Wildest Dreams - By Rosanne Bittner Page 0,225

take anyone's place. Tyler, you're in charge of the Double L now when I'm gone, and that won't change. I want you to help Nathan learn the ropes. With having to travel more, I won't have time for it. You heard Nathan's reasons for wanting to be here, and it has nothing to do with money. His children are Lettie's and my grandchildren, your niece and nephew. I will not let them go hungry or be taken away to some damn school back East where they get a beating just for being themselves, nor will I allow them to be abused or treated rudely while living here. Is that understood?"

"Of course it is, Pa," Katie answered.

Luke watched Tyler. He knew his son was good-hearted and understood the importance of family, but he could also see that he still felt somehow pushed out of place. "Above ail else, we're all Fontaines. We're family, and we'll support each other and help each other and defend each other." He looked over at Nathan. "The same goes for you, Nathan, once you come back here. I understand that you feel more like a Sioux, that you consider them your family. But the fact remains that we are your family. I don't want you treating your brothers and sisters or your mother as though they are some kind of hated enemy."

Nathan nodded, glancing at Tyler again. "I am a Fontaine." He looked at Luke then. "But I will always have a place in my heart for the people who raised me. It was wrong for them to steal me away. I know this. But Half Nose was good to me. I thought of him as my father for many years, and I wept when he died." He looked at Lettie. "My Indian mother is also dead, from white man's disease. There is only Ramona."

"You'll stay until Christmas then?" she asked.

He nodded. "I will stay."

Lettie approached him hesitantly, her mind reeling with memories and the shock of realizing how fast the years had gone by after all. "All those lost years," she said quietly, studying her son lovingly.

Nathan could not help feeling affection for her. He had never forgotten how she had looked at him when he was there eight years ago. Such love he had never seen in anyone's eyes, except perhaps in Leena's; but that was a different kind of love, one of desire for her husband. The look in his mother's eyes was one of anguish and terrible longing.

Tyler rose. "I have some saddles to wax and bridles to repair." He walked toward Nathan. "Come on out to the barn," he said rather sullenly. "You want to learn the ropes. Might as well start now." He walked out, and Nathan glanced at Luke.

"He'll get used to it," Luke told him.

Nathan turned and walked out to pull on his wolfskin coat and a beaver hat, then hurried out the door, and Lettie broke into tears. "He's come home, Luke. Nathan is home." Luke walked over and put his arms around her. "With Elsie and Peter living in our old log house, we'll have to build Nathan a cabin for his family," she told Luke through tears.

"I already thought about that," Luke answered. "I'll have the men get started on it right away."

Outside Nathan ran to catch up with Tyler, who said nothing until they got inside the barn. He turned to face Nathan then, a glint of warning in his deep blue eyes. "I'm doing this for Pa, because I love him more than anything on this earth. Don't you ever hurt him or my mother, you understand? You hurt them enough when you left last time. You'd better appreciate what good people they are, and you'd better remember that I am Luke Fontaine's firstborn —by blood! Nobody else could ever be as close to my pa as I am.

Nathan shook his head, smiling sadly. "I do not expect to take your place in Luke's heart, Tyler. I have not come here to take anything that is yours. I do not even care if you hate me. I only want a place for my family to live and be safe and have full bellies."

Tyler scowled. "We'll see about that after you're here awhile." He opened a can of hard wax and handed it to Nathan, then pointed to a saddle that hung over a sawhorse. He slapped a rag into his hand. "Here. Put some of that stuff on the rag and rub it