There were many things about this woman that Two Eagles loathed, but her kindness toward Short Robe was something that he could not help being thankful for, and admiring.
Sometimes that kindness helped erase the other spiteful things she did from his mind.
“How is my uncle faring?” Two Eagles asked as he knelt beside Hawk Woman. He had eyes only for his uncle. He did not so much as glance at the woman who always tried to attract his attention with her eyes, which were as lovely as Candy’s, yet did not hold such kindness in them.
Too often Two Eagles saw something sinister in the depths of Hawk Woman’s eyes, something untrustworthy.
She had proclaimed her love for him more than once, but he did not trust her words. He saw her as someone looking for an opportunity to better her life. If she was married to the chief of this band of Wichita, she would have many privileges the other women did not have.
He knew that she would abuse the trust placed in her as the wife of a powerful chief, and he would never give her this opportunity.
“Short Robe has awakened only in short spells,” Hawk Woman murmured, placing a gentle hand on Short Robe’s brow. “He wakens, then drifts off again quickly into another deep sleep. He hasn’t said anything to me yet, only stares at me as though he is seeing someone else.”
That made Two Eagles’s eyebrows lift, for he could not help thinking of the other white woman and how similar her appearance was to Hawk Woman’s. They had the same golden hair and blue eyes.
But their personalities seemed very different. Although Hawk Woman was kind when it came to his uncle, she had a strange temperament that Two Eagles would never be able to understand. The woman named Candy seemed as sweet as her name suggested.
He could not forget how she had shown her loving side with her pet wolf. And always while in his presence she showed herself to be anything but calculating and conniving, as Hawk Woman too often showed herself.
Ho, there was also a caring side to Hawk Woman, but he just could not feel anything warm or special for her.
“Thank you, Hawk Woman, for sitting with my uncle,” Two Eagles said softly. “I will leave now and be in council with my warriors. If there is any change in Short Robe, do not hesitate to interrupt the council.”
“But you have always told me it is forbidden to interrupt your council,” Hawk Woman said, her eyes widening.
“Nothing is ordinary now, so do not hesitate to let me know if my uncle worsens, or improves,” Two Eagles said, rising. “If he wakens and is aware of things around him, come for me immediately.”
“Ho, I will do that, my chief,” Hawk Woman said.
She started to reach out and touch his arm, but jerked her hand quickly back when she saw him flinch and lean far enough away to avoid her touch.
She watched Two Eagles until he was gone from the tepee, then leaned low over Short Robe. “Please wake up,” she whispered. “You are the only one who can convince Two Eagles that I am worthy of his love. I have treated you kindly only to have you as my ally. Have all of my efforts been for naught?”
She doubled her hands into tight fists on her lap. “You’d better not die,” she said fiercely. “Do you hear me? You’d better not die.”
Chapter Eleven
I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
O’ what sweet company!
—William Blake
Two Eagles had sat in council the whole afternoon, discussing things of importance to his Wichita people, yet not mentioning their prisoner once, for he did not feel it was anyone’s affair except his own that he had brought the white woman among them as a captive.
Of course they all understood the reason for her capture, but no one spoke of being in favor of his action, or against it.
It was up to him whether he would eventually release Candy back to her world, or make her stay among the Wichita forever.
Perhaps in time she might even be happy there, for her world had been torn asunder because of the Sioux’s attack on the fort.
He glanced at the smoke hole and saw that the sky was growing dark. He could hear the excited chatter of children outside; they were ready for a full evening of storytelling. Two Eagles quickly drew the council to a close.
In hurried steps, he went to the tepee whe
re Candy was held hostage.