tood why Redbird had finally come out. She and the
boy must have been inside the wickiup all the time he was sitting out
here, and the boy was about to burst.

It would have been funny, except that a much more important discovery
struck White Bear.

He looked closer at the boy's urgent eyes. Blue eyes.

White Bear's own eyes were brown, but Pierre's were blue. Could eye
color be passed in the blood from grandfather to grandson? Around his
eyes, in the narrow shape of his head, his long chin coming to a sharp
point, White Bear could see that this boy was a de Marion.

_This is our son! Redbird's and mine!_

Joy blazed up in his body like a fire that warms but does not hurt.

He asked, "What is his name, Redbird?"

She glanced over her shoulder at the boy. "What are you standing there
for? You have to go. Go!" The boy ran off toward the woods. White Bear
watched him. He ran well, even though he was very young and most
uncomfortable.

White Bear wanted to reach out and take Redbird into his arms.

She turned back to him, her fists clenched at her sides, her nostrils
flaring in fury.

"_Now_ you want to know what his name is. Now, five winters after he was
born."

He turned to Sun Woman. "Does she have a husband?"

Sun Woman raised her eyebrows. "There were many braves who wished to
marry her. Wolf Paw was most insistent. He offered Owl Carver ten
horses. Little Stabbing Chief of the Fox sought her. There were others,
besides."

Wolf Paw had wanted to marry her. That must have been the meaning of
that strange encounter outside the camp. Wolf Paw probably wanted to
kill him.

"Please, Sun Woman, do not talk to this man about me," Redbird said.
"You are his mother, and a mother to me. But you cannot make peace
between us."

"True," said Sun Woman, picking up her basket of herbs and bark. "Only
you can do that, daughter."

She turned to White Bear. "If Redbird does not welcome you into this
wickiup I share with her and Eagle Feather, I cannot invite you inside."

With that Sun Woman turned abruptly and trudged off toward the river.

_Eagle Feather!_

Redbird threw an exasperated look after Sun Woman.

Redbird's anger made White Bear feel as if one of the long knives'
cannonballs had crushed his chest. Perhaps if he could put his arms
around her she would remember how she had loved him. He took a step
toward her, reaching for her.

She stepped back quickly, bent down and picked up a rock. "Go away.