Savage Beloved (11 page)

When Candy heard wolves in the distance howling at the moon, she hoped that Shadow would not choose tonight to join her kin, leaving Candy to fend for herself against the likes of Hawk Woman.

Strange how she did not feel as though she needed protection from Two Eagles. She was almost certain now that he would not harm her, except for forcing her to wear the painful irons at her wrists and ankles.

Something told her that he would soon end that bondage, for he seemed to show more feeling for her every time he looked at her.

She believed that deep down inside himself he knew how wrong he was to hold her hostage.

Sudden, thy shadow fell on me;

I shrieked and clasped my hands

in ecstasy.

—Percy Bysshe Shelley

Despite Candy’s hopeful belief that Two Eagles would not keep her bound much longer, the following day found her still in chains at her ankles and wrists. And worse, she was made to go with the women to work in the large communal garden.

Every step she took was grueling, and none of the women took pity on her. No doubt they knew she was there on the orders of their chief.

In her mind’s eye she saw the old Indian carrying heavy armloads of wood while in chains. Each step he had taken had caused pain inside Candy’s heart.

But he had endured it all without so much as a grimace on his proud face.

So would she!

She was on her knees, clearing the garden of weeds, while other women tilled around the corn plants. Still others followed behind them, piling the loosened earth up around the corn hills, then smoothing it out with their hands.

Before sunrise, Candy had been awakened by Two Eagles and told what she must do that day.

She had left moments later along with several other women, some women carrying hoes on their shoulders, while others carried pots of hot porridge and bowls.

The porridge had been eaten after they reached the garden; immediately afterward they had started their long day of labor.

Upon first arriving there, Candy had noticed a huge pumpkin patch off to one side of the cornfield. She had also seen a patch of green squash with curved necks, as well as much larger pumpkins with deep grooves. There were also green squash with tapering ends, and big, fat cantaloupes.

Candy observed that the women seemed content at their labor, some smiling, some talking, but never halting in their chores.

Her eyes widened when some women broke into song, singing, “You are hoeing around in the great ground, in the blessed ground . . .”

As they repeated the song over and over, Candy got lost in thought again about Hawk Woman. She hadn’t seen Hawk Woman anywhere near the huge communal garden. She wondered how the other white woman had gotten out of helping.

And she also wondered why Hawk Woman’s golden hair had not been cut as Candy’s had been.

She paused and looked at the women who labored so hard in the garden, thinking about how she had been ignored every time she had tried to strike up a conversation with any of them.

She again tried to talk to the one kneeling in the next row, smoothing dirt around a tall stalk of corn.

If only she could get even one woman on her side who might give her some answers.

But again she saw that she had no ally in any of the women. The only response she got was an icy stare.

Sighing, Candy gave up trying.

She grimaced when she stood, the chains pulling on her ankles and wrists with each of her movements.

She then went slowly onward until she found more weeds and eased to her knees once again. She proceeded to pluck the plants from the earth.

Candy found herself looking over her shoulder now in the direction of the village. She kept hoping that Two Eagles would take mercy on her and realize that she had had enough hard work for one day. It was more difficult for her to work than for the other women because she had the encumbrance of her chains to deal with.

Oh, surely Two Eagles realized how tiring this was—how painful.

Even now she felt trickles of blood around the bonds at her wrists and ankles, but refused to look at them and complain.

She would prove to these women that she was strong, even perhaps stronger than they.

Surely they could not withstand such pain for as long as she had been forced to endure it today!

Besides the pain, she was also worried about her wolf. When she had awakened this morning, Shadow was gone.

Candy cringed when she recalled the howling of the wolves last night.

She hoped that Shadow did not stay away for long, for her wolf made her feel safe. She was such a comfort to Candy at a time when she had lost everything, even her dignity!

Two Eagles sat with his uncle, who was finally awake.

