Wild Thunder

Then panic filled Hannah’s eyes. “Strong Wolf,” she whispered. “His people.” Eyes wide, she stared up at her father. “Oh, Lord, Father. I must go to Strong Wolf and tell him what’s happening on this boat. I can’t chance him coming aboard. He might get cholera. The disease might even be carried back to his people. Indians are known to have a weak resistance against white man’s diseases. Lord, Father, it could wipe out his whole village!”

Although she was anxious to go and see her sister and mother, Hannah’s thoughts lingered on the man she loved.

She turned and ran down the gangplank just as Strong Wolf had begun to walk up it. She grabbed his hand and led him quickly from the gangplank, and then away from the boat.

She then spun around and faced him. “Strong Wolf, please take your warriors and return home,” she said in a rush of words. “Many on board the boat are ill. They have cholera. You can’t chance getting the dreadful disease. You can’t chance carrying the germ back to your people! Please leave! I must rush back to my sister’s side. She . . . she . . . is quite ill with the cholera herself.”

“Cholera?” Strong Wolf said, his jaws slack with the horrid knowledge of what this meant, not only to his people, but also to Hannah. He grabbed her shoulders. “You cannot go back on that boat! Come with me. Protect yourself against the disease! Hannah, you are my world!”

She placed a gentle hand on his cheek. “Darling, don’t you know?” she murmured. “I was on the ship long enough to have already been exposed. Now I must remain on board with the others. If I chance to come through the crisis all right, and the crisis is over for everyone, only then shall I come to you with open arms.”

She wrenched herself tree from his grip. “Now, go, Strong Wolf,” she said, taking slow, shaky steps away from him. “Please. Your people’s future lies in your hands.”

“My future includes you at my side,” Strong Wolf pleaded. “Come with me. You can live separate from my people until we see whether or not you contract the disease. But do not chance getting exposed again! Do not go aboard that boat again.”

“My sister needs me,” Hannah murmured. “And, Strong Wolf, don’t you see? I have to be there for her, to care for her. She has come to teach your children.” She paused, then gazed wistfully up at him. “Why didn’t you tell me that a teacher would soon arrive to teach your children? Did you know that it was going to be my sister?”

“No, I did not know the name of the woman who was assigned to come to my village to teach,” Strong Wolf said, glancing nervously up at the ship as someone screamed in despair. Surely someone’s beloved had just crossed over to the other side.

Hannah’s insides grew cold at the sound. She closed her eyes and said a soft prayer for her sister.

Strong Wolf gazed at Hannah again as she lifted her wavering eyes to his. “Of late, things have become too hectic to remember to tell you about the plans to have our children taught ways of counting and reading,” he softly explained. “And it seems as though they just keep getting more and more complicated.”

Hannah only half heard what Strong Wolf was saying. Her thoughts were on her sister. She needed to be at her sister’s side. Even though she knew her father didn’t want her on the boat, he would take this opportunity to show her just how skilled she could be at caring for the ill. He surely still dreamed of her going to medical school.

It was futile to try and explain to him that nothing he did or said would sway her decision from marrying Strong Wolf. She had her own life to lead; her own desires to fulfill. And she would follow her heart into marriage with Strong Wolf.

She swallowed hard at the thought of that possibly never happening now. If she contracted cholera, everything they had dreamed could be gone, forever.

Knowing that, as far as her sister was concerned, every minute counted, Hannah gazed with a deep longing at Strong Wolf. “I love you so,” she cried, then turned and fled back up the gangplank.

When she reached the deck, she turned and gazed at Strong Wolf. “Please leave!” she cried. “And please don’t worry about me. I shall be all right!”

He gave her one last lingering look, then ran to his horse and swung himself into his saddle.

“Let us return to our people!” Strong Wolf said glumly. He flicked his reins and rode away in a gallop, then slowed his horse to a trot as he rode past Tiny and met him eye to eye.

Tiny sneered at him.

Strong Wolf looked arrows at him, then rode away, his heart aching to know that this might be the last time he would have been with Hannah. He knew the chances of her not surviving the dreaded disease.

But he also knew that nothing he could have said would have made her turn her back on her family. He was proud of her loyalty to her family, knowing that one day soon, if fate allowed it, her true, undying loyalty would be to him, her husband.

Hannah watched Strong Wolf ride away, tears streaming down her cheeks. This might be the last time she saw him. If she got cholera, and . . .

Her father came and took her by the hand, but she still did not go with him just yet. When she saw Tiny ride up closer to the boat, panic again filled her.

Chuck! Through all of this, she had forgotten about her brother!

She couldn’t allow Chuck to come to the boat of death. He was frail as it was. If he contracted the disease, he would never survive!

Hannah ran back down the gangplank. She went to Tiny as he sat on his horse, staring down at her. She pleaded up at him with her eyes. “I never thought that I would ever ask a favor of you,” she said, her voice breaking. “But I must. Tiny, everyone on board this boat has cholera, My parents and sister are on the boat. My sister is quite ill. Please go to Chuck. Explain things to him. Tell him that I am staying here, to help my father take care of those who are ill. Please tell my brother not to worry, and please tell him not to come here. He could get cholera. He isn’t a well man. He might die! You must give me your word that you will keep my brother from coming. Please, Tiny. Please?”

Tiny paled as he stared up at the boat, then smiled crookedly down at Hannah. “Well, now, Hannah,” he said, chuckling. “It seems things have changed, doesn’t it? You, the high and mighty sister who came to look after her brother, is now havin’ to beg the man she loathes.” He scooted his hat back from his brow and leaned down into her face. “I like it. Yeah, I kind’a like it.”

“You would take advantage of the situation,” Hannah said, sighing heavily. “And I was stupid to ask such a thing of you. It woul

d be to your advantage if my brother did die. You’d be able to alter all of the books in your favor before anyone who knows beans about bookkeeping could come and take a look at them.”