High on a Mountain (35 page)

He put his arm around her shoulders and drew
her close. She turned her face to his, her soft brown eyes filled
with emotion. And an image of blue eyes full of love for him rose
from his memory, hung suspended between them. Abruptly, he got to
his feet and walked away.

____________

Kutahyah, hurt and confused, watched as he
disappeared between the trees into the deepening dusk. What had she
done to offend him? She wanted him so much…why didn’t he want her?
Was there something wrong with her? She waited for a long time, but
he didn’t return. She sighed, lay down on the blanket and tried to
sleep.

____________

Ailean sat under a large oak tree and leaned
back on the rough bark, consumed by his inner turmoil. Taking
Kutahyah away from the village had been a mistake. Once again, his
impetuosity had led him to make a rash decision, one that could
hurt Kutahyah. He hadn’t thought beyond the fact that he was lonely
and needed someone. And that he was attracted to Kutahyah. He acted
on what he wanted with no contemplation of what the outcome might
be.

When will I ever learn?

As much as he wanted her, he didn’t know if
he could ever reach past his memories to touch her, to love her. He
considered taking her back to her mother’s house in the morning,
but he knew he couldn’t disgrace her by doing that. And he also
knew he couldn’t endure the loneliness of his empty valley anymore.
He needed Kutahyah as much as he wanted her. He’d have to find some
way to get beyond his tortured past.

While it was still dark, he went back to the
blanket and lay down beside Kutahyah. She was lying on her side,
and he lay on his side behind her, facing her. He slipped his arm
over her waist and pulled himself close. The faint scent of
wood-smoke that arose from her clothing comforted him. He cuddled
next to her, rested his cheek against her silken hair and fell
asleep.

____________

When the half-light of the new morning crept
over the mountains, Kutahyah awoke to find Ailean beside her. He
had wrapped his arms around her as he slept, had gathered her to
himself. She lay still and quiet, not wanting to wake him. She
enjoyed this closeness but wished for more. She wasn’t sure what
had driven him away the night before, but she was glad he was
beside her now.

____________

Ailean awoke when the sun had fully risen. He
lay for a while, drowsing, drinking in the satisfying closeness to
another human being. As he awakened more fully, he realized they
should have been far along the trail already and knew they needed
to be on their way. He reluctantly pulled his arms away from
Kutahyah.

“We need to go,” he said, wishing he knew how
to speak to her in
Tsalagi.

She sat up, and he pointed to her, then to
himself, made walking motions with his fingers and pointed toward
the west. Kutahyah smiled and stood. Ailean got off the blanket,
and she folded it and put it into the large basket. She suspended
the basket from the tumpline, took more dried venison from the
container of food and handed a piece to Ailean. They chewed the
meat as they walked the trail.

____________

The trader didn’t come into the tavern the
next day or the following one. Latharn decided he’d go to the dry
goods store to get information from William Thornton. Latharn
meandered through the store looking at various items while Thornton
served a customer. When the woman left, he turned his attention to
Latharn.

“Anything particular you’re interested in?
That’s some fine calico you’re looking at. Need some for the
wife?”

“No. What I need is some powder and
shot.”

“My supply is pretty low, but I may have
enough for you. If you don’t need much. The traders just about
cleaned me out. But if I don’t have enough for you right now, there
should be a ship in any day.”

As they discussed the amount Latharn needed,
he slipped a few questions into the conversation.

“That man you came in the tavern with, he’s a
trader?”

“Yes. Lives with the Cherokees up in the
mountains. Has a pretty good trade with them.”

“How far is it from here?”

“Probably a week on horseback, maybe a little
more. I don’t know for sure. Never been there myself.”

“He mentioned a man, my…ah…friend…Ailean
MacLachlainn. Did he say anything more about him later?”

“No. Just that the man made quite a stir up
there. Cherokees even gave him some land for a farm.”

Latharn completed his purchase and left the
store.

