"But Raoul is also your son, Grandpapa," he said. "Don't you want him to inherit your land?"
Elysée shook his head. "Raoul is a murderer many times over, who has escaped punishment only because Smith County is on the frontier, where there is no law. He hates Indians with a passion that is close to madness. He is a crude, violent, greedy man. He shames our family. He is far less worthy than you."
Auguste felt anger boiling up under his dismay. Father and Sun Woman and Owl Carver and Black Hawk had promised him he would live among whites only for a time and then go back to the Sauk. They had all smoked the calumet, making that agreement sacred. He had lived for that homecoming, through these six years. He freed his wrist from Pierre's grip and held out his hands, pleading for understanding.
"But I can't stay here with white people for the rest of my life."
Pierre said, "You are not the same person you were when I took you out of the forest. You have been educated. You may yet become a doctor."
"Yes, and I want to be a doctor for my people."
"You can do more for them if you stay here, my son. The Sauk will need friends among the whites who have knowledge and wealth and power."
Auguste shook his head violently, as if to drive out Pierre's words. "I will never be happy, living as a white man. I must go back to my people. I beg you to let me go."
But even as he spoke he realized with a sudden pang that these loved ones, Pierre, Grandpapa, Nicole, were his people too.
Pierre's sunken eyes blazed at Auguste. "I have already written my new will, Auguste. There is one copy with the town clerk, Burke Russell, and one copy in your grandfather's keeping. It names you my sole heir. To all that I possess, the entire de Marion estate. If you accept what I am offering you, you will have to fight Raoul. It will all be upon your shoulders. I can only beg you with these last breaths to take what I would give you. You must decide."