Wild Thunder Page 3

  All that Tiny had schemed to own—all of Chuck’s land and possessions—was threatened, not only because of the stubborn Indian, but now also because Chuck’s sister was there to care for him. He had wasted too much time waiting for Chuck to become completely blind so he could swindle Chuck out of all that he owned—a ranch and hundreds of acres of farm and grazing land. He had never suspected that Chuck would have a relative come to live with him, to help him with his affliction, especially not an interfering sister.

  As Tiny saw it, Chuck’s sister was an obstacle to his plans, and the Potawatomis had land that he wanted for his own ranch. He was now not only Chuck’s foreman, but also his bookkeeper, and if he had calculated right in placing the wrong entries in Chuck’s ledgers, Chuck’s land would soon be Tiny’s.

  And he must act soon, before Hannah was shown the ledgers.

  Tiny sneered, then laughed to himself when he thought of how asinine Chuck had been to trust Tiny to care for the journals. Chuck no longer had the ability to even add up figures to see if they balanced.

  “I’ll be the richest man in all of Kansas Territory,” Tiny gloated to himself as he swung himself into his saddle. He grabbed up his reins and took one last look at Strong Wolf, then wheeled his horse around and rode away.

  “Come again soon, Strong Wolf,” Chuck said as Strong Wolf released Hannah’s hand. “We shall have council here for a change, instead of at your village. I feel I should do something to make up for this inconvenience caused you today.”

  “You have done enough by ordering the removal of the dam,” Strong Wolf said, his eyes still on Hannah. What he saw today in the woman was something he wished to ignore, yet his heart told him that was impossible. There was too much about her that was different from most women. His intrigue of her touched him to the very core of his being.

  “Tiny was just looking out for my best interests,” Chuck said, sighing. “But I have my doubts about him sometimes.”

  “It not my place to discourage you about those who work for you; yet I cannot help but say that if I were you, I would be wary of that man,” Strong Wolf said, then turned and went to his horse. “I have my duties to see to. I must leave.”

  He gazed at Hannah again, “We shall meet again, I am certain,” he said. He nodded to Chuck, then rode off in an easy lope on his beautiful chestnut stallion.

  Hannah’s heart beat soundly as she watched Strong Wolf ride away. He sat so tall and so masterfully in his saddle. His shoulders were so squared and muscled. And she loved the way his dark, waist-length hair fluttered in the wind.

  “Sis?”

  Chuck’s voice broke through Hannah’s reverie. Red-faced, she turned to him. “Yes?” she murmured.

  “What do you think?”

  “About what?”

  “About Strong Wolf.”

  “In which way, Chuck?”

  “Hannah, am I wrong, or did I feel strong feelings being exchanged between the two of you?”

  Hannah gulped hard. She sucked in a wild breath. “You noticed this?” she murmured. “You can’t even see all that well, yet detected something evolving between me and Strong Wolf?”

  “Besides my eyes, my other senses have been enhanced, and, yes, Hannah, I felt something happening between you and my Potawatomis friend.”

  “And if you are right?” Hannah murmured. “How would you feel?”

  Hannah became unnerved by Chuck’s sudden silence.

  Chapter 3

  Was that thunder?

  I grasped the cord of my swift mustang,

  Without a word.

  —FRANK DESPREZ

  Hawk, a Sioux and the son of Star Flower and Buffalo Cloud, was traveling alone on horseback, his destination Kansas. His village was not far from the village of Strong Wolf’s people in Wisconsin. He was thinking back to what his mother had said to him before he had left for this long journey. She had told him that it was now time to follow the scent of skunk that had been left along the trail made by Strong Wolf and his friend Proud Heart, who were now settled in the Kansas Territory.

  The fathers of Strong Wolf and Proud Heart were responsible for the death of Hawk’s uncle, his mother’s brother. Hawk never knew his uncle Slow Running, but his mother had told him often how much she had loved him.

