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“Mother, please?” Hawk said, a little boy again who always wished to please his mother.
Star Flower sobbed, then turned her red and swollen eyes slowly around to gaze at Hawk.
“Mother, I am sorry if I have disappointed you,” Hawk said, his eyes imploring her. “But I am not a murderer. I am a man who seeks peace with everyone. I was wrong to leave when you asked me to, to travel to the Kansas Territory. Even before I left I knew that I could not do as you asked. But I thought . . . that . . . perhaps time away from you would be best for both of us. I went to the Kansas Territory and renewed friendships. Please forget the vengeance that eats away that sweetest part of your heart. For your sake, for mine, and for Father’s? Please, Mother. Try and forget the ugly past. Live for the future, for time is so fleeting. Soon you will be nothing but an old woman who still hates, who still thinks vengeance as your sole purpose for living.”
“Son, I . . . am . . . sorry,” Star Flower said, reaching a hand out for him. “I have been filled with hate for White Wolf and Strong Wolf’s grandfather for so long, it will not be so easy to place it behind me.”
“But you must, Mother,” Hawk said, trying to keep his voice steady.
“I shall try,” Star Flower said softly, lowering her eyes.
“I will take your mother home now,” Buffalo Cloud said, taking a step away from Hawk. “I believe things will be all right now. Please bring Doe Eyes to our village soon. We wish to grow to know her as we would a daughter.”
After Buffalo Cloud and Star Flower were gone, the celebration seemed unable to get back on a solid, merry footing. Everyone disbanded and went their separate ways.
Hannah and Strong Wolf sat down beside their campfire, which was set aside from the rest. Strong Wolf had built them a lean-to up against a stand of thick, young aspens.
As Strong Wolf placed more twigs of willow on the fire just inside the lean-to, Hannah slipped off her doeskin dress and placed a soft robe around her shoulders. She kept reliving the evening, the worst part, where Star Flower had so terribly embarrassed Hawk.
She was still in awe of Hawk, and how he could forgive her so easily. If Hannah had been humiliated in such a way by her mother or father, she was not sure how she could ever forgive them.
She felt thankful that her father and mother had finally accepted her love for an Indian.
If not, she might have faced the same sort of ordeal that Hawk faced tonight.
“My woman is still in deep thought,” Strong Wolf said as he sat down beside her.
“I can’t quit thinking about Hawk, and what his mother did to him tonight,” Hannah said. “He is so even-tempered, so compassionate.” She smiled. “Just like someone else I know.”
“Ah, and who might that be?” Strong Wolf said, taking her by the wrists, drawing her onto his lap. He swept the robe away from her shoulders. It fluttered on the pallet of furs beneath her.
His hands cupped her breasts, his eyes roaming over her silken nudity. “My woman, tonight is ours,” he said huskily. “Let us not think or talk anymore of other people’s woes. I have waited this long day through to be alone with you.”
As he kissed her, Hannah’s eager hands slipped his shirt off, then raised herself up from him just enough, so that she could slip his breeches down away from that part of his anatomy that always gave her such a thrill.
Understanding why she was trying so hard to maneuver his breeches away from him, Strong Wolf placed his hands at her waist and lifted her off him.
He removed his breeches, then reached for her again, placed her on his lap, and gathered her into his arms. His mouth took hers by storm, his palms moving seductively over her, his fingers teasing her sensitive places.
Hannah clung to his shoulders and sucked in wild breaths of pleasure as he began probing with his velvety tight heat where she was open to him. She cried out against his lips as he shoved himself into her rose-red slippery heat and began his rhythmic thrusts.
She gripped his shoulders as his mouth brushed her cheeks and ears lightly in soft kisses. He kissed her eyelids tenderly, then again their lips met in a frenzied kiss.
As frogs croaked along the riverbank and coyotes howled in the distance, Hannah and Strong Wolf became lost in a world that was sweet and filled with passion.
Afterward they sat watching the river. Hannah cuddled close to Strong Wolf beneath a shared blanket. She gasped when overhead the northern lights flickered. It was like wind rustling the tent of the sky as they played their magic across the sky in colors of pale greens, blues, and pinks.
“How beautiful!” Hannah sighed.
“It is an omen,” Strong Wolf said, placing a finger to her chin and turning her eyes to him. “A good omen.”
Again he kissed her and lowered her to the ground, where he again made maddening love to her.
“Surely tonight we will have made a child,” Hannah whispered, giggling as he took her to paradise with him again. She felt as though she was a part of the beautiful heavens.
Amidst making love, her mind momentarily strayed to what they were going to do tomorrow. They were going to his village. What if his mother didn’t approve of her, a white woman? She shivered at the remembrance of what happened tonight as Hawk’s mother had told him that she did not approve of his choice of woman, and his choice had been someone of his same skin color.
“My woman, your mind is not on what you are doing,” Strong Wolf said, pausing in his lovemaking. “What are you thinking about?”
