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She could smell the smoke of the outdoor fire that was always burning, morning and night, in the center of the village.
She also caught the scent of venison cooking over someone’s cook fire.
A serenity she had never known before swept through Candy. She was finally home again.
Yes, home.
This was her home now, and would be until she was placed among the Wichita in their burial grounds.
She hoped that she would take that path to the hereafter before Two Eagles, for she wasn’t certain she could bear wrapping him in his finest furs and lowering him into the ground, never to see his smiling face again.
She shivered at the thought and shook herself out of her morbid reverie.
This was a time for rejoicing. She was home again, safe and sound, and her man had said that he would be taking her as his wife tomorrow.
“Tomorrow,” she whispered.
“Did you say something?” Two Eagles said, bringing her eyes to his.
“Yes, I said ‘tomorrow,’ ” she said, smiling sweetly into his eyes. “I have waited all my life for tomorrow, for it was destiny that led me to you. That I am finally seeing my destiny fulfilled causes a sweetness inside me I can’t describe. I am so happy, Two Eagles. So very, very happy.”
“That day, when I saw you crawling along the ground after the Sioux massacre, even then I knew that destiny had brought us together. But I would not allow myself to think further about it, for at that moment I had other plans for you,” he admitted. “I saw you as the opportunity to avenge what your father had done to my uncle, even though I did not know you were that man’s daughter. That I had found someone alive from the massacre, who was somehow aligned with that murderous fiend, was enough for me.”
“I am so glad that it was not you or your warriors who attacked the fort that day,” Candy said, closing her eyes to shut out the images of Malvina and her father with arrows in their bodies.
For a moment Two Eagles’s insides tightened. If the Sioux had not arrived that day ahead of the Wichita, it would have been Two Eagles and his warriors firing those deadly arrows from their bowstrings.
He did not like thinking about keeping anything from his woman, but he could not chance losing her, or her respect, were he to tell her the truth about that day.
No, he would never tell her. It would be a secret that would go to the grave with him.
He was glad that events had turned out as they had. If he and his warriors had arrived earlier than the Sioux, who was to say whether his Painted Wings would have lived through the ordeal? If not, both his and Candy’s destinies would have been denied!
“I don’t believe I’ve ever seen stars shine as brightly as tonight,” Candy said as she gazed at the star-speckled sky. “There is a star in the northern sky that seems much brighter than usual.”
“That star in the north is known as the ‘Ghost Bear,’ ” Two Eagles said. “It is said that a man who was traveling in the far north came upon another man who said, ‘This is my burial place. I live in the far north. If you accept whatever I offer you, I will give you power. You shall have power over the herbs to cure people, for I am a medicine man. If an accident should happen, or if sickness should arrive, I will give you a way to heal. In your doctoring you should look to the sun, for my powers are derived from him. Before you begin doctoring, offer me smoke.’ The man was then informed that it was the Ghost Bear who was talking to him, and upon looking again, he saw that it was a Ghost Bear. The man looked back and the Ghost Bear had become a star. That star is the one you see tonight that is the brightest of them all.”
“I shall always remember that when I gaze upon that North Star,” Candy said. “I want to share something with you that I had once thought about that brightest star in the heavens.”
“And that is?” Two Eagles asked, smiling down at her.
“When I lost my beloved grandfather and was missing him so much, one night as I lay in my bed looking out my bedroom window, something caught my attention in the sky. It was a star that I had never seen before. It was so bright! Suddenly I thought of my grandfather and felt it was he looking down at me. To me he was that star.”
“And so you have the same feelings we Wichita have about that star. It is not always superstition that brings such tales from our hearts, but something very real,” Two Eagles said softly. “That star brought your grandfather back to you that night. He is there now, as well, smiling down at you from the heavens.”
“That is so beautiful,” Candy murmured. “I love everything you tell me, whether it is myth or real. I long to be able to sit with the other women as we sew and bake and be as knowledgeable about such things as they.”
“There is so much to tell you,” Two Eagles said. “To feed a man or woman, to pray for him, to teach him—these are the greatest things anyone can do in the eyes of Tirawahut, our people’s Great Spirit. In doing so, those who give willingly to others receive a blessing in some form, themselves.”
They both went silent as Two Eagles rode into the village, his warriors disbanding on either side as they rode to their tepees and families.
His tepee was at the far side of the village, so it took him longer to reach his home, but he was always glad of its position. This way, he was able to see how everyone had fared while he was gone. It seemed that all was well tonight, which made him smile.
He rode onward, then just as he started to go to his corral, he saw something that disturbed him.
Bold Bear, the warrior he had left to guard Hawk Woman, was gone, and no one was there to take his place.
Nor was any smoke spiraling from the smoke hole of the lodge where Hawk Woman had been held captive.
