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Toby turned and looked at her. “Dead,” he repeated. “So would I a been ‘cept for Patrick.” He wandered over to the dresser, knocking against the table and stools. He pulled down the rum jug, and tilted it into his mouth.

“It was Mianos,” said Elizabeth quietly to Daniel.

“Aye,” he said, not questioning how she knew. “I got him afore he got Toby. Mianos was hiding behind a tree. He shot Ben around the tree. Then he stepped out and aimed at Toby, a-jabbering an’ yelling, an’ pointing to some old antlers. That’s how I had time to shoot him.”

“We have his head,” said Toby, with a chuckle that turned Elizabeth’s stomach. “We have his head, in return for Ben.”

Elizabeth did not understand, but Toby walked to a sack he had dumped on the floor when they carried Ben in. This morning it had held a jug of beer and their nooning meat. Toby kicked the sack and it rolled over, opening a little. Elizabeth saw a bloody mass, and heron feathers tipped with copper strands, and long black hair.

“My God,” she whispered. “Take it away, Toby ... If poor Telaka should see -” She grabbed a dishcloth and threw it over the sack.

“Telaka!” Toby spat out the name. He took another pull from the rum jug.

“She came to warn us,” said Elizabeth. “She tried to save you!”

“And will come no more,” said a voice from the doorway. The Indian squaw stood there, stiff and proud as she had stood on the beach the day she daunted the Corchaugs. There were no tears now on her cheek. “You kill Mianos,” she said, pointing her long finger at Toby.

“
I
shot him,” said Patrick, lifting his great hands and letting them fall helplessly. “What could I do, Telaka? He shot Ben, he would have killed us.”

“Aye,” agreed the squaw slowly, turning to Daniel. “So Mianos’s blood curse is on
you
then. Must be paid.”

“No!” Elizabeth cried, running to the Indian. She seized the squaw’s hands and held them tight against her breast. “Telaka, listen - we’ve been through much together, you feel something for
vat,
I know you do - for us all or you wouldn’t have come today. This murder and revenge must stop. For God’s sake, I beg you, don’t inflame your tribe. Daniel couldn’t help doing what he did. You know that -” Her voice broke, she squeezed the quiet brown hands tighter. “Look!” Elizabeth cried, pointing to the boy on the trundle, with the arrow still upright in his breast. “Look at poor Ben. Isn’t that enough?”

Telaka’s har.ds quivered, she removed them gently from Elizabeth’s grasp. She closed her eye and lifted her head, seeming to listen. At last she spoke in the chanting voice, and she looked at Elizabeth.

“Because you brought me back to my people,” she said. “And because you own Monakewaygo and its Manitoo, I will not tell the tribes. I will lie for you white men. But Patrick pay blood curse even so. Chekefuana tell me -
Noonway wayasama,”
she added, solemnly touching Elizabeth’s forehead.
“Noonway wayasama
- Missis - It is farewell.

They buried Ben beside the trail to the north, on a pleasant hill overlooking the Great Cove. Robert read from the Bible while they stood around the grave, the Patricks, the Feakes, and Angell Husted. They sang a psalm together, and then Daniel suddenly raised his head and recited what he could remember of the Latin Prayers for the Dead. Toby stood motionless, staring down at the grave while they placed a great flat stone over it for fear of wolves.

They went back to the Feake house and ate in silence. As they rose Toby said, “I’m going to New Amsterdam for protection. Ye were promised it and ye shall have it. Mianos’s head goes with me.”

“What good is that?” said Elizabeth dully. “Bury it, Toby, bury it at sea.”

Toby did not answer. Elizabeth’s senseless trust in Telaka’s promise did not affect him. He would demand a force sent from New Amsterdam, and in case Kieft would not heed him, exhibit the great chief’s head, painted as it was with the red stripes of war. “Better ye keep all together here,” Toby continued. “Guns loaded. Or better yet go to Stamford, let Underhill guard you.”

“Nay, Toby -” said Patrick quickly. “There’s no need o’ that. Keofferam’s chief o’ the Siwanoys now, and even if Telaka breaks her word, which she won’t, they’d never attack until their month o’ mourning for Mianos is up.”

“True,” said Angell Husted, nodding. “Ye can count on that wi’ the Indians. I’m not going back to Stamford and leave my crops, after all the bother o’ settling here, and I agree wi’ Patrick we’ve no need to call in Underhill. He can stir up trouble, fast as quiet it.”

