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“You must know that you are not only a stranger to my people, but someone who looks like their most hated enemy,” Eagle Wolf said thickly. “I am not certain how my Owl Clan will react when they see you with me. But I am confident that when they know you as I do, they will no longer see you as an enemy, but someone welcome in their lives.”
“I’m so nervous,” Nicole murmured. “What will you do if they refuse to accept me? Will…you…send me away?”
“You know that I could never do that,” Eagle Wolf said. He reached over with his free hand and gently took one of hers. “The moment we met, I knew it was our destiny to become one. You felt it, too. I know, because I see that truth in your eyes every time you look into mine. My Great Spirit will guide my people into accepting, and then, loving you.”
“But I am being thrust into their lives so suddenly, without any warning,” Nicole said, her voice breaking.
“Not altogether,” Eagle Wolf said, slowly taking his hand from hers. “I was not alone when I first saw you at the Mormon community. Several of my warriors rode with me. When they returned to our home without me, I have no doubt they told our people about you. They knew that I would be bringing you home with me.”
“I feel uncomfortable because I know how often the Indians have been tricked by my people’s government,” Nicole said softly. “I know about broken treaties.”
“Yes, my Navaho tribe is one of those that were tricked more than once because we trusted too easily,” Eagle Wolf said tightly. “That is why I have brought my Owl Clan into hiding. There are no boundaries here as there are on reservations where the white people have forced so many red-skinned people to go. We have made our own boundaries. We are happy here.”
“But don’t you see, Eagle Wolf?” Nicole murmured. “I might be too much of a reminder of all that for your people to accept me.”
“In time you will prove to them that you are a different sort of person,” Eagle Wolf said, in his eyes a determination to make her understand that she need not be afraid to venture onward into his village. “So come now, Nicole. Come and let me show you to my people. There will be some who will be hard to convince that you are a person whose heart is good. But in time, those people will see you as I do.”
“But you are…” Nicole broke off, blushing because she had almost said that he was in love with her.
“I know what you were going to say without your saying it,” Eagle Wolf said, smiling softly at her. “I see it in the sudden change of color on your face.”
He again reached over and took one of her hands in his. “Ho, I am in love with you, and, yes, love sometimes clouds one’s reasoning. But know this, woman, I can be in love, and make sense, too,” he said, chuckling.
“How could you know what I did not say?” Nicole asked, in awe of this man’s sensitivity.
“Your feelings are in your eyes,” Eagle Wolf said, bringing her hand to his lips and gently kissing it. “You love me. I love you. Now it is said aloud. My warriors have told my people how I feel about you. They will make you welcome at our village in all ways.”
Loving this man so much, Nicole wanted to be kissed by him, and not only on the hand.
As though Eagle Wolf had once again read her thoughts, he reached for her. Leaning closer, he soon had her in his arms, his lips warm and wonderful on hers.
She twined her arms around his neck.
The moment was magical and wonderful as she tasted the wonder of his lips and felt the strength in his arms as he kept her from falling off her horse, while she was leaning toward him.
She knew that life was going to be all right for her again, and all because of this man who had welcomed her into his heart against all odds.
“I love you,” he whispered against her lips. “Ka-bike-hozhoni-
bi, forever, my woman. Forever. Now let me take you to my people and let them love you, too.”
Nicole’s heart was hammering inside her chest as he drew away from her and gave her her reins.
“This is our time. Let us go onward into a world that now belongs to both of us,” Eagle Wolf said. He smiled at her. “Daltso-hozhoni. All is beautiful.”
He looked straight ahead again, then sank his moccasined heels into the flanks of his white steed.
Nicole rode with him into the outer fringes of the village.
Everyone stopped what they were doing when they saw the white woman with their chief. All of Nicole’s fears returned in one leap of a heartbeat as she saw resentment on many of the peoples’ faces.
Yet on the children’s faces was no resentment. Sweet and innocent, they clung to the skirts of their mother’s buckskin dresses, gazing up at Nicole with wide, brown eyes.
Some children even smiled, although bashfully, as Nicole rode past them. It was then she knew that things would be all right.
She thought about how these children had been cheated of so many things because of what white people had done to them. She felt ashamed at first, and then she found herself loving the children.
She envisioned herself standing before a group of these children, whose trusting eyes watched her as she taught them everything she could.
