by Linda Bridey
Marcus pushed Owl back and came out onto the porch and closed the door behind him. “Yeah, but for how long? What about the next time someone says something you don’t like? Are you gonna run away again?”
Owl shook his head. “No. No more running. I’m ready to fight. I’m going to win her back, Silver Ghost.”
Marcus pushed Owl roughly. “Don’t call me that. You don’t get to call me that. Only my brothers call me that and I don’t see one of them here. You’re just the coward who took off when things got rough. You left without a word to me. If you hadn’t come back with Dean, I would have never seen you again! For the rest of my life! Don’t you get that?”
“Yes, I do and I’m so sorry. I know how deeply I hurt you and I’m going to earn back your trust. I’m going to earn back everyone’s trust,” Owl said. “I’m so sorry.” He sat down in one of the rocking chairs and put his head in his hands. Silent tears coursed down his face. Then he wiped them away and stood up.
Marcus couldn’t stand to see anyone cry. “Aw, hell,” he said and hugged his brother. “Don’t you ever do anything stupid like that again. Promise me!”
Owl hugged Marcus back and said, “I promise.”
Marcus released him and smiled. “So sit down and tell me all about what happened when Dean caught up with you.”
The next morning Owl began putting his plan into action. He didn’t go by the clinic because he didn’t want to push his luck with Hannah. He did go to the sheriff’s office, though. Sammi was just pouring some coffee into a cup when he came in. She stopped and stared so long that she overflowed the cup.
“Damn it!” she said and plunked the coffee pot back on the stove.
Owl knew better than to smile. He was pretty sure she was going to punch him and it would be even worse if he made her any madder than she was already.
“Hi, Sammi,” he said.
Her ice-blue eyes narrowed. “Hi, Sammi? That’s all you’ve got to say for yourself?”
“I was just getting started,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yes, you are,” she said. “I’m so pissed at you! And so glad to see you!”
She surprised him by giving him a long, hard hug instead of hitting him. He hugged her back and laughed.
“Don’t you ever do that again or I’ll track you down and shoot you!” Sammi said as she released him and smiled at him.
“I won’t,” Owl said. “Jack will be here soon, right?”
“Yeah, why?” she asked.
“There’s somewhere I want you to go with me. I need a witness and I can’t think anyone better than a deputy,” Owl said.
“What are you up to?” Sammi said.
“You’ll see.”
After a happy reunion with his nephew, Owl and Sammi went outside. Sammi saw Swift and three other Indian horses tied by her horse.
“What are you doing with them?” Sammi asked.
“I’m going to make restitution to Clive’s family,” Owl said.
“You’re what?”
“You heard me,” Owl said as he mounted and waited for Sammi.
Once at Clive’s brother’s house, Owl knocked on the door and waited. Reggie answered it.
“What the hell do you want? I thought you left town,” he said upon seeing Owl.
“I did, but I’m back. In my culture, when we’ve offended someone, we give them gifts of restitution,” Owl said. He stepped back from the door and motioned towards the three Indian horses. “These three horses are for you. They’re very fine horses and are yours to do with as you please.”
Reggie’s eyes round with surprise as he looked at the horses and then at Owl. He came outside and went over to the horses and looked them over. Reggie saw that Owl spoke the truth about their good confirmations. He looked at Owl.
“Why are you doing this?”
Owl said, “I know nothing will ever make up for Clive’s death, but I hope this gesture will create some good will between us. I would have never hurt Clive if Hannah’s life hadn’t been in danger. I’m not a blood thirsty savage. I’m very sorry.”
He held out a hand to Reggie, who eyed the hand. Owl thought he wasn’t going to shake it. Reggie looked at Owl and saw that the Lakota man’s eyes were filled with regret. That and the gift of the horses moved Reggie. It was a standup thing to do. Reggie reached out and took Owl’s hand.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever forgive you, but I believe that you’re really sorry and that’s a help,” Reggie said.
“I appreciate it,” Owl said. “Can you please call off your watch dogs? They’ve really been scaring Hannah and she doesn’t deserve that.”
“Yeah. I’ll see what I can do about that,” Reggie said.
“Thank you,” Owl said and mounted his horse again.
Sammi rode along beside him and said, “I’ll be damned. Where’d you get that idea from?”
“Something Marcus once told me about killing someone with kindness. I guess it really does work,” Owl said.
“I’ll say,” Sammi said.
As Hannah did some shopping a couple of days later, she kept wondering if she’d run into Owl. She hoped not. She didn’t want to have a public confrontation and it would hurt her too much to see him. Though Hannah did not see Owl, she also didn’t have anyone giving her trouble anymore. She was able to walk about freely again and it was a huge relief.
That night she arrived home to find a note wedged between her kitchen door and the door jam. There was also a small bouquet of wildflowers propped against the door. Hannah took the note and opened it.
Dear Hannah,
I just wanted you to know that if you need me for anything, you can always find me at Dean’s place since I live there now.
Owl
Hannah wasn’t sure what to make of that. He was living at the Samuels ranch now? Why? Turning aside her curiosity, Hannah tossed his flowers across her little yard and went into her house. She crumpled the note in her hand and put it in the trash.
