A Promise of Thunder

jubilant. Now Thunder couldn’tsend her home, she thought gleefully. He needed her, not just to care for his son but for his own sake. It wouldn’t be long, she told herself, before she’d become a permanent part of his life. She’d loved Thunder even before he married her sister, but at the time she was too young to do more than look at him with yearning. Now she was a woman, with a woman’s needs and a woman’s cunning. She would nurse Thunder back to health with all the tenderness in her woman’s heart and he would come to love her as he once loved her sister. It was meant to be.
    After that Grady refused to speak of Storm, not even to the doctor, who questioned him about his wife’s absence. In a week he was strong enough to return to the homestead. Before he left he visited the bank and learned that Storm hadn’t withdrawn any funds from their account, nor did she have any money of her own. That bit of knowledge not only worried but puzzled him. Where could she have gone without funds? A visit to the hotel drew a blank when he learned Storm hadn’t been seen in a week. He found it difficult to believe she’d leave her homestead without demanding some sort of payment for her half.
    But then he’d never thought Storm would actually leave him. By the time Laughing Brook picked him up in the wagon, Grady was exhausted and ready to go home to the cabin. He even consented to lie in the wagon bed, cushioned by blankets and pillows thedoctor had generously offered for the jarring ten-mile ride home.
    Laughing Brook couldn’t recall when she’d been so happy. Life with Thunder would be good, she reflected. Much better than living on the reservation, ravaged by sickness and hunger. Remaining at the homestead with Thunder was a much better solution than trying to persuade him to return to the reservation with her, she decided. To Laughing Brook Thunder would always be a mighty warrior, and though she preferred that Thunder live with the People, perhaps his way was the best after all. Her father had told her that the days when the People roamed free were gone forever and that she should adapt to the white man’s ways. Once Thunder become a prosperous farmer her life would be good. Yes, she decided happily. Everything she’d ever wanted was finally within her grasp.
    Both Tim and Grady were dozing in the wagon when they reached the cabin. Deciding not to awaken them, she jumped lightly to the ground and entered the cabin, going directly to the bedroom, where she turned the bed down in preparation for Grady. She spied the note Storm left immediately. Since she could neither read nor write English, she slipped it under the mattress, intending to get rid of it later. She had no inkling what Storm had written to Grady, but decided that any kind of correspondence from Storm meant trouble for her. She had just turned away from the bedwhen Grady and Tim, refreshed from their nap, entered the bedroom.
    “What are you doing?” Grady asked curiously.
    “Turning down the bed,” Laughing Brook informed him. “You’ll want to rest before dinner.”
    “I’ve had sufficient rest,” Grady returned shortly. “There’s no time for dawdling on a productive farm. I have crops to see to and animals to tend.”
    “But you’re not well enough yet!” Laughing Brook cried. “I will do what needs to be done.”
    “Don’t coddle me, Laughing Brook. See to Tim. I can take care of myself. Leave me, I wish to change clothes.”
    Giving him a sulky glance, Laughing Brook sidled from the room. Once she was gone Grady immediately went to the wardrobe he had purchased for Storm. The doors stood slightly ajar and he pushed them open. It was empty. The drawers in the bureau were similarly bereft of clothing, and for the first time since being wounded the full impact of Storm’s leaving hit him sqarely. He had already suffered the pain of rejection but wasn’t prepared for the explosion of raw anger that surged through him.
    Why had he made a fool of himself by letting Storm become indispensable to him? There was a tremendous war of emotions raging inside Grady. He could no longer deny his feelings. What he felt for Storm went beyond the youthful love he once felt for Summer Sky. When hewas with Storm, making love to her, holding her, something deep inside him reached out and touched something deep inside her. He remembered every sweet, lush curve of her body and how perfectly the two of them fit together.
    Yet even as he