Into the Wilderness
Page 38

"What's that?"
Elizabeth glanced down at her. "From the stories called A Thousand and One Nights." she said. "The cave of wonders, where everything glittered of gold and jewels. Like this."
The glen was awash in snow, the branches of the trees woven thick with it, the boulders grown to strange proportions. And the sun struck what seemed to be every individual flake and set the glen shining in a kaleidoscope of colors.
Otter was strapping the snowshoes onto Elizabeth's boots, his hair falling forward to brush the snow into patterns.
"A Thousand and One Nights'?" asked Hannah, awed. "Tell the story!"
"I'll save that one for school."
Hannah's face fell. "Then I may never hear it."
"I hope you will," Elizabeth said. "I'll do my best to see that you do."
Otter looked up.
"You'll have some talking to do, then," he said. And, not waiting for Elizabeth to reply, he took her elbow and helped her up.
They made it around the corner of the house before Elizabeth got stuck. The snowshoes crossed, and unable to untangle them, she lost her balance and fell backward into a sitting position. They helped her up, and this time they got much farther: past the woodshed, and all the way to the barn, before she stopped again with her shoes crossed. But this time Elizabeth was able to get herself untangled on her own. With great concentration she picked up her pace a bit and made it around another corner, moving deliberately in a steady rhythm, and watching her feet. They did two more rounds, and then diverted a little so that Elizabeth could have a try at going up and down an incline; she almost fell once, but after that was fairly steady. Then they returned to the porch, where Otter and Hannah hung back.
"Try it again," Otter said. "Show us what you can do."
Elizabeth grinned at them, and set off in a duck like straddle. She liked the feeling of moving, suspended over the smooth surface of snow; she liked the cold on her face. She rounded the second corner in good stride and ran full force into Nathaniel.
"Umph!" He let out his breath as he caught her, and they fell backward through the crust of the snow.
Elizabeth looked down on Nathaniel in horror. For a brief second, their noses touched and her mouth hovered over his. His breath was warm on her face.
"You don't have to knock me down to get me to kiss you, you know," Nathaniel said with a grin.
With a strength she didn't know she possessed, Elizabeth leapt away from him and into a standing position. She stood breathing hard, wiping snow from her face.
Nathaniel got up, too. "I'm sorry," he said contritely, but his grin would not quite go away. "I shouldn't tease you."
"No," Elizabeth gasped. "You shouldn't."
Hannah came around the corner and almost sent Elizabeth colliding into Nathaniel again.
"Whoa!" he called, grabbing her. He turned to Elizabeth but she had already righted herself and was on her way.
"What did you do to her?" Hannah asked in Mahican.
"I gave her time to think about it," said her father. "My mistake."
* * *
It took all her energy and concentration, but Elizabeth focused on her snowshoes and moving over the surface of the snow; she would not think of what had just happened. She would not. She hoped Hawkeye was ready to go, because she didn't know how long she could continue not thinking of what she wanted and needed to think about.
Otter had gone off to the woodshed. Elizabeth fumbled the snowshoes off, and then stood for a moment trying to collect her thoughts. Finally, worried about Nathaniel's reappearance, she went into the cabin.
The common room was empty. Elizabeth passed through it and found Falling—Day scraping the moose hide, which had been stretched out on a frame. Many-Doves stood to one side with a bowl in the crook of her arm, mashing the contents with a pestle. The smells were very strong, and Elizabeth drew back a little.
Many-Doves caught her movement and looked up. "I thought, if Hawkeye was ready—" Elizabeth said. The women didn't answer right away; she saw them taking in her color, and the fact that her breath still had not steadied completely.
"What's that?" Elizabeth asked, nodding to Many-Doves ' bowl.
"The brains," Many-Doves said. "Every animal has just enough brains to cure its own hide."
"Ah. Well. Do you know where Hawkeye is? If he's ready to go?"
"Hawkeye went out to set traps," said Falling—Day. "Nathaniel will take you down to the village."
"Oh, I see." Elizabeth's smile felt brittle on her face. "Well, then, thank you for your kind hospitality. And the meal. I hope to see you again—" She had been about to invite them to visit her at home, when she realized how strange this might seem to them, and she paused.
"Goodbye," she said finally, and turned to go.
Nathaniel was waiting on the porch with Hannah. They were deep in an intense conversation, in Mohawk or Mahican; Elizabeth thought it might be Mahican. It sounded different from the language Falling—Day spoke to the children.
"Ready?" Nathaniel asked.
Hannah helped Elizabeth strap on the snowshoes once again.
"He'll take you down a different way," she said. "Better for the snowshoes." She smiled, and touched her fingers to Elizabeth's.
Elizabeth put her hand on the small, sleek head and nodded. Then she set off into the cave of wonders behind Nathaniel.