  And she had stood beside her brother when he had gone against the Chippewa, the Sioux people’s natural enemy. And since his death at the hands of Chief White Wolf and his companion Sharp Nose all those years ago, she had lived with resentment, with revenge on her mind.

  She had ordered her son to do the avenging. She had told him that she had waited long enough for this to happen. She had told Hawk to go now to the Potawatomis’s newly established village. There he was to avenge his uncle’s death by killing the sons of those two warriors who were responsible for her brother’s death!

  From the beginning, when his mother had first approached him to do this for her, Hawk had told her that he could not kill those whom he himself did not see as enemies.

  He had finally agreed to do what she had asked of him after his mother had repeatedly reminded him that he owed her so much. Because of her having trouble giving birth to him, she couldn’t have any more children.

  Even he held himself to blame for his mother’s barren womb. And how could he not? She had never let him forget that he was the reason she could never have any more children.

  Yes, he owed her anything she asked of him.

  Also, he had agreed never to tell his father, Buffalo Cloud, what he and his mother had conspired to do. His father, the peace-loving man that he was, would never approve.

  As he rode onward, Hawk’s thoughts centered on Proud Heart’s sister, Doe Eyes. He hadn’t told her, either, what he must do for the sake of his mother. He had been forced to leave Doe Eyes behind, his one and only love, although both hearts would be broken by such a silent farewell. Because of tensions between families, theirs had been a forbidden love, one that only they had secretly shared.

  When wild thunder rolled across the hills in the distance, Hawk sank his moccasin heels into the flanks of his white mustang. He was anxious to get this done and over with. His mother had told him not to return home again until the deed was done. He must hurry and return home alive and well, for he would be chief after his father.

  “How am I to kill people I do not even hate?” Hawk despaired to himself, having not even known the man whose death he was avenging. Like his father, Hawk was a peace-loving man.

  “And she expects them both to die,” he whispered to himself. “How . . . can . . . I?”

  He lifted his eyes to the sky. “Doe Eyes, if you could just be here, to comfort my bleeding, troubled heart!” he cried to the heavens.

  Chapter 4

  She seemed to hear my silent voice!

  —JOHN CLARE

  Doe Eyes, a beautiful Chippewa maiden, and the daughter of White Wolf and Dawnmarie, had learned of Hawk’s journey to the Kansas Territory. Against her parents’ wishes and ignoring their protests, she had found warriors to accompany her to the Kansas Territory in search of Hawk.

  Riding on a gentle mare, she was on Hawk’s trail even now. No one seemed to know why Hawk had just suddenly left Wisconsin. She only suspected why, and had planned to try and get to him before he did something he would regret for the rest of his life. Her parents believed that he was seeking his own destiny away from a demanding, unreasonable mother.

  She believed he was following the orders of this cruel, heartless mother. And she shivered inside to even think of what this might be.

  Though troubled, Doe Eyes looked beautiful, serene, and confident as she rode her horse through tall, blowing grass. She wore a belted dress of animal skins left open on both sides to make her ride on the horse more comfortable. She wore a necklace of deer and panther teeth.

  Her skin had a smooth copper sheen, her facial features were perfect. A single braid hung down her back.

  As evening drew nigh, the sky in the west was red. Su
ddenly Doe Eyes heard a faint rumble of wild thunder in the faraway hills.

  “Hawk, where are you?” she cried to the heavens.

  Chapter 5

  Did you ever see a woman,

  for whom your soul you’d give?

  If so, ’twas she, for there never

  was another so half fair.

  —H. ANTOINE D’ARCY

  With a panther’s tread, Strong Wolf moved noiselessly through the thick grass and placed the last stick of dynamite amid the rocks and rubble that still lay in place across the stream.

  “The paleface lied,” Strong Wolf said as he stood back with his friend Proud Heart and gazed at the dam that had not been removed. It was noon, the next day after the visit to Chuck Kody’s ranch.

