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At that, the people disbanded.
Wolf Hawk watched several warriors leave the village, then he turned to Mia again. “I will not be long,” he said. “Go inside my lodge. The fear you felt will soon dissipate, like the earthquake, itself.”
“I will,” Mia murmured. “I hope you find your grandfather well.”
“He is a strong man who has overcome many obstacles that stood in his way during his lifetime,” Wolf Hawk said. “So shall he survive this.”
He ached to draw Mia into his arms and hold her, but knew that until he announced their upcoming marriage, he must practice restraint in front of his people.
But soon?
Ho, soon they would be able to reveal their love for each other to all.
He knew that some would doubt his sanity for having chosen a white woman over one of his own skin color. But he believed that, in time, even those people would see the goodness in Mia, just as Wolf Hawk had seen it.
“I truly must go now,” he said, then turned and ran toward the river.
Mia watched him for a while longer, then went inside his tepee. She sat down beside the slow burning embers of the fire and became lost in thought.
She hoped that Wolf Hawk would return soon with good news about Talking Bird.
Because of the way he had helped her, she had developed a strange sort of attachment to the old shaman. She had told Wolf Hawk as much.
He had smiled and said that was the way of Talking Bird; everyone trusted and loved him.
Her eyebrows rose as her thoughts returned to Wolf Hawk. As she had watched him run toward the river, he had disappeared from view when he’d reached a small stand of trees.
From thereon she hadn’t seen him, not even when she would have thought that he would be in the river in a canoe, headed for the island. He just seemed suddenly gone!
She felt a slight shiver ride her spine at that thought.
She recalled again how he had seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, appearing from a patch of fog.
She could not help believing that there were many things about Wolf Hawk that she might never know, or understand.
But she did know that she could not live without him. He was now everything to her. And soon she would be his wife!
She frowned a little. Not because she had agreed to be his wife, but because she feared his people’s reactions to the news.
If they didn’t approve of her, what then? Would Wolf Hawk feel that he must turn his back on her because his first duty was to his people?
She shook her head to clear it. She would not let anything spoil the joy of those precious moments before the earth had begun to shake beneath them.
She smiled. For a moment she had thought that their lovemaking had had a strange effect on her, making her feel as though the earth itself was shaking.
“I must get hold of myself,” she said out loud, then glanced at the birdcage where Georgina was sitting silently on her perch. Surely the canary had been frightened by the earthquake.
She went to the cage and smiled at Georgina. “Do not be afraid,” she murmured. “All is well, sweet thing. You can sing now. I wish that you would. It would lighten my mood.”
As though the bird understood her, Georgina began her beautiful warbling as she slowly strutted along the perch.
“Thank you, sweet bird,” Mia murmured, going back and sitting down by the fire.
She looked slowly around Wolf Hawk’s tepee.
She could still feel him there, even while he was gone. She felt so blessed to have been brought into his life. She could not believe that she was going to become his wife.
She thought about how so much had changed in her life in such a short time. She had always wondered about her future, whether or not she would find a man to love, and who would love her in return.
