Savage Abandon (14 page)

Wolf Hawk rode on his black steed with his chin held high and with a smile at the knowledge that Mia was going to be alright.

And it was a glorious thing to see her with the tiny yellow bird. She was so gentle with it, so loving.

He had always known, deep down, that she had a caring, gentle heart, but seeing her treat one of Earthmaker’s tiny creatures with such love made him realize that she was exactly the sort of person he had always looked for in a wife.

The fact that her skin was white made no difference to him. It was her heart, her sweetness, that drew him to her.

The thought that he still had to convince his people of her goodness made his smile waver somewhat.

Whites had taken so much from the Winnebago, many had fallen into despair as they had
been forced off their land, to be penned up like animals on reservations.

Wolf Hawk felt so fortunate that under his leadership the Bird Clan had avoided such treatment. He had made sure that they found a place far from the interference of whites.

The sign that whites had ever been in the area was the old fort, and that had been abandoned long before Wolf Hawk had led his people to the Rush River, where they built their homes and planted their crops.

He would meet in council soon with his warriors and explain to them what he planned to do…request Mia’s hand in marriage.

He would explain that she was a woman alone in the world, that she had no kin who would come for her and cause trouble to his Bird Clan. He would explain that were he to send her from their village, she would have nowhere to go, and no one to go to. She would be left to wander, to drift, and possibly to die at the hand of someone evil who might rape, then kill her.

No. He would not allow that to happen. He would make his warriors, his people as a whole, understand Mia’s plight.

In time, his people would all know and understand. But if it took them longer than it should, he would go ahead and do as his heart was leading him to do.

He was chief. What he said was final, always, at their village.

Suddenly his thoughts were stilled when he saw
something on the ground that made him draw rein. He dismounted and knelt down, plucking from the ground a card such as he knew was used by gamblers.

He had seen them at a trading post and he had asked about them. The white man in charge of the post had explained to him what the cards were used for. He had been told that men sometimes killed one another over those cards.

A breeze brought another card to Wolf Hawk’s feet, and then another and another. He looked beyond them and saw others scattered across the land, colorful against the dullness of the ground.

He went and gathered them up, then stopped and studied them as they lay in his hand. He recalled Mia talking about the man whose name fit his tiny stature, and how he loved to gamble. She had said he carried a deck of cards with him at all times.

“These could be his,” he whispered to himself.

He stood and looked slowly around him, then searched the ground again for footprints. He saw none other than those he and his horse had made. He gathered from the lack of footprints that these cards had blown here from somewhere else.

But where?

And why would the man who owned them allow them to leave his possession?

“Unless…” he whispered, again slowly looking all around him.

Yes, something might have happened to the man who owned the cards.

Then another thought came to him.

These cards didn’t necessarily have to be Tiny’s. They could have belonged to the two trappers who were fleeing the Winnebago’s wrath.

If so, were the men still in the area? Were they hiding until they felt it was safe to come out of cover?

If those men were nearby, they could have a gun aimed at him this very moment.

He stiffened as he gathered the cards together in one pile, then stuffed them inside the travel bag that hung at the side of his horse.

Before mounting his steed, he again looked cautiously in all directions, but he saw nothing. Nor did he hear anyone or anything except the soft breeze that whispered through the trees all around him.

He swung himself into his saddle, grabbed the reins, then rode onward, but this time not with the same easiness he had felt before he found the cards.

He could be the hunted one now.

He rode stiffly, his eyes ever watching around him for any sudden movement. And then he spotted something lying on the ground, and a flash of something red caught in an elm tree’s bark. Again, he drew his steed to a halt.

“A shoe,” he mumbled to himself as he gazed intently at the lone shoe that lay on the ground a few feet from his horse.

He then focused on what was stuck to the bark of the tree. His eyebrows lifted when he realized it was strands of hair that made a brilliant red
streak against the grayish brown color of the trunk of the old elm tree.

He gazed at the shoe again, and then at the hair. He recalled the man named Tiny having that color hair, and the shoe was not of a large size.

Ho
, yes, it did seem to all fit together. Had Tiny come to a bad end?

But how would he have died?

Was it an animal, perhaps a large bear, that had killed the tiny man? Or was it perhaps those two trappers who had murdered him?

If he were dead, where was his body?

