Into the Wilderness (128 page)

There
was a comfort in running, when the rhythm was right. Hannah ran hard behind
Bears, keeping her toes turned inward on the faint forest path, relieved to
have him lead the way. She kept her eyes focused on the flashing heels of his
moccasins, looking up every now and then, because she must, to the doe. Seeing
the long, elegant arch of her neck and the dark eyes, glazed and lifeless.

* * *

They
had no power to force Elizabeth back from the shadow lands until she was ready
to come, but there were things they could do for her. The women stripped away
the wet clothes and wound her like an infant in fur and doeskin. Falling—Day
burned thistle and hawthorn to give strength to her heart and blood; she
steeped little—man—root in corn water and dribbled it into her mouth, spoon by
spoon. Richard Todd watched without comment. When Falling—Day began to sing a
healing song to summon Bone—in—Her—Back home to them, he left quietly.

Falling—Day
watched him go. The gaunt lines of his face spoke of the injuries he had
suffered, but there was something else: over the long summer some of the anger
which had always burned so bright in him had gone out. She wondered what he
knew of her youngest, her Otter. When there was time—when Bone—in—Her—Back had
come back from the shadow lands—she thought she might be able to talk to Richard
Todd about that.

While
her mother mashed dried flag—lily root and precious sunflower oil into a
poultice, Many-Doves washed the blood from Elizabeth's face and hair, working
carefully around the dressing that bound the wound closed. When she had finished,
she put her ear to Elizabeth's belly to try to hear the child's music: the beat
of a strong heart. Her own child flexed and turned under her heart, as if he
heard it too.

Liam
had been watching from the corner, hoping for some work, some way to help. But
the women did not need him, and he could not run errands as Hannah did. When
the medicine smoke tickled his throat and made his eyes water, he finally got
up and went out to the porch, where Richard Todd was drying out in the sun.
Dutch Ton had disappeared, but Axel was there, wanting the story. Liam told it
in a hoarse voice.

"By
God Almighty," Axel said for the tenth time. "I wish Nathaniel was
here."

At
the thought of Nathaniel, Liam could barely swallow.

Axel
was squinting at him. "You didn't push her in, did you, boy?"

"No!"
His head came up and his color, too; he could feel himself burning like a
torch.

"He
didn't have anything to do with it. She saw somebody she didn't expect to see
and she slipped, knocked her head, and went under. That's all." Todd had
taken off what was left of his shirt and he wrung it with a twist.

"That's
all it was," Liam echoed.

"What
were you two doing up there, climbing around on the rocks—a breeding woman, and
you with your leg the way it is?"

Liam
felt Richard's sharp gaze on him, and his belly filled with dread. Had he seen
Doves come through the falls? Did he know the secret of the cave? Dutch Ton
might know, too, if he had caught sight of Many-Doves , and understood what he
saw.

"She
wanted to show me something," he mumbled. And, without meeting Todd's eye:
"Where did Ton go to?"

"I
passed him on my way here," Axel said. "He was headed down to the
village, seemed like. Was he traveling with you, Todd?"

Richard
shook his head. "I found him helping himself to the larder," he said.
"I hadn't seen him since March, but Elizabeth had. He gave me these for
her." He pulled a silver hair clasp and a ring out of his pocket. "Lingo
took them off her, I guess."

There
was a silence as they thought of Jack Lingo, and what
Elizabeth
had experienced at his hands.

"No
wonder she started at the sight of Ton," said Axel.

Richard's
head turned toward the forest and the sound of horses coming fast. "That'll
be the judge."

"Not
alone, sounds like."

The
judge pulled up in front of the porch, with Galileo and Curiosity close behind.
The men sat and stared at Richard Todd, but Curiosity slid down from behind
Galileo's back in a flurry of bright skirts.

"I
might've knowed that you and trouble would show up here together," she
said. "Ain't you ever satisified, Richard? What have you done to her
now?"

Liam
came to his feet to tell them the truth of it, but Axel had already stepped
out, one hand raised in a peaceful gesture. "Hold up, now. Alfred,
Curiosity. Galileo. First off, she's alive and it looks like there weren't no
real damage—"

The
judge's face contorted at this, but Curiosity's froze. "Since when you a
doctor, Axel Metzler? Let me in there, I want to see that child for myself,”

“Go
on in," Axel said. "But you should know first that it was Richard
here who pulled her out of the gorge."

Halfway
up the step, Curiosity stopped. She pivoted toward Todd, her mouth as hard
pressed and shiny as a knife. Her eyes traveled over his wet clothes and bare
chest, and then she fixed on Richard's face.

"Close
to a year now, I been wantin' to speak my mind to you and I guess the time has
come. Money talk louder than truth in this world and I don't doubt you can
still make folks see things your way by rattling the coin in your pockets. But
not me. No, sir. I got something for you, though: I got what you need to
hear."

Galileo
made a soft sound, and she silenced him with a flash of her eyes. Richard stood
with his arms crossed, a vaguely curious expression on his face.

"Go
on, then," he said. "I suppose there's no stopping you."

"You
sowed some seeds here last winter," she said, as if he had not spoken. "Got
men's minds all twisted up about these people, about this mountain, and whose
right it is to call the Wolf home. Then you run off after a woman who didn't
want you and you didn't want, neither, thinking you could have your way if you
just grabbed hard enough. While you was gone, things got nasty around here. We
buried four men who would be alive today if you hadn't put your greed to work
on 'em. I guess you probably know about Julian—I can see from your face that
you do."

She
came closer, one long, bony finger poking at his chest.

