“So you have told me before. Why is this? Because I am not white?”
“Partly.”
“And what is the other part?”
She drew in her breath. “The other part? It is this. The situation I face won’t allow it. Both my brother and I are being hunted by the law. If I do something that brings undue notice to me, questions will be asked, questions that could eventually lead bounty hunters to me and to Julian.”
Swift Hawk nodded. Then, with a light shrug, he said, “Then we will live elsewhere. There is much room here in my country, and there are many places to live.”
“No. You don’t understand.” Her words were firm. “They will look for me, and they will find me.”
“No. It is you who does not understand. If I do not wish to be found, there is no one who would be able to find me.”
She bit her lip. “Perhaps you’re right. But there is another problem.”
“Haa’he.” He glanced at her askance. “So many problems we have. What is this next one?”
“Simply this. If you marry me, you will probably be hanged.”
“Hanged?” He sat back, away from her. Glancing up at him, she could see he was confused. “What is this hanged?”
“Oh, surely you know.”
He shook his head. “I do not.”
“But how can that be? You seem to grasp so much about the white man—even little things.”
Swift Hawk lifted his shoulders. “William Bent taught me much, but even he could not show me all there is to know of your culture.”
“But I would have thought… I mean, you speak English so well, much better than your friend, Red Fox, and…?”
“I have learned this language since I was small and took many trips to my cousin’s fort. Red Fox did not accompany me on those trips.”
“Still,” she persisted, “I would have thought that you would have heard about hanging, if not from Mr. Bent, then perhaps from the white men at Fort Leavenworth, particularly so, since it is our means of punishing a criminal. As I said, in most other things, you have come to know a great deal about the white man…and I think you have done this in a very short time.”
Swift Hawk tossed his head to the side. “I am a scout. I learned early to memorize tiny details about the earth, her trails and her signs, since I would be required to recite these things back flawlessly months or even years later. When a man can do this, he will find many other things come easily to him. Besides, if your need was as great as mine, so too would you learn quickly.”
Angelia frowned. This was the second time he had mentioned his requirement to learn about the white man. Why was that need so great?
But it wasn’t in her mind to address that subject with him, not now. Not when the matter at hand needed discussion.
“Very well. If you don’t truly know what hanging is, then I will tell you of it. But it is not a pleasant thing to discuss, though it is the fate that awaits both Julian and myself, if ever we are caught by these bounty hunters. And it awaits you too, if I were to do as you say and announce our marriage.”
Swift Hawk raised an eyebrow. “Then you agree we are married?”
“No, no. I didn’t mean it that way.”
Swift Hawk narrowed his eyes at her but said nothing.
“Truly, I didn’t mean we are married,” she went on to say, “but let me continue, for you should know what hanging is. It happens this way: When a man has committed an ill against society, like murder, for instance, sometimes other men decide that this person should not live. If that be the case, then the murderer is put to death, and the way that is done is to tie a rope around the man’s neck, string the rope to a high tree limb, and… Well, the rest is easy enough to envision.”
Swift Hawk sat silently for a moment. “He is left to hang to his death?”
“Yes.”
“And this would happen to me if we were to announce our marriage?”
“Yes, very likely.”
