The Pursuit of the Greywolf Girl – Extended Epilogue

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Elinor looked at the long line of wagons, horses, and people on foot behind her. In the late summer heat, they sent a trail of dust into the air. They looked tired and worn, and she worried that doubt was beginning to take over. 

Chaska rode up next to her. “They are all right.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. “I wonder if I should’ve explained it all to them sooner.”

But Chaska shook his head firmly. “No. It is better this way. I’ve moved them many times, and it’s always hard. You don’t remember all of it. You were too young. But even the move to Elkshade Lake was difficult. Every time we have to give up what little bit of land we’ve managed to call our own for a short time, we feel the pain of it.”

“We won’t have to much longer,” she told him.

He gave her a hint of a smile. “No, we won’t.”

They entered a shaded lane that provided some relief from the hot sun. The trees arched over it from either side of the road, creating a tunnel that was leading them to their future. Elinor reached out and took Nathaniel’s hand. 

She smiled at him fondly. “We’re almost there.”

Despite the long miles, he smiled back. “I think I know what we should do first when we get there.”

“What’s that?”

He rode a little closer so that he could put his palm on her belly. “Find some fabric and make you a new dress. Your belly is starting to outgrow it.”

She laughed, pulling at the tight material. “I’ve had the same thoughts! I’ll be busy, though.”

“Would you prefer that I just sew the dress for you?” he jested. “I can’t guarantee that it’ll look good, but I can try.”

Elinor pushed playfully at his arm. “You’re a talented man, Nathaniel Boone, but I don’t believe for a second that you can make a dress!”

“Fine. I’ll just settle for setting up our tent, then,” he replied with a wink.

They came to the end of the lane. At the moment, there was nothing more than a small split in the trees, a narrow passage just big enough for the wagons to pass through one at a time. Elinor and Nathaniel led the way, stepping onto wide, gently rolling pastureland. Several clumps of large trees dotted the landscape. She continued to lead the tribe farther onto the property so that they could see the meandering creek that flowed through it. 

Elinor turned around and waited as everyone came in from the lane and gathered around her. Nathaniel was on his horse on her left, and Chaska on her right. Takoda and Micah were just behind them. They were the only other ones who knew the secret.

“We have had to move many times,” Elinor began. “We’re constantly being told to get out of the way for ‘civilization.’ We’re forced to find some place that simply hasn’t been claimed yet but then it happens again.”

In fact, the area near Elkshade Lake had been a very temporary place to settle. Edmund Ashcroft was dead and Silas Merriton was in jail, but there were plenty more people to take their place and continue the same work. 

“Now, we’re going to settle on a place that has already been claimed,” she told them.

The tribespeople turned to each other, whispering and wondering, worry and concern coming over their faces.

“There are over three hundred acres here, and I own them,” she explained. “To me, that means we all own them. Here, we can build a permanent place to be. We can spend our winters in warm homes instead of tents. We can grow herbs and vegetables and know that we’ll be here to harvest them. We can watch our children run and play without any worry about whether they’ll have to move again.”

“Is this true?” Soyala asked with tears in her eyes. “We can stay forever?”

“Forever,” Elinor confirmed. “This is our new home. It’s going to take a lot of work. For a while, it will probably be much like our camps have been. We need to rest from our journey for a while, but then we can begin to plan what to do next.”

Everyone looked so stunned, but then the reality of it hit them. The tribespeople laughed and cried. They hugged each other. Many rushed up to Elinor and Nathaniel to thank them, and then they moved off to explore the fields and decide where to settle down.

That night, Chaska invited Elinor and Nathaniel to sit by his fire with him. “You have done something great here,” he told them. “I think the people are still in a bit of shock that you would spend this kind of money on them.”

“There’s no other way I’d want to spend it,” Elinor told him readily. “Nathaniel and I wanted a safe place to settle down and raise our family, but where could that be? Where would we belong if we weren’t near the rest of the tribe? When we realized we had the kind of money to make this happen, we didn’t need to think about it any longer.”

“She hasn’t been able to stop talking about it,” Nathaniel told Chaska with a laugh.

Chaska inhaled deeply and sat back, surveying the land around them as it slipped into night. “It is even better than what you described, Elinor. Any place that we could call our own and never have to leave would be good, but this is like paradise.”

“Thank you. I know we won’t be able to get much built before winter comes, but we’ll get started. Piece by piece, we’ll all have our new homes. Nathaniel and I have already chosen a spot right over there.” She pointed toward a slight rise, not far from the lane. 

