Savage Beloved (24 page)

He stiffened when he saw a white man at the
reins, and several children, boys and girls of various ages, in the back of the wagon. He quickly counted nine children and noted that they were poorly dressed. Their cheeks were gaunt and pale, their eyes anxious as the wagon came close enough for Two Eagles to look into them.

What confused him was that there were so many children, but no woman with them.

Did they have no mother?

His eyes narrowed as the wagon stopped a few feet from him and the white man gave Two Eagles a look that he recognized too well. It was a look of superiority, as though this man saw himself as better than someone whose skin was of a different color.

The children aroused pity in Two Eagles’s heart. But he felt deep hatred for this white man whose eyes spoke of his unfriendliness.

“What do you want of me and my people?” Two Eagles asked, his arms folded defiantly across his muscled chest.

“Food,” the man said icily. “I have seen your corn crops. I know that this was a good year for you. I had a good crop, too, but it was not harvested before the grasshoppers came and ate it. My children are hungry. I have come to demand that you give me some of your corn, and other vegetables that you have harvested. I know you have enough to spare.”

Two Eagles frowned. This man had no right to demand anything of a proud Wichita chief or his people.

Two Eagles glared at the man. Then his eyes went to the children again, and he knew that he could not
deny them food just because their father was crude and unthinking.

Two Eagles started to respond, to tell the white man that he would give them some of his stored food, but before he had the chance to say it, the impatient white man drew his gun and aimed it at Two Eagles.

When Candy heard a pistol being cocked, she went cold inside. In a matter of moments she could lose the man she loved, for she knew it had to be the white man who had cocked the gun; Two Eagles was standing outside weaponless.

She looked over her shoulder at the cache of weapons in the teepee.

Her heart pounding, she rushed to it and grabbed up a rifle, saw that it was ready for firing, then went back to the entrance flap.

She had just started to step outside when she heard Two Eagles talking. He was still trying to handle this situation peacefully, and she felt it was not her place to interfere, not yet anyhow.

But if she was needed, she would step outside and show that rude man a thing or two!

Trembling, she leaned her ear close and listened again to what Two Eagles was saying, admiring his bravery and patience.

“White man, threatening a powerful Wichita chief with a firearm is not wise,” Two Eagles said flatly. “Ask in a civilized manner for food and it will be given to you, but demand it at gunpoint and your request will be ignored. No one forces Chief Two Eagles to do anything he does not want to do.”

“Must I remind you that I am the one with the gun?” the man snarled, still holding the pistol steadily aimed at Two Eagles’s gut.

“Look behind you,
wasichu
,” Two Eagles said, slowly smiling when he saw how those words made the man flinch. The white man looked behind him and saw the many warriors standing there, their arrows notched on their bowstrings.

“
Ho
, yes, you might succeed at killing Chief Two Eagles, but then
you
will die at the hands of my warriors,” Two Eagles said, again slowly smiling when he saw the white man grow pale as he lowered his pistol.

“Lay the firearm aside,” Two Eagles said, standing his ground.

The man nodded and placed the pistol on the seat beside him, then once again looked at the many arrows pointed at him.

“Now what?” he gulped out. “Are you going to allow me to leave? Or . . . are . . . you going to take me as a captive?” He looked over his shoulder at his children, then into Two Eagles’s eyes. “And . . . what . . . of my children?”

“They are going to be given food enough to last for many sunrises,” Two Eagles said. He nodded at two of his warriors. “Go. Take food from where it is stored for the winter. Bring enough for these children. Place it in the wagon with them.”

Two Eagles gazed into the man’s eyes again. “My people had an abundant harvest this year before the locusts arrived,” he said. “There is enough to share with your children.”

Two Eagles waited for the man to thank him, but was not surprised when he didn’t. Instead the
wasichu
sat there grabbing the bags of corn, pumpkins, and beans as the warriors handed them to him.

Once the bags were in the wagon, the man still didn’t thank Two Eagles, but instead looked past him at his tepee, as though he was thinking now of something more than food. Two Eagles wondered if the white man had seen Candy before he had led her inside his lodge.