No matter how it had happened, or where the body might be, if what he was thinking were true, Wolf Hawk knew that he, himself, could also be in danger.

He hurriedly dismounted, whisked the shoe up from the ground, adding it to the travel bag with the cards, then carefully plucked the hair from the tree and put it with Tiny’s other belongings. Then he mounted and rode quickly through the forest until he finally reached the fort.

Feeling vulnerable, he didn’t go on inside the walls of the fort until he’d studied the footprints going in and out of it.

He saw only one set of fresh prints. They went into the fort, and then the same prints came out again.

He dismounted, took the shoe that he had found from the travel bag, and set it directly onto the footprint; the shoe belonged to whoever had made those footprints.

“Tiny,” he said, his jaw tight.

Ho
, by the smallness of the print and the shoe, he judged that Tiny had returned to the fort after Wolf Hawk had taken Mia from it. Then he had left again.

Sighing, feeling safe enough now to enter the fort and get the bird’s cage, Wolf Hawk placed the shoe back inside his travel bag and walked his horse through the wide gate to the cabin where Mia had stayed with her father and Tiny.

Securing his horse’s reins, he stepped gingerly inside the cabin, finding it as deserted as he’d thought it would be.

He smiled when he saw the cage right where Mia had said it would be. Not wanting to take any more time than he needed to, he looked around and found what he thought was the seed that the bird ate.

He placed it inside the cage, then grabbed the cage and took it outside to his horse.

After tying it to the side of the saddle, he mounted and rode directly back to his village without stopping.

When he stepped inside his tepee, holding the cage before him, Mia looked quickly up.

Georgina was trustingly asleep on her lap. Smiling at Wolf Hawk, Mia reached a hand out for the cage as she whispered, “Thank you” to him.

Wolf Hawk returned the smile, then set the cage close beside her.

He knelt there and watched her gently place the bird in the cage. When Georgina saw that she
was back inside her home, she leapt up to her main perch and began singing.

Mia sighed. “Isn’t she such a beautiful thing?” she said, slowly closing the door. “Her song is so sweet. My bird is a miracle! How did she survive without her cage? Without me?”

“It is not for us to question,” Wolf Hawk said, reaching over and gently touching Mia’s cheek. “It is good to see how happy your bird makes you. I am glad that I have been able to add to that happiness by bringing her back home to you.”

“I can never thank you enough,” Mia murmured, reaching up and taking his hand from her face, then gently holding it. “You are so kind. Thank you, thank you.”

The feel of her hand in his made Wolf Hawk again realize the depths of his love for this woman.

He knew then what he must do, and he would do it tomorrow. There was a special ritual that was performed by a Winnebago warrior when he was in love. And Wolf Hawk was ready to undertake it.

Tomorrow!

“May I ask something else of you?” Mia questioned, searching his eyes.

“Ask,” Wolf Hawk said, looking intently back at her, their eyes locked. “Ask and it shall be done.”

“Would you bring some fresh water for Georgina’s water well, while I give her food?” Mia asked softly.

“I am happy to see you so happy,” Wolf Hawk said, going to his store of water, which was kept
in a long, buckskin bag hanging right inside his lodge.

He watched Mia place food in the bird’s food well, and then take the water well from the cage and handed it to him.

“Fill it half full,” Mia murmured. “That is enough for such a tiny thing.”

When everything was done to make Georgina’s comfort complete, Wolf Hawk took Mia’s hands and held them as he gazed into her eyes again.

“I found something while I was on my way to the fort,” he said soberly. “What I found is in my travel bag. I shall go and get it from my horse. I will show you what I found.”

Mia was all eyes when he left and waited anxiously for him to return to the tepee.

When he did, she gasped softly at the sight of the many cards that he had found on the ground.

He placed them on the mat at their feet, and then reached inside his bag and retrieved the lone shoe…and the strands of hair, which he placed next to the cards.

“Lordie be,” Mia murmured, paling at the sight of the hair and the shoe.

She studied them for only a moment, then gazed again into Wolf Hawk’s eyes. “These things are Tiny’s,” she said. “I know the shoe. I…I…know the hair, and of course, I know whose cards these are. All of them are Tiny’s.”

“I thought so,” Wolf Hawk said, nodding.

“Tiny would never leave his cards behind, for he
is a gambler,” she said, swallowing hard. “Surely this means that he has come to a bad end.”

