Savage Courage

Again she hugged him.

As she clung to him a moment longer, Storm wrapped his arms around her. Her body felt so good against his, so right, and her eyes were so beautiful as she gazed into his, her voice so sweet, he was speechless for a moment.

Then he took her by the hand and led her back to her mother. He smiled at Fawn. “I heard you addressed as Fawn,” he said gently. “It is good to know your true name at last, and even better to see you with your daughter.”

Fawn rose shakily to her feet and smiled up at Storm. “For many moons I dreamed and prayed to Ma

heo that this moment could be possible,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. With tears shining in her eyes, she turned to Shoshana. “My dreams told me that I would see and hold my Shoshana again. Today those dreams became reality.”

“I am glad to have had a part in this reunion of the heart,” Storm said, stepping between Fawn and Shoshana, placing an arm around each of their waists. “It is a good day.”

“It is a day I shall never forget,” Fawn said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I knew that Maheo would not let me down. I knew that, somehow, this day had to happen. I . . . could . . . not die without first seeing and holding my daughter once again.”

“Ina, my dreams kept me close to you always,” Shoshana murmured as she gazed past Storm, her eyes holding her mother’s. “You came to me, ah, so vividly. It was as though we were never parted.”

They sat down and talked and talked as Storm enjoyed seeing the happiness in both women’s eyes.

But then a disquieting thought intruded. He remembered his sister’s premonition . . . her warning about a woman becoming involved with him and his people.

That woman had to be Shoshana! Should he still be wary?

Should he mistrust these feelings he had for her, and those she seemed to have for him?

And what of his plans for vengeance? If she asked to go back to her white world for any reason, and he refused to allow it, she would discover his ulterior motive for bringing her here. How would she feel about him then?

His only hope was that now that Shoshana would wish to remain in his stronghold now that she had found her mother. He knew Fawn would never want to leave the people she had grown to love.

He hoped that Shoshana would gladly live among his people, too. That would mean that he and she would be free to love one another; to eventually marry.

Ho, he did want a wife after all. But only if he could have Shoshana.

Chapter Eighteen

I love your eyes when the

lovelight lies lit with

a passionate fire.

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Still in a state of awe that she had found her mother, Shoshana sat beside Fawn’s bed of blankets and pelts and watched her sleep.

It was only now that Shoshana realized her mother was not well. She was frail. She was weak.

The excitement of having found her daughter had drained her of what little strength she seemed to have had.

After arriving at her tepee, Fawn had fallen asleep almost immediately.

Sitting on beautifully dressed deer, bear, and beaver skins, Shoshana realized that her dream had come true almost exactly as she’d envisioned it.

Except for the most mystical part of the dream. No eagle with golden talons had brought her mother back to her. Yet an eagle had shown itself in the sky at the very moment of mother and daughter realizing they had found one another.

“It is a miracle, Ina,” Shoshana whispered softly as she reached a hand to her sleeping mother’s frail cheek and gently touched it. “Mother, Mother. How I have missed you.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “Yes, it is a miracle,” she said, her voice breaking. “A miracle created by Storm.”

If he had not brought her to his stronghold, Shoshana would never have known the blessing of being with her mother again.

“Thank you, Storm,” she whispered, seeing in her mind’s eye his handsomeness, the gentle look in his midnight-dark eyes. “I love you. I did from the moment I first saw you. And I shall always love you.”