Three
Tess woke to the heavenly scent of frying fish. For a few moments she lay on her back staring up at the canopy of tree branches and green leaves that sheltered her. The sun was just beginning to break over the treetops, bathing the forest in golden light.
Freedom . . .
She closed her eyes and wiggled her hands just to prove to herself that this morning she was no longer bound hand and foot by sinew ties. As God is my witness, she vowed, I'll never be a man's prisoner again.
The Mohawk had only held her three days, but the days had seemed to stretch into a lifetime. Now she was free again. She could go home to her uncle's and go on with her plans to marry Myron. She could marry her gunsmith and live in his comfortable farmhouse and pretend none of this had ever happened. In time she would forget Broken Tooth and his band of Mohawk warriors. In time she could even forget what they did to Jocelyn. She would make herself forget the screams. She would forget it all.
"Tess," came Raven's masculine voice. "You must get up and eat. My brother is anxious to go."
Tess opened her eyes and her gaze met Raven's. Free to forget, she thought. But will I ever forget these eyes?
Tess sat up, pushing such silly notions aside. Who was this Indian to her? No one but a man who showed her some kindness. He didn't even really save her. He admitted that himself. Tess had saved herself, and she had to remember that.
"You feel good this morning?" Raven asked, squatting to get a better look. "Your feet are better?"
Tess looked down at her bare feet wrapped in the soft leather strips. She knew her cheeks must have colored. She was embarrassed by Raven's attention. "I'm fine. I don't need to eat. Let me put on my shoes and we can go." She glanced around, but they were nowhere in sight. She ran her fingers through a pile of last fall's leaves. "They're here somewhere. I'll be ready directly."
"You cannot wear the slipper-shoes."
She got to her feet, not paying any attention to what he said. "They were here last night. Now I can't find them."
"The white manake shoes have hurt your feet. You can wear my brother's spare moccasins he carried in his pack. They will only be a little big."
Tess was still searching for her shoes, kicking the leaves around her. One of the leather bandages had come untied and was trailing behind her. "I want my own slippers." She didn't know why there was this sudden panic in her chest or why the shoes mattered so much. They just did. "Where are my damned shoes?"
"I buried them. I told you. This man has moccasins you can wear on your feet. They will not hurt the sores." He tried to touch her but she flinched.
"I want my slippers back," she said, her voice quivering. "They were my good shoes. J . . . Jocelyn, she gave them to me. She only wore them a little." Tess felt tears sting her eyes and she wiped at them angrily. Why was she crying over a blessed pair of slippers? She never cried. She'd not even cried when they had killed her cousin. "You had no right to take my shoes! They were mine and I want them back. Now!"
Raven reached out to her and took her arm. Tess fought him, but his grip was iron tight. He pulled her against him. "Shhh," he soothed. "All will be right, Tess."
She struck him with her fist and tried to wrench away. "Let me go. Leave me alone. I just want my bloody shoes! I want my shoes and I want to go home." Her tears no longer in check, they ran hot down her cheeks.
Raven forced her head down on his bare shoulder and stroked her hair. Tess found herself suddenly clinging to him, completely at a loss as to why she was crying or why Raven's shoulder was such a comfort. What was it about the stupid shoes that was suddenly so important to her, and how was it that this red man could so soothe her?
"They were mine," she whispered. "You . . . you didn't have a right to take them." A tiny sob escaped her lips. "They . . . they were Jocelyn's and now she's dead. They killed her, Raven. But they didn't kill me. I wouldn't give in. I wouldn't lay down and die like Jocelyn." Another sob racked her body as tears ran down her cheeks and fell to his bare shoulder. "Please, my shoes . . ."
Raven made soothing sounds in his throat as he stroked her hair. Her breasts pressed against his hard chest, Tess could feel the contours of his bare shoulders beneath her fingertips. She could hear his easy breathing in her ear. She tasted the salt of her own tears.
"Shhhh," Raven comforted. "It is not your fault that your cousin died and you lived. You tried to help her."
Tess's lower lip trembled. "I tried. I told her she had to walk. I told her she had to do what they said, whatever they said. But . . . but she wouldn't listen." She took a shuddering breath. "She just gave up. She didn't want to live badly enough."
"Some have the strength to survive and others do not, Tess. It is not right or wrong. It is the way of the Creator." He brushed her cheek with his fingertips. "Now, do not cry. I will get your shoes. You are right. This man had no right to take them."
"I don't know why I need them, I just do," she whispered.
"I will get the shoes, but you must promise this man that you will carry them. On your feet you will wear the moccasins."
Tess nodded, sniffing. She felt like such a ninny. "I'll wear the moccasins," she said, pulling away from him. She wiped at her eyes with a corner of her torn shift. "I'm sorry. I know you were just trying to help. The slippers are worthless, but—"
"They were yours." Raven went to a bare spot near the fire and began to dig with a stick. "They are proof of your will to live." He looked up at her. "We all have possessions that have meaning to us." Out of the hole he brought out the two tattered kidskin slippers. He beat them together and clouds of dust rose. "One man has no right to judge another man's possessions. What is worthless to one, can be of great worth to another."
Tess took the slippers, still feeling irrational but comforted by the weight of them in her hands. "I'd just like to keep them." She sniffed again.
Raven came to her, lifting a tiny leather bag off his chest. Tess had noticed it last night when he'd removed his leather vest and given it to her. The bag that hung on a leather tie around his neck was fringed, with a few beads sewn on it. It looked very old and well worn.
Raven opened the bag and pulled out a jagged piece of white quartz. It was an ordinary rock. He turned the stone in his fingers. "My great-grandfather brought this to me from the north country. It is of the mountains called the A-di-ron-dacks." He stared at the clear white rock. "My grandfather brought it to me as a present when I was a boy. He wanted me to make a spearpoint with it."