When she arrived at work the next morning, another bouquet of flowers awaited her along with another note from Owl. This one told her that he had opened a bank account since he was working full-time for Dean and needed one. She confronted Marcus in his office.
“Did you bring these here for him?” she asked angrily.
Marcus looked at the flowers and shook his head. “No. He must have snuck in here. I never heard him, but then again I’m not surprised.”
Hannah could tell Marcus wasn’t lying. “Ok,” she said and dumped the flowers in the trash and tossed the note in with them.
Only when she left his office did Marcus smile. His brother had apparently begun his campaign to win back Hannah’s heart and Marcus knew Owl could be very persistent. However, Marcus hoped that Hannah was going to make Owl work for it.
Hannah became angry with herself when she was disappointed that there was no note or bouquet waiting for her at home that night. She stomped inside and fixed something to eat, but let it lay because her stomach was in too much turmoil.
However, when she opened her front door the next morning, she found two new woven rugs lying on the porch with another note.
Hannah,
These are to replace the ones that got burned. I hope you like them.
Owl
Hannah pulled them inside but left them rolled up. She hurriedly saddled her horse and rode to the clinic. Marcus was just going in the door. Hannah caught up to him and said, “Hey! Can you handle things for a little while?”
Marcus arched an eyebrow at her forceful tone. “Uh, sure. Why?”
“I’m going to go give your brother a piece of my mind!” Hannah said. “He gave me new rugs!”
Marcus had a hard time keeping his laughter in check until she’d ridden away. Then he went inside and let it out.
Marcus wasn’t the only one she was forceful with.
“Where is he?” she asked Dean.
“He who?” Dean said.
Hannah put her hands on her hips. “You know
who I mean. Don’t play dumb.”
“Oh, him. I’d check either his bunkhouse or the cookhouse. He’s usually one of the two places at this time of day,” Dean said.
“Thanks,” Hannah said as she spun around and walked away.
Under his breath, Dean said, “Give ‘em hell, Hannah.”
Someone rapped on Owl’s door and he opened it just as they knocked again. Hannah found her fist hitting Owl’s stomach instead of the door.
“Hi,” he said with a smile. He was so happy to see her, to be near her, but by the look in her eyes, she wasn’t so happy to see him. “C’mon in.”
She did and slammed the door shut. Owl backed up a little.
“I want you to stop leaving me flowers and notes and rugs,” Hannah said. “I don’t want anything from you.”
She could smell horses and sweet feed on him and Hannah was flooded with desire for him. “I want nothing to do with you, so please leave me alone.”
“I don’t believe you,” Owl said and took a step closer to her.
“What do you mean?”
“If you really didn’t want anything to do with me, you wouldn’t be here right now,” Owl said.
“You’re wrong. This is the last warning I’m going to give you. If you don’t leave me alone, I’ll talk to Mitch. I mean it,” Hannah said. “I’m done being the victim.”
Owl frowned at her last remark. “Victim? I’m not trying to harm you. Just the opposite. I love you. I would never—‘”
“But you did! You did hurt me! I never thought you’d leave me like that, Owl,” she said and crossed her arms over her chest in a protective gesture. “The one person I thought I could always count on to love me and be there for me left without one damn word. You didn’t give me a choice in whether you left or not. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”
Owl said, “I know and I’ll always regret what I did to you and everyone else. But I’m here now, Hannah, and I’ll never leave again. I promise.”
Hannah tried to harden her heart. “I don’t believe you. You destroyed my trust in you the same way Clive did.”
Her comparison of him to Clive cut him deeply, but Owl could see how she might see it that way.
Hannah’s eyes brightened with tears. “You said you’d always be honest with me, but you weren’t. You lied by omission when you left and didn’t tell me you were going.”
“I was trying to protect you. Don’t you see? I thought that if I left, they’d leave you alone,” Owl said.
“Well, they didn’t! They still hounded me. At least if you’d been here you could have protected me,” Hannah said.
Owl closed his eyes and said, “No, I couldn’t and it killed me. If I’d have made one wrong move against any of them, I’d be dead now, Hannah.”
That made Hannah stop and think. It was true. After the trial and the ill-will that was still aimed at Owl, if he would have hurt anyone else, there would have been no second chance for him.
Hannah said, “So what’s different now? Why come back then? They still might come after you.”
“I made restitution to his family and I bought his friends a couple of drinks and apologized to them,” Owl said.
She said, “You did? How did you make restitution?”
“I gave Reggie my three finest horses and asked that he and his friends leave you alone. We came to an understanding about it all,” Owl said.
Hannah thought back to a few days ago when she’d been shopping and thought how nice it was that no one dogged her steps. “That was you?”
“I guess it worked. I’ve been showing them that I’m not a bad guy. I let Morris and Vince beat me at poker one night and that seems to have gone a long way towards getting on their good side,” Owl said.
“I don’t believe it.” Hannah couldn’t help but smile at him. “You played poker with some of the same people who wanted to hang you.”
He laughed. “Yeah. It’s pretty, um, ironic.”
