Seneca Surrender by Gen Bailey Page A

lowered her back against her bed, she murmured, “Thank you again, sir. You have been most kind. May I ask the name of my benefactor, please? ”
    He didn’t utter a sound. Instead, as though she had suddenly grown hot to his touch, he laid her down and ended their embrace quickly, albeit too quickly. In truth, the action was so suddenly done that it drew Sarah’s attention away from herself, and onto him. Odd. He acted as though he couldn’t get away from her fast enough.
    He stood up to his feet. Only then did he say, “A man does not speak his own name. To do so is dishonorable.”
    “Oh?” As Sarah settled in against the cushion of pine boughs and soft blanket, she studied this man before her and commented, “Then what shall I call you, sir? ”
    He smiled, and Sarah thought the world might have suddenly turned brighter. If it be true that some people’s smiles grace the world around them, and that a single grin might be sufficient to cause others to smile, too, then this man certainly possessed that gift. Indeed Sarah discovered the impulse was more than she could resist, and the corners of her mouth twitched upward.
    But he was continuing to speak, and she gave him her full attention as he said, “You state a good point and so I think I might make an exception with you since there is no other way for you to discover who I am.”
    “Yes, it would be most kind of you to tell me, sir.”
    “ He-noh , White Thunder,” he said. “I am known as White Thunder.”
    Sarah breathed in deeply before saying, “ He-noh . It is a good name, Mr. Thunder. A good name, indeed. Is there a reason? ”
    White Thunder didn’t pretend to misunderstand her question. Coming down to kneel again at her side, he said, “It is well known among my people that the thunder is a kind god, for he accompanies the rain which nourishes the earth. But he is also a lonely god, for his wife, the earth, is ever separate from him. Sometimes, he cannot contain his loneliness and we oftentimes witness what happens when this is so, for the lightning kisses the ground. You have seen this? ”
    “Aye.”
    “Because my wife is ever separate from me, I am called Thunder. Because she is amongst the Sky People, I am named White for the clouds.”
    Sarah was quiet for the beat of a moment while she registered all he had said. Then, softly, she uttered, “You must miss your wife very much.”
    He didn’t respond to her by word. Instead, he drew away from her, as though she had trampled upon forbidden territory. “Sleep now,” he said. “Food to nourish you and uninterrupted rest will see that you regain your strength.”
    Thus spoken, he rose up, and before she could say another word, he turned his back on her and stepped away, leaving Sarah alone to watch his retreating backside.
    Indeed, he was gone so quickly and so fast that his reaction might have seemed strange to another, but not so to Sarah. Sarah well understood the ill effect that a great loss can hold over a person.
    She might not remember exactly why she knew or how she had come to know it, she realized only that it was. Perhaps, she thought, when it involves matters of the heart, instinct alone is all one needs.

Five
     
    Gradually, the darkness that accompanies the return of dawn became the shadowy silver of early morning. Dew clung to every leaf and blade of grass as the world around White Thunder awakened. The trees, the shrubs, the bushes were bursting with the colors of gold, red and orange as they announced their departure from this world into a wintery sleep. Even without the sun, thought White Thunder, the landscape’s brightness lit up the land as though each living thing contained the mystical powers of the sun.
    Interestingly, here and there, White Thunder spotted the pigment of yellow, placed in amongst the greens, reds and golds of the forest. The color reminded him of the hue of the English woman’s hair.
    White Thunder shook his head. He was beginning to think he was