Into the Wilderness

When
Elizabeth Middleton, twenty—nine years old and unmarried, leaves her aunt
Merriweather's comfortable English estate to join her father and brother in the
remote mountain village of Paradise, on the edge of the New—York wilderness,
she does so with a strong will and an unwavering purpose, to teach school. It
is December of 1792 when she arrives in a cold climate unlike any she has ever
experienced. And she meets a man different from any she has ever encountered, a
white man dressed like a native American, tall and lean and unsettling in his
blunt honesty. He is Nathaniel Bonner, also known to the Mohawk people as Between—Two—Lives.
Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, white,
black and native American,
Elizabeth
soon finds herself at odds with local slave owners. Much to her surprise, she
clashes with her own father as well. Financially strapped, Judge Middleton has
plans for his daughter, betrothal to local doctor, Richard Todd.

An
alliance with Todd could extract her father from ruin but would call into
question the ownership of Hidden Wolf, the mountain where Nathaniel, his
father, and a small group of native Americans, live and hunt.

As
Judge Middleton brings pressure to bear against his daughter, she is faced with
the choice between compliance and deception, a flight into the forest and a
desire that will bend her hard will to compromise and transformation.

Elizabeth
's
ultimate destiny, here in the heart of the wilderness, lies in the odyssey to
come; trials of faith and flesh, and passion born amid Nathaniel's own secrets
and divided soul.

Interweaving
the fate of the remnants of the Mohawk nation with the destiny of two lovers,
Sara Donati's compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portrait
of an emerging
America
.

Sara
Donati lives with her husband and daughter in the
Pacific
northwest
, where she teaches creative writing and linguistics at
the university level.

BANTAM
BOOKS

New
York London Toronto Sydney Auckland A Bantam Book / August 1998 All rights
reserved.

Copyright
(C) 1998 by Sara Donati.

Book
design by Dana Leigh Treglia.

Endpaper
map by Laura Hartman Maestro

An
alternate selection of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club.

Bantam
Books 1540 Broadway New York, NY 10036 Visit Bantam's Website at www.bantam.com

Printed
in the
United States of
America

No
part of this book may be reproduced or transmiitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without the permission in writing
from the publisher.

For
information address: Bantam Books.

Library
of Congress Cataloging and Publication Data Donati, Sara, 1956Into the
wilderness / Sara Donati.

p.
em.

ISBN
0—553—10736—4

1.
New York
(State)—history—1775—1865—Fiction.

2.
Frontier and pioneer life—
New York
(State)—Fiction.

3.
Women pioneers—
New York
(State)—Fiction.
 
4. Mohawk
Indians—Fiction.

5.
Historical fiction.

gsafd.
I. Title.

PS3554.04692315
1998

81
3'.54—DC21 97—39051

CIP

Published
simultaneously in the
United States
and
Canada

Bantam
Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing
Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and
the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
and in other countries. Marca registration. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway,
New York
,
New
York
10036
.

PRINTED
IN THE
UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA

For
Emmy and (as always) for Bill and Elisabeth.

In
the past few years I have learned that writers of historical fiction must hang
together or go aground. Without the support, advice, insight, finger—wagging,
ranting, and the tons of factual information others have shared with me, this
book would not exist in a form worthy of consideration.

In
particular, I am thankful to: J. F. Cooper for inspiration, and S. Clemens, for
perspective; Diana Gabaldon for constant and consistent encouragement, for
contacts of enormous value, for her generosity in matters small and large, and
for long discussions about this strange and compelling undertaking of writing
historical fiction; Kaera Hallahan for reading the entire manuscript at a
difficult juncture, for providing priceless commentary and badly needed,
no—nonsense encouragement and giving me the skinny on horses, and for bookmarks
that tell tales; Michelle La France for help with things historical and Gaelic,
for finally falling in love with Nathaniel, and for her companionship and
friendship along the way; Doctors Jim and Janet Gilsdorf for medical details,
Janet on infectious disease; Jim on the nature and treatment of wounds. Jim in
particular for invaluable technical and historical detail on hunting and
trapping and canoeing in the bush; Marty Calvert for listening, as she always
does, with skill, and for putting her finger on holes with gentle insistence;
Margaret Nesse, for careful readings and entertaining discussions; The writers
who grace the Research and Craft section of the CompuServe Writers' Forum, for
sharing their experience and expertise in a wide variety of subjects, from the
nature of black fly bites, rifle slings, and left hooks to eighteenth—century
terms for hard candy and pregnancy. I am indebted to Mac Beckett, Merrill
Cornish, Susie Crandall, Hall Elliott, Rob Frank, Karl Hagen, Walter Hawn, Ed
Huntress, Janet Kaufmann, Janet Kieffer, Rosina Lippi—Green, Susan Martin,
Janet McConnaughey, Don H. Meredith, Susan Lynn Peterson, Bonnee Pierson,
Michelle Powell, Barbara Schnell, Beth Shope, Elise Skidmore, Phyllis Tarbell,
Arnold Wagner, and Karen S. White, for their time, interest, and generosity. In
particular, I am thankful to Dr. Ellen Mandell for providing a wealth of
material on eighteenth—century medical practices, and for many encouraging
words and useful discussions.

In
the Collectibles Forum, Michael Crowder, Chuck Huber, and Neil Rothschild were
helpful with details on late—eighteenth—century currency and coins; David
Karraker for telling me that I could write all those years ago, and for his
faith in me regardless of such trivial matters as differences in taste. If I
could have fit his Ben and Janie into this tale, I would have done it, just to
see the look on his face; My agent, Jill Grinberg, for her enthusiasm, energy,
endless hard work, and for those uplifting answering—machine messages; At
Bantam, Nita Taublib and Wendy McCurdy for loving this story and treating it so
well; Wendy Fisher House for careful listening; Pat Rosenmeyer for enthusiastic
reading; Mom Dressler for feeding me chocolate and sympathy; Scott Spector for
taking me to the movies; My family for their patience and faith in me; Bill for
his support in the face of crises of all kinds; Elisabeth, for her first breath
and for every one she has ever taken since and for the billions yet to come. I
thank her especially for not expecting me to mend her socks; Now there's only
Emmy. Emmy Liston provided calm when I needed it, enthusiasm when I was down,
realism when I was off the ground, mysticism when I was too firmly anchored,
faith in me at times I could spare myself not one shred. She gave me something
I was missing in a greater writing community with an aesthetic that made me
claustrophobic: permission to write this story. She is a writer's writer, and
she is my friend, and this one is for her.