Two Eagles saw, heard, and felt his friend’s agony. He rose to his feet and reached for Candy’s hand, prepared to leave.
But Proud Wind stopped them. He had placed the jar at the far back of his lodge and covered it again with the cloth; then he embraced Two Eagles.
“Thank you for again proving yourself the friend you have always been,” he said. “You have done all that is possible to right this terrible wrong. My father smiles from the heavens at you. So does my mother, who has walked the long road to the hereafter, too.”
“It was from my heart that I did this,” Two Eagles said, easing himself from Proud Wind’s arms. He looked over at Candy, then into Proud Wind’s eyes. “I wish to tell you everything about my Painted Wings. I feel that it is best for you to know.”
Candy felt that she might faint, for she now knew that soon her whole identity would be revealed to Proud Wind.
Proud Wind gave Candy a curious gaze, then nodded and motioned with a hand for them to sit again.
He sat across the fire from them as Two Eagles began his tale of how he had rescued the jar from the colonel’s office, and then how he had found Candy fleeing the massacre.
He explained how he had taken her home as his captive, and then how it had all changed, so that now they were in love.
“She is nothing like her father, who did this to Chief Night Horse,” Two Eagles quickly interjected. “She is a good woman with a pure heart, a woman who will soon be my wife.”
Candy could tell that Proud Wind found it difficult to hear all this about Candy, yet he said nothing, only sat stoic and thus far unresponsive, his arms folded across his bare chest.
Candy’s hopes waned when she saw from Proud Wind’s expression that he might never understand Two Eagles’s choice in women. She only hoped that he would never voice his sentiments aloud to his friend.
Taking advantage of a pause in the conversation, Candy leaned forward and said, “I apologize for all the wrongs my father did to you and your people. I also apologize for those men who followed his command. I am sincere in my apology. I truly wish to be your friend, as Two Eagles has been your friend.”
When Proud Wind still said nothing but merely sat quietly gazing back at her, Candy felt that she had not made a good impression. She wondered now what the future held for these two powerful young chiefs—and for herself. Would Two Eagles choose his friendship with this chief over his love for her?
She prayed it didn’t come to that.
“We will return home now,” Two Eagles said, feeling a strange emptiness in the pit of his stomach. His friend had obviously not accepted this woman who would be Two Eagles’s wife. “I wish you much happiness, my friend, and again, it is with a sorrowful heart that I mourn the death of your father.”
Two Eagles rose to his feet and reached a hand down for Candy. She took it, glad that this meeting was coming to a close, yet sad that the outcome was so bleak.
She rose to her feet slowly. In the next moment, she was stunned speechless when Proud Wind suddenly came and whisked her into his arms for a gentle hug.
“I accept your apology,” he said thickly. “I am sorry it took me so long to make up my mind, but I have never felt opposing emotions as those I have known today.”
He stepped away from Candy and peered intently into her eyes. “I truly forgive you for having a father such as Colonel Creighton,” he said solemnly.
Two Eagles was relieved to see his close friend finally accept his future bride. Had he not, Two Eagles would have lost a friend, for he would not tolerate anyone being cold to his woman, not even a man Two Eagles counted as his brother.
“Thank you,” Candy said, flinging herself into Proud Wind’s arms. “Oh, thank you so much.”
Proud Wind embraced her again, then stepped away and turned to Two Eagles. “We should not wait so long before seeing one another again,” he said, then hugged him. “I appreciate such a friend as you. Thank you for . . . for . . . bringing back to me what I sorely wanted.”
“Come soon to my village,” Two Eagles said, clasping hands with Proud Wind. Then they all left the tepee.
Smiling, Two Eagles, Candy, and the warriors rode from the village.
They traveled for a while, then stopped to drink from the river.
While there, Two Eagles showed Candy how his father had taught him to search in the sand along the river to find places where rats had hidden caches of ground beans. He and his father had stolen the ground beans from those caches to eat them.
“You actually ate what you took from a rat’s house?” Candy said, shuddering at the thought.
Two Eagles laughed at her reaction. “Ho, we did, often,” he said.
Candy marveled over what he had told her, realizing that she might hear many more things like this now that she was living in a much different culture from her own. Smiling, she mounted her horse when Two Eagles got on his and rode onward.
The weight of the world seemed to have been lifted from their shoulders now that they were past the ordeal of returning Night Horse’s head to his son.