Wolf’s Glory by Maddy Barone Page B

like holding the warm cup.
    “Where"s Sandra?” Glory asked.
    Emma"s lips tightened, and Tara"s feathery brows twitched in a brief frown. “My son Jimmy came home last night. They have not come out of their lodge yet.”
    Emma muttered something that sounded like, “Good-for-nothing.”
    Rose, always polite, said, “I bet Sandra"s glad to see her husband again. She said he"s been gone since early summer.”
    “Consorting with those women at Gabriel"s Place,” muttered Tara. “When he has a
    loving wife right here.”
    Rose"s ears seemed to prick with interest, and Emma quickly offered them some of the soup Tara was stirring.
    It looked like Tara had a big pot of beef soup going as well as water simmering over the fire. Supper was a long time ago, and Glory"s hangover had eased enough for food to smell good.
    “Eat,” Tara urged them.
    While they were eating, the wounded survivors began trickling into camp, some on
    horseback, others on triangular beds dragged behind horses. They were a pitiful sight, arms and legs splinted and bandages spotted with blood covering wounds. Glory and Rose both found themselves helping the wounded to the tents that had been vacated for them. Glory kept trying to rearrange her blanket to maintain modesty while she fed the survivors soup and tea, and tried to make them comfortable. It was hours before her clothes were dry enough to put back on, and by then she was exhausted enough to not care that the once pristine business suit was a wreck.

Two days after the survivors had arrived Glory was truly exhausted. Her feet hurt from standing and walking so much, and her back ached from bending over the wounded. She still hated using that crude outdoor bathroom, but she was too busy to care very much. Like Glory, Rose had been working hard to help the survivors. Nearly everybody was, except for Heather. Glory was busy, but not too busy to notice how Heather avoided anything
    resembling work. Heather managed to keep herself busy in other ways. She had met Jimmy White Elk, who according to Jill, was risking punishment by the Clan council for flirting with the fake redhead. In 2014, a married man having affairs might be a matter for gossip and maybe some disapproval. Here in the Clan it was a crime. Jimmy was suspected of paying the prostitutes over in Omaha for sex.
    “But he denies it,” said Jill. “Nothing has been proven, and Sandra hasn"t asked the Council to step in.”
    Glory watched Heather fluttering over the handsome men from the Clan and the visitors from Taye"s Pack, and wondered what would happen to the woman involved in the adultery.
    Jimmy was good looking in a flashy way. He took after his mother more than Muddy Wolf, with his short reddish brown hair and green eyes, and he wore jeans and a flannel shirt. In fact, he didn"t look half Lakota at all. Glory could see Shadow in him, though, and she thought she knew why Sandra had fallen in love with him. Heather probably flirted with him just to hurt Sandra, though she flirted with every man who crossed her path, married, mated or single, young or old.
    One of those men was a kid named Blue Sky At Midday, but everyone called him Sky.
    The name suited him since he had vivid blue eyes in a pretty face. Heather seemed taken with him, but he was at least ten years younger than she was, or maybe more. He was another of Shadow"s brothers, and the shape of their faces and eyes were almost exact, but Sky was young and soft enough to be called pretty, while Shadow"s face had matured into rugged handsomeness. Glory hadn"t seen much of Shadow in the past couple days, but Sky had become a pretty permanent helper in Glory"s assigned tent. The kid was young, but he acted like a grown-up. She liked the way he treated her. Teenagers from her world weren"t very respectful. Except for Rose, she admitted. Hell, she hadn"t been too respectful herself. But she loved that he was a hard worker. Glory imagined Shadow must have been like that ten or twelve