The Doctor's Medicine Woman Read Free Page A

that Jared and Josh needed some roots. They were young. And impressionable. They needed a sense of heritage. A heritage that Travis couldn’t give them because he didn’t have it himself.
    He looked across the aisle at the woman’s arrow-straight, black-as-midnight hair, her tawny skin, noble cheekbones, perfect nose.
    What was it about Diana Chapman that unsettled him so? Was it because she was a Medicine Woman? Someone living the very culture he was so totally ignorant of? Or was it because she had been forced on him? Because she was someone he’d see as an invader in his house? In his new family? Or, a quiet voice silently stressed, was it because she was too darned beautiful for words?
    She turned her head, her nut-brown eyes connecting with his, and she caught him staring for whatseemed the umpteenth time since they’d boarded the plane. Awkwardness crept over him, thick and straining. What was it about her that made him feel so…rough and unrefined? Ham-fisted, even?
    Her dark, steady gaze was trained on him, and he felt the silence swell and grow even more awkward than it had been only a moment before. The urge to reach up and tug at his collar welled up in him like an unreachable itch, but he firmly squelched it.
    Her quiet dignity, her almost patrician manner, was what had him feeling so damned uncouth.
    Say something, you idiot, his brain silently poked him like a stick. Say something that will bridge this difficult stillness.
    “So,” he began, hating the dry-as-dust sound of his voice, “tell me…what exactly does a Medicine Woman do?”
    Diana went utterly still. When she had left the reservation in order to attend college in southern California, she’d shied away from telling anyone in the outside world that she was training to become a Kolheek Medicine Woman. The title was archaic to the modern world. And to people who weren’t familiar with Native American culture, the term often provoked snickers and thinly disguised jeers.
    She remained silent for several seconds as she tried to decipher whether the doctor’s query had been prompted by disdain or honest curiosity.
    He hadn’t said much to her since they had left the reservation together and traveled to the nearby small town of Iron Hill, Vermont, to pick up the boys at the state orphanage. Diana had pretty much stayed in the background as Travis happily broke the news toJared and Josh that the adoption had been successful, that they would be going home with him. To stay.
    Jared had been all smiles, but Josh had taken the information in silence. Over the next half hour or so that they were at the home, Diana watched in silence as Travis interacted with his new sons. The only introduction she’d received was that she was a ‘lady from the reservation who’ll be staying with us for a while.’ She hadn’t minded being brushed over. Travis had only told the truth, and it was important that the focus of the moment be placed on the boys, who needed to understand the change that was about to take place in their lives now that they had been adopted by Travis.
    The trip to the airport was filled with Jared’s questions. The child wanted to know how big the plane would be, how high they would fly, if they’d be above the clouds, if they’d eat a meal. His questions had rung like the peals of a high-pitched bell. Travis had remained patient, and that had impressed Diana.
    Finding no guile in Travis’s eyes now, Diana said, “It would probably be easier to tell you what a Medicine Woman doesn’t do.”
    He obviously recognized her quip for what it was—an attempt to reduce the strain between them. He smiled, and Diana’s breath literally caught in her throat. She’d been right. His smile really did change his already handsome features into a countenance that stole away all thought. For a moment her mind went blank, her heart raced, as she took in his even, white teeth, the smile lines around his mouth and eyes. My, but he was a handsome