly as he walked up to their tepee.
    Meadow threw the rag down on the rocks surrounding the fire pit and attempted to answer him in a coherent manner. “ Sha . Well, maybe…I don’t think so,” she finally admitted. There was no use trying to hide everything from her father any longer—he was far too wise and intuitive.
    “Then come, sit with me and tell me what is bothering you.” White Buffalo motioned for her to join him on the ground in front of their tepee. He sat down in a cross-legged position and patted the spot next to him.
    Meadow hesitated before sitting down beside her father. How would she explain these strange feelings without dying of embarrassment? Finally, she satdown and plucked at a weed that protruded from the ground, as she mulled over what she would say. But White Buffalo did not give her any more time.
    “So tell me, mi-cun-ksi , about these feelings that you get every time you think about Black Horse, or when you see him.”
    Meadow drew in a sharp breath. “How did you know?”
    His ability to sense what was going on in her head was unnerving.
    White Buffalo chuckled. “You might find this hard to believe, but I was young once. And Little Squirrel’s ripe young body made my blood boil faster than that stew bubbling over there in the pot.”
    His words made Meadow giggle nervously. Thinking of her father and mother experiencing these same fanatical emotions seemed very odd to her. “But that was different.”
    “How so?” White Buffalo asked in a surprised but amused tone of voice.
    “Well…because you met each other and fell in love,” Meadow began. She had to be careful not to say anything that would make him suspicious about her adventure at the river yesterday or her encounter with Black Horse in their tepee. “And then you courted Mother and married her in the normal way.”
    A hearty laugh emitted from White Buffalo. “The normal way?” He reached out and grabbed his daughter around the shoulders to pull her close to him in a tight hug. “And you think these things that you are feeling for Black Horse are not normal?”
    Meadow allowed herself to snuggle into her father’s embrace just as she had when she was a little girl.“Well, I just saw him—I mean, met him yesterday,” she answered. “Shouldn’t these feelings develop slowly over time?”
    A sigh escaped from White Buffalo before he spoke. “Not always, and in these crazy days, our people do not have the luxury of time.” He rubbed her back affectionately. “Time is so precious that we should not waste one minute of it. Love all you can today, mi-cun-ksi , because we never know if there will be a tomorrow. That is why I knew I had to take matters into my own hands and propose marriage for you and Black Horse.”
    The full meaning of his words struck Meadow like a bolt of lightning. She was reminded once again of how wise this wonderful man was, and of how lucky she was to have been adopted by him. “Thank you, Father,” she said. “I will not waste even one second,