Little Flower

by Jeanie P Johnson

  Gray Wolf appeared with the others painted in the custom for the dance. His face and body was painted red from the waist up. Red represented all that was sacred. A black circle was painted around his face to represent the Spirit, who has no end. Four vertical black lines were drawn on his chin, which symbolized the powers of the four directions. Black stripes were painted around his wrists, elbows, upper arms, and ankles. These were considered bonds of ignorance which tied the Dancer to the earth. The tethers, which would be attached to his breasts, were thought to be the rays of light from the One Above.

  Gray Wolf, along with Sleepy Fox, and the other braves there, fasted and thirsted for several days blowing their whistles, gazing all the while at the bundle at the top of the pole, praying for power. Then each grandfather would use a sharp knife to cut the slit above each breast, through which they inserted a strong piece of wood. At each end of the wood a loop of rawhide was attached. They, in turn, were tied to one single tether that had been secured to the top of the pole. Once this was done, and the grandfathers made sure the tethers had equal pressure at each breast, the braves would lean back against the tether, their eyes fixed on the top of the pole, blowing their whistles. Then the Sun Dance would begin.

  The steps were actually rather simple, with the attached performers merely rising on their toes while blowing their whistles and pulling back on the tethers. The dance continued through the night until the skin was stretched to capacity and finally gave way, releasing the dancers from their tether. Once this occurred, the grandfathers took his ward and tended to his wounds, putting healing herbs on them and praying over their brave inside the preparation teepee.

  Now Gray wolf could rest until he felt ready to leave on his quest to find Little Flower.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “What on earth!” Rebeca exploded when she saw Daisy astride her horse in the water-splattered gown, accompanied by Madison Kane.

  She had heard the clatter out on the drive and had gone out to investigate. “I thought you were up in your room, Daisy! This is outrageous behavior! You don’t even have a saddle on that horse and your dress is ruined!”

  “I am afraid that your daughter is distraught, Mrs. Radford. You have to admit, she has been raised by the Indians and now suddenly she is in polite society and does not know how to adjust to your expectations, not to mention the teasing of her brother.”

  Madison dismounted and helped Daisy off of her horse, even though Daisy did not think she needed any help. It just felt good to have Madison’s large, capable, hands around her waist. She remembered how it felt when he was removing her corset for her, and a shiver went through her involuntarily.

  Gordon, who was at his station to attend anyone arriving at the house, stepped forward to tend to the horses and take Lucky from Daisy’s trembling hands. The look on her mother’s face had frightened her. She worried what her mother planned to do to punish her. It seemed the moment she arrived she had suffered disapproval in one way or another. Madison pulled Daisy’s small hand through the crook of his elbow, and placed his own hand securely over hers, as he guided her up to the house. She still wore no shoes, and Rebeca was glaring at Daisy with dissatisfaction.

  “Mercy, Daisy, you are not even wearing shoes,” her eyes lifted, scanning over Daisy’s surf-stained dress and her eyes widened, “or a corset!” she added, noting the way the wet dress clung to Daisy’s shape.

  “It was smothering me so I had Madison help me remove it,” Daisy admitted reluctantly.

  Rebeca’s eyes darted at Madison. “What,” she exclaimed, “have you no modesty? Did you actually disrobe in front of a man?”

  “It wasn’t quite like that,” Madison explained. “I merely undid the back of her dress, and unlaced the contraption. Personally, I don’t know why women insist on wearing such restrictions. Daisy’s waist is small enough as it is.”

  “You willingly assisted her?” Rebeca gasped. “I will have to talk to Blake about your brazen actions towards our daughter.”

  “She was about to pass out from the tight garment! I had no other choice.”

  “Bring her in at once and I will have Mazy prepare a hot bath for her. I can see we need to have a long discussion about the rules and what is not proper behavior,” she said, glaring at Daisy.

  Daisy clung all the tighter to Madison’s arm, feeling that as long as he was there to support her, she would be safe from her mother’s wrath. As they entered, her father was striding towards them.

  “What is going on, Madison?” he asked observing the scene.

  “I found your daughter riding in the surf on a horse with no saddle or bridle on it. At first I thought the horse was running away with her until she informed me she didn’t need anything to guide her horse. I have returned her safely home to you, sir.”

  “What do you have to say for yourself, young lady?” Blake asked.

  “I needed some fresh air, after…after being locked in your outhouse,” she mumbled.

  “I have spoken to Davy about the incident and I assure you, it will not happen again,” Blake said gruffly, feeling a little guilty for his son’s actions. “However, you cannot go out riding on your own. You need to take one of the grooms with you, or Davy, or…”

  “I refuse to have Davy near me,” Daisy erupted. “He does not like me, and I do not like him!”

  “I am sure you will learn to get along with your brother, eventually,” Blake tried to sooth her.

  “I will gladly take her riding in my free time,” Madison offered.

  “I don’t know that I would trust him,” Rebeca cut in. “He actually removed Daisy’s corset for her, and what is that you have in your pocket?” She glanced at his pocket where one of the white stockings was hanging out.