Without another word, the white man grabbed his reins and slapped them against his team of horses. Again the man looked over his shoulder at the tepee, then gazed coldly into Two Eagles’s eyes before heading out of the village.

Candy breathed a sigh of relief that the man had left without one shot being fired. She had never been prouder of Two Eagles than now. He had stood there with courage as the man had held him at gunpoint, and then had given the man’s children food! Thanks to Two Eagles’s kindness, the white children would have food for their tiny bellies.

Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Hawk Woman huddled in her tepee, trembling. She had heard the voice of the man who had demanded food of Two Eagles. Even without seeing his face, she had known it was Albert Cohen. The man she had fled was there at the village where she had taken refuge.

He must be living nearby. How else could he have gotten to the Indian village so soon after the locust attack?

Now she knew that she would have to be more careful. She could never allow Albert to know she was there.

She also knew that desperate measures must be taken now to make Two Eagles love her instead of
Candy. She needed his love in order to keep her safe from the wicked man who had been banished from his own people, the Mormons.

If she were Two Eagles’s wife, he would stop at nothing to keep her safe . . . and happy.

A slow smile quivered across her lips as she thought of a way to torment Candy so that she would want to flee back to the white world, where she truly belonged. Yes, the first time Two Eagles left Candy behind at the village, Hawk Woman would take action against her rival!

But thoughts of the child she’d left behind made Hawk Woman tremble at the knowledge that her daughter was so close. She longed to see Penelope, even though she knew she could never actually embrace her.

But . . . just . . . one look!

No, she thought angrily. She couldn’t bear the pain of looking upon her daughter, even though she knew she could find Albert’s home and sneak close enough without the evil, cruel man knowing it.

Yes, she was devious now in more ways than Albert would have imagined possible. But she was smart, too, and knew that she must forget Penelope, for Two Eagles was more important to her now. He was her future. She
would
be his wife!

Oh, cease! Must hate and death return?
—Percy Bysshe Shelley

Candy watched Two Eagles and several of his warriors ride from the village; she understood why he didn’t want her to go with him to Proud Wind’s village, to see how his people had come through the locust attack. It was too soon after the white man’s appearance in the village for Candy to go out where she might be seen.

Two Eagles had told Candy that the man had peered intently at his tepee as though he might have seen her hurry into it.

If so, Candy had to be careful, for if that man’s wives were dead, would not he be on the lookout for another woman to raise his children?

Candy went back inside the tepee and noticed that Shadow was not there. She always worried when her wolf disappeared for any amount of time, for she knew that one day she might not see her again.

Sorely tired from all the work she’d done cleaning up the locusts, Candy sat down beside the fire for a while. Then, realizing how tired she was, she crawled over to her bed of blankets. She rolled one blanket down halfway, stretched out on the others, then gasped with horror when she found herself being attacked by ants.

She leapt from the bed, swatting at the ants, which were on her dress as well as her legs and arms. The sting of their bites burned her flesh.

After ridding herself of the nasty bugs, Candy knelt down beside her bed and rolled the top blanket down.

She felt the color drain from her face when she saw that someone had placed a bullhorn plant, with its many ants, in her bed. When she had disturbed the plant by crawling between the blankets, the ants had swarmed from it.

“Who would do this?” she whispered, aware now just how badly she had been bitten. The bites had turned into red welts on her flesh, burning as if someone had touched her skin with a hot poker.

Then it came to her who had to be responsible. There was only one person who hated her enough to want to cause her such discomfort.

Hawk Woman.

Surely while Candy was away from the tepee
bidding Two Eagles good-bye, the spiteful woman had placed the bullhorn plant, with its ants, in Candy’s bed.

Trying not to focus on the terrible bites, Candy angrily tossed the bullhorn plant outside and then picked up the blanket where many of the ants were still crawling and went to Hawk Woman’s lodge.

Candy didn’t announce herself but instead went inside and dropped the blanket at Hawk Woman’s feet. Some of the ants rushed from the safety of the blanket onto Hawk Woman.

