"Is your prattling tongue never still, woman?" said her husband, Three Horses.
"It was my prattling tongue that agreed to marry you."
Redbird had no heart to listen to them bicker.
"Let me through!" she cried, and the crowd parted before her.
"Where are you going?" cried her mother. "It is shameful to run after him." She grabbed Redbird's sleeve. "All the people will laugh at you."
"Let me go!"
As Wind Bends Grass pulled at her, Redbird's eyes met those of Wolf Paw, standing beside his father, the war chief. He glared at her. She knew he, too, wanted to tell her not to run after White Bear. But if he showed that he cared that much, the people would make fun of him.
She turned her back on all of them—Wind Bends Grass, Wolf Paw, Black Hawk, Owl Carver—and began to run.
When she reached the riverbank she saw no sign of him. For one panic-stricken moment she thought, Did he throw himself into the river?
Then, downriver, she saw a canoe gliding over the glistening water. He was paddling hard and was almost out of sight around a bend.