Savage Beloved

But again she thought of Two Eagles. He was surely somewhere close, searching for Candy, and Hawk Woman didn’t want to be the one he found instead.

She gave the children one last look, again thinking of her daughter, then shrugged. She wasn’t born to be a mother anyhow. Albert had actually done her a favor by cutting her ties with her daughter.

And now she had also cut her ties with the Wichita people.

“It was never meant to be,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “I’ll find a new life somewhere, where I’ll be appreciated.”

The most important thing now was to get farther away from this area.

She walked her horse away from the campsite, then swung herself onto it again. She cackled into the wind as she pushed the steed into a hard gallop.

Chapter Forty

You kissed me! My heart, my breath, and my will

In delirious joy for a moment stood still.

—Leigh Hunt

The moon had replaced the sun in the sky. Night sounds were all around Candy as she rode with Two Eagles on his steed. Exhausted from her long ordeal, she cuddled against him, safe within his arms.

She closed her eyes and tried to blank out the worst of her abduction. She was thankful that Albert Cohen hadn’t had a chance to rape her.

Thank heavens she was back with her beloved one, safe and untouched.

Yes, she was the lucky one to have gotten away from that fiendish man before he ruined her life, as he had ruined so many.

The children. She would never forget the haunted, empty looks in their eyes. When they grew old enough to have families of their own, they would find it hard to explain how they had been conceived and raised.

But, fortunately, thanks to Two Eagles, those children had been given a second chance. Although they had lived a degrading life up till now, they did have a chance now of bettering themselves.

“We are almost home,” Two Eagles said, interrupting Candy’s train of thought.

She sighed and gazed up at him. “I’m so glad. I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired,” she said. “I hope I will have no more ordeals like this. All I want is to marry you and bear your children. I want to be at your side as you lead your people. I hope nothing else will stand in the way of our happiness.”

“We will marry nahosah, tomorrow, after you have a good night’s rest,” Two Eagles said, smiling at her. “My woman, soon you will be my wife.”

“I feel as though I already am,” Candy murmured, smiling.

“And I already see myself as your husband,” Two Eagles said thickly.

“When I was a small girl I envisioned myself having a big wedding and walking down the aisle of a church dressed in white,” Candy said softly. “But I no longer have such fantasies. I am living real life with the man I adore. And I will be dressed in white on my wedding day . . . the whitest of doeskin.”

“No one could be as lovely as you, no matter what you wear,” Two Eagles said, leaning forward to brush soft kisses across her brow. “You are my Painted Wings.”

“Yes, Painted Wings,” Candy said, sighing. She smiled up at Two Eagles. “I shall never forget my mother’s reaction to the name. She actually accepted that I had a new name. I imagine she understood, once and for all, just how much I resented having been given a name that embarrassed me.”

Candy snuggled closer to Two Eagles and rested her cheek against his powerful chest once again. “It was so good to see my mother again,” she said. “After she fled into the night, to escape not only my father but military life in general, I did not want to think about what sort of trouble she might find out there on the trail all alone. Of course it is horrible that she was forced to endure life with Albert Cohen, even if for a short while, but at least she was still alive.”

“And now she will finally find the sort of life that she hungered for,” Two Eagles said. ?

??You must always think that she will be happy in her new life, especially now that she is free of Albert Cohen.”

“But there are many more like him out there who prey on women,” Candy said, shuddering. “Still, I do believe Mama will be alright. She is perhaps the strongest-willed person I have ever known. I still can’t believe she stayed with my father as long as she did.”

The low sound of thumping drums came to Candy in the soft night breeze, causing her to lift her head from Two Eagle’s chest.

She gazed ahead, where she could now make out the shine of the river in the distance; the moon lent the water a white, magical sheen.