Dorothy Garlock - [Annie Lash 03] (28 page)

“No way a knowin’ that . . . yet.”

“The bastard busted the hell out of it.”

Caleb arrived with Zee riding astride his neck. MacMillan, moving fast for a man his size, was not far behind. They all stood on the creek bank surveying all that was visible of the flatboat.

“Lawsy, lawsy, mercy me.” Caleb shook his head. “I’s jist down here dis mornin’. It all right then.”

“Paul and I were here before dinner. Washed and changed shirts,” Eli said.

“Gawdamighty!” This came from Bodkin. “Did the crazy German do that?”

“It had to be
him,
” Paul said. “He knew just where to put the holes to sink it.”

“It’s a damn shame is what it is.” MacMillan walked to the edge of the bank. “We’ll bring down the oxen and pull it out. It’ll take some shovelin’ to cut down this bank and make a ramp.”

“I’ve no money to pay. I put it all in the cargo.”

“I ain’t heard nobody askin’ for pay.”

Eli swore again. “I should have shot the bastard when I had the chance.”

“We can get the boat out and on blocks, but I don’t know ’bout fixin’ it,” MacMillan said. “I ain’t no carpenter. ’Course Linus can fix most things.”

“I ain’t worked on boats much ’cepts here, Mista Mac.”

“Noah and I worked on a few down at Natchez,” Bodkin said.

“Guess all that tobacco is ruined,” MacMillan said wistfully. “For that alone, I could roast him over a slow fire.”

“He’s gone now. After what he’s done, he’ll get downriver as fast as he can. He knows if I lay eyes on him, I’ll kill him.”

Light watched a formation of geese, their long necks stretched in flight, following their leader to the feeding grounds downriver. Flight after flight of the migrating birds had passed over the homestead the last few days on their way south. It reminded him that time was getting short and that soon, very soon, he would have to make a place for him and Maggie to spend the winter.

The effort of every man at the homestead was needed to get Eli’s boat out of the creek, not only so that he could assess the damage, but also to allow MacMillan’s boat passage down the creek to the river. The first day the men toiled from daylight to dark with shovels and makeshift tools, scraping down the bank and making a ramp of the slick mud.

Tired and dirty, they trudged up the path to the cabin. Aee came out with a pail of warm water for them to wash in. Eli noticed that she had taken to wearing a dress instead of the duck pants.

“I suppose this tickles you plumb to death,” he said, when Aee snatched the wet towel from the nail above the outdoor wash bench and hung a dry one.

“’Bout yore boat? Why’d I be glad a that? It’s a sorrowful thin’. It’s a doggone shame is what it is.” Her dark brows came together and a woeful look came over her face. “I was hopin’ ya’d be on the dad-blasted thin’ and be gone from here by now.”

“Mac invited me to spend the winter. I’m thinking on it.” Eli grinned at her cockily, turned and splashed water on his face by scooping it in his two hands. He groped for the towel. When one was thrust into his hand, he brought it to his face. It was wet and gritty with dirt. He opened an eye to see Aee, with the clean towel over her shoulder, retreating into the cabin.

Confounded woman. Always had to have the last word!

Supper over, the men went to the yard. The women sat down to eat and then cleared the table. Light was glad to see Maggie pitching in to help. He had come to realize that since Maggie’s parents had not required her to do anything about the house, it was good for her to be with the MacMillans where even the smallest child had a chore to do.

The next afternoon Caleb brought the oxen to the creek. Paul and Eli waded out to the boat and attached the ropes. When all was ready, every man, with the exception of MacMillan, who would drive the oxen, waded out to lend his weight against a pole. The flatboat moved sluggishly, creaked and shuddered. Every foot of upward progress was gained only by the constant, exhausting struggle of oxen and men.

When the flatboat was finally in position to slide up the mud-slick ramp, the men and oxen stopped to rest. Pine boughs were cut and laid to give the oxen footing when the struggling began again.