Short Robe’s condition was not encouraging. He was finding it hard to breathe, and he had refused food, even the thin gruel that Two Eagles had just tried to spoon-feed him.

Two Eagles feared that his uncle’s time on this earth was now short.

It had been too long since Short Robe had taken nourishment into his body; he was even refusing water.

It was as though he were wishing death on himself, his tired old body having taken all that it could withstand.

Two Eagles set the bowl aside and took one of his uncle’s hands in his.

Short Robe gazed into Two Eagles’s eyes. “I have not long to live, but it is long enough to tell you my feelings about the white woman,” he said softly. “Two Eagles, the white woman that you have taken captive is a woman of pure kindness. While . . . I . . . was captive at the fort, she came and . . . and . . . gave me water . . . and nourishing food. She . . . she even washed my bloody feet.”

Those words struck at Two Eagles’s heart, for had not the woman said that she had done such favors for his uncle? Yet Two Eagles had ignored her, thinking she would say anything to spare herself the torture of having to wear the irons and chains.

One thing did puzzle him, though. Why had his uncle said earlier that he had only been fed weevil-infested food and stringy, rotten meat?

But he was reminded that of late his uncle’s mind came and went, sometimes remembering things distinctly, and sometimes not remembering things at all.

Two Eagles had to believe now, after hearing his uncle’s words, that Candy
had
tried to help his uncle!

And that she had truly washed his bloody feet was remarkable. A white woman stooping to the ground and actually soiling her hands by washing an old red man’s bloody feet?

The burgeoning feelings he had for Candy grew stronger. He no longer felt guilty for being attracted to a woman of a different people.

She had become a woman with the heart of an Indian
the moment she had chosen to be so kind to an ailing elder of the Wichita tribe!

“Two Eagles, do you hear me?” Short Robe asked, squeezing his nephew’s hand to draw his attention back to him.

Two Eagles looked quickly into his uncle’s watchful eyes and realized that his own thoughts had strayed too far from him.

“
Ho
, I heard you,” Two Eagles said thickly. “You said favorable things about my captive. You told me of kindness that one would not expect from a white person.”

“What . . . I . . . said is true,” Short Robe gasped, his voice weaker now. He blinked his eyes nervously as Two Eagles seemed to be fading away.

Short Robe pulled his shaky hand from Two Eagles and patted his nephew on the arm. “Nephew, the woman . . . deserves . . . to be treasured as one treasures a newly carved bow,” he said. “Go now. Do not delay any longer about making things right for her. Before you perform duties for anyone else today, first tend to your duties toward a woman you have sorely wronged.”

His uncle was using what might be his last breaths of life to defend Candy. Two Eagles realized that she was like no woman he had ever known before.

Ho
, Two Eagles was touched deeply by what had just transpired between himself and his dying uncle. Because he knew the goodness of his uncle’s heart, he was convinced of Candy’s goodness, too.

“I will go for her now,” Two Eagles said.

He leaned low over Short Robe and embraced
him, then stiffened when he heard his uncle take one last gulp of air. Short Robe then lay perfectly still, his old eyes staring into space, lifeless.

His uncle had practically died with Candy’s name on his lips. Two Eagles would never forget that.

Tears filled Two Eagles’s eyes as he again embraced his uncle, knowing that his life would be terribly empty without him. His uncle had filled many voids in Two Eagles’s life. Short Robe had taught him to take his first step, showed him how to make his first bow.

Two Eagles’s chieftain father had been too occupied by his duties to his people to do these things. His mother had been too immersed in her obligations as a proud chief’s wife to take the time for her son.

Ho
, Two Eagles’s uncle had become his second father, especially since Short Robe never married or had a family of his own. To Short Robe, Two Eagles was his family.

“I will miss you so,” Two Eagles whispered against his uncle’s ashen cheek. “And I will listen to your last words and obey them.”