"You
pulled our
Elizabeth
out of the gorge today and saved her life, that's a start. I guess you owe her
that and more, the way you been houndin' her. But I'm here to tell you, Richard
Todd, that what happened here don't put paid to everything you got to answer
for."

Liam
felt slightly sick to his stomach, but Todd looked down at her calmly.

"I
am aware of all that."

"Are
you?" she said, grimly. "We'll see, now won't we?"

And
Curiosity turned on her heel and walked to the door, where she stopped to stare
back at the judge, one brow raised. With his face averted from Richard Todd, he
climbed the steps and followed her inside.

Axel
ran a hand over his face. "
Jesus
nah,
that woman could carve oak into toothpicks with that tongue of
hers." Then, reluctantly, he smiled. "And ain't she fine to listen
to?"

Richard
grunted, and pulled his mangled shirt back on. "If you're not on the other
end of it, I suppose. I expect Nathaniel will have words for me, too. Tell him
I'll come by as soon as Elizabeth's on the mend. We've got things to
discuss."

"Ja,
if he can wait that long," Axel said. "Where can he find you, if he
can't?"

"If
I'm not at home, I'll be calling on Kitty."

"Mrs.
Middleton." Liam spoke up. "She's Mrs. Middleton now."

Richard
nodded. "For the time being, at any rate."

* * *

It
was terribly unfair, but Hannah had seen that look on her grandmother's face
before and she knew that no argument would shift her purpose. Her eyes burning
with exhaustion, she finally gave up her spot at the foot of Elizabeth's bed
and climbed the ladder to the sleeping loft. But not before she had extracted a
promise from Doves that she would come to fetch her when Elizabeth woke. She
used those words, but her eyes said something else. Twelve hours after the
accident, Elizabeth had still not broken through to them; Hannah did not need
to be told that this was a bad sign.

The
cabin seemed overcrowded with people: the women moving back and forth, always
with something in their hands. Liam and the judge and Mr. Witherspoon sat at
the hearth, talking little and dozing now and then. Other men from the village
were out on the porch. Bears would have let her come and sit with him, but he
was gone with Joshua Hench to find her father on the
Albany
road and bring him home. The only
comfort about going to bed was that perhaps when she woke, they would have
returned. Hannah wanted her father very badly. She pressed her face into her
blanket, willing her tears not to come.

* * *

Elizabeth
had never had a talent for colorful dreams. Perhaps, she had always thought,
because her daydreams were so elaborate and carefully detailed that she had no
imagination left when she finally went to sleep. But somewhere, somehow, she
had learned the art of dreaming in color, for all around her was a deep
hyacinth sea, a color she had never seen before her first voyage by ship, when
she had left England for a new life with her brother at her side.

Julian
stood beside her at the rail now, the wind ruffling his dark hair and his face
shadowed with beard stubble.

"Watch
the birds," he said, pointing. "They will show you the way."

"Come
with me," she said, but he only smiled. There were wrinkles at the corners
of his eyes. She saw too that there was white at his temples, and that the line
of his jaw had softened with age in the month since he had traveled on ahead.
He walked away from her now; his boots made no noise.

"Come
with me," she called after him again, but he only waved his hand in
salute, and walked on. There was no sound except the calls of the birds
overhead: gulls, wheeling in rainbow colors against a stormy sky.

"I
can't fly," she called after him, but he was suddenly gone, leaving her
alone on this ship in the middle of an endless sea. "I cannot fly!"

She
tried, then. Tried to follow the birds and got just far enough to catch a
glimpse of her father's face: a blur of pale skin and the familiar features.
She slipped away before she could hear what he had to say to her.

* * *

Hannah
woke, as she had hoped she would, to the sound of her father's voice. What she
heard now in his tone was not the rage she had half expected and might have
welcomed, but something far more frightening. Despair had its own sound; it was
one she had never imagined to hear from him. She looked down over the half wall
that separated her sleeping space from the main room, and she caught just the
flash of his profile as he disappeared into the bedroom. She had wanted more than
anything to be with her father, but she did not want to follow him into that
room. The thought of what he might have found there made her feel sleepy.

Hannah
wound herself in her blanket, buried her head down deep in the bedding, and
insisted on sleep.

* * *

She
was on her back, her face turned toward him. The dressing on her head was
scattered with traces of dried blood; her eyelashes were like bruised half
moons against the milky white of her cheeks. He leaned toward her to call her
name, and got no response.

Falling—Day
put her hand on his arm. "Yonhkwihsrons."
She struggles
.

Nathaniel
nodded to show that he had understood: it was not the best news, but there was
reason to hope.
Elizabeth
was trying to find her way back to them. Falling—Day left the room and
Nathaniel sat on the edge of the bed to watch her sleep. So many times he had
reached out for her in this bed, and she had turned willingly to him. She had
come to him with laughter or small sounds of sleepy welcome, in grand silence
or with teasing words.

The
smell of her could wake him from the dead; he knew this, he believed it
absolutely. He hoped that the same was true for her, and so he stripped out of
his buckskin and homespun and slipped naked into the cocoon of fur next to her.
The corn husks in the mattress crackled as he moved closer to put his face to
the slope of her shoulder where it met her neck, in that perfect curve that was
now his solitary focus in the world. He rubbed his cheek against her skin and
inhaled.

She
smelled of herself and nothing more. The relief of this loosened the tears from
his eyes. Eventually, calmed by the smells of her, Nathaniel slept and hoped
that she was aware of him.

The
room was still dark when she woke him with an elbow and a mumbled curse. Unsure
at first of what was real and what had been dream, he simply rolled away. Then
Nathaniel sat up and leaned over her; he saw the meager light of the moon
shining in her open eyes, her expression creased in confusion and irritation.