By sundown the boat was at last on solid ground and Eli could assess the damage. Boards had been pried loose both in front and back of the shed, which accounted for the quick sinking of the craft. The steering oar as well as the tools were missing and presumed to have been thrown overboard. The sacks of tobacco had been ripped open, the flour and whiskey barrels broken. It was unnecessary destruction because the flour, tobacco, salt and lard would all have been ruined anyway by the water. The whiskey would have been diluted with creek water, but not completely ruined. A keg of hand-forged nails, too heavy even for Kruger to heave over the side, had been tipped over.

Tools were precious items in the wilderness. They often meant the difference between life and death. The hatchets, hammers, saws, hewing tools, adzes of all sizes, augers, chisel tools, draw knives and planes all lay in the bottom of the creek. With these tools a man could build almost anything.

Bolts of printed cloth, bought from a store in St. Louis at a high price, were soggy and dirty. MacMillan said his womenfolk would wash the fabric so that it would not be a total loss.

“They are welcome to have it,” Eli said.

As darkness approached, Eli wet and weary, carried the yard goods from the boat up the path to the cabin and dropped them on the ground outside the door. He looked so tired and so discouraged that Aee avoided him because there would be no pleasure in needling him.

*  *  *

The day had been long and miserable. The men washed in the buckets of warm water the women had carried to the sickroom. MacMillan provided dry clothing for those who didn’t have it. When supper was over all sought their beds.

Maggie and Light, for the last few nights, after refusing to accept the offer by Caleb and Linus of their small cabin behind the potash works, had bedded down in the barn. They spread their blankets on the pile of grass cuttings and were grateful to be alone.

“Are ya warm enough, Light?” Maggie pulled the blanket up over his shoulders and fitted her body against his. He had been wet up to the waist when he came up from the creek.

“How can I not be, my treasure, with you in my arms?”

“I don’t want ya to get sick.”

“Don’t worry. There is something I want to talk over with you.”

“Something bad?” Maggie lifted her head from his shoulder. He moved his hand to press it down again.

“We need to make a place for ourselves for the winter. I had thought to ask Caleb to come with us and travel another hundred miles or so toward our mountain, but I don’t wish to risk it in winter. I think we should move a few miles upriver and build a shelter. In the spring we will continue our journey.”

“I go where you go, Light. I like it here, but this is not
our
home.”

“Sweet wife.” Light’s arms tightened and he kissed the lips she offered.

“When do we go?”

“Soon. Tomorrow I’ll help get the tools from the bottom of the creek. The next day I want to go to the Osage camp and tell the chief that I plan to winter here. They are my mother’s people.”

“Should I go with ya?”

“It would be better if you stayed here, pet.”

“How long will ya be gone?”

“For a day and no more.”

“I’ll do what ya say, Light.” Maggie’s small caressing hand moved over his chest and down his flat belly. “Do ya want me, Light? I no longer have my woman’s time.”

Light drew a shuddering breath and turned to her.

“Want you,
chérie?
I shall want you till my dying day, or until I’m old and gray, whichever comes first.”

“We’ll be on our mountain, Light, when this turns gray.” She tugged at the rope of hair tied behind his neck with a thong.

“You’ve not been sorry,
ma petite,
that you came with me? This is not an easy life.” His fingers stroked her cheek.

“I’m not one bit sorry. I never want to go back.”

Light rolled her onto her back and looked down into her face. It was pale and beautiful and smiling. Her breath was warm and sweet on his face. The soft utterance that came from her throat was an invitation he could not resist. Slowly, deliberately, he covered her mouth with his, pressing gently at first, then firmly with an urgency that sought deeper satisfaction.

The passion of this small woman excited him to immediate readiness.

“Ahhh . . .
mon amour
—”

*  *  *

The day dawned warm, windless and sunny. While Bee and the younger girls helped their mother shell corn to grind into meal, Aee and Maggie washed the yards of soggy cloth from Eli’s boat.

At a bend in the creek above the homestead, MacMillan had built a log platform for the women to step onto when they dipped water from the clear pool to fill the iron wash pot. It was easier work than pulling the heavy buckets of water up from the deep well in the yard.