“If we’re not putting all our effort into moving from place to place, then we’ll be able to have it built in no time,” Chaska agreed.

Elinor yawned. “Yes, but I’m impatient to get started.”

“Sounds like we’d better get to bed, first,” Nathaniel recommended.

As they stood up to go back to their tent, Chaska stopped them. “Wait. I need to tell you something.”

She turned to him expectantly. “What is it?”

He pressed his lips together and let air out through his nose. “I need to apologize to you. I have treated you badly. I’ve told you that you’re useless, and I haven’t always seen you as one of us. I was wrong on both counts. You’ve provided something for this tribe that I never could. Aiyana taught you well, and you are truly her daughter.”

His speech moved Elinor, although she was finding it easier and easier to cry now that she was with child. “Thank you, Chaska,” she choked. “That means a lot to me.”

They went to bed, but they stayed up long into the night dreaming up plans for their future home.

* * *

The warm earth embraced her knees as Elinor plucked a carrot from the ground. Its delicious perfume filled the air and made her mouth water. It would be lovely with their dinner that evening. She added it to the basket at her side, which was already laden with heavy tomatoes and fragrant herbs. 

“Mama! Mama!” a tiny voice called.

She looked up at Melissa, who played at the edge of the garden. She had her hands cupped together and a broad grin on her face. “What did you find, usdi?”

“Look!” The little girl lifted her chubby knees as she clumsily ran over to Elinor. She breathed hard in her mother’s ear as she slowly cracked open her hands. 

“A frog!” she enthused, studying the tiny creature. “Walosi. The frogs are very good for our garden.”

“Eat bugs?” Melissa asked.

“That’s right. They eat the bugs that want to eat our vegetables. We have to be very careful with our friend walosi. He’s delicate, and we don’t want to hurt him,” Elinor instructed gently.

“Here go.” Melissa bent down until the back of her hand touched the ground. Then she lifted her other hand and waited. 

The frog stayed in her palm for several seconds, its big eyes taking in its surroundings and its sides fluttering. Then it leaped from Melissa’s hand and onto a tomato plant.

“Look!” Melissa exclaimed. 

“He can jump very far, can’t he?” Elinor admired her daughter. She had Elinor’s brilliant red riot of curls—which she was never forced to hide under a hat or bonnet—and Nathaniel’s soft brown eyes. She was a perfect blend of her parents, and she was living a life of blended cultures. 

“I jump far!” Melissa announced. She crouched down with her arms curled at her sides. Then she leaped forward, flinging her hands in the air and landing with a thud. She rolled forward and caught herself on her hands.

Elinor waited for a brief, tense moment. When Melissa laughed, she relaxed. “You can jump very far!”

On the main path that went through their settlement, Elinor spotted a wagon laden down with food and supplies. It was heading toward the lane. 

Elinor picked up her basket and reached for Melissa’s hand. “Can you jump down to the path with me? I need to speak to your uncles.”

“Uncles!” Melissa repeated. “Edutsi!”

Takoda pulled the wagon to a stop as they approached. “I was just coming to find you before we left.”

“Koda!” Melissa reached her arms up toward him.

Elinor lifted her daughter up, letting Takoda take her and put her on the seat between himself and Micah. “She’s going to miss you. How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

Takoda thought for a moment. “A few weeks. It’ll take time to travel to the Red River Territory and back, and we don’t know how much help they’ll need. We only have a few rumors to go on.”

Elinor glanced at the back of the wagon. Several more men sat there with the numerous supplies, and all of them were armed. It’d broken her heart when she’d heard that more displaced Natives had been wandering around near their previous campsites, looking for a place to exist. It was proof that even if they cut off one of the monster’s arms, the other one was ready to do more destruction. 

“They can come here with us, if they want to,” Elinor reminded him. “We have plenty of room.”

“We will tell them,” Takoda promised, “and at the very least we can help make sure they have food and shelter.”

She put her hand on his knee, and her eyes darted back and forth between her brothers. “Be safe. I’ll worry about you the whole time you’re gone.”

Micah grinned. “You wish you were going, don’t you?”

“In a way, yes,” she admitted with a smile. “I don’t like the idea of sitting around here while you go and do the hard work.”

“As if you’d be sitting around!” Takoda laughed. “You’ve got homes to build and people to look after. You’ve been busy since you brought us here. Plus, you’ve got Melissa.”

The little girl squirmed happily on the seat between the two men.