Robert murmured agreement, whereupon Toby said, “Ye’re a pack of fools, you men! Aunt Bess, too, but I’d think Mistress Patrick had more sense.” He glanced at Anneke who was knitting hose for Daniel, her apple cheeks very pale, her delft-blue eyes red from weeping at Ben’s graveside. Elizabeth, startled, wondered if it were possible that Anneke was Toby’s sole concern.

If so, Anneke was quite unaware of it. She gave Toby a faint motherly smile. “I think as Daniel does, Toby. Ve vill be all right.”

Toby wasted no more words on them. He set off for New Amsterdam.

The August days slipped by in the usual summer routine. They saw nothing whatever of the Indians, even the nearby Tomacs, who had temporarily deserted their village and gone to the tribe’s main town at Petuquapan to participate in the elaborate mourning rites for Mianos, The Tomacs left behind only Wasobibbi, the half-wit, and an old squaw to care for him. What fears the Greenwich community might still have had were finally laid by young Danny Patrick, He set off alone one day in his father’s rowboat to catch lobsters at the tip of Elizabeth’s Neck. A sudden squall had blown up from the south. The twelve-year-old Danny battled the waves as best he could until he lost an oar, then he tossed helplessly in the half-swamped beat, rigid with fear since he could not swim. The squall died as quickly as it came, but Danny had no means of reaching shore. He had already drifted past the mouth of the Mianus River when he was discovered and rescued by two Siwanoy braves in a canoe. Danny had never seen these Siwanoys before, but they treated the boy with great kindness, retrieved his oar, rowed his boat and took him up a brook to Petuquapan, where Keofferam met him sympathetically, and fed him. Danny had seen Telaka in the distance and she had raised an arm in greeting before disappearing into one of the long .bark houses. Later Keofferam had sent the two braves in the canoe to escort Danny and his boat until he entered Greenwich Cove safely.

“They were good to me,” said Danny. “Keofferam called me ‘son’. They’re not angry wi’ us.”

“No,” said his father quietly. “Telaka kept her word, or they’d a skinned ye alive, lad. They’re decent folk, and I’ll not forget they saved ye neither. Only that Mianos was dangerous an’ it’s not hard to see why he felt as he did, poor devil.”

Elizabeth, who had listened to this account, wondered if Daniel ever thought of Telaka’s “blood curse” prophecy, and hoped he didn’t. She herself had tried to dismiss it as a natural vindictiveness under the circumstances, and told herself that the accuracy of Telaka’s other visions from Chekefuana had been coincidence. At any rate Patrick seemed cheerful, and was not drinking nearly as much as he used to. The two families were content, they went often to Elizabeth’s white sands, even Anneke would leave the housework occasionally during the hottest days. As for Angell Husted, he had got his farm in fine shape, built him a good one-roomed house with a view of the Sound, and told Elizabeth that he was off to Wethersfield to wed a lass named Rebecca he’d taken a fancy to. Soon there would be another woman in Greenwich.

On Saturday, September 14, Elizabeth went to Monakewaygo with her little girls to gather bayberries and grapes. She had borrowed Daniel’s rowboat as a vehicle, and pulled it up on shore at the north side of her Neck where the best bayberries grew and where it was easy to fill the boat. The girls were skilled at stripping the grey berries from the prickly bushes, and soon dumped many basketfuls into the boat. Elizabeth picked the wild purple grapes which were too high for the children, occasionally stooping to examine the ground for herbs. It was a pleasant task and a beautiful sparkling day. A crisp southern breeze ruffled the long reaches of the Sound, the air was hazed blue over the mainland from countless small fires where the Siwanoy were burning off their land to prepare for new crops. As Elizabeth pulled the fragrant grapes she thought suddenly of Anne Hutchinson, who must be in Vredeland by now, and wondered how soon they might see each other. I think she’ll be glad to know I’m so near, Elizabeth thought, smiling. Anneke was a dear friend, but sometimes one longed for an Englishwoman of one’s own breeding. How happily she and Anne might talk together now, in freedom.

By noon the boat was full and Elizabeth, proffering the usual reward, said, “Shall we go to the pond and see if our fawn’s still there?” Some time ago they had discovered a wounded fawn, lying by the green pool, its hind leg broken. Elizabeth had made a splint for the leg, which healed, though the little creature hobbled pathetically. Since then it had become very tame, and the children loved it.

“There’s ships, Mama - ” said Hannah, pointing west. “Are they coming to us?”

“Of course not,” said Joan, with elder-sister scorn. “Three big ships wouldn’t come
here.
They’ll be going to the Connecticut or Boston, won’t they, Mother?”

