Sorceress (16 page)

From that time on I was no longer so easy in his company; but the more I avoided him, the more he came after me. One day he caught me by the lake.

‘Mary, I must speak with you.’

‘What is it?’

‘Why do you no longer come to me?’

‘You are recovered. You no longer need me.’

‘I thought we were friends.’

‘Friends do not seek to look into each other’s souls.’

‘What if they fear that one whom they have come to hold in high regard is in danger of being lost for ever?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You are named for the Holy Mother. Why would you deny her name and take another? It is not just that you are Protestant; I fear that you have slipped into even greater error. I know that you are respected among these people, but I thought that you were revered for your healing skills. But now I learn that it is more than that. They see you as a medicine woman, a sorceress. Even the French here share in this belief. This very day one among the
coureurs des bois
came asking me to hear his confession and to lift a curse he says you put on him.’

He meant Le Frenais. In life he kept away from me but in dreams he had begun to haunt me.

‘Such a thing is repugnant.’ Duval’s face twisted in quick disgust. ‘Horrible.’

‘Then do not listen.’

‘You do not deny it?’ He looked on me with horror.

‘What is there to deny? What I believe is my business.’

‘I will pray for you.’

‘You will not be the first to have done so.’

‘I see that prayer will not be enough.’ The sadness in his eyes did not quench the zeal. Despite his youth, his belief was absolute and his purpose was of steel. ‘I will not let this happen. I will save you. I will instruct you ... ’

I did not want to be saved. I just wanted to get away from him. Where once I had found him stimulating company, now he troubled me.

g

My dreams were full of unease. Sometimes Le Frenais fled from me across a field of howling whiteness. Sometimes a great bird flew above me, overshadowing me, turning all to blackness. Sometimes my path was gathered round with mist and barred by a great palisade of spikes many feet high. I asked Sparks Fire what he thought these dreams might mean, but he was irritable, restless. He suffered badly from the aching sickness and his strength was further sapped by pain from an old break in his right thigh where the bones had not knitted well together.

I thought I would be safer in the wilderness. I thought to go with Black Fox and Naugatuck on their winter hunt, but there is no swerving destiny. It was clear that Sparks Fire would not stand a winter in the forest. His bad leg would make him more burden than help, and besides, his people needed him here. Then White Deer came shyly and told me that she was with child. Whatever my doubts, I would have to lay my fears aside and think of other people, but when Black Fox and Naugatuck went to their winter camp, I begged them to take Ephraim with them. I did not want him getting into mischief or falling into bad habits. He still visited the French traders, despite my prohibition. For many of them drink offered a ready escape from the idleness and boredom of a winter camp. They would be happy enough for Ephraim to join them, even though he was only a boy.

g

I thought to avoid trouble. I kept to my own paths well away from the little bark-clad chapel and the fetid lakeside hovels, but one afternoon, near the time of the shortest days when night was falling quickly, my way took me near to the shore. The figure of a man loomed out of the gathering darkness and suddenly Le Frenais was there.

I went to step round him, but he blocked my way. I could smell the liquor on his breath and his blue eyes barely focused, but he moved quickly for a man the worse for drink.

‘Touch me and it will be the worse for you.’

He leered at me, showing brown and broken teeth.

‘I will teach you a lesson. Come here, witch!’

I could see from his eyes what he intended, and that he’d had this in mind for some time. He was a weak and despicable creature, but he was a man, and he knew the best way to avenge himself on a woman.

There was no one about to help me; even if there had been, I doubted that any would have come to my aid. I slipped from his grasp and fled, knowing what he would do if he caught me. I ran towards the lake which was a field of ice now, many feet thick. Night was falling, and with it snow was coming, a great grey bank of it blowing down from the top of the lake with astounding quickness. I could almost believe that Hobbomok, dark spirit of the deep waters, of the night, of the north-east wind, was swooping down towards us in a great storm of snow.

Soon white was swirling all around us, spinning the world to nothing. Fear of Le Frenais was lost in my urgency to find shelter. Storms like this leave the world with no margins; it is easy to lose all sense of direction and die mere yards from safe haven. I stumbled across an upturned canoe by the lakeside and hid under it, waiting there for the tempest to abate.

I emerged to land and water indistinguishable from each other under a deep mantle of snow. There was no sign of Le Frenais, no sign of anyone, as I made my way back home.

Le Frenais had gone. Some said he’d taken a sled to go hunting, but his gear was still in his cabin. He was not mourned greatly, but his disappearance was a mystery. Some said he’d been seen on the ice, shrieking and screaming, running from some dark pursuing thing. There was talk for a time, but winter tightened its grip and each one turned to his own survival. Le Frenais was soon forgotten.

g

Fishermen found him at the time of ice melting, floating among the floes. They knew him by the cross he’d started wearing about his neck, the one the Blackrobe gave him. They took him up to the church for the Blackrobe to bury and put the cross sticks over him, but the little bark chapel was deserted. Duval had been lately recalled to Mount Royale, so they did the best they could.

g

31

Mount Royale

Never had I watched so avidly for spring’s return, even though the first gift from the lake’s breaking ice was Le Frenais’s bloated, fish-nibbled body. Perhaps I should have taken it as an omen but I did not. I turned my mind from that. The changing year would bring the hunters back to camp.

A winter hunt holds many dangers and we had heard nothing since they left us. Sparks Fire and I watched every day, each of us trying to hide our fear from the other. Then on a day warm with the promise of summer, a runner came up from the lake. Canoes had been sighted. We hastened to the dockside, and this time we were not disappointed. Black Fox and Naugatuck were coming in safe to land, their craft piled so high with furs that there was scarcely room for Ephraim. My heart swelled at the sight of them. They looked thin after a winter in the northern forests, and Ephraim appeared in need of a good scrubbing, but they were safe and for that I gave thanks.