  “The rancher must have waited until I was gone, then told his foreman not to destroy the dam,” Strong Wolf growled out between clenched teeth. “How could I trust so easily?”

  Since sunup today Strong Wolf and Proud Heart had waited and watched for the white men to come and tear down the dam, as promised, since it had not been torn down already.

  When they realized that the dam was not going to be removed, they had gone to a shack that sat far back from the rancher’s lodge, where they had seen Tiny store many sticks of dynamite. They had stolen several sticks of the dynamite and had returned determinedly to the dam.

  “Do we have enough of the white man’s power sticks in place?” Proud Heart asked, himself studying the dam. “Perhaps we should have removed the dam with our hatchets. There would be less danger involved, and noise.”

  “We do not have the time to waste hacking away at limbs and debris with our hatchets,” Strong Wolf said flatly. “And, yes, we have enough dynamite sticks in place.”

  “But the noise that dynamite makes is as powerful as the sticks are effective,” Proud Heart said. “It will draw the white men from the ranch.”

  “Let them come,” Strong Wolf said, his eyes filled with an angry fire. “We have done what should have been done already.” He gave Proud Heart a smug smile. “And will we not be gone when the white men get here? We will leave this place as soon as we see that the dynamite has done its business.”

  He placed a hand on Proud Heart’s shoulder. “My friend, it is my plan to make things right for our people in all ways,” he said thickly. “What we do today assures our people water and fish without them having to travel so far to the river to get what is required for survival. And we gave the white men a chance to take back what they had placed on our own land. The man whose land lies adjacent with ours is deceitful. He only pretended to give the orders for his foreman to destroy the dam. But it will soon be done. That is all that matters.”

  He dropped his hand to his side. “And, my friend,” Strong Wolf said, walking toward his horse, “let us finish what we have started. The sooner we have this chore behind us, the sooner you can return to your wife Singing Wind.”

  “You should have a wife to go home to also,” Proud Heart said, walking beside Strong Wolf, but not to mount his horse. It was his duty to set the dynamite off, while Strong Wolf saw that no one was near who might get harmed by the blast.

  “In time, Proud Heart,” Strong Wolf said, swinging himself into his saddle.

  Proud Heart gazed up at him and cocked an eyebrow. “There seems to be something in the way you said that, that teases me into wanting to know if you may have met a woman,” he said. “Have you met a woman who tugs at the strings of your heart?”

  “My friend, I would not urge you to travel this far from your own people, the Chippewa, whom you left behind in Wisconsin, to be with me as I searched for land for my people, the Potawatomis, only to keep secrets from you,” Strong Wolf said, grabbing up his reins. “I was not certain myself until yesterday that I had something to share with you. I did not tell you yet what transpired yesterday between myself and a woman because we have been occupied by other things besides idle chatter.”

  “Than you have found a woman?” Proud Heart asked, eyes wide.

  “There is a woman, and I have not had to travel far to look upon her loveliness,” Strong Wolf said.

  “Then who?” Proud Heart prodded. “Where did you see her?”

  “Her skin is fair, her hair is golden, her eyes are the color of grass,” Strong Wolf said, his insides afire at the mere thought of Hannah.

  “You . . . are . . . in love with a white woman?” Proud Heart stammered out.

  “Yes, and do not act as though you are appalled at my choice,” Strong Wolf said. “Is your mother not, in part, also white?”

  “Yes, that is so,” Proud Heart said, nodding. “My mother is part white and part Kickapoo. But she claims the Kickapoo side of her heritage much stronger than her white. As you know, she plans to travel to Mexico to search for her Kickapoo people. She promised her mother long ago, before her mother passed on to the other side, that she would find her people before she grew too old to travel. That proves mother’s dedication to the Indian side of her heritage, does it not? This woman who tugs at your heartstrings. Is she able to boast of being part Indian?”

  “I have not been given the opportunity to question her about anything that I wish to know,” Strong Wolf said. “But I know without asking that, yes, she is all white by blood kin. Never have I seen anyone as fair as she.”

