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Her heart pounding, she slowly crept from the large tepee. She looked from side to side to see if Wolf Hawk had told the truth about her being left unguarded, and found that it was so.
She saw no one, though she could still hear the flute and drums and wailing, which now came from somewhere deep in the forest. She would have to make certain to go in the opposite direction from those sounds.
She gazed at her travel bag, in which were all of her belongings. She hated leaving them behind, but anything she would carry would burden her down too much.
She would have to depend on the goodness of others once she got away from the village. She would search for a settler’s home where she might take shelter.
If she didn’t find a home, then she would have to make her way back to the river and hope that someone would come along and take her with them.
One way or another she would find a way back to St. Louis where her parents’ home stood silent, cold and empty.
Her pulse racing, her face flushed, her hair tied back into a ponytail to keep it from getting in her way, she ran around to the back of the large tepee, then sped on into the darkest shadows of the forest.
She made certain she did not go toward that part of the forest where the burial rites were being held. She had watched which way the people had gone, and she felt safe that she would not be seen.
The part of her that was enamored with Wolf Hawk ached, for she hated the thought that she would never see him or hear his voice again.
She had loved his gentleness toward her. But he would not be gentle now, not when she had betrayed his trust, throwing away any chance of getting to know Wolf Hawk better.
She grew breathless as she ran onward through the dense forest.
She felt a deep sadness when she heard the songs of the birds floating like beautiful silk through the air, reminding her of her lost canary.
Georgina.
Oh, where was her sweet Georgina? Mia doubted that Georgina was still alive and that hurt her deeply and made her hate Tiny. She hoped she would never see that man again.
She tried to focus on something besides her anger toward Tiny, her loneliness without her family and her bird. Instead, she concentrated on the beauty of her surroundings.
She could smell the wondrous scent of wild roses coming from somewhere in amongst the trees.
Oft times she had seen them climbing up the trunks of trees when her father had stopped the scow for their nightly layovers. She had picked a bouquet for her mother more than once.
Her mother had loved lily of the valley, too, which Mia could also smell though she could not see the tiny plant with its even tinier white flowers.
Its sweet fragrance reminded her so much of her mother. She had seen her mother pluck these flowers and put several in her hair, laughing softly as she said she wore a crown, and wasn’t it ever so beautiful and sweet?
Mia also saw clover dotting the forest floor and recalled how her mother had made her a chain bracelet of them.
It was the simple things she remembered her mother doing that made Mia miss her so terribly.
As she fled farther and farther into the forest, Mia no longer heard the wailing or the flute or drums. She must have traveled far from the Winnebago village. That meant she was also far from the man she would never forget…his gentleness, his caring, his eyes.
Oh, how his eyes sent her heart into a spin.
How could she have left, knowing she would never experience such feelings again?
There could be no one else like him, and yet she had left Wolf Hawk, never to marvel over his sweet kindness again.
She raised her chin and made herself stop thinking what she knew was wrong.
She had to find a way to fend for herself in this heartless, lonely world. And she would.
Her papa had taught her to stand up for herself. She would not let him down.
Suddenly she stopped. Her eyes filled with dismay.
While she was thinking so hard about other things, she had not watche
