Into the Wilderness
Page 51

"I promised not to do that," he said. "But maybe you'll make allowances, under the circumstances."
Elizabeth's face lost its stunned look, and she stepped away looking as if she had just woken up.
They walked away from the schoolhouse in silence. Glancing back, Elizabeth saw the outline of the foundation in the little clearing, the curve of the stream as it disappeared into Half Moon Lake. A beautiful spot, but she wondered if she could ever approach it again without thinking of what had almost happened today.
Nathaniel was walking along beside her silently, his attention shifting from side to side, his rifle cradled easily in his hands. For a few minutes they didn't talk at all.
"This must be about Hidden Wolf," Elizabeth said slowly.
Nathaniel shrugged. "Likely as not," he said. "But men have been known to take out after each other on account of a woman on occasion."
As shaken as she was, Elizabeth had to laugh out loud. "You don't think this was about me, do you? That seems very unlikely indeed." The idea that men could want her enough to shoot at each other was strange and upsetting, and she got no satisfaction from it at all. She was afraid to look at Nathaniel, afraid to see what might be on his face.
"I'll tell you what I think," Nathaniel said in a low voice. "I think that Richard Todd wants Hidden Wolf, and the quickest way to it is through you."
Then he stopped, and glancing around, Nathaniel took Elizabeth by the arm and pulled her into the deep blue shadows of a stand of pine.
Elizabeth looked up and found Nathaniel's face just inches from her own, so that she started and dropped her gaze.
"Now," Nathaniel continued. "We need Hidden Wolf. There's no denying that. Otherwise we'll have to move on up into the wilderness where folks will let us be."
"So you are in the same position as Richard is," Elizabeth said numbly.
Nathaniel's hands tightened on her upper arms until she gave in and looked up, and then he held on to her gaze and refused to let her look away. "Listen, now. Richard wants the mountain and he'll take you to get it."
Elizabeth tried to drop her head but he put a finger under her chin to lift it and looked her directly in the eye.
"I want you," he said.
A warm rush of breath left Elizabeth. She could smell him, the oil on his skin. Leather and sweat and blood.
"I wake up wanting you and go to sleep wanting you," Nathaniel murmured, pulling her shoulders up to him so that her head fell back and the arch of her neck rose to meet him. "Elizabeth. I want you as much as I want to breathe, but I need the mountain."
"Then the end result is the same."
"No." His eyes moved over her. "But the lack of you won't kill me outright. If you decide you won't have me. That's in your hands. But without Hidden Wolf we can't survive."
Elizabeth inhaled, and her voice sounded very small and strange to her own ears.
"And my father won't sell it to you. How much did Chingachgook offer him?"
"One dollar seventy—five cents an acre.
Elizabeth's head snapped up and her mouth fell open in a little circlet of surprise. "That's almost two thousand dollars. Where in heaven's name how—" She thought of the turkey shoot, and the fact that there hadn't been an extra shilling between Nathaniel and Hawkeye.
"It's none of my business," she said finally. Nathaniel inclined his head. "I can't tell you about that right now."
"But I can't believe my father would turn down such an offer!"
"Well, he did," Nathaniel said. "When Richard Todd offered him two dollars. You have to think, Elizabeth, that out near the big lakes, land is going for forty cents the acre."
Her head was down while she thought. "There's something else at stake here," she said. "If the prices are so high."
"You could say that," Nathaniel agreed.
She looked up, very businesslike. "You need another two hundred dollars, then." Elizabeth pulled away a little. "I could give you that much, or loan it to you if you prefer."
Nathaniel shook his head. "I don't think there's much use. Todd will just up his offer."
"How does Richard have so much cash at his disposal?" Elizabeth asked. "I don't understand."
"Well," Nathaniel said grimly. "It don't hurt to have a bachelor uncle who owns half of Albany leave you everything when he dies. And Todd is a clever man with a dollar."
The questions racing through Elizabeth's mind would not stand still long enough for her to give them voice.
"Something must be done to stop Richard," she said softly, mostly to herself.
The graze on Nathaniel's cheek had stopped bleeding, but a bruise was rising. Elizabeth registered the intensity of his level gaze, the slow flutter of his eyelids, the sheen of sweat on his brow, and it occurred to her that to have him so very close was to put aside all ability to reason clearly.
"Perhaps—" she began. "Perhaps there's some other way," she said. "If you give me a little time to think about it."
She turned away and started up the path again, and this time Nathaniel followed.
* * *
Just before the woods opened up to the Southerns' homestead, Nathaniel caught Elizabeth's hand to make her stop.
"Can you get on by yourself now?" he asked. "I don't want to be seen."