She slowly shook her head back and forth. “I wonder if the trappers killed him?” she asked softly. “I wonder if they are still close by?”

Then she reached out and touched Wolf Hawk on the arm. “I never cared anything at all for Tiny,” she murmured. “But…he might still be alive, and out there, helpless. Do you think that you could go and search for him? While you are doing that, you could also search for those two men again. Perhaps it wasn’t they who stole the scow and fled in it. If they are still somewhere close by, hiding, you might be able to catch them.”

“I can understand why you would want me to search for the murderers, but why would you care for that tiny man who caused you nothing but trouble?” he asked, taking her hand from his arm and holding it.

“I am a Christian, that’s why,” Mia said softly. “I have never truly wished this man harm. He is probably a victim of his upbringing. Perhaps he never had anyone to show him love. I just think it is the right thing to do to see if he is alive out there somewhere, afraid, perhaps hungry.”

“You never cease to amaze me. You always seem to show kindness to others, even those who have wronged you,” Wolf Hawk said thickly. “You are such a giving person.”

“I behave how I was raised to behave,” Mia murmured. “My papa and mama were very loving people. I…I…inherit this all from them.”

“I will go now and gather up some warriors. We will search for the tiny man to see if he is still alive,” Wolf Hawk said softly.

He released her hand reluctantly. He wanted to do much more than hold her hand. He wanted her in his embrace.

But now was not the time to let her know just how deeply he felt for her.

Tomorrow.

“Go with care, and…and…thank you,” Mia said, following him to the entrance flap. She held it aside for him.

He turned and gazed into her eyes one more time before leaving.

Mia stood in the entranceway and watched Wolf Hawk go from tepee to tepee, seeking help from one warrior and then another.

A sudden thought made her heart turn cold. What if she were sending him to his death?

She started to rush out of the tepee and tell Wolf Hawk that she had changed her mind, but it was too late. He was already riding from the village with many of his men dutifully following him.

“What have I done?” she cried softly in despair, watching until she couldn’t see him any longer.

Georgina began warbling a sweet song again.

Mia went to the cage and sat down beside it. “I’m afraid of what I have encouraged Wolf Hawk to do,” she said. “So afraid.”

Wolf Hawk had returned to his tepee with the news that he doubted Tiny was still alive. He and his warriors had searched far and wide but had seen no sign of him anywhere.

Mia had conflicting feelings about this news.

She had always despised the tiny man, then had actually hated him when she found out that he had released Georgina to the wild, but she had never wished him dead.

Now she, too, believed that Tiny was dead. She doubted that she would ever see him again.

She had wanted him to disappear from her life many times when she had been stuck with Tiny on the scow. The little man had aggravated not only herself, but also her father. But she would never wish for something this bad to happen to him…that he would just disappear from the face of the earth.

The breeze was cool on her face and arms as it wafted through the raised entrance flap of Wolf Hawk’s tepee.

Her health had improved so much, she felt that
today might be the day she would be asked to return to the lodge that had been prepared for her prior to her illness.

“It’s a miracle,” she whispered to herself as she raised the hem of the beautiful doeskin dress that had been given to her by Wolf Hawk’s cousin Little Snowbird.

The horrible sores made by the poison ivy were all but gone.

Only a few of the largest were still visible, but they would soon disappear, too.

She ran her hands slowly over the smoothness of one of her legs. She was amazed at how fast she had gotten well.

Talking Bird had truly worked magic on her.

She wondered how an Indian Shaman could know so much more about medicine than the doctors in the white community? When she had had poison ivy before, it had taken many weeks for Dr. Jamieson’s cure to heal her.

Perhaps Talking Bird had more faith in his abilities than the white doctors had in theirs. Or…perhaps it was pure magic!

In any case, she was well now. Should she wish to, she was strong enough to go on her way.

More than once Wolf Hawk had said that she was free to go whenever she wished, yet at the same time he’d told her he hoped that she would choose to stay.

He had not gone so far as to ask her to be his wife, yet she knew that was in his heart. She could
tell by the way he looked at her, with gazes that melted her heart.

She ached to be in his arms, to be held by him. Her lips quivered even now with want of his kiss.

“What am I doing?” she said aloud, causing Georgina to hop from one perch to another at the sound of Mia’s voice.

