Bound by Honor Bound by Love by Ruth Ann Nordin Page A

else that bothered her? Shifting
from one foot to the other, he asked, “Is something upsetting
you?”
    He didn’t think she was going to
answer, and by the way her jaw clenched, he suspected she didn’t
want to. Avoiding eye contact, she turned her attention to the
river and didn’t speak for a long moment. When she finally spoke,
he barely heard her. “Who did you choose?”
    His eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t know
what you mean.”
    “ The woman who’ll be your
second wife so you can have more children. Who did you
choose?”
    It took him a moment to understand
what she meant. “No, I will not take another wife.”
    She looked at him then and a part of
her relaxed. “You won’t?”
    “ No,” he softly
replied.
    An emotion he wasn’t comfortable with
struggled to come to the surface of his controlled exterior when he
realized she was relieved. He wanted to take her in his arms and
assure her that he’d never take a second wife. He didn’t want to be
with anyone but her, and after knowing how vulnerable he could be
during the times they’d been intimate, there was no way he could
open himself to someone else the way he’d opened himself to her. It
was too frightening and wonderful at the same time.
    “ If it’s not that, then
what is it?” she asked, lowering her arms in a gesture he
understood to mean she wasn’t closing herself off to him anymore…at
least not until she found out what he was going to tell
her.
    Letting out a weary sigh, he decided
he better get to it. Waiting wasn’t going to make things better.
“The chief will make an announcement to the men tomorrow, and,” he
shook his head, “I’m sorry, Onawa. There’s nothing I can do. He is
determined that it must be this way. He had a dream, and you
understand how important dreams are.”
    “ What is the
announcement?”
    He swallowed. “All the white men and
women must leave the tribe.”
    “ Why?”
    “ The chief wants to
replenish our numbers, and the white people are coming in and
having children with our people. This is making it impossible to
bring our tribe back to the way it was before the Smallpox
outbreak. What he wants is to preserve our way of life.”
    He paused and waited for her response,
wondering if she would hate him or if she would understand and
accept what would happen. She didn’t answer him right away. Her
gaze went to the Missouri River.
    “ Onawa?” he softly
asked.
    When she turned to face him, there
were tears in her eyes. “I’m going to lose my family?”
    Her words stung him as if an arrow had
found its way into his heart. “Am I and the child you carry not
your family?”
    “ Of course, you are, but
what about my father and my sister? What about my
nieces?”
    “ Your father can
stay—”
    She shook her head. “No, he can’t.
He’s going to marry Erin.”
    “ Julia’s aunt?”
    “ Yes. And she’s white. That
means he must leave to be with her. I already know he’ll go because
he didn’t love my mother. He cared about my mother, but he never
loved her. He married her because she had the sacred bundle. It was
an arrangement.”
    “ But if he cared about her,
isn’t that good?”
    A tear slid down her cheek, and she
quickly brushed it away. “Do you think so little of
love?”
    “ This isn’t about love.
It’s about what’s good for the tribe.”
    “ No, no it’s not! Making
people leave who’ve helped us is not good for the tribe. How is
sending Gary away good for the tribe? It’s because of him you were
able to bring back supplies we needed to make it through the
winter. We didn’t have enough on our own. And how is losing Chogan
who provides food for three lodges good for the tribe?”
    “ You don’t understand. The
chief is trying to protect our identity. Our sacred bundles, our
traditions, our ceremonies… They don’t mean what they used to.” He
sighed, knowing she could only think of the people she was about to
lose and knowing she had every right to be