Into the Wilderness
Page 145

"I have to get back." Kitty looked at Moses, frowning. "Maybe you should come along with me and see what distress your wife is in. Maybe that would convince you."
Moses nodded. "I'll do that," he said, cramming his cap on his head. "But I ain't coming alone."
* * *
In the end they all went. Anna, still flushed with sleep and with her plaits draped over her shoulders, carried a basket of odds and ends. Axel had a bottle of schnapps tucked under his arm. It had its medicinal uses, he pointed out. And failing that, it was a dandy rub for sore joints. Moses herded them out of the door, sullen and wild—eyed. Julian brought up the rear, reluctantly.
"You'll go off to them Mohawk otherwise," Moses had reasoned. Julian had no intention of going anywhere, he explained. Voluntarily he would seek no exertion beyond the lifting of his glass. The man wouldn't listen.
"I ain't so sure of that," said Southern. "Your sister married in up there, didn't she? And then there's that young squaw."
"I hope you aren't holding me responsible for my sister's actions," said Julian, ignoring the second comment studiously. "For she certainly would never take any responsibility for mine."
"You talk too much," was Southern's only reply.
Well then, Julian thought to himself. I needn't point out the obvious to you. With all of Moses' concern about Julian running off, he hadn't even taken note of the fact that Galileo had slipped away into the night as soon as Kitty had made the purpose of her errand known. He had been gone for a good half hour, perhaps more.
In the cool night air Julian found himself surprisingly close to sober; he almost was to the point of appreciating the ridiculous picture they made tramping along in a row, when from ahead there was a long, rippling scream that rose and faded away just as suddenly. It was then that they came into the dooryard of the Southern cabin.
Anna had been muttering the whole time to Moses, a line of argument about women's work and men's folly and Falling—Day that had affected Moses as much as the pale moonlight that lit the way. At the sound of the scream she had turned to him with something like triumph on her face. And then she lifted her skirts above her unlaced boots to reveal her legs, unexpectedly slim and girl like and ran. She ran like a woman half her age and disappeared into the open maw of the cabin.
The men stood there, Moses included, and listened to the next scream spiral and rise and then break. When it finished, Anna appeared in the door—frame with the faint light of the cabin behind her, her face as angry and red as Moses was suddenly set and thoughtful. She opened her mouth and then it snapped shut, suddenly, to be replaced by a concentrated frown.
"Thank the Lord!" She disappeared back into the shadows while the rest of them turned to see what she had seen.
Axel cleared his throat, and waved the torch he was carrying.
"Evening, Hawkeye," he said, nodding. "Falling—Day."
If not for the white flow of his hair, Julian thought, the man could have been mistaken for his son in the near dark. They were that much alike, from the shape of the hairline to the set of the shoulders. The Bonner men were strong breeding stock. He thought of his sister and wondered if she had already found this out for herself.
Moses, on the other hand, resembled nothing so much as a great horny toad. He was inflating his lungs, sticking his chest out in front of him. If it weren't for the infernal screaming, Julian thought that it might be quite amusing, watching Moses make a fool of himself.
"You want to have a word with me while the women look after your wife, I'm here to talk," Hawkeye said easily to Moses. He sent Falling—Day a sideways look and she disappeared into the cabin without a word.
"I don't want your squaw here."
"First off, she ain't a squaw," said Hawkeye. "That's a damn impolite word, and I'll thank you not to use it. Second, she ain't mine. Now, you want Falling—Day out of there, you go in, then, haul her on out, he suggested. "See how your wife feels about that."
Moses spat, jerking his head at the last minute so that the spittle flew into the shadows. Hawkeye didn't flinch, but in the torchlight Julian saw something in his eyes, a flickering. Moses saw it, too; he stepped back, wary.
Axel laughed, and stepped between them to thrust his bottle of schnapps at Hawkeye. "Damn it, Dan'l. I'm too old to get caught up in a pissing contest in the middle of the night, and so're you. Have a swallow, and let's set."
Hawkeye kept his gaze on Moses for another three counts. It was damn impressive, the heat the man could throw with a stare. Julian wondered if he could learn to do that.
Then Hawkeye's attention traveled around to him.
"We got the making of a party, that's true enough," he said to Axel, taking the bottle. "Though not a particular happy one, by the looks of young Julian here." As if to agree, Martha's voice rose again and then ebbed. There was a lot of hurried movement inside the cabin, where the door still stood wide open. Moses had turned his attention in that direction, and stood staring.
"She's in good hands," Axel said to Moses in a kinder tone than he had used before. "Falling—Day has got a knack for the business."
"I don't care to be beholden to her," Moses snapped. "And if some harm comes to my wife or my child, she'll pay in kind."
"Maria nah," sighed Axel. "What a fool you are."