Her canary began singing, the sound so sweet it made Mia again thank God above that her bird had been saved from harm in the forest. It gave her shivers to think of what could have happened, but she refused to dwell on painful thoughts of the past.

She had a decision to make. She must decide what her future held for her.

She did have her parents’ home waiting for her in St. Louis, but that was all. There were no relatives in the city. Mia would be alone.

She had cousins, aunts and uncles scattered across the country. But it took money to travel and she had nothing.

If she had had the scow, she could have sold it for enough money to help her fend for herself for awhile. And, of course, she could sell her St. Louis home.

But somehow that plan did not seem appealing. Her family had never been close. In fact, she could count on the fingers of one hand how often her parents had invited their family members to their home.

So she doubted that any of them would relish
the idea of Mia coming to live with them. She would be only an intrusion on their lives.

“Mama, Papa,” she whispered, gazing up through the smoke hole toward the blue sky. “What should I do?”

She was feeling more comfortable with the death of her parents now. Wolf Hawk had told her that after a person loses someone they love, they must carry on with life, for death was a natural thing.

He had told her that losing a loved one was difficult, yet one should be happy for the departed, for they were now without pain or sadness. They were with their ancestors in the sky, happy to see them again.

That should be celebrated, not regretted.

It was hard, but she knew that she must not succumb to the emptiness in her heart caused by her parents’ deaths.

Her deep thoughts were interrupted by the sound of whispering from somewhere behind her. She looked quickly around and her eyes widened when she saw several children standing just outside the entranceway to the tepee.

They were whispering to one another as they watched and listened to Georgina. The canary was still singing, and its song had reached outside to the children who were at play.

Mia smiled and reached a hand out toward them. She beckoned for them to come inside.

“Come and see my bird up close if you wish,” Mia offered. “She loves an audience.”

The children didn’t have to be asked a second time. They almost fell over one another as they scrambled inside, then sat in a circle around the cage.

Georgina didn’t seem at all perturbed by this sudden audience. In fact she hopped back and forth on her perch as she continued sweetly singing.

Mia stood away from the children, watching and smiling. She had always loved children but had never had the chance to be around many.

Even as a child, she had led a mostly solitary life. Her mother had taught her everything that other children learned in a school house.

She had felt a certain emptiness inside that came with not being able to associate with other children. But that, too, had passed, for she had accepted the life her parents had made for her. She had loved them too much to cause problems over anything that they had chosen for her.

Mia covered a soft laugh behind a hand when she looked at Georgina and saw how the bird seemed to be strutting as she moved along the perch. It seemed as though Georgina had missed having an audience, for she seemed to be singing her heart out, to entertain…to please.

Suddenly Mia felt another presence in the tepee. She turned and felt the heat of a blush rush to her cheeks when she found Wolf Hawk standing behind her.

He had apparently heard Georgina singing and had seen the children enter his lodge. He had came to join the happy group inside.

He saw the warmth in Mia’s eyes as she smiled and stepped back to stand beside him.

“Isn’t it sweet?” she asked, gazing into Wolf Hawk’s dark, beautiful eyes. “The bird loves the children as much as they love her.”

“They not only enjoy your bird’s song, but are also amazed to see a bird in a cage that is happy to be there,” Wolf Hawk said.

He took her hand and led her farther away from the children so that he could talk to Mia without disturbing them.

“Even I find that very unusual,” he said. “Yet I can tell the bird is happy. If it were not content, it would not sing such a beautiful song.”

“My canary has a reason to sing because she knows that she is safe inside the cage and will be fed and watered.”

She frowned a little as she glanced over at Georgina. “But I wonder what I shall feed her when my supply of birdseed runs out,” she said softly.

Then she gazed into Wolf Hawk’s eyes again. She smiled. “I know what I shall do,” she murmured. “I shall go to Talking Bird and ask him what I can feed my bird so that she will stay healthy and content.”

Wolf Hawk’s heart skipped a beat, for he felt that Mia’s words indicated she wasn’t ready to leave the village. There seemed enough food in the bag to last for a long while, for the bird ate only small amounts at a time.

It made his heart swell to believe that Mia did want to stay with his people, and with him.

Ah, but he felt so deeply for her! He was eager to let her know just how much.

Tomorrow. She would know tomorrow.