____________

When they arrived at the makeshift shelter,
Kutahyah set to work to make it livable. She cut canes from the
canebrake which grew along one part of the stream, split them and
wove mats of the cane splits. She fastened the mats between the
poles that formed the corners and the doorway and plastered them
with clay from the bank of the stream. She made a roof of mats and
covered it with thatch, and she made a bed. The crude shelter began
to seem like a home.

She had brought a small axe, along with a few
other tools, and Ailean used it to begin clearing a space for a
garden near the hut. He speared fish every day, Kutahyah gathered
edible wild plants and fruits, and they fared well without
depleting the supply of food she’d brought. They enjoyed days of
comfortable companionship but suffered through nights of
frustration and loneliness because of Ailean’s inability to put his
past behind him.

One afternoon, after he had caught almost
enough fish for supper, he stood on the bank and watched for
another fish to swim within range of his lance. As he looked
intently into the water, a faint yellow gleam from the bed of the
stream in a shallow area bordering a deeper hole caught his
attention. The yellow glow faded as the sun moved lower in the sky,
but he marked its position in his memory. A small fish ventured
from under the bank into the openness of the hole, and with one
quick movement, Ailean speared it and lifted it from the water.

He laid the lance and fish on the ground and
stood still while the disturbance in the water cleared. He scanned
the creek until he was sure he’d fixed his eyes on the place where
he had seen the yellow glow. Moving slowly so that he wouldn’t lose
sight of that spot, Ailean eased into the water. He moved from one
side of the spot to the other until he saw the sunlight reflecting
dull yellow on the creek bottom. He reached into the water, felt
around until his fingers closed on something small, flat and rough.
He brought it out of the water and looked at it, turning it over
and around.

It appeared to be some kind of metal. The
object gleamed when sunlight struck it. He wasn’t sure what it was,
but it intrigued him. He’d never seen anything like it. He laid it
on a rock beside the creek while he retrieved the fish from the
lance and added it to the others strung on a forked branch. He
picked up the branch and the piece of metal and headed for the
hut.

FORTY-FOUR

A sense of urgency kept Kutahyah tense and
worried during her first days in the valley. How would they
survive? They had no storehouse of food to carry them through the
winter, and Asgayagiga had no musket to hunt meat. She didn’t want
to return to Gulahiyi, to her mother’s house. Her cheeks flamed
when she imagined what the gossip would be.

“
Kutahyah can’t seem to find and keep a
good man, not even when she takes a white man.”

No. She couldn’t go back. Even though her
life with Asgayagiga was proving to be a disappointment, she
couldn’t give up, couldn’t face the ridicule. She’d never let
anyone know he didn’t love her, that, for some reason, she wasn’t
worthy of his affection. Nor that he didn’t provide for her as she
had expected. She swallowed her pride and turned her back on her
desires to concentrate on the matter of their survival.

Food concerned her most. She built a fish
trap from pieces of cane, secured it in the creek, and Asgayagiga
no longer had to spend time spearing fish for their meals. She
showed him how to hollow a piece of cane to make a blowgun, and she
gathered thistles to construct darts, as she’d learned to do when
she was a child. He practiced with the blowgun and occasionally
brought home a bird or squirrel to eke out their meals

But her biggest focus was on foraging to
increase her store of wild foods. She prepared some of what she
found for meals and dried some for their use during the winter. She
found a few fruit trees growing around the old home sites of the
abandoned village downstream. In late summer when the fruit
ripened, they ate some fresh, but she dried most of it.

A tentative but growing feeling of security
replaced the worries of her early days with Asgayagiga. They’d have
enough food to survive the winter, and, in the spring, she could
plant the Three Sisters, corn, beans and squash, in the garden plot
Asgayagia had cleared.

Kutayah also foraged for herbs and roots
which she planned to trade for seeds. Kutahyah was of the Paint
Clan and had learned as a child the preparation and use of herbal
medicines.

