CAN West 04 - When Hope Springs New by Janette Oke Read Free Book Online

hide his scarlet face in embarrassment. However, he usually got even at some future time when the prankster was least expecting it.
    So we lived with our new neighbors—together, yet apart; inhabiting the same village, but feeling ourselves to be of another time and another world. It was so different from Beaver River, where we had been not only neighbors but true friends, sharing totally in the village life. Daily I prayed that somehow the reserve might be broken; that we would be seen as more than a “law-enforcer” and his “spying” wife; that the Indians might realize we had come as friends as well.

NINE

    Spring

    We dared to hope that spring was on the way when the sun began to spend more time in the sky and the days began to grow longer and warmer.
    For Wynn, the winter had been uneventful. There were no major epidemics within the village, no disasters, and very few troublesome incidents.
    For this we were truly thankful, for we weren’t sure what the response of the people would have been if some calamity had fallen on the tribe soon after our arrival. Perhaps with their superstitious leanings they would have felt that the disaster had come because of us.
    On one of the first warm days, Wynn suggested that I might like to go on an outing with him. I wholeheartedly agreed. It seemed forever since I had been beyond the exercise trails where I walked Kip.
    I bundled up, for the temperature was still cool, and put the leash on Kip until we got beyond the settlement. The trip would not be long, so Wynn decided to dispense with the sled dogs. That way we could walk together and enjoy the signs of spring.
    “If you want to pack a lunch, we’ll celebrate the departure of another long winter,” Wynn had said, so I prepared a picnic. Like the Indians, I was ready to celebrate almost anything.
    There was enough winter snow left for us to lace on our snowshoes.
    Kip was excited. He could sense this was a special outing when we were being joined by Wynn.
    Wynn walked slower than his normal pace in order to accommodate me. I still had not become truly adept on snowshoes. Besides, I wished to enjoy every minute of the day. As we walked, I was full of my usual questions about everything from squirrels to ferns. Wynn pointed out trappers’ boundaries and told me the names of some of our neighbors.
    “Do you think they’ll ever accept us?” I asked him. “I mean, as part of them, not as the ‘Force’?”
    “I don’t know, Elizabeth. They don’t seem to know much about the white man here. They don’t have anything to base their trust on, as yet.”
    “But wasn’t there a Mountie here before us?”
    “Yes ...” Wynn hesitated. “That might be some of the problem.”
    I looked at Wynn, concern showing in my eyes. “You mean they had a ‘bad’ officer?”
    “No, not bad. He did his duty as the King’s representative honestly enough. But he held himself apart from the people. From what I have heard, he might have even taken advantage of their belief that he might be ... ah ... different. If they wanted to think he was in cahoots with the spirits, then that was fine with him.”
    “Oh, Wynn! Surely he wouldn’t—”
    “Oh, he didn’t foster it, I don’t mean that, but he didn’t mind if the Indian people thought him a little different—a little above them.”
    “But why?”
    “It’s hard to say. Some men just like having authority. He was a loner and didn’t like to be bothered. One way to keep the villagers at a distance was to keep them believing that there was a ‘great gulf’ between them and the lawman, so to speak.”
    “I think that’s terrible!” I blurted out. “And now we, who would like to befriend them and help them, have to bear the brunt of it all.”
    “We’ll just have to keep chipping away at it. I think I am feeling a little less tension on the part of some of the men.”
    “I’m glad someone is making headway.” I shook my head. “I sure haven’t. This has been about