  “Who, Strong Wolf?” Proud Heart said, leaning closer to Strong Wolf. “Tell me her name. Do I know her myself?”

  “Yes, you know of her,” Strong Wolf said, his eyes dancing into Proud Heart’s. “You have watched her as I have watched her ever since she arrived on the great white boat on the river a few sunrises ago.”

  “The woman who now lives at the white man’s ranch?” Proud Heart said, now recalling Strong Wolf having watched the woman from afar when they had seen her horseback riding with the skills and bravery of a man.

  “She is the one,” Strong Wolf said, nodding.

  “But is she not kin to the man who deceived us today?” Proud Heart persisted.

  “Yes, she is his sister,” Strong Wolf said. “But that will not matter to me. I want her, not her brother. And I will have her.”

  Strong Wolf wheeled his horse around. “Now, let us finish here what we have started so that perhaps I may see her again today,” he said thickly. “She so pleasures my eyes.”

  “She is different in appearance than most women,” Proud Heart said, stepping back from Strong Wolf’s steed. “She is tall. She is free-spirited, a woman who rides a horse like a man and who seems to know her mind as well as any man.”

  “And that is what intrigues me about her,” Strong Wolf said, smiling down at his friend. “Now, prepare to set off the dynamite.”

  He gave Proud Heart a steady stare. “Make sure I am far enough away,” he said somberly. “And also make sure you are safely hidden before the dynamite explodes.”

  Proud Heart nodded, then turned and walked back toward the dam.

  Strong Wolf watched his friend for a moment longer, then rode off in a soft lope, his eyes ever searching for anyone who might happen by on horseback.

  As he looked, he went back over in his mind that which he and Proud Heart had just been discussing.

  The woman!

  In his mind’s eye he saw her now, as though it were yesterday, and how there seemed to have been some magical force reaching between them, making them aware of their feelings for each other.

  Until now he had never thought about falling in love this quickly, this intensely.

  His head seemingly in the clouds, he rode onward, unable to think past Hannah’s lovely smile, her beautiful hair, and how statuesque she was!

  And he had seemed to have won a vote of approval from his best friend, for, except for those brief moments when Proud Heart had questioned him about Hannah’s skin color, Proud Heart had not discouraged his interest in the white woman.

  That made Strong Wolf smile, for Proud Heart was to him like a twin. All things good and bad they shared together. Their long a
ffection had made them kin—brothers!

  Chapter 6

  At first I viewed the lovely maid,

  In silent, soft surprise.

  —ROBERT DODSLEY

  Dressed in a long riding skirt, a calico blouse, well-fitting boots, and wearing three-quarter length butter soft gloves, Hannah rode in a soft trot on a fine pinto horse. Silver earrings dangled from her pierced ears, and her long, luxuriant hair was held back from her face with small combs.

  She rested a hand on the knife sheathed at her waist as she rode onward. Hannah felt dispirited, for she had been unable to sleep all night. She couldn’t get Strong Wolf off her mind, or the dam. She had told her brother that she was going horseback riding this morning, while hiding the truth from him that she was actually going to see for herself if Tiny had followed her brother’s orders and destroyed the dam.

  She also hoped that she might see Strong Wolf again. He had awakened feelings inside her that she had never known were there. She hoped to be with him again, to test these feelings, these wondrous sensations that warmed her through and through.

  And what was absolutely perfect, was that her brother and the Indian were friends. That would make her relationship with him, should he feel the same about her, less forbidden. She recalled how women were mocked and ridiculed back in Saint Louis when they had married an Indian brave.

  Well, this wasn’t Saint Louis, she thought stubbornly to herself. This was Kansas, where she was free to do as she pleased!

  Smiling, confident of her feelings and with whom she wished to share them, Hannah rode onward.

  It was summer on the plains. Fields of golden sunflowers faced eastward. Colonies of plants wandered across the hillsides.