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Chapter Three

Two days had passed since the Indian, Crazy Wolf, had visited the Millers. Angelique sat quitely at supper, picking at it with her fork and occassionally taking a bite. They had worked hard the past few days, but her mind continued to wonder back to the Indian that had came to their home. The moccians that he had brought fit both her and her step-mom perfectly. Crazy Wolf had promised Hannah that he would bring back a pair just for her. That had seemed to satisfy her and she left him alone so that he and their father could talk.

"You're not eating much," Henry said to his daughter. "You're mind must be somewhere else." "Just thinking," Angelique said. "About that Indian," Hannah chimmed in. "She's been smiling ever since he was here. She even smiles in her sleep." "I do not," Angelique protested, but she knew in her heart that Hannah was right. "You like him, didn't you," asked her step-mother, Anna. "It's alright," she continued, "he's the first young male that you've seen since we left the town a week ago.

Angelique placed her fork on her plate. "I just don't understand," she said. "I mean..., all the stories I've heard about how they capture white women and what they do to them. Somehow, I just can't see Crazy Wolf, or any of his tribe, doing all those horrible things." "What horrible things," Hannah asked. "Never you mind," their father told her. "You just eat your supper. And as for you Angelique, I wouldn't forget those stories. Something like that could still just as easily happen to you." "What stories," Hannah persisted. "Your father said 'never you mind' didn't he," Anna scowled her. The rest of supper was eaten in peace.

Angelique laid in her bed thinking about Crazy Wolf. He wore buckskin legings and moccasins, but nothing from the waist up. His skin was tanned from the sun. There was not a hair on his chest or face. His shoulder length brown/black hair hung down in braids on either side of his head. And his eyes..., his eyes were deep brown pools that were almost as dark as the black pupil itself. She fell asleep with that image in her mind.

Angelique awoke quickly when her step-mother woke her. "Quickly," Anna said, "take Hannah and get in the rock shelter. There's a priarie fire. Take Hannah there and don't come out until told too. Understand?" "Yes," she said. Doing as told, she grabbed a sleeping Hannah and hid in the shelter. Moments later she could hear the priarie fire as it burn around the shelter, but never penetrating it. And then she heard the most horrific sound. Her step-mom screamed and then the sound of the house crashing down silenced her. Her father called "Anna" over and over, but with no avail. Another crashing sound from the opposite side and her father screams told her that both the barn and her father was now lost. She heard nothing else but the burning fire and the wind the rest of the night. Looking down at Hannah, she was glad that she had stayed asleep during it all. At least their parents dying screams would never have to haunt her.

Crazy Wolf sat in Standing Bear's tent. Not only was he the Sioux tribe's medicine man, but his father's brother; making him Crazy Wolf's uncle. He was awaiting the answer to the dream he had just told Standing Bear about. He had first had it after the death of his squaw, Priarie Winds. It was always the same. It would begin with him dressing in the ceremional groom attire. He was then led out to meet his bride, but her face was never shown. All that he could see was her ceremonial bridal attire. But not last night. Last night, Angelique's face had been there.

Crazy Wolf thought of Priarie Winds. She had died after contracting the white man's fever. They had married in the fall and she died in the winter. That had been two winters ago. Now he wondered if the Great Spirit was telling him that he was ready to move on and his dream was telling him who his new bride would be. His father had kept telling him that "he needed to forget the past and move on. He had lived twenty-one summers and the Great Spirit did not want him to continue on alone."

Crazy Wolf looked at his uncle as he puffed from the pipe. "I think you and Soaring Eagle are both right," Standing Bear finally said in their native tongue. "I think that the Great Spirit is telling you that it is time for you to take a new bride and this Angelique Miller is her." Loud voices could be heard outside, and the two men exited the tipi to see what the matter was. Crazy Wolf's question was answered before he even asked it.

The night sky was lit with an orange glow. Crazy Wolf found his father and younger brothers standing at the edge of the stream. "It will not cross the waters," Chief Soaring Eagle said to his five sons and younger medicine man brother. "Many times fire has came and always it stops at the water. The fire is scared of the water and can not cross it." And just as his father had said, Crazy Wolf watched as the fire died as it reached the water.

Crazy Wolf intently watched the fire as it burned before remembering the Millers. "Father," he gasped as he remembered them, "the new family." Chief Soaring Eagle shook his head and said, "I am afraid that they have not survived." "At least not the man and woman, but the daughters have," Standing Bear said. Turning to Crazy Wolf he said, "She will need you now. You must bring her here and give her shelter and food. You will now be resposnible for her and the little one." Crazy Wolf looked at his father. "It will be so then," Chief Soaring Eagle said. "She will be your's to look after."