Wild Thunder

I sat by her side, and forgot—forgot!

—FRANK DESPREZ

Strong Wolf was now several days into his journey home, to Wisconsin. He had left what he hoped were enough warriors to care for the needs of his village in the Kansas Territory.

Camp was being made for the night. Strong Wolf had seen to it that his entourage to Wisconsin had filled their parfleche bags with food stores for the journey. They had brought dried turnips, thistle stalks, milkweed buds, choke-berry pemmican, and dried deer meat.

Strong Wolf watched some prepare their bedding while others built a large outdoor fire. The fire would ward off the chill of the night, as well as keep away any beasts who might come sniffing around their camp.

Strong Wolf’s eyes shifted. Proud Heart was making a comfortable pallet for his wife, Singing Wind.

Hawk and Doe Eyes were embracing down by the river, seemingly never to tire of one another.

No pangs of jealousy entered Strong Wolf’s heart over someone else holding Doe Eyes. Although Strong Wolf and Doe Eyes’s marriage had been planned since the day of their birth—since they had been born on the same day and at almost the same hour to women who were best friends—he would never forget the moment he realized that Doe Eyes was someone he could never love.

He would also never forget the humiliation he had felt when Doe Eyes had stared at him as though he was a de

mon, having witnessed him become someone she didn’t know. Yes, he was affiicted by an illness that his mother carried in her genes.

He was very grateful that it had happened only that one time to him. He hoped that with time, everyone who knew of his affliction then had forgotten.

But he lived with the knowledge that it could happen, at any given moment, at any given time. And so did Doe Eyes!

“Darling, what are you thinking about so intensely as you stare at Doe Eyes?” Hannah said as she came and stood before him, blocking his view of the beautiful woman.

“What . . . ?” Strong Wolf said, his eyes wide as he was drawn out of his dreaded reverie. “What did you say?”

Hannah looked over her shoulder at Doe Eyes, who was in Hawk’s arms, looking adoringly up at him as they talked.

Then Hannah gazed questionably again at Strong Wolf. “Please tell me I don’t have any reason to be jealous of that woman,” she pleaded.

When Strong Wolf swept his arms around Hannah and drew her against his hard body, his eyes warm and filled with love for her, she knew that question had been foolish.

Yet there was something bothering him. It entered his eyes every time he looked at Doe Eyes! Hannah so wished that he would confide in her about this.

Yet she was never going to be a nagging wife. She wanted to be everything sweet and good for her husband, not someone he dreaded to face every day.

“My woman, how could you ever think that I would look at Doe Eyes with a lusting, when I have you?” Strong Wolf said, brushing a soft kiss across her lips. “One day I shall open my heart to you and tell you why I detest that woman; not hunger for her.”

“I didn’t mean to pry,” Hannah said, laying her cheek against his muscled chest, then became even more aware of his pounding heart as she felt it against her cheek. It was like distant thunder as she listened to it, a heartbeat that was only caused by torment.

It did not seem the same sort of reaction as when he held her, or made love to her.

Yes, she knew now that something terribly wrong had happened between her husband and Doe Eyes. Would she ever know what? Something told her she . . . wouldn’t. It seemed too horrible a thing for him to confess to!

“Let us make camp down by the river away from everyone else,” Strong Wolf said, picking up his buckskin bags and blankets from the ground. “We are newly married. We should have more privacy, do you not think so, my wife?”

“Yes, I think so,” Hannah said, trying to feel lighthearted again, after becoming filled with such doubts.

She lifted several thick pelts from the ground, on which she and Strong Wolf would soon be making love. She hoped that she could soon forget what had only moments ago troubled her. She loved Strong Wolf too much to have such doubts about him!

“The only audience we will have tonight will be the moon and stars,” Strong Wolf said, laughing as they walked away from everyone.

“It is good to hear you laughing,” Hannah said, casting him a troubled glance. “Darling, tonight you seem more moody than usual.”

“Yes, and I apologize,” he said quietly. “But I have concerns that I carry with me, over having left my people, along with your sister Clara, back at the village. Too many white people are shrewd and land hungry. While I am gone, should they . . .”

“Darling,” Hannah said, interrupting him. “Colonel Deshong won’t allow anything to happen to your people while you are gone.”