“I’ll be the richest man in all of Kansas Territory,” Tiny gloated to himself as he swung himself into his saddle. He grabbed up his reins and took one last look at Strong Wolf, then wheeled his horse around and rode away.
“Come again soon, Strong Wolf,” Chuck said as Strong Wolf released Hannah’s hand. “We shall have council here for a change, instead of at your village. I feel I should do something to make up for this inconvenience caused you today.”
“You have done enough by ordering the removal of the dam,” Strong Wolf said, his eyes still on Hannah. What he saw today in the woman was something he wished to ignore, yet his heart told him that was impossible. There was too much about her that was different from most women. His intrigue of her touched him to the very core of his being.
“Tiny was just looking out for my best interests,” Chuck said, sighing. “But I have my doubts about him sometimes.”
“It not my place to discourage you about those who work for you; yet I cannot help but say that if I were you, I would be wary of that man,” Strong Wolf said, then turned and went to his horse. “I have my duties to see to. I must leave.”
He gazed at Hannah again, “We shall meet again, I am certain,” he said. He nodded to Chuck, then rode off in an easy lope on his beautiful chestnut stallion.
Hannah’s heart beat soundly as she watched Strong Wolf ride away. He sat so tall and so masterfully in his saddle. His shoulders were so squared and muscled. And she loved the way his dark, waist-length hair fluttered in the wind.
“Sis?”
Chuck’s voice broke through Hannah’s reverie. Red-faced, she turned to him. “Yes?” she murmured.
“What do you think?”
“About what?”
“About Strong Wolf.”
“In which way, Chuck?”
“Hannah, am I wrong, or did I feel strong feelings being exchanged between the two of you?”
Hannah gulped hard. She sucked in a wild breath. “You noticed this?” she murmured. “You can’t even see all that well, yet detected something evolving between me and Strong Wolf?”
“Besides my eyes, my other senses have been enhanced, and, yes, Hannah, I felt something happening between you and my Potawatomis friend.”
“And if you are right?” Hannah murmured. “How would you feel?”
Hannah became unnerved by Chuck’s sudden silence.
Chapter 3
Was that thunder?
I grasped the cord of my swift mustang,
Without a word.
—FRANK DESPREZ
Hawk, a Sioux and the son of Star Flower and Buffalo Cloud, was traveling alone on horseback, his destination Kansas. His village was not far from the village of Strong Wolf’s people in Wisconsin. He was thinking back to what his mother had said to him before he had left for this long journey. She had told him that it was now time to follow the scent of skunk that had been left along the trail made by Strong Wolf and his friend Proud Heart, who were now settled in the Kansas Territory.
The fathers of Strong Wolf and Proud Heart were responsible for the death of Hawk’s uncle, his mother’s brother. Hawk never knew his uncle Slow Running, but his mother had told him often how much she had loved him.
And she had stood beside her brother when he had gone against the Chippewa, the Sioux people’s natural enemy. And since his death at the hands of Chief White Wolf and his companion Sharp Nose all those years ago, she had lived with resentment, with revenge on her mind.
She had ordered her son to do the avenging. She had told him that she had waited long enough for this to happen. She had told Hawk to go now to the Potawatomis’s newly established village. There he was to avenge his uncle’s death by killing the sons of those two warriors who were responsible for her brother’s death!
From the beginning, when his mother had first approached him to do this for her, Hawk had told her that he could not kill those whom he himself did not see as enemies.
He had finally agreed to do what she had asked of him after his mother had repeatedly reminded him that he owed her so much. Because of her having trouble giving birth to him, she couldn’t have any more children.
Even he held himself to blame for his mother’s barren womb. And how could he not? She had never let him forget that he was the reason she could never have any more children.