She shook her head. “Thank you for making them leave me alone, but it doesn’t change the way I feel. Please leave me alone. I can’t go through something like that again. I’m getting my life back on track. I don’t want anything to do with you.”
“Hannah, please try to see that I’ve changed,” Owl said. He tried to touch her arm, but she move away.
“Don’t touch me, Owl.”
Owl said, “I know that you still want me, Hannah. I can tell. If I’m wrong, tell me.”
Hannah looked down. She couldn’t meet his eyes because he would see that he was right. She felt his hands on her shoulders and then he cupped her face and made her look at him. The hungry fire in his eyes held her captive just like always and she became immobile. His mouth brushed against hers and she closed her eyes as he deepened the kiss. Owl took her in his arms when she didn’t resist. He felt her start to respond just as someone knocked on his door. Hannah tore out of his grasp and slapped him.
“Don’t touch me again. Don’t come near me!” she cried and flung the door open.
Luke stood on the other side. She rushed past him and Luke turned back to Owl. He noticed a red mark on Owl’s cheek. He looked back at Hannah who had mounted her horse and was cantering down the lane.
“What?” Owl demanded angrily. “What do you want?”
“Um, we’re ready to start branding,” Luke said. “I’m sorry I interrupted.”
Owl sighed. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault. I’ll be right there.”
“Ok,” Luke said and left.
After taking a few moments to get his bearings, Owl went to join Luke and Seth. As he worked, though, all he could think about was how unbelievably good it had been to kiss Hannah again. If only Luke hadn’t come along when he had, Owl thought. He pushed his thoughts aside for the moment since his task required his full attention.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hannah rode hard for town. Tears were caught on the wind and her face dried as she sped along. How could she give in like that? She chided herself for being so weak. When she made it to the clinic, she was in a flustered state and couldn’t concentrate properly. Marcus was concerned about her and when lunch time came, he drew her into his office and shut the door.
“What’s going on? I’ve never seen you like this,” Marcus said.
Hannah felt like she was going to hyperventilate. “I don’t know. I’m so confused. I hate him and I love him and I don’t want to see him and I do want to see him. He bought me rugs and gave me flowers and stopped Reggie’s harassment and he’s living at your ranch and he opened a bank account and I don’t know what it all means. Then he has to tell me that he loves me and he kissed me. He kissed me. Can you believe that?”
Marcus sat her down and made her take some deep breaths. “I don’t want you passing out on me. Let’s back up a little. Ok, so he opened a bank account and he’s living out at the ranch. Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know. Is this a quiz?” Hannah snapped and instantly regretted it.
Marcus said, “No. What did you do when you moved here and got a job?”
“I opened a bank account and then I bought my house,” Hannah said.
“Why?”
“Because I was staying,” Hannah said. “Oh. I see.”
“I’m not taking sides, Hannah. I’m trying to offer you some insight into how Owl does things. He’s not a big talker about his feelings like I am. But he shows his feelings by doing things. What he doesn’t realize is that sometimes what’s clear to him isn’t to other people. I’m trying to translate in a way, I guess,” Marcus said and continued. “Uh, the rugs. Why would he get new rugs for you? What happened to the old ones?”
“They were burned that night when they threw the bottles through the windows,” Hannah said. “He feels that they did that because of him so he felt that he should replace them?”
“Now you’re getting it. The flowers?”
“He knows which ones are my favorites and wanted to do something nice for me,”
Hannah said.
“You say that he got Reggie to stop bugging you, right? How did he do that?” Marcus asked.
“He gave him his three best horses,” Hannah said. She remembered Owl once telling her that horses were the most prized possession of the Lakota people. “He gave up something valuable because my safety is more important than the horses.”
Marcus smiled. “I don’t have to explain why he would kiss you, do I?”
Hannah laughed. “No, you don’t. You really are smart. How do you remember all the things you do? You speak English, Lakota, and Owl.”
“Don’t forget Latin, French and Claire,” Marcus said.
“Bragging doesn’t become you, doctor,” Hannah said. “You have to translate Claire?”
“Yep. She says one thing, but there’s a hidden meaning under her words sometimes. Especially when she’s angry,” Marcus said. “So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know, but this conversation never took place,” Hannah said and got up.
“Agreed,” Marcus said.
Owl decided that push had come to shove and that he couldn’t be patient any longer. He knew what he had to do, but had to decide how to go about it. He spent a whole night alternating between pacing and lying in bed while he mulled the options over. Then it came to him as morning came and he went to talk to Dean.
Several days after her encounter with Owl, Dean surprised Hannah by showing up in the clinic waiting room. It was about the time they would close up.
“Hi, Dean. Marcus is in his office if you want to go back,” she said.
“Nope. I’m here because I need to show you something,” Dean said.
“What do you mean?” Hannah asked.
“Are you ready to leave?” Dean asked.
“Yes. Why?” Hannah said.
Dean laughed. “Because I want to show you something.”
“Ok. I’m ready,” Hannah said a little apprehensively.
As they walked, Hannah kept looking at Dean. “Where are we going?”
