Pale-green lights fluttered across the sky like a sheer curtain in a gentle breeze.

"What does it mean?" she whispered. "Could it be a sign?"

"Other than electrical particles dancing?" Will's breath warmed her ear.

Electrical particles seemed to dance through her body too. Her thoughts fluttered like the lights. "Do the Poncas . . . have any beliefs about the aurora?"

"Some believe the Milky Way is a holy path. I've never heard the people talk about the northern lights. Maybe . . ."

"Yes?"

"Maybe G.o.d's reminding us He's in charge. Reminding us to look for His work, His beauty." He hummed "Cantique de Noel." This close to her ear, his music covered the sound of lamenting, his breath warmed her neck. She leaned against him, surrendering to the surge of joy that came with his nearness. He smelled like-well, like himself. With a hint of fresh-cut wood.

"Please sing."

"'A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.'"

Sophia listened to the words, and to the timbre of his voice, with a bittersweet mixture of sadness and longing. Dear Lord, where is the hope? Where is the new morn for the Poncas? How long, oh Lord?

"'Oh night divine, oh night divine . . .'"

The aurora faded to a mist, then disappeared altogether. Morning, glorious or not, broke over the Ponca Agency.

"Thank you for watching with me." He opened the blanket to let her back into the house. She found herself reluctant to move away from him, to leave the safety and contentment she felt in his arms.

"Will." Sophia took his hand, but then she could not think of the words, in any language, to express her appreciation for him. Not for this morning alone, but for her entire time with the Poncas. Will had made the year not just endurable, but a season of spiritual growth. In everything she had tried to do here, she could count on Will to work with her, to guide and aid her efforts.

Sophia stretched on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "Thank you."

"What are you doing up here?" Yellow Spotted Buffalo climbed up the ladder and sat next to Will. "Shines White will not need his roof when we are evicted."

"We are keeping an eye on the village."

And trying not to think about Sophia. How she tucked into his arms with a perfect fit. How she smelled like honey and spices from another country. How she had kissed him. If he had turned his head an inch, he could have caught her lips with his.

Will nailed another wood shingle into place. And they were taking a break from building coffins. Burying Brown Eagle's Elisabeth nearly did them all in.

He caught a flicker of movement on the path and heard the clop of a horse's hooves. In seconds Will shinned down the ladder and headed toward the stable.

James dismounted and ran a hand over his face. All done in. He could pa.s.s for a man twice his age. "Kemble a.s.sumed charge of the wagon train in Columbus. The roads are near impa.s.sable. No shelter, inadequate food. Awful."

A rumble of thunder warned of another storm. Will relieved the horse of his saddle. Yellow Spotted Buffalo took the tools back to the warehouse. The men who had been plowing and planting wheat and corn in hope of answered prayers left the fields.

James hefted his knapsack and trudged toward the house. "I need a drink."

"You need Someone stronger than drink."

James turned on him, his face flushed. "You see G.o.d helping these people? Ever? Stopping the Brule, holding back the gra.s.shoppers, bringing rain on a regular basis?" He shook his head. "Me neither. I'm beginning to think He means for the Poncas to die off, like the pa.s.senger pigeon and the buffalo. It'd be a better fate for them than that G.o.dforsaken Indian Territory."

Will didn't blame James for his cynicism. He had been praying every day, several times a day. Yet Elisabeth and Julia hadn't been healed. The tools he'd requested hadn't come. And the Indian Office still seemed bent on driving the Poncas from their land. He swallowed. "G.o.d's going to work it out," he said.

Soon, Lord. Don't hold back Your hand.

They washed and stepped inside.

Nettie narrowed her eyes. Her jaw was clenched so tight, words hissed through her teeth. "Good afternoon, gentlemen."

Before Will could ask what was wrong, thunder crashed and the storm broke. A voice echoed from the front room. "I'm Inspector Howard. Here to solve your Indian problem."

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO.

Will augered a hole in the hay wagon's floor, fit a table leg into the s.p.a.ce, and swung his mallet to smash the leg down. Spotted Horse had spent hours smoothing this table's surface. He had measured and sawed the legs with precision.

All for nothing. All that hard work, gone to waste. The furniture he'd taught them to build, torn apart to make wagons for their exodus.