  Madison cleared his throat. “She insisted on removing her shoes and stockings. I was just keeping them for her.” He lifted the slippers and stockings from his pocket and handed them to Daisy.

  “This is totally unacceptable,” Rebeca erupted in disgust. “She is acting like the heathens that raised her!”

  “They are not heathens!” Daisy complained.

  “You wouldn’t know a heathen if you saw one because you are just like them,” her mother insisted.

  “Now, now, Rebeca, this is all new to Daisy. She has been with the Sioux longer than she was ever with us. It will take time for her to learn how to behave in public. We will have to hire someone to teach her proper manners and the like,” Blake lectured.

  “I told her I would teach her to read and write, if that is alright with you,” Madison put in. “After all, I am sure you wish me to teach her about the business, and I could accomplish both at the same time.”

  “She can’t even read or write?” Rebeca groaned.

  “I will think about it,” Blake muttered.

  “Please let him,” Daisy begged. “I promise to be good. Let Madison teach me what is proper and not proper. He did warn it was not proper for him to help me with the corset, but I insisted.”

  “I don’t know that we could trust him,” Rebeca huffed.

  “Well, someone has to do it, and I would rather have someone we know than some stranger coming in, expecting to get paid. I already pay Madison, and he has been working at the hotel for five years now, so I suppose he will do as good as any other.”

  “You will have to teach her to dance,” Rebeca informed him. “We plan to throw a welcome home celebration, and I don’t want her trying to do any of those Indian dances she most likely would think nothing of doing in front of our guests.”

  “I would gladly do that,” Madison smiled, patting Daisy’s hand on his arm. Daisy smiled up at him with gratitude in her eyes.

  “In the meantime, Daisy, go upstairs and bathe, then have Mazy help you put on a new gown and come down to dinner. Would you like to join us, Madison?” Rebeca gave him a stern look, in spite of the invitation to tell him she was serious about him being proper around her daughter.

  “Yes, I would like that very mu
ch,” Madison smiled.

  Daisy reluctantly pulled her hand from around Madison’s arm and started up the stairs.

  “Good,” Blake said. “After dinner we can discuss Daisy’s education and perhaps you could lend a hand in choosing a suitable husband for her. She needs to settle down and take life more seriously. I can tell she needs the steady hand of a husband to keep her in check. I am sure you are acquainted with more young gentlemen in town than we are. I trust your judge of character.”

  Daisy was halfway up the stairs and looked over her shoulder at her father.

  “Oh, no, I have no intentions of getting married. My heart belongs to Gray Wolf.”

  “Enough of that talk, Daisy,” Rebeca admonished. “You have no say in this! You can’t marry a heathen Indian anyway. I am sure Madison is level-headed enough to recommend one of his acquaintances, who he believes would suit someone like you. We will have him invite them to your welcome home celebration so you can get to know them.”

  “Invite whoever you please,” Daisy frowned. “It won’t do you any good. I refuse to marry anyone. Gray Wolf may be lost to me but I know I can never love another!”

  “It has nothing to do with love,” Rebeca laughed. “It has to do with getting you safely married and preparing yourself for the life you were always destined to lead.”

  “I was destined to be Gray Wolf’s wife,” Daisy spat, and then ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

  Madison lifted his eyes and watched her hurrying up the stairs. His heart took a leap. He believed he was falling in love with her already and perhaps her parents would consent to have him become her husband. After all, she had admitted she was not a virgin. Rather than having her embarrass herself by admitting it to her suiters, he could save her that humiliation. He cared little if she was a virgin or not. Eventually, he would let her know that, but for now, he could argue it would be much easier for him to assist her in taking over her father’s business, than training someone else to do the job, if he became her husband. Only he knew he would have to tread lightly, where it came to Daisy…Little Flower…he whispered to himself.

  He was greatly looking forward to becoming Daisy’s tutor and assistant. On top of that, he was eager to learn more about the Indians she had lived with. The Indians had always intrigued him and now he would have the opportunity to discover more about their culture. Her very presents made him feel excited and alive. She was so different from any woman he had ever met. He knew he wanted her the moment he saw her dashing along the surf on her horse, and then took chase.

  Daisy sat in the warm tub, her eyes smoldering on the brink of tears. She would never allow her parents to marry her off to some acquaintance of Madison’s. Then her thoughts turned to Madison. She could still feel the pressure of his hand on hers as she clutched his arm. He made her feel safe and comforted. He did not treat her as though she was some heathen in need of training, like a wild animal being domesticated by the white man. He seemed to accept her for who she was and she was looking forward to him working with her and teaching her all she needed to know to survive in this somewhat hostile environment where her family believed everything she did was unacceptable.

  Shortly, Mazy came in to help wash her hair, which Daisy found soothing, but totally unnecessary. Mazy helped Daisy from the tub, handed her the towel and went to lay out a dress for Daisy to wear.

  “I cannot believe you rode your horse in the surf like that,” Mazy said as she helped Daisy get dressed, “especially, in that lovely dress.”

  “If you like the dress so much, you can have it. Mother said it was ruined anyway.”

  “If I soaked it, I may be able to get the water marks out of the material, but it would never meet your mother’s approval, even if I did so.”

