Into the Wilderness
Page 204

"I believe that I can handle my father," Elizabeth said, anticipating his worries. "We have done nothing illegal, after all. And we are certainly not the first ever to marry without a father's permission."
He let out a small laugh. "But it's more than that, and you know it, Elizabeth. The whole village is involved."
While she had been exploring the new cabin and talking to Falling—Day and Many-Doves , Nathaniel had been talking with the men. The sweet smell of Chingachgook's pipe still clung to him.
"Tell me."
She could feel his thoughts moving away from her as he stared out of the window. The mid—afternoon light played on the waterfall, throwing reflections over the walls.
"Some of them don't want us here."
"We knew that long ago, Nathaniel."
"Yes, but there's more to it now. Billy Kirby and the others have been spreading rumors. Some folks are pretty riled."
She waited, and when he saw she would wait until he had told her all of it, he sighed.
"They've been saying that Sky—Wound—Round will be moving all of Barktown up here. That when he does, there won't be any game left for the whites and no woman will be safe in her bed. That there's a mine hidden on the mountain that we didn't tell the judge about."
"A mine?" Elizabeth asked, incredulous. "Surely, Nathaniel, once they see that this is all nonsense, they will leave us in peace."
He grunted. "But in the meantime," he said. And didn't finish his sentence.
"Tell me the rest."
Nathaniel rubbed his eyes. "There was more trouble with trap lines, tampering and out—and—out thievery before the season ended. Somebody took a shot at Bears while he was hunting. Falling—Day set a quarter acre of corn and beans down next to the new schoolhouse and last week it was put to the torch. For a start." The muscle in his cheek fluttered with frustration and anger.
Elizabeth stared at him, feeling suddenly ill. Nathaniel took her by the shoulders. "Promise me you won't wander off on your own without one of the men nearby. And don't let Hannah go off, either."
She nodded.
"Are you scared?"
"Mostly I am angry," she said. "But yes, a little. Nathaniel, we can't hide. We have to live our lives."
"So we do. And we will." His fingers plucked at the tendrils of hair on her neck. She put her forehead against him and breathed in his smell.
"I don't care about the village," she said. "I don't care about anything but being here with you. I can't tell you what this means to me, Nathaniel. This place of our own."
"A bed of our own, too," he said, and she could feel his smile. "And a door of our own, that closes," he continued, reaching behind himself to do just that and then coming back to her, his hands moving up to seek out the bare skin of her neck. He bracketed her face with his fingers. "Once I promised you time to lie abed all day, do you remember?"
She did. But between kisses, she asked where the other men were.
"Busy," Nathaniel muttered.
"This is insane," she said against his mouth.
"What?"
"This constant need to be with you. It is not rational."
"Maybe not," said Nathaniel, his mouth at her ear making her skin rise. "But it's the right kind of insanity."
""Love is the noblest frailty of the mind,"" Elizabeth whispered, and Nathaniel pulled back from her with a laugh.
"You trying to quote me out of my intentions?"
"Oh, no," she said, pulling him back to her. "Nothing so rash as that."
She let herself be taken down to the bed, to their bed; she let him please himself, because it pleased her to do so. And Elizabeth discovered once again what it was like to be so caught up in this man that she thought she could easily die of love, and not regret her last breath.
* * *
Nathaniel, half asleep, lifted his head. The constant rush of the waterfall dampened other noise, even with the window sash closed, but she knew by the look on his face that he was hearing something. He had been stroking her back, and his hands stilled.
Elizabeth stilled, too, and then she heard it, very faint:
"Hellooo the house!"
"That's Curiosity!"
"Aye." He yawned. "She'll have a message from your father."
Elizabeth groaned, grabbing for her clothes. "How did he know?"
"Somebody saw us on the way in, of course." He stretched, reaching out to touch her, but she was already gone.
After some frantic rearrangement of her clothing and hair, Elizabeth rushed out onto the porch and down the stairs, pulling on her moccasins as she went. There, Galileo greeted her with a sweep of his hat and a bow and then did the same for Nathaniel, who had appeared on the porch behind her.
Curiosity came forward with her skirts snapping around her ankles, both hands outstretched and her face creased in a broad smile.
"The judge sent us up here with your things," she said, jerking with her chin toward the packhorses so that her head wrap was set to swaying. "And a word or two. But I want a look at you, first."
"I'm afraid I can anticipate the message," Elizabeth said, standing still while she was examined from front and back, and hoping the evidence of her afternoon's activity wouldn't be so very obvious.
"Yasm, he ain't pleased with you. But there ain't no need to hurry hard words, is there, Nathaniel?"