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She loved the protective way he alwa
ys slipped his arm around her waist. “As soon as we return home, I will send a wire to my parents about your arrival,” she said as she gave Swallow Song another smile. “They will come from Saint Louis. We can have a celebration.”
“And also you will meet her sister and brother,” Strong Wolf said, smiling down at Hannah as she gave him a quick, appreciative glance. “They live close to our Potawatomis village. Like Hannah, they are good people. It is refreshing to have found white eyes who can be friends. Hannah’s sister, Clara, lives among our people at the village. She is teaching our children ways of white children.”
His voice trailed off as his thoughts momentarily strayed to Claude Odum. He had been different from other whites. And he was now dead!
Strong Wolf suddenly felt an urgency to return to the Kansas Territory, not only to make sure his people were protected, but also Hannah’s brother and sister. Although Hannah had not mentioned worrying about it, he knew that Chuck and Clara were vulnerable because of their kind nature.
No one knew where Tiny had disappeared to. He was a menace. He was capable of doing anything underhanded!
And some white people in the area resented Clara teaching the Potawatomis children. Prejudices ran strong about a white woman teaching Indian children when there were scarce teachers for the white community.
Yes, he would return to the Kansas Territory as soon as he could gather his people together here at the Wisconsin village and get them ready for the journey to their newly established home.
“Oh?” Swallow Song said softly as she gazed at Hannah. “Your sister is skilled at teaching?”
“Yes, she attended college, purposely to become a teacher,” Hannah said, wondering about Strong Wolf’s sudden strange silence and faraway, worried look. “I am so pleased that she chose to use her skills at the Potawatomis village.”
“She is a woman of good heart,” Swallow Song said, nodding. “I will enjoy meeting her. And perhaps she could teach me things I have always longed to know about your culture? Perhaps I could attend your sister’s school?”
Hannah’s lips parted in a soft, surprised gasp. “Why, yes, Clara would be glad to have you there,” she murmured.
“I have shied away from too many things in my life,” Swallow Song said, her voice thick with melancholy. Her eyes wavered as she gazed at Hannah. “My son has explained that part of our lives, his and mine, that plagues us?”
Unsure of how to answer her, yet almost certain about what she was referring to, Hannah gave Strong Wolf a quick glance.
“Yes, Mother,” he said, his eyes looking at Hannah in a silent understanding. “She knows. And she accepts.”
“That is good,” Swallow Song said. “That is why I have kept so much to myself. But I have not been plagued with the terrible seizures for many moons now. I wish to open my life to new things, new adventures, new people. This journey to our new home will give me that opportunity.”
Strong Wolf went to his mother and swept her into his embrace. “I hope to make everything possible for you in your new world,” he said.
“And how did you find White Wolf and Dawnmarie?” Swallow Song said, easing from his arms. “And Proud Heart? Has he returned to stay with his people?”
“White Wolf and Dawnmarie are well, and, yes, Proud Heart has returned to stay with his people,” Strong Wolf said, already missing his friend. “Someday soon White Wolf and Dawnmarie will be leaving to seek Dawnmarie’s true people in Mexico. White Wolf will step down from being chief. Proud Heart will then be the leader of their people.”
“I fear I will never see Dawnmarie again,” Swallow Song said, her voice quivering with emotion.
“Yes, Mother, you will,” Strong Wolf reassured. “Dawnmarie and White Wolf promised that they would come through our village on their way to Mexico. We shall greet them with much feasting and celebrating.”
“I so look forward to that,” Swallow Song said. “Dawnmarie and I have shared so much in our lives.”
She smiled over her shoulder at the gathering behind her, then smiled up at Strong Wolf as she took one of his hands. “My son, it is time now for you to greet your people as their chief,” she murmured, tears silver in her eyes. “And we will soon have our own feast and celebration, a celebration of my chieftain son and his wife.”
Strong Wolf smiled as he looked slowly around him, seeing the eagerness of his people to greet him. He gave his mother one last assuring hug, then stepped away from her.
As the sun lowered in the sky, Strong Wolf hugged every one of his people, from the smallest child, to the most elderly.
Then after Strong Wolf and Hannah visited his grandfather’s grave, and returned to the excitement that was building among Strong Wolf’s people over the journey that lay before them, the celebration began.
Hannah had enjoyed the feast and celebration at the Chippewa village, but here, among Strong Wolf’s people, it seemed filled with much more exuberance, much more passion!
Beside a great outdoor fire, which cast a golden glow high into the heavens, with food cooking in huge pots over burning coals, Hannah relaxed in the fun of it all, laughing, smiling, loving. It was strange how quickly she was accepted and made to feel she belonged.
Huge bouquets of wildflowers were thrust into her arms.
The children danced and sang around her.
