Into the Wilderness (19 page)

"Don't
tell me you're fool enough to think the Iroquois are no threat to a white
woman," Moses barked. "There's plenty who had their women, and little
girls too, stole away and never seen again. They have a way of 'doctrinatin'
women, bringin' 'em over to their way, and they are good for nothing after
that. Except to serve Indian bucks."

Anna
shook her head. "Now stop, Moses. You're not talking about the Hurons on
the warpath, and there's not enough Mohawk left to steal a three—legged cow.
You know old Indian John, and Hawkeye—you been doin' business with them these
many years. And if you have something bad to say about them, why then I know
you're lying."

"Kidnapping?"
asked Julian. "There were such rumors at home, but we thought they were
exaggerated."

"Rumors!"
Moses fumed, kneading a mangy cap between his fingers. "Rumors!"

"Moses
had a sister took, when she was just ten years old," supplied Jed
McGarrity.

The
door opened and Richard Todd came in, shaking snow from his hat and his
shoulders.

"Ask
Todd here, he can tell you what they do to women. He knows about them. Why, if
my sister walked in this room right now, you couldn't stand the smell, and you
couldn't talk to her, either—she wasn't gone but three years and she didn't
know her own tongue anymore, just the Abenaki gibberish. And she spent all her
years putting out one Indian half—breed after another."

Richard
greeted each of them. "Who got you started, Moses?" he asked dryly.

"Mr.
Southern has a story to tell," said Julian. "I'm interested. After
all, they live on my father's property."

Moses
looked about himself as if he expected an Indian bent on murder and kidnapping
to materialize. "I'll tell you, I wouldn't let my sister alone with them.
There's that young buck, he's got a wild look to him. They got no business here
in Paradise with decent folk. And you know that I ain't the only one to think
so!"

"Folks
are talking about Chingachgook wanting to buy Hidden Wolf from the judge,"
Jed said uneasily.

"Not
bloody likely." Julian sat up abruptly, dumping the sleeping cat
unceremoniously to the floor.

Moses
nodded furiously. "We didn't rout the English—" He paused and sent a
regretful look toward Julian. "Begging your pardon, but we fought hard to
get out from under, and I for one won't stand by and watch the judge hand good
land back to the red devils. They seem whupped, that's true, but let 'em think
they got the upper hand and they'll start coming after our young'uns again, you
watch."

"There
hasn't been a kidnapping in these parts for twenty years," said Anna with
an uneasy glance toward Richard Todd. "And I won't have talk like that
here. Those people are good neighbors and good customers."

"Bah!"
Moses scowled, and then jammed his cap on his head. With a nod to the men, he
thumped the butt of his musket on the floor. "I'm going. But don't say I
haven't warned you about your sister and them Indians." And without a word
to Anna he left and slammed the door behind him.

"What's
this about Elizabeth?" asked Richard.

"She
went up to Lake in the Clouds yesterday afternoon and didn't come back,"
said Jed.

"Lake
in the Clouds?" Richard asked. "But why?"

"To
eat that confounded turkey, with the old man," Julian said. Then he
grinned, one corner of his mouth drawn up. "She got caught up there in the
storm. You worried about Nathaniel stealing your intended away?"

Anna
perked up at this. "Intended? Is there some celebrating to be done,
then?"

Richard
looked annoyed. "Don't start rumors, Julian. There is no agreement between
your sister and me."

"But
there will be, if Father has anything to say about it," noted Julian.
"And you seem set on it yourself, if I may make the observation.
 
Unless you're worried that Nathaniel is too
much of a threat."

"I'm
not over worried about him," Richard said, irritated to be having this
conversation within Anna's eager earshot, but still unable to keep quiet.

"Ha!"
laughed Anna. "You don't know how many young women in these parts wish
Nathaniel would come steal them away. Not that Dr. Todd don't have more than
his share of eager eyes. Especially," she added with a wink, "of a
Sunday at morning service. Especially in the front pew."

Richard
looked at her darkly, and she withdrew with a nervous laugh.

"Hawkeye
is probably on the way down with her now."

"Well,
it's clear you want to go after her. Go on, then, old boy, if you can't manage
to think of something better to do," said Julian. He stretched. "Mr.
McGarrity," he said. "Do you by any chance play dice?"

Jed
McGarrity started, his bony shoulders losing their perpetual slump for a brief
moment to rise up around his ears and fall away again.

"I
was raised to think that dice and whisky were the devil's instruments."

"Ah,
well," Julian sighed. "Too bad, then."

* * *

Hawkeye
suggested they leave straightaway after breakfast. He was afraid there would be
another storm later in the day, and he wanted to get down to the village and
back again before it hit.

"She
probably doesn't have the first idea about snowshoes," said Otter.
"She'll need a lesson."

Nathaniel
had gone out before sunup and still had not returned, so Otter took Elizabeth
outside to see to her instruction. Hannah came along, chattering, to provide
assistance and encouragement. Elizabeth was anxious about what they were
expecting of her, but she knew there was little choice, and so she stepped out
into the morning with a little trepidation but considerable determination.

The
first sun on the new snow reflected and reflected back again until it made her
eyes water. Elizabeth blinked and squinted and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
Finally she was able to look around her, and she stood stunned. "The cave
of wonders," she said, mostly to herself, but Hannah grabbed her hand and
yanked.

"What's
that?"

Elizabeth
glanced down at her. "From the stories called
A Thousand and One Nights
." she said. "The cave of
wonders, where everything glittered of gold and jewels. Like this."

The
glen was awash in snow, the branches of the trees woven thick with it, the
boulders grown to strange proportions. And the sun struck what seemed to be
every individual flake and set the glen shining in a kaleidoscope of colors.