As they crawled up her bare legs, Hawk Woman swatted at them, crying out when they bit her.

“Yes, the bites sting, don’t they?” Candy said bitterly. She placed her fists on her hips. “Will you stop at nothing to make my stay here at the village uncomfortable? Don’t you know that nothing you do can discourage me from staying? I will never leave Two Eagles. And why can’t you realize that Two Eagles doesn’t love you? He’s going to marry me. Do you hear? Me!”

Hawk Woman brushed the blanket and ants aside and stood quickly. She leaned her face into Candy’s. “Never,” she hissed. “Do . . . you . . . hear me? Two Eagles is never going to marry you.” She smiled wickedly. “I’ll make certain of that. Someday, some way, you will see who the true winner is.”

“You are a demented woman,” Candy said as Hawk Woman’s warning sent ice through her veins.

She slowly backed away from Hawk Woman, then made a quick turn and left.

She stopped, trembling now from the burning sting of the bites as well as from the fear that came with her enemy’s threats.

Yes, Hawk Woman was an enemy, and something had to be done about her once and for all!

But for now, all Candy could think about was how badly the welts hurt her.

She rushed to Crying Wolf’s lodge and spoke his name outside. She was relieved when he drew aside the entrance flap right away.

“Come inside,” he said in his kind, soft voice. “Sit by the fire. Tell me, how did you get those bites?”

Candy stepped past him, then sat down on a thick cushion of pelts beside his lodge fire. She held her arms out for him to examine.

“Ant bites,” he said, then questioned her with his old, pale brown eyes. “How did you get them? These are from ants that live in bullhorn plants. Did you accidentally rub up against one?”

Candy didn’t want to whine, to complain about Hawk Woman to the shaman.

“Yes, that’s what I did,” Candy murmured, not actually telling a lie, for she had rubbed against the bullhorn that had been “planted” in her bed!

“You now know how painful these ants are, so you must be more careful around them,” Crying Wolf said kindly. “Many of my people, especially children, have come to me with such bites. I know how to medicate them. By nightfall much of the swelling and sting will be gone.”

“Thank you,” Candy said.

She sat there quietly as he ministered to her while her mind kept seeing the spiteful look in Hawk Woman’s eyes. She tried not to shudder when she recalled her evil laughter. She had never met anyone like Hawk Woman before, which gave her enemy an advantage over her.

But she would not let such a woman get the best of her.

“There you go,” Crying Wolf said, drawing Candy’s attention back to him. “You should already be feeling better.”

Candy was aware that the white cream he had spread over her bites had taken a lot of the sting from them already. She smiled as he put his medicinal vials back inside his huge bag.

“Thank you so much,” she said. “You seem to know how to work miracles.”

“That is why I am my people’s shaman,” Crying Wolf said, smiling broadly. “It pleases me to know that I have been able to help you.”

Candy rose to her feet. “I feel strangely sleepy,” she said, yawning.

“In the ointment that I placed on your burns is an herb that makes one relax,” Crying Wolf said, standing and taking her gently by the arm. “Do you need assistance to your lodge?”

Candy yawned again as she fought off the urge to sleep. “No, I’ll be fine,” she murmured, giving him a hug before stepping from his tepee.

As the sun hit her eyes, Candy saw Hawk Woman through the golden haze. A sudden uneasiness
swept through Candy, for if she was in a drugged stupor, Hawk Woman might try to take advantage of her.

Trying to look as though she wasn’t drugged, Candy managed to get inside her tepee.

But as soon as she did, she fell in a half faint on her bed. Remembering the ants that had been there, she managed to crawl away, then got to her feet long enough to take the blankets outside and shake them.

Again she felt Hawk Woman’s eyes on her.

Candy ignored her and hurried back inside the tepee, turning quickly when she heard movement behind her.

She had expected to see Hawk Woman there, but instead it was Shadow.

Candy dropped to her knees and welcomed Shadow in her arms. “Where have you been?” she asked. “Don’t you know how much it worries me when you leave?”