A Love Forbidden by Kathleen Morgan Page B

she confessed. “But I’ve only just begun, and I know it takes time to win people’s trust. If you’ve any suggestions—besides giving out gifts,” Shiloh added with a chuckle, “I’d be most appreciative. I’m expected to start school by May first.”
    “Father Meeker doesn’t always understand the ways of the People,” Susan said, a small frown forming between her brows. “He expects us to change our customs just because he is told by his chiefs to have us do so. But those things take time, if they will ever change.”
    “It’s not my intent or wish to change your customs.”
    Even as she spoke the words, she struggled with their veracity. Teaching the children to read and write would change the Utes. Progress always ended up changing some things. But she hoped learning the written word would help preserve many of the old ways for posterity.
    A shrewd look came into Susan’s eyes. “Nonetheless, we both know that with education, change will come.”
    “Yes, it will,” Shiloh admitted. “But hopefully only change for the good.”
    “Ah, but that is the real question, is it not? Who will be the ones to determine that? The whites or the People?”
    Susan had put words to a legitimate fear of the Utes, indeed likely a fear of all the Indian tribes. And, for the most part so far, it had been the white man’s way that had prevailed. Still, though Shiloh was against a lot of the changes forced on the Indians by her own people, there wasn’t much she could do about them. What she had control of, though, she intended to wield with the utmost respect for Ute traditions.
    She released a long, slow breath. “All I want to do is teach the children the skills they’ll need, as the life around them changes with the arrival of more and more whites. So that the Utes will possess the knowledge to ensure they are fairly treated. So they won’t be so easily lied to or cheated out of what is lawfully theirs. So that they can take their rightful place alongside the whites in the growth and prosperity of this great nation.”
    Johnson’s wife was silent for a time, and Shiloh knew she was carefully considering her words. Had she been too grandiose in her aspirations, sounding like a lot of the men who had promised the Indians many fine things and never meant a word that fell from their lips? She hoped not. It was her dearest wish to accomplish all the things she had spoken of. It was her dearest wish because she truly, and deeply, cared about the People.
    “So, what do you think, husband?” Susan asked, glancing straight over Shiloh’s right shoulder to where Johnson and Jesse stood not more than ten feet behind them. “Do you think we should try to help her with this task?”
    Shiloh flushed with embarrassment. How had her impassioned words sounded to them and most especially to Jesse? Did he think her a bombastic, lying fool, like so many of her kind? And would he now speak his mind and destroy any chance she might have to enlist Chief Johnson and Susan’s aid?
    Instead of immediately answering his wife, Johnson turned to Jesse. “What do you think, Nuaru? Word has gotten around that you knew this woman many moons ago. Do you believe the truth of her words?”
    Panic shot through Shiloh. Depending on how he replied, Jesse held the power to ruin all her chances with his people. She stood and turned to meet his inscrutable gaze, trying with all her might to keep the entreaty she felt out of her eyes.
    Say what you truly feel, Jesse, she silently thought. Say it and be done with it, once and for all.
    “I believe,” her self-appointed adversary finally replied, “that she means what she says. I’ve never known her to speak falsely, and I don’t find her changed in that regard from when I last knew her. But I also believe she will not succeed in this undertaking of hers.”
    “And why is that?” Shiloh asked, struck with a sudden realization of how to turn his words against him. “Because, in spite of my