Savage Abandon

“They not only enjoy your bird’s song, but are also amazed to see a bird in a cage that is happy to be there,” Wolf Hawk said.

He took her hand and led her farther away from the children so that he could talk to Mia without disturbing them.

“Even I find that very unusual,” he said. “Yet I can tell the bird is happy. If it were not content, it would not sing such a beautiful song.”

“My canary has a reason to sing because she knows that she is safe inside the cage and will be fed and watered.”

She frowned a little as she glanced over at Georgina. “But I wonder what I shall feed her when my supply of birdseed runs out,” she said softly.

Then she gazed into Wolf Hawk’s eyes again. She smiled. “I know what I shall do,” she murmured. “I shall go to Talking Bird and ask him what I can feed my bird so that she will stay healthy and content.”

Wolf Hawk’s heart skipped a beat, for he felt that Mia’s words indicated she wasn’t ready to leave the village. There seemed enough food in the bag to last for a long while, for the bird ate only small amounts at a time.

It made his heart swell to believe that Mia did want to stay with his people, and with him.

Ah, but he felt so deeply for her! He was eager to let her know just how much.

Tomorrow. She would know tomorrow.

Chapter Twenty-two

I would ask of you, my darling,

A question soft and low,

That gives me many a heartache,

As the moments come and go.

—Anonymous

At first light, Wolf Hawk had awakened and left his lodge while Mia still slept.

Wearing only a breechcloth, moccasins and his knife sheathed at his right side, his hair held back with a headband that he had quickly slid into place as he walked from his tepee, he now made his way through the forest.

His eyes were ever searching for two plants that he was going to use for his courting medicine.

He smiled as he thought of Mia sleeping so soundly and trustingly inside his lodge. He had to make certain that she wouldn’t be aware of what he was doing when he knelt at her side with the medicine.

His Shaman grandfather had taught him which plants should be used once he found a woman he favored more than any other, one he trusted would be faithful to him until they were both gray and could only sit and smile at each other while others did the work they had once done.

Ah, but those years were still far ahead of them. First, they would share a lifetime of love and happiness.

He could already envision the children born of their love.

The girls would be heartbreakingly pretty, with their mother’s eyes and their father’s hair. Their skin color mattered not at all, for they would be the children of a proud Winnebago chief and his wondrous wife.

The sons would have all the traits required to be great warriors, and one of them would step into the moccasins of his father as chief of the Bird Clan of Winnebago.

It was good to think of these things as Wolf Hawk continued to travel light-footed in his moccasins over the various flowering plants that reached out beyond the forest, where sunshine washed them with its warmth and light through the day, bringing the smiling faces of the flowers fully abloom.

Wolf Hawk slowed his steps, looking more carefully for the two flowers he sought.

He carried a small pouch, in which he would place the flowers. Then he would carry them back to his lodge to prepare the magic potion with which he would anoint his true love. When she awakened from her night’s slumber and saw him sitting beside her, he would know without a doubt that she would favor him as her husband.

He was anxious to see her awaken, to witness the look on her face when she realized that things had changed between them, even though she would not know why, or how. She would just know how much he desired her. And the potion would ensure that she desired him just as much.

Then a few days later they would have the marriage ceremony that would make them husband and wife in the eyes of his people.