Wildest Dreams - By Rosanne Bittner Page 0,226

over the saddle. Wait a few minutes, then wipe the saddle off with a dry towel."

Nathan shrugged and got to work. "We use bear grease."

"What?" Tyler took down a bridle and looked at him with a frown.

"Bear grease. It works about the same. Did you think the Indian does not understand about taking care of leather?"

Tyler blinked. "I never thought about it."

Nathan grinned. "We do not use such big saddles, though. Ours are small and light. A horse can run faster and longer if it does not carry so much weight."

"Yeah, well, from now on you'll be using a regular western saddle, so get used to it. You're supposed to start thinking like a white man."

"Maybe the white man can learn something from the Indian. Did you ever think of that?"

"No. There isn't anything I want or need to learn from any Indian. All I know is they caused a lot of people a lot of trouble and heartache here in Montana. I'm glad they're on reservations where they belong."

Nathan rubbed vigorously at the saddle. "And you do not think the white man has caused the same heartache for the Indian? Whose land was this before the white man came along?"

Tyler studied a tear in the bridle, hating this intruding brother for making sense. "The Indians', I suppose."

"Right. And for every white man or woman killed by the Sioux, the Sioux lost ten times that from being killed by soldiers, women raped, little babies murdered, families torn apart. Sometimes hundreds would die at one time from white man's diseases. You do not have to tell me about troubles for the white man, Tyler. You have no idea what the Indian has suffered. Everything has been taken from us. Everything. Even our pride."

"You're ready enough to be white yourself when it's convenient for you," Tyler said grudgingly.

"I do not come here as white. I come here as an Indian on the inside, a man who happens to have white parents who can help his family."

"You aren't supposed to think of yourself as one of them anymore. If you're going to come here to live, then you're a Fontaine now."

Nathan kept working. "What is it you fear, Tyler? Your father's love for you will never change. He is a good and fair man, and I can tell that you love him as much as any son can love a father. My presence will not change any of that."

"I also love the Double L," Tyler answered. "My brother and two sisters don't want anything to do with running this ranch, so it's up to me. Nobody is going to take that from me."

Nathan shook his head. "I do not want to take that from you, but you do not believe that right now. Someday you will understand."

Tyler did not answer. He tried cutting the bridle strap off so he could replace it, but the knife he had picked up from a bench to use was too dull. He sliced vigorously, angrily, then realized Nathan was standing beside him. He handed out a pocket knife.

"Here. I have kept it sharpened. It works well." He opened it. "Luke gave it to me the last time I was here, as a gift. Now I give it to you."

Tyler frowned as he sliced easily through the strap. He closed the knife and handed it back, feeling a hot jealousy that Luke had given Nathan the knife. "I don't want it," he said quietly. "Pa gave it to you. You keep it."

CHAPTER 32

August 1884

"Mom, they're here!" Robbie ran back outside without explaining himself further, but Lettie knew what he meant. She wished Luke was here for this moment, but he was in Helena. She would have to handle this herself. She hurried out to the entrance hall, stopped to look at herself in a mirror, wondering why in the world she worried about how she might look to an Indian woman who knew little about the way white women dressed and probably didn't care one whit for jewelry and fancy hairdos. She wore her own hair wrapped into a roll around her head today, and was dressed in a simple blue summer dress with no petticoats because of the heat.

She had been helping Mae bake this afternoon, and she noticed she had flour on her cheek. She brushed it off and tucked a strand of hair back into a comb, then hurried out to the front of the house, where several Double L men had gathered to stare.