He gently closed Short Robe’s eyes, then fought the urge to cry as he stood over him and gazed lovingly down, knowing that soon he would be preparing him for burial. His uncle had told him oh, so long ago that brave little boys did not cry when they were hurt. When he had become a strong warrior, his uncle had said warriors did not cry.

It was hard not to now, when his heart hurt so much at the loss of his beloved uncle. But as he had
listened to everything else his uncle had taught him, this, too, he obeyed.

There would be no tears, only a lingering love inside his heart for this old man who was everything to his nephew.

Two Eagles glanced over his shoulder at the closed entrance flap.

He knew that he had something else to do before readying his uncle for his long journey to the hereafter.

It was his uncle’s last wish, so it would be done, and immediately!

He went outside and looked all around him. In a matter of moments he must tell his people the sad news of his uncle’s passing. He would tell them that it had been a peaceful transition from life to death for Short Robe.

But now, before he got further immersed in his duties as nephew, he must take care of one important matter that his uncle had requested of him.

He turned and gazed at the communal garden and at the many women working there.

With his eyes, he found Candy and saw how she dutifully worked with the other women.

She was on her knees, pulling weeds, even though he knew what a struggle it had to be with the irons at her wrists, the chains pulling at them.

He would put a stop to that.

Now!

With determination in his steps and a tight jaw, he went into the garden and directly to Candy.

As the women stopped to stare in disbelief, Two
Eagles removed the shackles from Candy’s wrists and ankles, then stood before the freed woman as she pushed herself up from the ground. Their eyes met.

“Why . . . did . . . you do that?” Candy asked, rubbing one raw wrist and then the other as her gaze held his.

Something inside her melted at the way he was gazing into her eyes.

It was with a mixture of emotions—apology, kindness, and she even felt that she saw something akin to love!

She wondered what could have happened to make everything change between them. Whatever it was, she was thankful.

“Moments ago my uncle revealed the truth to me about how you treated him so kindly at Fort Hope,” Two Eagles said. He felt a strange pain in his heart for not having believed her, and for having put her through such misery.

She did not deserve what had happened to her!

“My uncle said that your kindness should not be repaid with cruelty,” Two Eagles said thickly, his eyes searching hers.

“He . . . did?” Candy gulped out, feeling many things now. She was mesmerized by how Two Eagles was looking into her eyes so deeply, so searchingly.

And she was thankful that Short Robe had finally told Two Eagles the truth about her kindness toward him. It seemed that his uncle’s words had freed this young and handsome chief to show his feelings for
her . . . feelings that up until now he had been carefully guarding.

“That has to mean that he has awakened,” Candy said. “Oh, Two Eagles, I’m so glad. Please tell me that he is going to be alright. Surely he is, if he took the time to tell you about his feelings toward me.”

She saw something else enter Two Eagles’s eyes, but could not interpret it.

She hoped that he would take her quickly to his uncle so that she could tell Short Robe how glad she was that he had regained consciousness. She wanted to thank him for speaking on her behalf.

“
Hiyu-wo
, come with me,” Two Eagles said, kicking the chains and irons aside.

Bright eyes, accomplish’d shape,
And lang’rous waist.
—John Keats

Candy walked proudly beside Two Eagles from the garden, aware that all the women were watching her. They surely resented her being singled out in such a way.

“Thank you so much for taking me to your uncle,” Candy said softly, touched by what was happening to her now. Just minutes ago she had felt that if she did not escape soon, she might not live long enough to try again.

When Two Eagles said nothing in reply but instead kept walking beside her toward Short Robe’s tepee, she glanced over at him.

Suddenly things seemed to have changed. The look on Two Eagles’s face was anything but pleasant.

Yes, she could tell that something was troubling him very deeply, especially as they approached Short Robe’s tepee.

She knew that the change in Two Eagles’s attitude must have to do with his uncle.

And if Two Eagles was so solemn, surely Short Robe was not all that well after all, even though he had defended Candy in such a wonderful way.