Into the Wilderness (2 page)

The
Middletons: Judge Alfred Middleton, landowner Elizabeth, his daughter Julian,
his son Curiosity Freeman, a freed slave, his housekeeper Galileo Freeman, a
freed slave, the manager of his farm and holdings, and Curiosity's husband
Daisy, Polly, and Almanzo Freeman, their grown children, in Judge Middleton's employ

The
Bonners: Dan'l Bonner, (known also as Hawkeye), a hunter and trapper
Chingachgook, (known also as Great—Snake or Indian—John), his adoptive father,
a sachem of the Mahican people Cora Bonner, Dan'l's wife, a native of Scotland,
duisceased Nathaniel Bonner, (also known as Wolf—Running—Fast or Between—Two
Lives their son, a hunter and trapper Hannah (also known as Squirrel or
Used—to—Be—Two), Nathaniel's daughter Sarah (also known as Sings—from—Books),
Nathaniel's wife (deceased)

The
Kahnyen’keháka (Mohawk)

Falling—Day,
of the Wolf clan, Nathaniel's mother—in—law

Many-Doves
(also known as Abigail), her daughter

Otter
(also known as Benjamin), her son

Runs-from-Bears,
of the Turtle clan

The
Villagers: Richard Todd, doctor and landowner

The
Reverend Josiah Witherspoon, a widower

Katherine
(Kitty) Witherspoon, his daughter

Anna
Hauptmann, widow, owner and proprieter of the trading post, and her children,
Ephraim and Henrietta Axel Metzler, Anna's father, a widower and proprietor of
the tavern Billy Kirby, trapper, carpenter, lumberjack Liam Kirby, Billy's
younger brother Jed McGarrity, his wife, Nancy, and sons, Ian and Rudy, and
infant daughter, Jane Moses Southern, a trapper and hunter Martha Southern, his
wife, and their children, Jemima, Adam, and Jeremiah Asa Pierce, blacksmith
John Glove, owner of a mill. His wife, Agatha, his children, Hezibah and Ruth
and his slaves, Benjamin and George Claude Dubonnet (known also as
Dirty—Knife), his wife, Gertrude, and his children, Marie and Peter Charlie
LeBlanc, farmer and trapper Isaac Cameron and his grown daughter, Hitty, and
his sons, Benjamin, Obadiah, and Elijah Jack MacGregor, hunter and trapper
Archie Cunningham and his wife, Goody, and their son Praise—Be and grown son
Noah Jan Kaes, and Matilda, his wife, and their grown daughters, Molly and
Becca Henry Smythe, his wife, Constance, and his daughter, Dolly

SARATOGA:
Major General Philip Schuyler and his wife, Catherine; some of their children,
Philip, Catherine, Cornelia, Rensselaer, and three of their grandchildren Anton
Meerschaum, their overseer Sally Gerlach, their housekeeper The Reverend
Lyddeker

ALBANY:
Judge van der Poole Simon Desjardins, French aristocrat and merchant Pierre
Pharoux, French aristocrat and merchant Samuel Hench, a Quaker from Baltimore,
Elizabeth Middleton's second cousin Leendert Beekman, a Dutch merchant Baldwin
O'Brien, a treasury agent

JOHNS
TOWN

Mr.
Bennett, an attorney Mrs. Bennett, his wife

IN
THE BUSH: Robbie MacLachlan, Scot, former soldier, a hunter and trapper Jack
Lingo, hunter and trapper Dutch Ton, hunter and trapper Joe, an escaped slave

GOOD
PASTURE (KAHEN'TIYO): Stone—Splitter, sachem He—Who—Dreams, faith keeper
Sturdy—Heart, a maker of canoes Spotted—Fox, a warrior and fur runner
Throws—Far (also known as Samuel Todd) Made—of—Bones, clan mother of the Wolf
Splitting—Moon, granddaughter of Made—of—Bones Two—Suns, clan mother of the
Turtle She—Remembers, clan mother of the Bear

TREES—STANDING—IN—
WATER
BARK
TOWN

Sky—Wound—Round,
sachem Bitter—Words, faith keeper

AT
OAK MERE IN
ENGLAND
:
Augusta Merriweather, Lady Crofton, Elizabeth Middleton's aunt and Judge
Middleton's sister Cousin Amanda Spencer and her husband, William Spencer,
Viscount Durbeyfield

Elizabeth
Middleton, twenty—nine years old and unmarried, overly educated and excessively
rational, knowing right from wrong and fancy from fact, woke in a nest of
marten and fox pelts to the sight of an eagle circling overhead, and saw at
once that it could not be far to Paradise. All around her was a world of
intense green and severe white mountains, a wilderness of deep and bountiful
silence, magnificent beyond all imagining. This was not
England
, that
was clear enough. Nor was it the port at New—York where she had waited for
months for the long trip north to begin, nor any of the settlements between
New—
York
and
Albany
. Her journey was nearing its end.

They
had set out early from
Johnstown
, leaving the
Mohawk
Valley
behind to follow the Sacandaga river north and then west. At midday they had
eaten a cold lunch in the sleigh while the horses rested and watered, and now,
finally,
Elizabeth
found herself within only a few miles of a new home, and a new life.

