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“That proves, Hawk, that she has no feelings except for herself,” Doe Eyes said, her voice rising in pitch. “Think of yourself, Hawk. Not your mother. Tell Strong Wolf and Proud Heart that you are sorry, that you meant them no harm.”
“It . . . is . . . too late,” Hawk said, his eyes locking with Strong Wolf’s. His eyes shifted slowly to Proud Heart.
Having never seen, or known of Doe Eyes’s affection for Hawk, Strong Wolf was rendered speechless. Their love for one another had been kept from everyone. And as he listened to them, he could not help but think that what they said was all a ploy, to hide the truth that they had worked together on this plot against him and Proud Heart.
Strong Wolf had learned long ago never to trust Doe Eyes. She had so coldly turned him away after she had learned of his secret past.
No one since had made him feel as small, as useless. Doe Eyes was a woman without a heart, and he suspected that she would do anything to reduce him to a pitiful nothing again in everyone’s eyes!
Hannah was too stunned to move as she watched this woman with Hawk, s
omeone who had surely meant something to Strong Wolf in his past. Since Hannah had known Strong Wolf, no one had ever rendered him speechless as he seemed to be now in the presence of this woman! It was as though he was in a spell!
Hannah wanted to shake him, to bring him back to his normal self, yet still she felt helpless in what she was witnessing today. She just stood there, an observer, an outsider, feeling useless, and wishing she had gone on to her brother’s house. She regretted having to see Strong Wolf placed in this position.
Doe Eyes ran up to Strong Wolf. “Please, Strong Wolf, please release Hawk,” she cried, her hands in tight fists at her sides. Tears streamed from her eyes. “Please believe me when I know that Hawk’s mother is the reason he is here spying on you and Proud Heart. He was forced to come to the Kansas Territory.”
When Strong Wolf refused to respond, she went to Proud Heart and flung herself into his arms. “Brother, please help me,” she begged. “Help me to make Strong Wolf see reason.”
Proud Heart eased her from his arms and glared down at her. “Sister, did I ever know you?” he said. “And what of our parents? Surely they do not approve of you being here!”
“I knew you would not understand,” she said, then ran back to Strong Wolf and grabbed him by an arm.
He recoiled and yanked his arm away.
“Hawk would never harm you nor my brother!” Doe Eyes said, dropping her hands to her sides. “If so, would he have not done it already? He has been here long enough to do you both harm, then return to Wisconsin.”
Strong Wolf gazed down at her, his eyes narrowed with hate. “You have no right to be here,” he said venomously. He gestured toward Hawk. “He has no right to be here, no matter the reason. He is a man. He is a warrior. He could have stood up to his mother and told her that a man does not obey a mother!”
“You know his mother,” Doe Eyes cried. “She is strong-willed. She has a way about her! A son is rendered helpless before her, even if he is a powerful warrior who will one day be chief of his people!”
“He who follows the skirts of his mother is . . . not . . . a man!” Strong Wolf emphasized between clenched teeth.
“Does it truly matter?” Doe Eyes sobbed. “Free him. He will leave you, untouched.”
“He would leave me untouched?” Strong Wolf said, then laughed fitfully. “You, who have no feelings, come into my village and try to pretend that you do? Pity Hawk if he has fallen into your trap. That means he has become ruled by two women, not one.”
“Strong Wolf, I know that you have had bad feelings for me for many moons now,” Doe Eyes said, wiping tears from her cheeks. “I beg you not to take your feelings for me out on Hawk.”
She lowered her eyes, then looked slowly up at him again. “I’m sorry for having treated you so badly when you professed your love for me those many years ago. I’m sorry for having hurt you like I did with my rejection, and in the way that I did it, so thoughtless, so cruel. Please don’t take it out on Hawk! I can’t help but love him!”
Hannah stifled a gasp, yet knew that she shouldn’t be surprised. Strong Wolf’s reaction to this beautiful Indian maiden’s presence was curious.
A part of Hannah was jealous over knowing that Strong Wolf had loved another woman.
Another part of her knew that it didn’t matter that he had, for he loved her now.
“What I do with Hawk, and how I choose to do it, has nothing whatsoever to do with you,” Strong Wolf said, glaring down at Doe Eyes. “You were dead to me many years ago. You do not exist in my heart, mind, or my world. I look at you now and see nothing. When you talk, I hear only the wind!”
Doe Eyes followed Strong Wolf’s eyes as he turned to the white woman. She knew now that his heart was filled with another woman, and her skin was white. She watched Strong Wolf with much interest, and then the lady.
As Strong Wolf gazed at Hannah, he could see the wonder in her eyes. He now knew that he might be forced to tell her the full truth about the relationship between himself and Doe Eyes, and finally explain about the dark secret that had caused Doe Eyes not to love him.
But now, for the present, he had Hawk to deal with!
He went to Hawk and glared at him. “You say you are innocent?” he said, folding his arms across his powerful chest. “That you would not have killed me and Proud Heart had you not been caught in the act of spying?”
“Had I planned to truly do it, it would have been done!” Hawk cried. “The opportunity was there. I was so close to you both, sometimes I could have reached out and touched you!”