Will hefted the hammer in his hand. He'd rather take a swing at those rats from the Indian Office.

The other legs went into their spots, then he nailed the tabletop to the uprights.

Next came Fast Little Runner's table, oiled and ready to a.s.semble. But it would never be finished. Brown Eagle had built well too. It took all the strength Will had to yank it apart.

He worked his way around, disa.s.sembling furniture, patching with sc.r.a.ps, until he had a wagon box as ramshackle as everything else the Indian Office had forced on the Poncas.

He took a step toward the toolbox, then let the auger and mallet drop to the dirt floor. There were no more wagon frames, no more lumber. Nothing more he could do.

Will slogged back to the house through the mud from the rainiest May ever. He toed off his shoes, yanked off his wet clothes, and fell into bed.

Despite his exhaustion he couldn't sleep. Yesterday's council echoed through his head. Inspector Howard had ordered the tribe to bring their possessions to the agency warehouse, then load up for Indian Territory.

It was over. The Poncas would no longer live where the Niobrara met the Missouri.

Hard as the rain drummed, it didn't block out the people's cries. Will pushed out of bed, dressed, and shuffled into the kitchen. He found Sophia trying to coax the fire to life. "Here. I'll get it."

"You cannot sleep either?" She stared out the window. "I see only rain. No miracle. The reservation closes today. All our friends must leave."

"Looks that way." Will shoveled out the cold ashes. The wood box was near to empty. "See if there's an old newspaper in the front room." He went out for an armload of logs. All that was left was pieces of the Christmas tree. He'd have to cut more so Nettie could cook today. Back inside, he found Sophia reading the paper at the table.

She was blinking back tears.

Will knew the Poncas' story wouldn't merit attention from any newspaper. What else could make her so sad? "What's wrong?"

She shook herself and pushed the paper toward him. "Russia invaded Turkey."

Another country, another war. Will scanned the article. "You weren't thinking about going back, were you? Isn't the same guy in charge, the tsar?"

She faced the window, but Will sensed she was seeing a different scene altogether. Her slender fingers scratched a mosquito bite on the back of her hand. "I had thought to return, yes. But it will not be possible."

Nettie appeared in the doorway, fatigue dragging her steps. She paused and stretched her back. "Sorry, children. I'm late getting going."

"No, we're early." Will coaxed the fire back to life.

Nettie patted Sophia's shoulder. "It's a wonder we haven't run out of tears."

"I signed up with the Mission Board to escape the humiliation of being jilted. I thought if they sent me to China, I could make my way back to Russia. I did not pray about it." She let loose with a sob that nearly tore Will's heart in pieces.

Nettie wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Yet G.o.d used you anyway."

"No. I hoped to do a great work for G.o.d, like my father. But nothing I have done here helped. I protested too much, wrote too many letters, instead of tending my own garden, ignoring the rushing water." Sophia pounded her fists on the table. "And now the government is moving the Poncas because I told them conditions here were inhumane."

"No. Congress voted for removal before you got here." Will dusted his palms on his pants, then grabbed her cold hands. "You were right to speak up. I should have done the same when I first got here."

He knew it was true, although this was the first time he'd said it out loud. He'd been too late writing the bishop. He should have been writing letters all along.

Nettie's other arm clasped Will's waist. "Children, I don't believe G.o.d is causing this disaster of a fiasco. But I do believe He will make it work out. And I also know, no matter what, He expects His people to be about His business. Sophia Makinoff, you have a school to box up. And Willoughby Dunn, you have wagons to rig and a warehouse to organize. And I have empty bellies to fill."

Nettie bustled around, stirring up breakfast, leaving Will holding Sophia's hands for one glorious moment. She didn't have anywhere to go. Would she go with him?

A rain storm veiled the school in a gray curtain. Sophia locked herself inside to pack. She collected the slates, finding the owl design Matthew Adams had carved into the frame of one. Then the McGuffey Readers-how excited the children had been, marveling over each picture. And the globe. Lone Chief had said that G.o.d's hands hold up the earth. She collected the coins, remembering Rosalie studying the pictures on them, Susette puzzling over the trickster dime.

She swallowed down her tears and dropped the money into her pocket. It clinked against her pistol.