  “She will probably have you throw it out, so you might as well take it,” Daisy offered. “After all, it was given to me, so I suppose I can do as I please with it.”

  “Thank you,” Mazy mumbled.

  “You can forget about the corset,” Daisy instructed when she saw Mazy preparing to put it around her midriff.

  “I am sure your mother will disapprove if you don’t put it on,” Mazy warned.

  “I don’t care. My mother does not like much about me anyway, except for the fact that I am her daughter and must lead the life she has decided I should lead. Eventually, she will probably wish my father never brought me back here. I don’t think I will ever be able to do anything that actually pleases her. Even when I was little she was always impatient with me and didn’t want me pestering her about anything.”

  “I am sure she was merely trying to raise you correctly,” Mazy mumbled. Her life was far worse than Daisy’s and the girl didn’t even appreciate what she had, she thought. She thought Daisy acted like she felt better living with the Indians than being there in a nice warm house with everything her heart could desire. How much Mazy wished she could change places with Daisy, having beautiful dresses to wear, and a pile of unopened presents in the window seat. She glanced at the stained dress on the floor, thinking about how it would look on her, once she tried to remove the stains. The problem was, she probably wouldn’t have any place to wear it.

  There had been a time when she was younger that Mrs. Radford had practically treated her like a daughter, when she first came to live at the Radford house. However, as she got older, she had no choice but to become a servant, being an orphan and having no family of her own.

  “You are very beautiful,” Mazy smiled, pulling her thoughts from the dress. “I understand your parents will be looking to find you a husband soon.”

  “So they say,” Daisy sighed. “It will be another thing to disappoint my mother when I refuse to marry the young men they send calling on me.”

  “I cannot believe you do not wish to have the security of a husband who will eventually take over your father’s hotel.”

  “Davy can have the hotel, for all I care. I don’t even know what a hotel is used for. It just looks like a big building to me. What is one supposed to do with a big building if they already have a house to live in?”

  “It is a place where people come and stay when they don’t have a house to stay in. Many people come here to visit San Francisco, and they need a place to stay while they are here. Your father’s hotel has many rooms in it which they pay to use. That is how your father makes his money. Without the hotel, he couldn’t afford this nice house and all the things he offers you.”

  “Oh,” is all Daisy said, as she started understanding the enormity of the responsibility that would be placed on her husband’s head, once he had to take over the hotel. It made her all the more determined that it should be Davy’s responsibility, not hers.

  “Nonetheless, I will not marry some man my parents find for me. I am not interested in having a hotel. All of these things in this house are useless! They are just pretty to look at. I survived quite well in a simple teepee with Gray Wolf’s family without any of this stuff. It makes me wonder why it is so important to have so much and then have to live by proper rules so other people will approve of you. It makes no sense to me. As a Sioux I could live free. I only had to live by the customs of our tribe.”

  “Which is the same thing as living by the rules of society,” Mazy pointed out. “I am sure that your tribe had rules you could not break, and special customs that were expected to be followed. They were just different, is all. You will get used to a new set of customs and rules, eventually.”

  Daisy stopped to think about what Mazy had said. Maybe she was right. Maybe, in the bigger scheme of things, all societies were similar with rules to follow and proper ways to approach life. She just hadn’t learned all the rules surrounding the customs of the white man. She wondered if she really wanted to. She felt her life with the Sioux had been simpler, even if it meant a lot of hard work. But at least, then she was helping the whole village survive as she worked beside her Sioux family. Here, she felt out of place, and it would be her husband that would be responsib
le for earning the money needed to survive in this world. What purpose would she play, other than keeping her husband happy?

  In this household, they had servants to do all the work. No wonder Davy was spoiled and demanding. A young brave in the Sioux tribe took on responsibility at a young age. He was expected to look for a vision by the time he was nine years old. He helped train the horses, and was expected to watch the horses, when the warriors went on a raid, and needed to sneak up on foot to the dedicated target. He learned to make his own bow and arrows. His father taught him to track animals and learn the secret of nature so he would become a good hunter. He knew how to start a fire using flint and steel. He knew how to read the stars in the heavens so he wouldn’t get lost. He was always growing and striving to be a productive brave and capable warrior, living by honor, achieving goals, trusted to keep his word. Even though she had been teased by the children of the tribe when she first arrived, Daisy never saw any young brave who expected everything to be given to him or done for him. His pride was gained by accomplishing hard tasks that challenged him, even if it brought pain and discomfort.

  Davy was nothing like that. Davy had no purpose but to be waited on and pampered, and then he expected to take over part of his father’s wealth when he got older.

  “You had better go downstairs,” Mazy said, breaking into Daisy’s thoughts. “Dinner will be served soon.”

  Daisy turned and went out the door, torn between giving in to learning how to function in this new society, and wanting to return to the society she was familiar with. Only the thought of Talking Dog kept her at bay. She could never return to her Sioux family as long as he was a threat to her. She doubted that Gray Wolf still desired her as his woman or wife anyway. She may end up being stuck here whether she liked it or not, yet the thought of Madison becoming her friend was appealing to her.