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“Wolf Dancer, I know that you said the white soldiers are afraid to come this far into the swamp, but I still can’t help being afraid that they might come looking for me and Dorey when Hiram discovers that we are gone,” she said. “I don’t believe Hiram will let us go all that easily. I truly expect him to fight to get me back.”
“My warriors have been alerted to this possibility,” Wolf Dancer said. “They are posted at the most vulnerable points of the Everglades. No one will be allowed to get near my village, especially not your evil brother-in-law.”
The longer she sat there alone with Wolf Dancer, the more Lavinia felt like an awkward girl in the presence of this powerful, handsome Indian chief.
“I am sorry about your husband’s death,” Wolf Dancer said, bringing Lavinia out of her deep thoughts. “I know how the shock of his death made you feel, for I felt the same when my wife died shortly after we were married. One day an alligator came out of nowhere and my wife, Golden Dawn, was taken from me.”
“I’m so sorry that you experienced such a terrible loss,” Lavinia said, turning to sit directly in front of him. “It’s hard when one loses a spouse.”
“My wife lives on in my memory, Lavinia” Wolf Dancer said, taking her other hand and holding both in his. “As long as we continue to remember our loved ones, their spirits will live on within us.”
“That is so beautiful,” Lavinia said, fighting off tears that were burning in the corners of her eyes.
“My woman,” Wolf Dancer said as he released one of her hands so that he could reach up and draw his fingers through her luscious, golden hair. “We are all one…no matter what the color of our skin outside. Inside, our souls recognize each other as kindred spirits.”
“Tell me more,” Lavinia asked, sitting closer to him.
“We are all connected,” he said thickly. “All people have similar needs and desires. We are all the same, but different. Each of us is one of a kind, special and unique. We all come from the same Master of Breath, who is our creator. Yet we are all born into this world without understanding why we are here. This is the knowledge each one of us must seek.”
“I feel such a connection with you and your people, although we have only recently become aware of each other’s existence,” Lavinia murmured. “That first time, when I saw you in the tree, I was not afraid, but instantly drawn to you.”
“You have also seen the white panther,” he said, searching her eyes for her reaction. He could see that she was surprised he would speak of it, confirming the existence of the mystical creature.
“The white panther is something that everyone has learned to avoid,” he went on, now wanting to change the subject. This was not the time to share the magic that he held within his heart. It was something that might frighten her away from him.
And he could not chance that.
He needed and wanted her.
She also needed him!
“The panther stalks the night like a white ghost,” he quickly added. “But no one has ever seen it enter our village. Surely it is because Shining Soul’s magic keeps it away.”
Lavinia was confused by his words. Whenever she had seen the white panther, she had always seen Wolf Dancer soon after. She gazed intently into eyes that were every bit as green as the panther’s. Until now, she had wondered if what she had seen was real, or just her imagination?
Now she knew it hadn’t been her imagination; he had told her that he knew she had seen the panther. Was there, as she suspected, some connection between Wolf Dancer and the panther?
Had he mentioned the panther to test her? Was he waiting, even now, for her reaction?
She decided that it was best not to discuss the panther with him just now.
Hopefully, one day she would understand how the panther and Wolf Dancer might be one and the same. For now, she would not think about it. Whatever the truth might be, she loved him no less!
Yet she would ask him about the unusual color of his eyes. All of his people’s eyes were dark brown.
“Your eyes are such a beautiful color of green,” she murmured.
“Long ago there was a marriage between my great-great-grandfather and a white woman whoseeyes were green,” he said, hoping what he was telling her would be enough to quell her curiosity, at least for now. “I am the only one of my family whose eyes were the same as my great-great-grandmother’s.” “They are very beautiful,” Lavinia said, relieved that he had such a reasonable explanation. Had he not told her this, she would always associate those green eyes…with the panther’s!
“Yours are the color of violets, and also beautiful,” Wolf Dancer said, again running his fingers through her golden hair. “Your eyes and hair both fascinate me. As does your past. Will you share it with me?”
She told Wolf Dancer about her life as a wife and mother, that she was from Georgia, and that her parents and Virgil Price’s parents had arranged a marriage between them in order to keep the wealth within their two families.
She confessed to having never loved Virgil, admitted that they just respected and were fond of one another.
She explained how Virgil’s brother Hiram had always been a troublemaker. He had wanted the arranged marriage to be between himself and Lavinia.
But he’d resented Virgil even before that, because Virgil was a fine-looking man, a gentleman in all respects, while Hiram was a beastly, ugly man, who always reeked of perspiration.