They had done well; their haul was wondered at by all. We scraped together what we had left from the winter and feasted them into the night, listening to their stories, drinking in their presence. Black Fox and Naugatuck were modest in the face of general admiration and full of praise for the part Ephraim had played in the hunt. The two young men laughed as Ephraim took over the telling time and again, declaring that if it were not for him, they would have returned with nothing. He gave me a necklace of claws from a bear that he swore he’d killed himself. Black Fox ceased laughing then and said that it was true; Ephraim had proved himself a brave and fearless hunter. They called him Lynx for his parti-coloured hair and for his stealth in the forest.

Black Fox spoke with pride, and gladness filled my heart to see them together. They were truly brothers now, showing the absolute trust and deep companionship that grows between those who have depended on each other for their very lives. Their care of each other pleased me far more than any number of beaver pelts.

They had returned with many skins to sell, but they soon learned that the traders at Missisquoi were not to be trusted. They had heard that they would get a better price if they took their furs to Mount Royale. I agreed to go with them, for even there the traders might seek to cheat them. I could understand the language and the marks made on paper. They needed me to accompany them and I was glad to go. It was a relief to leave the overcrowded winter camp, which the springtime thaw was fast turning into a fetid sea of mud.

We left Sparks Fire, White Deer and the rest of his band to strike camp. It had already been decided that once the furs were traded, we would come back with the trade goods and return to the Pennacook homelands in the south. Some would not be making the journey. They had already chosen to stay with the Abenaki. Sparks Fire grieved long over this, but all were free to choose, and he was determined to go back.

We went by canoe, following the waterways, until we came to the city the French were building between river and mountain. It was like no town that I had ever seen. It was stoutly palisaded as if expecting attack at any moment and although most of the buildings inside were of wood, some were of stone, making the town seem even more like a fortress. Threats from outside were real. The town was subject to attack from the Iroquois and soldiers kept constant vigil.

The inhabitants were just as alert to assaults of a spiritual kind. A great wooden cross looked down from the slopes of the mountain and churches were being built by the harbour and along the newly laid-out streets. Nuns and priests mingled with adventurers, soldiers, traders and trappers, and Indians of many different nations. Apart from the nuns, there were few women about, and even fewer children. This seemed to be a town made up of men.

The fur traders had their warehouses down by the river and were as great cheats as any at Missisquoi. The goods we were offered were paltry and did not include muskets, shot and powder. The trader raised his arm high, smiling with sneering contempt, indicating many more pelts were needed. Black Fox and Naugatuck stared down at him, their expressions unreadable. They had already put fathoms of distance between him and them. I watched these two young men standing straight and tall, their handsome faces unblemished, being insulted by a filthy, twisted, misshapen wretch barely half their size with hardly a tooth in his head. His breath smelt of brandy laced with the grave. They had risked their lives for these pelts and I would not see them cheated.

I stepped forward and spoke to him in French.

‘Now their women speak for them?’ He turned as if to an audience, then hobbled forward, peering up into my face. ‘But you are not one of them, are you?’ He extended a filthy half-gloved paw towards me, touching me on the breast. He twisted his face round to Naugatuck. ‘How much?’

‘Too much for you, Devois.’

A Frenchman who had been watching us stepped forward. His movements were slow, almost feline in their laziness. He was not dressed for the wilderness, nor did I take him to be a military man, although he had sword and pistol about him. He wore velvet and lace and had a jewel in his ear. His hair hung in oiled ringlets and his close-cut beard was carefully barbered. As he came close, I caught the spiced scent of his perfume. He looked at me and smiled.

‘You must come with me.’

Although he did not look to be a soldier, he was accompanied by such. He signalled to them now, and two stepped forward, flintlocks at the ready. Naugatuck and Black Fox tensed, their hands reaching for their weapons. They were ready to fight, but I warned them off with a shake of the head. They were in a place full of enemies: soldiers and traders, Indians from different nations. They risked losing everything, including their lives, if they fought back.

Black Fox was trembling in every muscle, but eventually he took his hand from the hilt of his knife.

‘Sensible lad.’ The man smiled, his eyes were of a dark, cloudy lapis blue. They held a fleeting glitter of amusement, but were as cold as stones. ‘Now, for myself, I would not see you cheated.’

He raised a finger to the trader, and the goods doubled and doubled again. Now they included the precious muskets. When he was satisfied, he signalled that the trade was done.

‘Take them before I change my mind.’

Naugatuck and Black Fox stood unmoving. They had traded for the goods, but it would be shaming to take them.

‘Now. Or you have nothing.’

Black Fox would have refused, but I nodded to him to take the goods offered. It was no bribe. They had traded for these things squarely. They belonged to them now.

‘This is yours.’ He spoke to Naugatuck. ‘You understand?’

Naugatuck inclined his head.

‘Not this.’ He laid hand on my shoulder. ‘You must come with me. The boy, too.’

He looked round, but Ephraim had learned much in his time in the forest. He could come and go as quietly as any native boy and he was nowhere to be seen.

‘No matter we will find him later.
Petit sauvage
with hair like an angel, we can hardly miss him, can we? Now, madame, if you are ready?’

His tone was polite but full of menace. It was plain that I was captive. Soldiers accompanied us before and behind.

Black Fox leaped forward, Naugatuck with him, but the soldiers crossed muskets and forced them back. I called out to Black Fox, ordering him to let alone. I did not want to see my son’s brains dashed out in front of me. Naugatuck was a fine young man, the son of my friend, and his pretty young wife was big with his child. I would not have his blood spilt for me. I would have to go with the Frenchmen, there was no other way.