Reckless Desire (40 page)

“I offered you one,” I panted. “And you ate them all.”

“They were very good. Looking at you that day, I knew you would become a beautiful woman. It was hard for me to stop seeing you, but I had to learn the ways of a warrior, and so I went back to my people when the time came, determined to put you out of my heart and my mind forever.” Shadow smiled. “Almost, I succeeded. I spent all my time learning how to be a Cheyenne warrior, and as I came of age I began to court a maiden in our village. You remember Bright Star? I think I might have married her if I had not ridden to the river crossing one warm summer day and seen you there. You were just fifteen at the time, but more lovely than any woman I have ever seen before or since. I went often to the river crossing after that, hoping to find you alone, but you were always with Orin. Or Joshua.”

Shadow’s voice grew hard and his eyes grew angry when he mentioned Joshua Berdeen’s name.

“I knew you were too young to marry,” Shadow went on, “so I went away with my people to our winter camp, determined to make you mine when I returned the following spring.”

I smiled as Shadow paused in his story. How well I remembered those wonderful days before the Indian wars, when Shadow and I had courted and loved and laughed. There had been no misery or unhappiness for us then, no fears for the future, only our love and our hope for a long and happy life together.

I groaned as another contraction knifed through me. Shadow squeezed my hands, his eyes filled with empathy.

“Hang onto me,” he urged.

I nodded, my nails raking his arms as the pains came closer and harder.

I drew blood, but Shadow did not seem to feel the pain. He had always been so brave. I wished I had some of his strength, some of his courage, to buoy me up now. He had suffered so much pain in his lifetime, so much heartache, yet he had never turned bitter or cruel.

I remembered the abuse he had suffered at the hands of the men who had dragged him from town to town back East, billing Shadow as “Two Hawks Flying, the last fighting chief of the Plains”. Shadow had been mocked and whipped and humiliated. Joshua had left him in the wilderness to die of exposure or starvation, whichever came first. He had been wounded in battle many times, knifed and left for dead by settlers. Many times he had taken revenge on those who had caused him harm, many times he had killed those who had caused me pain, yet underneath it all he remained a man who was kind and gentle, filled with love for his family, for all of life.

I could not hold back a cry as the worst pain of all tore through me.

“Push, Hannah,” Shadow urged softly, and within minutes, our son made his way into the world, and into Shadow’s capable hands.

Reverently Shadow gazed at his son, then held the baby up for me to see. Our son was wrinkled and red and beautiful. My eyes filled with tears of joy as our son squirmed and began to cry.

Mary and Victoria came in then. Shadow cut the cord, Mary bathed and dressed the baby, and Vickie helped me expel the afterbirth, then helped me into a clean nightgown and changed the sheets on the bed.

When I was presentable, Hawk and Cloud Walker brought the twins in to see the baby. Everyone remarked on how adorable he was, how tiny, how perfect.

Blackie looked at me and grinned. “Thanks,
nahkoa
,” he said, chuckling. “I always wanted a little brother.” His chuckle turned to full-fledged laughter. “Will you give me a little sister next year?”

“Scoot,” Mary said, shooing Blackie out of the room. “Don’t even think such a thing.”

Later, when Shadow and I were alone, he sat beside me while I nursed the baby. I basked in the love shining in my husband’s eyes.

“What shall we name him?” I asked.

“You decide.”

“I’ve always liked the name Daniel,” I mused. “What would you think of Daniel Blue Hawk?”

Shadow grinned at me. “It is a fine name.”

Our eyes met and held, and though Shadow did not speak, I could hear his voice whispering in my heart.

“Long life and happiness, Hannah,” I could hear him say. “That is what the hawks have promised.”

And I knew it was true.

Epilogue

Hannah and Shadow lived a long and happy life, just as the hawks had promised. They lived to see the automobile replace the horse, to see airplanes take to the sky, to see movies with sound. Many changes took place in their lifetime, but their love for one another never changed and never grew old.

Hawk and Victoria had four sons and three daughters. Hawk was elected sheriff of Bear Valley when Bill Lancaster resigned, and he spent the rest of his life upholding law and order. Hawk was a fair and compassionate lawman, for he had seen a prison cell from the inside and he knew that no matter how guilty a man appeared, there was always a chance that he was innocent.

Victoria was active in the women’s rights movement and was the first woman in Bear Valley to vote in an election.

Mary and Cloud Walker had seven sons and two daughters. They never left Bear Valley, but spent their lives together raising blooded Appaloosa horses and beautiful dark-eyed children.

Blackie’s love and concern for people and animals never faltered, and he went to college and became a veterinarian, just as he had always dreamed of doing.

Daniel Blue Hawk became a writer. His first novel chronicled the lives of his parents as related to him by his mother.

The story began, “I was nine years old the first time I saw the Cheyenne warrior who would one day be known as Two Hawks Flying…”

About the Author

Madeline Baker started writing simply for the fun of it. Now she is the award-winning author of more than thirty historical romances and one of the most popular writers of Native American romance. She lives in California, where she was born and raised.