Across
from
Elizabeth
,
her father and brother napped fitfully under piles of quilts, counterpanes, and
pelts, their presence given away only by the shock of Julian's unruly hair, and
warm clouds of breath which hovered over it. The only other person awake was
her father's driver, Galileo, who perched on the box wrapped in many layers of
patchwork mantle, pipe smoke trailing behind him in tendrils. Essentially
alone,
Elizabeth
allowed herself to smile idiotically at her surroundings, struggling with her
wraps until she could sit up straight. Then she drew in her breath both at the
cold—she had never known such temperatures in
England
—and at the beauty of it. In
the many years since her father had last visited
England
,
he had often written of his holdings in upper New—
York
State
,
but his descriptions were limited to resources: so much timber, game, arable
land, water. Although she had never said so,
Elizabeth
had thought it capricious and perhaps even imprudent of him to name the
settlement
Paradise
. She saw now that she had
been wrong.

Trees
of more kinds than she could recognize covered the rolling landscape and moved
up the hills and over the higher peaks without pause. The farther they
traveled, the fewer the clearings: the track snaked back and forth, narrowed,
approached the river and fell back again. Through birches and white pines,
Elizabeth
caught a
glimpse of the frozen river now and again, the ice reflecting the forest and
sky in a revolving blur of blues and greens. The woods cleared unexpectedly,
revealing a sharp bend in the river backed by bluffs. A waterfall erupted from
the cliff face, half frozen in mid—arch, half still falling in a crystalline
rainbow to a break in the ice. Beyond the sounds of the river, the creaking of
the harness, the rhythmic beat of the horses' hooves, and the rush of metal
runners in the snow, the world was silent.

Then,
in the woods between the sleigh track and the river
Elizabeth
saw movement. In the deep shadows a
large deer was stepping gracefully through the snow, moving down toward the
water.

At
the same instant, there was a rustling in the underbrush just a few feet from
the sleigh on its opposite side;
Elizabeth
turned, startled, to see a brace of hunting dogs emerge from a thicket, and
close behind them, two men running quickly and silently. They were only in her
line of sight for a moment, but
Elizabeth
took in the fact that they wore buckskins and fur, that they were both tall and
straight, although one considerably older than the other, and that they bore
long rifles held at a purposeful angle.

The
team became unsettled and Galileo spoke to them sharply as they broke stride
and slowed; this roused
Elizabeth
's
father immediately.

"Galileo!"
he called out, half—asleep."Galileo! What is the matter!" Judge
Middleton rose as the sleigh drew to a halt.

Elizabeth
stood
as well, stretching to follow the progress of the hunters, who had melted into
the woods which lined the riverbed.

From
beneath his rugs and furs, Julian stretched and yawned expansively and finally
stood up to observe, peering over the driver's box. Just then the hunters,
doubling back, emerged from the trees not far from the sleigh. Julian followed
their progress with sleepy amusement.

"Highwaymen
in New—
York
State
?" he laughed. "I thought
we left that kind of thing behind us on the
London
road!"

Elizabeth
gave
her brother a half smile."Will you be serious, please. Surely you can see
that those men are hunters. Natives, I suppose."

Her
father was holding a staccato conversation with Galileo as he rumbled around in
the front of the sleigh, and then he turned to face his children with his own
gun over his arm.

"Come
on, Lizzie," Julian said, making ready to leave the sleigh. "There
are bandits at hand. We might as well join in the fun."

"You
will have to learn to look more closely, my boy," said the judge.
"Don't you see anything worth your attention except hunters? Look where
they're heading. There! At the next bend in the river. That's the biggest doe
I've seen in two winters. And I've got a new musket, which I intend to put to
good use."

"Lizzie!"
urged Julian again, gesturing toward her, but the judge shook his head.

"Stay
with the sleigh," he called to his daughter as he leapt down and sped off
with Julian close behind. Julian sent her a look over his shoulder which she
knew well: he was sympathetic, but unwilling to champion
Elizabeth
in her less ladylike pursuits.

Elizabeth
was
not surprised to be left behind; that was a woman's lot. Then she remembered
that this was not
England
,
and that she might ask for—and do—things considered bold at home.

"Galileo,"
she called up."Can we move forward a bit so I can see what's
happening?"

"Might
be dangerous, miss," the man answered from the depths of his mufflers and
wraps."The judge don't have a feel for that musket yet."

"What!"
Elizabeth
laughed out loud."Do you think he would shoot us?"

"Not
on purpose, no, miss." Galileo sat down again on the box. "But I
don't put much faith in that smooth—bore of his."

When
it was clear that the man meant what he said and did not intend to move into
firing range,
Elizabeth
began to gather her skirts together."Well, then, I'll go on foot,"
she said firmly. Balanced on the side of the sleigh for the jump down, she
paused as a double gunshot burst and then echoed over the valley, chased by the
baying of the dogs.

"Did
they get the deer?"

Galileo
was standing again to calm the horses and he squinted in the direction of the
shots. "Somebody got something," he said slowly.

Elizabeth
set
off as quickly as she was able, but the deep snow reached over the tops of her
boots, and her skirts were heavy. By the time she came within a few feet of the
men she was flushed and overheated; pushing her hood of flannel and silk back
onto her shoulders to feel the cold air on her scalp, she distinguished her
brother's voice over the rush of the waterfall. She recognized the tone he
reserved for servants and she groaned inwardly. At the same time, although she
did not know exactly why, she feared for his well—being.

The
men fell silent as she approached. Even the dogs settled down immediately
beside the hunters.

"Elizabeth,
my dear," said the judge."I believe you would be more comfortable in
the sleigh."

Elizabeth
glanced uneasily from her father's friendly but distracted expression to her
brother's angry one, and then at the hunters, who did not turn to greet her.
This discourtesy she took as a sign of their disapproval, but
Elizabeth
was determined not to be sent off
like a child.