Elizabeth started to agree with Joan, but she paused, frowning, and shaded her eyes. The ships were very near. They were unmistakable Dutch yachts, large ones - two-masted, gaff-rigged, and flying the tricolour flag at bow and stern. From the high ornamented poop to the squat stubby bow, the ships were black with men. With soldiers, she saw, as the three yachts veered towards the cove, and she distinguished the glint of helmets and cuirasses and halberds, the slender muzzles of guns.

“They
are
coming in,” she said, astonished and uneasy. “We’d better get back quickly.”

She bundled the children into the boat amongst the grapes and bayberries, and began to row. She had barely reached their landing when the first ship dropped anchor off Green Island and lowered her longboat. Elizabeth stood and waited on the shore until the longboat slithered up her muddy beach amongst the tussocks.

“Good day, Madam?” said a tall man, jumping to land. “I hope we’re not too late? Is all still safe?”

He wore the armour of a Dutch officer and it took her an instant to recognize him as Kieft’s English secretary.

“Good day,” she said, smiling uncertainly. “We’re in no trouble, Mr. Baxter.” She looked at the longboat crammed with men, the other boats putting out from the ships. “We’re not in need of soldiers. Did Toby Feake send you?” she added, shaking her head.

“In a way,” said Baxter. “But there’s more than that” He did not smile, he looked very grave. “With your permission I’ll land my men. I’ve been appointed lieutenant of this force.”

“Certainly,” she said. “But I don’t understand.”

“Where is Mr. Feake, Madam?” said Baxter firmly. “I would speak to him. Also, of course, to Captain Patrick. Be good enough to summon them.”

Elizabeth hurried up to the Feake barn where she thought Robert might be restacking the corn. He was not there but she found him at the Patrick house chatting with Daniel.

“We’ve got the Dutch army landing on our place!” cried Elizabeth with a rueful laugh. “Mr. Baxter seems to be in command, and he wishes to see you two at once.”

“Holy Mary!” said Daniel. “I was wondering if Toby’d given up his project and rejoicing that he had.”

“The Dutch army?” said Robert, staring at Elizabeth. “Why, there wouldn’t be room for them in the cove, wife!”

“Well, ‘tis a lot of soldiers, anyway,” said Elizabeth impatiently.

It was actually a hundred and twenty men. When Elizabeth and Anneke got back the soldiers were scattered all over the Feake waterfront and garden, trampling Elizabeth’s precious flowers, and terrifying the children by their raucous foreign voices.

In the parlour Elizabeth discovered that Baxter was not the only officer. There was a sergeant called Pieter Cock, and a captain, Jochem Kuyter.

Anneke and Elizabeth set about opening a keg of beer to serve the officers and were stopped by Baxter. “ ‘Tis kind of you ladies,” he said, bowing. “But we’ve no time, and ‘twould be wiser to leave us alone.”

Elizabeth’s colour rose. She had as much right to knowledge of anything concerning Greenwich as did Robert or Daniel, and she was not used to being excluded. “I hardly see - ” she began stiffly, when Daniel interrupted her.

“Leave us be, Bess,” he said. “There’s a reason.” He closed the kitchen door, shutting out the women.

What reason? she thought, suddenly frightened. The look
in.
Daniel’s eyes had been disquieting.

“Can it be that something has happened to Toby?” said Anneke in a low voice. “He isn’t here, is he?”

The women stared at each other. The children sat in a row on the trundle, gazing anxiously at their mother.

Elizabeth went to the kitchen door and looked out The men were sprawled in all directions, some throwing dice, some drinking from canteens. She said to the nearest one, “Do you speak English?”

‘“Nee,” he said, eyeing her lewdly, from her bare ankles to her lovely sunburned face.

“Anneke - ” said Elizabeth. “Ask him?”

The soldier transferred his appreciative stare to Anneke, and grinned when she spoke to him in Dutch. He replied at some length.

“He says Toby is veil,” Anneke reported with relief. “He is coming, but had trouble vith his boat, cannot be here so soon.”

Elizabeth scarcely heard. While Anneke and the soldier had been speaking, she had seen the face under another helmet farther off. Blauvelt, she thought in dismay. Daniel’s enemy, the man he had fought in the City Tavern. She started to tell Anneke, but stopped. What use was there in distressing her? Amongst so many soldiers Patrick might not see this man, and as for Blauvelt, while under orders he could hardly pursue a private feud.

“We won’t have to put up with this long,” she said to Anneke. “Since we don’t need protection, they can sail right off again.” But she was not as sure as she sounded. Daniel’s look of shocked pity had still to be explained.