Now with the fire heating the water in the three-legged kettle and a wooden tub filled with rinse water, Aee and Maggie played with a lash, one sometimes used to drive the oxen.

Aee, aiming at a twig hanging from a branch, flipped the whip forward. The lash wrapped around the branch.

“Shoot!”

“When ya do that, the whip can be taken away from ya,” Maggie said patiently as she unwound the leather from the branch. “Light says to give yore wrist a little jerk till ya learn how far the end will go. If it gets wrapped ’round somethin’, there ain’t no drawin’ it back.”

“I’ll never be as good at it as ya are,” Aee moaned.

“Ya will too. The leather on that whip is wider an’ heavier’n mine. Try it again, Aee.”

Aee threw the strip of leather back over her shoulder and stared at the twig she had missed before.

“I’m goin’ t’ think a that twig as the Swede’s rear end.”

Maggie laughed, then sobered and asked, “Why ain’t ya likin’ Eli? He give ya all that cloth.”

“He’s a palaverer an’ a flummadiddler an’ ain’t fit to shoot!”

“Why’er ya sayin’ that for? He is too fit to shoot!”

“Well, I ain’t takin’ no present from
him.
I’ll wash his old cloth, dry it, and roll it up. Then I’m goin’ t’ poke it at him an’ tell him t’ give it t’ the first married woman that catches his eye. I don’t want it.”

“Why don’t ya want it? It’ll make dresses for yore sisters an’ yore ma. He wants ya t’ have it. ’Sides, Aee, there ain’t no married women here but me an’ yore ma.”

Aee looked at the other girl and shook her head. At times Maggie was so
dumb.
She had no idea that Eli was smitten with her. But Light knew it; and if the stupid Swede didn’t keep his eyes off her, there was going to be trouble.

“I’m not takin’ anythin’ from that struttin’ rooster, an’ that’s that.”

Maggie giggled and Aee joined her. One of the things Aee liked about Maggie was that her mood changed lightning fast. If she was angry it never lasted long.

“Go ahead. Think the twig’s Eli’s backside an’ see if ya can hit it.”

The whip came forward and again wrapped around the branch.

“Flitter-flatter!” Aee threw the whip down. “Missed the Swede’s butt again!”

Maggie broke into peals of laughter.

“It’s that heavy old whip, Aee. I’ll get mine an’ be back.” Maggie darted away through the woods toward the homestead.

The past week had been one of the most exciting in Aee’s life. She had not known white girls her age other than her sisters. Meeting Maggie had been a new experience. Aee didn’t think, from what she had read, that married women were supposed to act the way Maggie did.

It was hard for her to consider Maggie a married lady. Married ladies wore dresses, cooked, gardened and had babies. They didn’t go around using whips, throwing knives and talking to animals. The doll-like woman was going with her man into the wilderness where no other white woman had gone. Her husband adored her, Aee thought dreamily. It was plain that she loved him too. When he was near, her eyes were constantly going to him.

It’s hard not to be envious, Aee thought now as she dipped lye soap from a crock into the iron pot. She wondered how it would be to be so close to a man that you shared his thoughts, his hopes, his dreams, and were willing to do whatever it took to make him happy.

It came without warning.

As she was putting the wooden lid on the soap crock, a rough hand covered her mouth and she was jerked off her feet.

Aee was so totally surprised that she didn’t fight back for a minute or more. By that time she was in the sumac bushes that lined the clearing and was being dragged backward toward the creek. She was a strong woman; and when she began to struggle, it was difficult for her attacker to hold her. She dug in her heels and swung one fist upward, hitting only the arm that was dragging her. She jabbed with her elbow and hit a vulnerable place on the man’s body. He grunted with pain and dropped her.

She was on her feet in an instant, whirled to face her assailant, and opened her mouth to yell. Only a squeak of a sound came out before a ham-like fist struck her in the face and knocked her off her feet.