Otter
was strapping the snowshoes onto Elizabeth's boots, his hair falling forward to
brush the snow into patterns.

"
A Thousand and One Nights'
?" asked
Hannah, awed. "Tell the story!"

"I'll
save that one for school."

Hannah's
face fell. "Then I may never hear it."

"I
hope you will," Elizabeth said. "I'll do my best to see that you
do."

Otter
looked up.

"You'll
have some talking to do, then," he said. And, not waiting for Elizabeth to
reply, he took her elbow and helped her up.

They
made it around the corner of the house before Elizabeth got stuck. The
snowshoes crossed, and unable to untangle them, she lost her balance and fell
backward into a sitting position. They helped her up, and this time they got
much farther: past the woodshed, and all the way to the barn, before she
stopped again with her shoes crossed. But this time Elizabeth was able to get
herself untangled on her own. With great concentration she picked up her pace a
bit and made it around another corner, moving deliberately in a steady rhythm,
and watching her feet. They did two more rounds, and then diverted a little so
that Elizabeth could have a try at going up and down an incline; she almost
fell once, but after that was fairly steady. Then they returned to the porch,
where Otter and Hannah hung back.

"Try
it again," Otter said. "Show us what you can do."

Elizabeth
grinned at them, and set off in a duck like straddle. She liked the feeling of
moving, suspended over the smooth surface of snow; she liked the cold on her
face. She rounded the second corner in good stride and ran full force into
Nathaniel.

"Umph!"
He let out his breath as he caught her, and they fell backward through the
crust of the snow.

Elizabeth
looked down on Nathaniel in horror. For a brief second, their noses touched and
her mouth hovered over his. His breath was warm on her face.

"You
don't have to knock me down to get me to kiss you, you know," Nathaniel
said with a grin.

With
a strength she didn't know she possessed, Elizabeth leapt away from him and
into a standing position. She stood breathing hard, wiping snow from her face.

Nathaniel
got up, too. "I'm sorry," he said contritely, but his grin would not
quite go away. "I shouldn't tease you."

"No,"
Elizabeth gasped. "You shouldn't."

Hannah
came around the corner and almost sent Elizabeth colliding into Nathaniel
again.

"Whoa!"
he called, grabbing her. He turned to Elizabeth but she had already righted
herself and was on her way.

"What
did you do to her?" Hannah asked in Mahican.

"I
gave her time to think about it," said her father. "My mistake."

* * *

It
took all her energy and concentration, but Elizabeth focused on her snowshoes
and moving over the surface of the snow; she would not think of what had just
happened. She would not. She hoped Hawkeye was ready to go, because she didn't
know how long she could continue not thinking of what she wanted and needed to
think about.

Otter
had gone off to the woodshed. Elizabeth fumbled the snowshoes off, and then
stood for a moment trying to collect her thoughts. Finally, worried about
Nathaniel's reappearance, she went into the cabin.

The
common room was empty. Elizabeth passed through it and found Falling—Day
scraping the moose hide, which had been stretched out on a frame. Many-Doves
stood to one side with a bowl in the crook of her arm, mashing the contents
with a pestle. The smells were very strong, and Elizabeth drew back a little.

Many-Doves
caught her movement and looked up. "I thought, if Hawkeye was ready—"
Elizabeth said. The women didn't answer right away; she saw them taking in her
color, and the fact that her breath still had not steadied completely.

"What's
that?" Elizabeth asked, nodding to Many-Doves ' bowl.

"The
brains," Many-Doves said. "Every animal has just enough brains to
cure its own hide."

"Ah.
Well. Do you know where Hawkeye is? If he's ready to go?"

"Hawkeye
went out to set traps," said Falling—Day. "Nathaniel will take you
down to the village."

"Oh,
I see." Elizabeth's smile felt brittle on her face. "Well, then,
thank you for your kind hospitality. And the meal. I hope to see you
again—" She had been about to invite them to visit her at home, when she
realized how strange this might seem to them, and she paused.

"Goodbye,"
she said finally, and turned to go.

Nathaniel
was waiting on the porch with Hannah. They were deep in an intense
conversation, in Mohawk or Mahican; Elizabeth thought it might be Mahican. It
sounded different from the language Falling—Day spoke to the children.

"Ready?"
Nathaniel asked.

Hannah
helped Elizabeth strap on the snowshoes once again.

"He'll
take you down a different way," she said. "Better for the snowshoes."
She smiled, and touched her fingers to Elizabeth's.

Elizabeth
put her hand on the small, sleek head and nodded. Then she set off into the
cave of wonders behind Nathaniel.

* * *

The
trail through the woods accommodated only one person on snowshoes, compelling
them to move in single file, for which Elizabeth was grateful. With Nathaniel
in front of her, she could watch him as closely as she liked, without being
observed or required to talk to him.

He
moved purposefully, with a grace that made her own progress seem very awkward
by comparison. The long line of his back was so straight that the rifle slung
there barely swayed, although in the hush of the woods Elizabeth could just
make out, above the sound of her own breathing, the soft sound of the gun's
stock rubbing on his buckskin mantle. Nathaniel had not tied his hair back, and
it fluttered behind him.

The
branches bent low under their burden of snow, creating a roof over the narrow
path like white arms of young girls crossed and crossed again. Elizabeth's pace
flagged a bit so that Nathaniel pulled quite far ahead of her, walking through
a tunnel of snow shot with sunlight. Then he stopped at a rise in the path
where the forest fell away, and waited for her to catch up.

Elizabeth
walked toward Nathaniel, drawn forward by his gaze, the force of his attention
a magnet she could not resist. She joined him on the little rise and saw the
valley and the village spread out below them. From here Half Moon Lake was an
irregular bowl of the deepest frozen blue, and the world around it every shade
of white. In front of them was an elongated clearing, framed by forest.