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“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 unti
l 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.
Chapter Fourteen
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.
“We are here,” Two Eagles said thickly. He stopped and turned to Candy. “I have brought you for this last visit with my uncle because of your feelings for him and because of his for you. It is only right that you have a chance to say a final good-bye before his burial rites begin.”
“Burial rites?” Candy gasped, paling, her heart turning cold with dread. “Oh, no. Please don’t tell me . . .”
“Come,” Two Eagles said, gently taking her hand. “It is right that you are here. He would want it this way.”
Tears fell from Candy’s eyes as she stepped into the tepee. It smelled of medicinal herbs and of cottonwood burning slowly in the fire pit.
The sun’s glow shone through the smoke hole overhead, casting its soft light on the wall behind where Short Robe lay. It illuminated the stillness of the elderly man’s body.