As she worked, Sophia prayed again for G.o.d's intervention. All her efforts were for naught. Only the Lord could remedy the Poncas' situation.

"Miss Makinoff?" Marguerite knocked at the window, then called to someone on the path. "She is here."

Sophia opened the door to Mary, Buffalo Woman, Susette Primeau, and Moon Hawk. The rain had stopped. "Ladies?"

The women filed inside and closed the door.

Marguerite interpreted for her mother. "You have taught our children. You made music for us. You have given us pretty dresses."

Mary held up a buckskin dress covered with the most elaborate quillwork and beadwork Sophia had ever seen.

"We want you to have the dress made by Julia's mother, when she became the wife of Walking Together."

Sophia had difficulty taking in enough air to respond. "Please, I am unworthy to accept such a beautiful gift."

"No one is left in Julia's family. Her last cousin died in Point Village two weeks ago."

"Perhaps Nettie-"

Mary stretched out the waist, showing it was too narrow for the older woman.

"We gave Nettie a bag decorated with quillwork to keep her needles in," Marguerite said.

"You try on," Moon Hawk said.

"But this is part of your heritage, the history of the Ponca people."

Susette said, "You are part of our story too."

The women helped her out of her bodice, skirt, and petticoats. Her corset provoked universal head shaking and frowns. They finally got her down to her chemise, drawers, and stockings. The gown slipped over her head, soft and light. Sophia breathed in a faint odor of leather and smoke.

Moon Hawk undid Sophia's chignon and braided her hair into two plaits running down her back. Buffalo Woman handed her a pair of moccasins and Marguerite tied them, then pushed her drawers up and out of sight. Mary held up a mirror.

"Oh! The dress is so beautiful. I am sure I do not do it justice as Julia did."

"Hey, Sophia, did you pack your-" Will opened the door, then froze in place, his mouth open.

Sophia stepped back into the room's shadow, feeling exposed without the full armor of undergarments. The dress ended at mid-calf, exposing as much leg as her bathing costume. She shivered in the cool damp, but her face heated with a blush. The women giggled. Moon Hawk murmured in Ponca. Will also turned red. He shook his head as the rest chimed in, concurring with Moon Hawk's suggestion.

One more time Sophia drew on Will's expertise. "The ladies want me to take Julia's dress, but it is so beautiful. Should it not stay with the Poncas?"

"Ordinarily, yes." He swallowed and continued to stare at her. "But they're trying to find safe places for their valuables. I'm keeping a war bonnet, tomahawk, and leggings. So yes, uh, you should hang on to it. Could you . . ." He motioned with his chin for her to step out of the building.

Moon Hawk and Marguerite dragged her into the light.

Will swallowed. "Yes. That is a, uh, great dress. First rate. Uh, best beadwork I've ever seen."

Sophia rubbed her bare arms. If he stared much longer, she would squirm.

"I'll take your box back to the house," he said. "You can come when you've had a chance to . . . ah, change."

With that, he picked up the supplies and left.

Sophia turned to the women. "I am honored that you entrust me with such a treasure. I shall give it my utmost care. And if the time comes when you would like it back, I will return it."

She gave each of them a hug, then hastened away before she began to cry again. And later that night as she packed the dress into her trunk, she realized she was leaving with infinitely more than she had brought.

". . . two corn plows, three axes, one saw, two bedsteads, two ox yokes, one new cooking stove." Will penciled Standing Bear's name on his possessions, then listed them on the lined paper Sophia had given him.

Inspector Howard strode up to the warehouse, pointed at Will's best friend with his index finger, then jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Brown Eagle. You go back to the Santee Agency. Get on the boat."

"What?" Will blinked. He'd forgotten Brown Eagle was Santee. Their Agency was in good shape. Brown Eagle's family would have a place to live, a school, a church. "He'll need to pack up his family."

"No. They're Poncas. They can't go with him."

"Nothing in the order says to split up families." Will clenched his fists. He'd be all too happy to have a chance to wipe that smug look off the inspector's face. "They have a pa.s.sel of little ones. His wife just had a baby." Howard didn't need to know the baby was now six months old and his mother had died. Mary had her hands full with six children.

The inspector called to a pair of infantrymen. "Escort this one to the boat."