And when she wasn’t gathering food or herbs
for medicine, she made baskets for trade. They needed things they
couldn’t provide for themselves. Asgayagiga needed metal tools: a
knife, a shovel and a larger axe. And they needed clothing. She
could trade baskets to Gòrdan for those things.

As Kutahyah and Asgayagiga worked together to
make a home and a life for themselves, their respect and affection
for one another developed while their mutual unfulfilled desire
intensified. Kutahyah became content in her new life with the white
man. It was perfect. Almost.

____________

Gòrdan was glad to hear the news that Ailean
had taken Kutahyah to his new home. He hoped his friend would be
able to put the misery of his troubled past behind him and make a
new life for himself. And he hoped the couple would find happiness
together.

____________

Kutahyah knew the area where they lived. One
day as they ate their morning meal, she said, “The mountain of
Tumbling Waters is near. It’s very beautiful.”

“
Amicalola?
”

“
Asehi. Amicalola
,” she said. “Yes.
Tumbling Waters.”

“What does that mean?” he asked, a quizzical
expression on his face.

She beckoned him to follow her and led him
through the woods. Their trek ended by a stream at the base of a
mountain. Water tumbled down different levels from the heights
above to form the stream at their feet.

“
Amicalola
,” she said, pointing to the
waterfall.

____________

Ailean looked up at the water plummeting down
the mountainside. “Beautiful,” he murmured. “Like you.”

As they admired the sight of water cascading
over the rocks, Ailean slid his arm around her shoulders and drew
her close. She nestled against him, leaned her head on his chest,
and he rested his chin on top of her head. He caressed her cheek,
and she put her hand on his, held it there for a moment. She kissed
his calloused palm, and her tenderness awakened his desire. He
embraced her, held her body tight against his own and kissed her
forehead, her temple, her lips.

She leaned back, looked lovingly into his
eyes, and his passion cooled. Memories of Mùirne’s eyes filled with
love and desire rushed into his consciousness, and guilt
overwhelmed him. He took his arms from around Kutahyah, pulled away
and turned his back on her.

She stood unmoving, her arms still reaching
toward him. When Ailean turned to her again, he saw confusion and
hurt in her expression, saw tears spill onto her cheek. He brushed
her tears away and took her in his arms again.

“How can I tell you? How can I make you
understand? It grieves me to know I hurt you,” he whispered. “I
love you. But I love her, too. And she died for me. What kind of
man would I be if I dishonored her sacrifice?”

Kutahyah pulled away from him and wiped her
cheeks with her hands. She straightened her shoulders, took his
hand and led him to a faint trace that wove its way through the
trees up the steep mountainside. She dropped his hand to climb the
mountain, and he followed. When they reached a small gap near the
top, she took his hand again and led him through the trees to the
small brook that flowed across it.

They strolled along beside the stream, hand
in hand, until Ailean saw an opening ahead. He could see into the
distance through it. He hurried toward it, pulling Kutahyah along.
He stopped at the edge of the drop-off where the brook poured its
contents over a rocky shelf onto a ledge of flat rocks about
fifteen feet below. The water flowed over the ledge and plunged by
fits and bounds down the mountainside.

He looked out through the open space created
by the stream, scanned the valleys and hills below and beyond. Here
was the mountaintop he’d been searching for, a place where he could
see far into the distance, could sit and think. A place where he
could clear his mind. And it had been a gift to him from
Kutahyah.

____________

A few mornings later, Kutahyah noticed a
haunted, faraway look in Asgayagiga’s eyes. Soon after they ate
their morning meal, he disappeared. Kutahyah looked for him and
found his tracks leading toward
Amicalola
. She followed.

She arrived at the base of the mountain, but
he wasn’t there. His tracks led to the trace that headed up the
slope. Kutahyah began climbing.

When she arrived at the gap near the peak of
the mountain, she followed his tracks as they headed toward the
waterfall. And stopped when she saw him sitting on the bank of the
stream where the water poured down the mountain. He was staring out
through the open space at the landscape spread below.