Savage Beloved

Two Eagles waited for the man to thank him, but was not surprised when he didn’t. Instead the wasichu sat there grabbing the bags of corn, pumpkins, and beans as the warriors handed them to him.

Once the bags were in the wagon, the man still didn’t thank Two Eagles, but instead looked past him at his tepee, as though he was thinking now of something more than food. Two Eagles wondered if the white man had seen Candy before he had led her inside his lodge.

Without another word, the white man grabbed his reins and slapped them against his team of horses. Again the man looked over his shoulder at the tepee, then gazed coldly into Two Eagles’s eyes before heading out of the village.

Candy breathed a sigh of relief that the man had left without one shot being fired. She had never been prouder of Two Eagles than now. He had stood there with courage as the man had held him at gunpoint, and then had given the man’s children food! Thanks to Two Eagles’s kindness, the white children would have food for their tiny bellies.

Chapter Thirty

Let knowledge grow from more to more,

But more of reverence in us dwell.

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Hawk Woman huddled in her tepee, trembling. She had heard the voice of the man who had demanded food of Two Eagles. Even without seeing his face, she had known it was Albert Cohen. The man she had fled was there at the village where she had taken refuge.

He must be living nearby. How else could he have gotten to the Indian village so soon after the locust attack?

Now she knew that she would have to be more careful. She could never allow Albert to know she was there.

She also knew that desperate measures must be taken now to make Two Eagles love her instead of Candy. She needed his love in order to keep her safe from the wicked man who had been banished from his own people, the Mormons.

If she were Two Eagles’s wife, he would stop at nothing to keep her safe . . . and happy.

A slow smile quivered across her lips as she thought of a way to torment Candy so that she would want to flee back to the white world, where she truly belonged. Yes, the first time Two Eagles left Candy behind at the village, Hawk Woman would take action against her rival!

But thoughts of the child she’d left behind made Hawk Woman tremble at the knowledge that her daughter was so close. She longed to see Penelope, even though she knew she could never actually embrace her.

But . . . just . . . one look!

No, she thought angrily. She couldn’t bear the pain of looking upon her daughter, even though she knew she could find Albert’s home and sneak close enough without the evil, cruel man knowing it.

Yes, she was devious now in more ways than Albert would have imagined possible. But she was smart, too, and knew that she must forget Penelope, for Two Eagles was more important to her now. He was her future. She would be his wife!

Chapter Thirty-one

Oh, cease! Must hate and death return?

—Percy Bysshe Shelley

Candy watched Two Eagles and several of his warriors ride from the village; she understood why he didn’t want her to go with him to Proud Wind’s village, to see how his people had come through the locust attack. It was too soon after the white man’s appearance in the village for Candy to go out where she might be seen.

Two Eagles had told Candy that the man had peered intently at his tepee as though he might have seen her hurry into it.

If so, Candy had to be careful, for if that man’s wives were dead, would not he be on the lookout for another woman to raise his children?

Candy went back inside the tepee and noticed that Shadow was not there. She always worried when her wolf disappeared for any amount of time, for she knew that one day she might not see her again.

Sorely tired from all the work she’d done cleaning up the locusts, Candy sat down beside the fire for a while. Then, realizing how tired she was, she crawled over to her bed of blankets. She rolled one blanket down halfway, stretched out on the others, then gasped with horror when she found herself being attacked by ants.

She leapt from the bed, swatting at the ants, which were on her dress as well as her legs and arms. The sting of their bites burned her flesh.

After ridding herself of the nasty bugs, Candy knelt down beside her bed and rolled the top blanket down.

She felt the color drain from her face when she saw that someone had

placed a bullhorn plant, with its many ants, in her bed. When she had disturbed the plant by crawling between the blankets, the ants had swarmed from it.