Savage Beloved

Candy sat there numbly, the chains weighing down her wrists and ankles.

Tears pooled in her eyes at the thought of her father’s death, as well as dear Malvina’s, and the deaths of all the men who had followed her father’s lead.

And then there was her beloved wolf, Shadow. Surely she had been killed by an arrow, too!

Candy hung her head, torn apart by grief and fear of where this would end for her.

What Two Eagles had already done to her was awful. Yet she knew it could get much, much worse.

Suddenly she was no longer alone. Candy was shocked to see a white woman who was dressed in Indian attire, and who had hair the same golden color as hers. The woman was calmly adding wood to the fire.

The woman ignored Candy when she asked who she was. “Why are you here?” Candy inquired. “Are you also a captive?

Hawk Woman, who was anything but a captive, frowned at Two Eagles’s prisoner. She had been in love with the handsome young chief ever since she’d joined the band, but he rebuffed all of her advances toward him.

Hawk Woman saw this woman as possibly a threat to her own standing among the Wichita.

Hawk Woman, whose real name was Sara Thaxton, had been rescued by these people and taken in. They welcomed her as a part of their lives and guarded her against the white man she had fled from.

Candy could not understand why this other white woman refused to speak with her. Bemused, she watched the woman place yet another log on the fire.

Before Candy could say anything else to this unfriendly woman, she was gone.

But to Candy’s surprise, she returned very soon with a platter of food.

“Ma’am, thank you for adding wood to the fire, and . . . and for bringing me food,” Candy said softly, trying once again to get the woman to speak with her. When the woman met her gaze, she saw instantly that this woman was going to be anything but a friend.

Candy knew resentment when she saw it, and she saw much of that emotion in this woman’s flashing green eyes. It was hard to understand why the woman should resent her so much. Candy had done nothing to earn it.

“Will you please stay awhile?” Candy said, trying one last time to reach the woman’s heart as she gazed up at her, watching and waiting for her response.

“Would you want to eat with me?” Candy blurted out.

“Just shut up,” Hawk Woman said, her eyes narrowing angrily. “You will cooperate if you know what’s good for you. Chief Two Eagles, the warrior who brought you into this tepee, will kill you if you don’t behave.”

Hawk Woman’s eyes glittered even more when she reached down and ran her fingers through Candy’s long, golden tresses. “You hair would make a good decoration for Two Eagles’s scalp pole,” she said, laughing mockingly.

Horrified by what this woman had just said, Candy stiffened and leaned away from her. She was truly afraid now. It seemed that this woman hated her with a strange sort of passion.

Candy gazed at the woman’s beautiful golden hair, which was braided in a single long plait down her back. She wore a white doeskin dress with a flashing necklace of beads around her thick neck.

Candy could not help wondering how the woman had come to this village, and why she was free to come and go among the Wichita people.

Now Candy felt even more afraid than before, not because of the threats that came from this spiteful woman’s mouth, but because Candy now knew that her captor was the chief of this village of Wichita. If he had such hate for her, all his people would feel the same.

Now she didn’t believe that she could possibly come out of this alive. Would her hair sway from Two Eagles’s scalp pole someday? Or would she be cast out of the village, to become food for wolves and birds?

She suddenly heard the baying of wolves from somewhere in the distance, reminding her of her dear Shadow.

Even though she realized how much the white woman obviously resented her being there, Candy tried one more time to gain her sympathy.

“You are white, I am white; how can you not want to help me?” Candy murmured. “Why do you resent me so much?”

Hawk Woman gave Candy a cold glare, stuck her nose in the air, then flounced from the tepee.

A moment later Two Eagles returned.

Candy noticed that he carried something covered by a piece of maroon cloth.