Elinor gazed fondly at Melissa as she sat there with her uncles. She had no clue what was going on in the world. Perhaps Elinor and her tribe could change a little bit of the world by the time Melissa was old enough to understand it. 

“Come on, darling. They’ve got to go.”

When Melissa was in her arms, Elinor stepped back. Takoda popped the reins, and the wagon jolted down the path, through the trees, and onto the lane. Melissa put her little hand in the air and waved to them until they were out of sight.

“We should go check on your father,” Elinor suggested.

They walked to the pump at the well and filled a canteen before heading over to the latest construction. They’d been on this land for over two years, and it wasn’t complete yet. The first winter had been rough, with only the basic structure of a large meeting hall erected where most of the tribe could squeeze in to keep warm during the worst of the cold nights. By the next spring, they’d started on houses. The tribe members had grouped together under the new roofs, bringing in as many of their cousins and friends as they could so everyone could have shelter while more homes were being built. 

Elinor sighed happily as she took in what she’d helped create. There had been no arguments about who built their house where. Nobody turned anyone else out of their home, glad to share the spacious rooms. They’d all been through hard times together, and it had made them close.

She turned to the right, heading slightly uphill. The skeleton of a house rose up out of the ground. Men crawled over it like ants, nailing boards in place. Nathaniel was up in the rafters. He waved when he saw them and began working his way down.

“Your husband outworks most of us,” Chaska said with a laugh. He tickled Melissa’s belly, his dark eyes shining when she giggled. “He already has a home, but he works as though this one is for him.”

“He doesn’t quit once he’s put his mind to something,” Elinor told him.

“Which is exactly why the two of you are perfect for each other.” Chaska shook his head, but he was still smiling. “Mitena and her husband will live here when it’s finished. She’s asked Soyala to stay with them permanently.”

Elinor’s heart warmed. Even modern homes hadn’t changed the deep sense of kinship among the tribe members. “That means we’ll have a little more room available if Takoda and Micah are able to bring anyone new back with them.”

“They are fools if they don’t come,” Chaska advised. He moved off to speak to another man who was working toward the back of the house as Nathaniel approached. 

“Water, Daddy?” Melissa held the canteen out to her father.

“For me? Aren’t you thoughtful? Thank you.” Accepting the canteen, Nathaniel took a sip. “That’s the best water I’ve ever had.”

“How is it going?” Elinor asked.

Nathaniel turned to gaze up at the structure behind him. “Pretty well. We’re getting a lot of experience under our belts, so we’re moving faster and getting better. It gives me a few ideas for improving our home.” 

“That sounds nice.” Elinor felt their house was just fine as it was, but she loved that Nathaniel always wanted to make it better for his family. “If I’m right, then we might need a little more room by next year.”

Nathaniel tipped his head in confusion for a moment, but he broke into a grin as he understood. “Really?” he asked, putting his arm around her waist and bringing his wife and daughter in tight against him. 

“Time will tell for certain,” she cautioned, “but the signs are there. Soyala agrees.”

“Then it has to be true.” He leaned down to kiss her.

He’d been working so hard that he hadn’t shaved, and his stubble scraped her chin. “I take it you approve?” Elinor teased.

“Are you kidding? I’d take a hundred Melissas any day.” He took the little girl from Elinor’s arms and settled her on his hip. 

“Well, maybe not a hundred!” Elinor laughed. When her laughter died down, she looked at him intently.

“What is it?” Nathaniel asked.

“I just… I’ve been thinking. Do you regret leaving the Pinkertons at all?” 

Nathaniel had taken some time off to help her get her tribe settled, but then he’d made the decision not to return to work. Elinor loved having him at her side, and she’d have been worried sick about him if he was chasing down criminals, but she wanted him to be happy.

“Not in the least,” he said with an emphatic shake of his head. “Not when it means I get to be here building this life with you, Elinor. This is where I’m meant to be.”

Melissa pointed over her father’s shoulder at the partially completed house. “Wanna see!”

“You want to see what Daddy’s doing? Okay. Let’s go.” Nathaniel carried her into the house, pointing out all the things he’d done and describing what he’d be doing in the future.

Elinor stood back and watched them with warm delight seeping through her body. Her daughter had a whole tribe looking out for her. She had two parents who cared for her more than anything in the world, and any siblings who came after Melissa would have the same. That little girl would never have to suffer the way Elinor had.

The more Elinor thought about it, the more she realized that Melissa wasn’t the only lucky one. Elinor, too, was safe with her husband and her tribe surrounding her. 

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OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!

Grab my new series, "Blood and Honor in the Wild West", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!

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