Savage Beloved

“Spotted Bear, I don’t think you heard what I said about Two Eagles surely welcoming you home,” Candy persisted. “Because he is chief, you might be welcome now among your people. No man could have a kinder or more understanding heart than Two Eagles.”

“Ho, Two Eagles is as no one I have ever known,” he said. “But I would not want to put Two Eagles in the position of choosing between me and the rest of the tribe. Many would not want me in the village because of how they would see me—as a Ghost.”

“But, Spotted Bear—” Candy said, reaching a hand out toward him. She knew there was no point in going on, for he did not even give her a look before standing and walking away from her.

She hugged Shadow, feeling very anxious to return to Two Eagles’s arms. But at the same time, she would feel sad to leave this kind man behind, all alone, since she had not been able to convince him that he should return to his true home and people.

She remembered, though, that he was not really alone. He had a full pack of wolves to give him love. Because of them, he was alive.

Chapter Eighteen

Small in the worth of beauty

from the light retired.

—Edmund Waller

The clouds were heavy when Two Eagles rode from his village in search of Candy. Sitting tall in the saddle on his black stallion, and dressed today in warm buckskin, he looked around at how the clouds had dropped a thick fog over the countryside.

In the village, his people were lighting small fires before their lodges to chase the moist chill from their entranceways.

On mornings such as this, few ventured outside early. People would wait until the sun broke through the fog, and only then set out to work in the garden, or carry water from the river into their homes for the cooking chores that lay ahead.

But neither the fog nor the chill of the morning had stopped Two Eagles and several of his warriors from leaving to look far and wide for Candy. He sent warriors in different directions, to meet again at a designated place after a calculated time of searching.

It was many hours later when the sun finally broke through the clouds and sent its sparkling, warm rays down.

But the loveliness of the day did not help to lift Two Eagles’s spirits. He was exhausted from having searched the long day through and still he did not have Candy with him.

He was beginning to believe that he would never see her again. Discouraged, he had just arrived at the meeting point of his warriors.

He watched as they began coming in from all directions, their faces masks of gloom because they did not carry good news back to their beloved young chief.

As they slowly gathered, Two Eagles still could not accept the fact that he might never see the lovely, sweet white woman again.

It would not be fair to either of them to have found one another and a love so promising, only to lose each other so soon.

He nodded to each warrior as he came and took his place among the others, waiting for them all to arrive before heading back to the village.

Then Two Eagles’s eyes were drawn in a direction where no warrior had gone. Perhaps he was wrong to think that every inch of the land had been covered.

He started to turn his head to send one of his men searching in that direction, but stopped, his heart skipping a beat. He had caught sight of something that made joy fill his whole being.

It was Candy!

She was walking with her wolf at her side. They both had just come from around a bend in the path, where they had been hidden from sight by a thick stand of birch trees.

She seemed to have seen him at the same time he spotted her, for she broke into a hard run, waving at him. Shadow ran alongside her.

His heart thudding inside his chest, Two Eagles sank his heels into the flanks of his steed and rode hard toward her. When he reached her, he drew a tight rein and swept her onto his horse with him.

Tears of pure, sweet happiness swam in Candy’s eyes as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thank you, thank you,” she whispered as their lips touched in a sweet and wondrous kiss.

Then he framed her face between his hands as their eyes met and held. “Why did you leave?” he asked huskily. “Are you alright? Where did you and your wolf spend the night?”

Candy was uncertain what to answer. She longed to tell him to help Spotted Bear. But remembering Spotted Bear’s warning that Two Eagles might turn away from her if he knew with whom she had spent the night, she kept the secret to herself.

“I was foolish to leave, I know that now, but I was so concerned about Shadow that I just had to go and look for her,” Candy said softly. “You were immersed in your duties to your uncle. I . . . I . . . just couldn’t ask you to help in my search.”