She did not dare wander from this place in the dark. Nicole had no doubt that mountain lions were aplenty. And once again, she only now heard the frightening call of a wolf.
She peered up at the moon, which had now replaced the sun in the sky. She shivered at how ghostly it looked as it shone through the fog. She scooted to the edge of her blanket, closer to the fire, then looked over her shoulder when she heard crickets begin their nightly song.
As a child, she had listened to them from her bed. She had always loved their chirping. Even when she was a child, they had brought peace to her heart.
When she thought of them now, she recalled the time when she had decided to call the song of the crickets “night music.”
She felt a growing inner peace even now as she listened to another familiar night sound that she had heard while in her home on the shores of the Mississippi just outside the bustling city of St. Louis. An owl was hooting in the dark.
When she saw fireflies with their flashing lanterns begin to rise from the grass all around her, tears came to her eyes. She thought about the times she had gone outside on early evenings with her mother and played amid the fireflies, giggling when one landed on her arm.
Those were such innocent, wonderful, happy times. She would never know them again, unless she had her own child one day to share such things with.
She had never thought about children of her own before, but now, strangely enough, she did.
She hated to believe that she would remain so alone in the world all of her life. Now she longed to find a man she could share her life with.
“Your name?”
It was almost eerie the way that male voice interrupted her thoughts of finding a man to share her life with. It was as though her thoughts had carried to Eagle Wolf, awakening him.
She blushed and then gasped softly when she saw that he was moving to a sitting position.
His face was no longer flushed, and his eyes were clear. Both things surely meant that his fever was gone.
His warm, wondrous smile, and his voice as he again spoke to her, made Nicole’s heart skip a beat. Her reaction confirmed just how attracted she was to him.
“What is your name?” Eagle Wolf asked again, wondering why asking her such a simple question should bring color to her cheeks in a blush.
He had been too ill earlier to even think about her name, much less ask it.
But now?
Something inside himself, beyond mere curiosity, made him want to know more about her.
He brushed aside the fact that she was white. She was like no white person he had ever known.
She was generous and kind. She was absolutely beautiful, both outside and in.
It was because of her that he was beginning to feel like himself again, instead of an injured animal, at the mercy of any who might come across him while he was ill and alone.
“Nicole,” she murmured. “Nicole Tyler.”
“How is it that you are not afraid of Eagle Wolf?” he asked.
“When I first saw you, I must admit that I was afraid,” Nicole said softly. “But then I realized you were ill. I hoped to help you, and I believe that I have.”
She paused, then said, “I have, haven’t I? You do look as though you are feeling better. I don’t believe you have a temperature any longer.”
Eagle Wolf smiled over the fire at her. “
Ho, it is gone,” he said, slowly nodding. He laughed softly and good-naturedly. “Eagle Wolf sees you now as a white shaman.”
Again Nicole blushed, for she knew that Eagle Wolf was teasing her.
“Why are you traveling alone?” Eagle Wolf suddenly asked.
The question unnerved Nicole. She had not been able to tell him about her parents earlier. Could she do it now?