Tess stared at the rock trying to imagine a young boy's delight at having been brought a rock.
Raven ran his thumb and forefinger over the jagged edges. "I could not bring myself to chip away the stone and change it from what Manito created."
"And you saved it all these years?"
He smiled. "Kohon. Foolish, a man who will soon be War Chief to carry a rock an old man, long-dead, brought him."
Tess's smile matched his. "Not foolish. He loved you, your grandfather, didn't he?"
Raven dropped the quartz back into the pouch and pulled the tiny drawstring. "He was good to me. Yes, we loved."
Tess's smile turned sad. "No one ever loved me like that. You were lucky."
Raven lifted his head to look at her. For a moment it was if they were bound by some emotion Tess couldn't put her finger on. He seemed to want to say something to her. He even lifted his hand in gesture, but then let it drop. He looked away. "I fished. Come and eat. Takooko has gone scouting but he will soon return. He is impatient, my young brother. We will have to hurry." As he walked away he pointed to a pair of moccasins lying beside the smouldering coals of the campfire. "Put on the moccasins, Tess, and this man will take you home."
Takooko returned, and after a hasty breakfast of fried fish and cold water, the three set out, heading south. "My uncle's home is near Annapolis," Tess told the men. It's on the Chesapeake Bay, but I don't know where. I don't know how far the Mohawk took me. That first day and night it seemed like we walked in circles."
" 'Napolis," Takooko scoffed, falling into his native tongue so that the woman couldn't understand him. "A child could find the white-hair 'Napolis. I say we turn her southeast and let her find her way home, brother."
"You're getting sour in your old age," Raven returned "We will almost pass the town of 'Napolis on our way to our village. There is no reason, but your stubbornness, why we cannot take her to the white-hairs."
"No reason! You heard the others speak at The Gathering. There are war parties in the forest. White-hairs kill for the color of a man's skin. There need be no crime against them, brother. These days the white-hairs lift scalps as easily as the Iroquois."
Raven lifted a branch and Tess ducked under it. He waited for her to pass. "Do you tell me you fear the white-hairs?" he dared.
"Fear them?" Takooko laughed. "I fear no one! I only repeat what the great fathers tell us. This land is dangerous. This is a dangerous time," he went on, becoming angrier with every word. "Why should we risk our lives for a white woman when we have duties to attend to in our own village?"
"Go on without me, then, brother. I will take her home."
Takooko didn't answer for a moment, but when he did, his agitation had subsided. "You know I cannot do that."
Raven stopped on the path, his gaze meeting his younger brother's. "And why not? Go ahead and I will meet you in our village."
Takooko shook his head. "No. You are my brother. You go, I go. We left our mother together, we will join her in our village together."
Raven glanced ahead at Tess who'd taken the opportunity to stop and lean against a tree trunk to rest. "I cannot explain myself, Takooko. I only know that I must see the white-skinned woman to safety."
"Yes, yes," Takooko groaned, once again his good-natured self. "This man can see when you are smitten even if you can't. Fiery hair, good teeth, and firm breasts, she is a fine catch even with her ugly white skin."
Raven poked his brother with the muzzle of his Brown Bess. "Shut your mouth before I shut it for you, little nuxans."
Takooko laughed and hurried along the path past Tess. Raven stopped and waited for her. "Your feet, you have pain?" he asked in English.
She started walking again. "No. No, I'm fine. The moccasins, they—" she laughed "—they're the most wonderful things I've ever had on my feet." She smiled up at him hesitantly, feeling a little foolish. "I want you to know I appreciate what you've done for me. I know your brother's mad about taking me back. I don't want to cause any trouble between you two. You don't have to take me to Annapolis. I . . . I could find my own way if you'd just point me in the right direction. I know my uncle must be looking for us." She lowered her gaze, her voice softening, "For Jocelyn and me."
"I speak the truth when I say I do not mind taking you to your home. 'Napolis, it is not far. We can reach the white-haired village by dusk if we walk quickly."
"It's that close?" she asked excitedly.
He nodded.
Tess lowered her gaze to the narrow path they followed. "And then where will you go?" She didn't know why she cared. Just making conversation, she supposed.
"Takooko and I, we go to our village. We have gone to the Clan Gathering to the northwest. We bring back word to our people of what the other Shawnee and Delaware will do."
"Do? Do about what?"
He fell into step beside her, his flintlock musket resting on his shoulder. "Most of my people have moved west, far from the white-hairs and their guns and whiskey, but some of us have been stubborn. It is hard to give up the land when a man knows his grandfather's grandfather walked the same paths."
Tess nodded, drawn in by the tone of Raven's voice and the plight of the Indians he spoke of. She had never heard the red man's point of view, only the side of the English.
"Now we must decide if we will go west or stay here. If we stay, we may have to join with the white Frenchmen as many of our Lenape brothers have." He plucked a leaf from a pin oak they passed under. "Fighting is bad for the Delaware. It is bad for all men."
"You can't just stay where you are and be neutral?"
"The white-hairs do not give us that choice. If we stay and do not join their armies, they will come in the night. They will burn our wigwams, rape our women, and murder our men."
"Doesn't sound like much of a choice," Tess mused. "Move away from your home and all you know or fight another man's war."
Raven sighed. "I do not know what is right for us. The Iroquois have been our enemy for many years. Already their war parties come further and further south, even west."
"Like the men who took me," Tess whispered.
Raven nodded. "Some Lenape join the French because they hate the English more. The French make promises to us, the English just push us off our land. I am afraid that if our village joins an army, any army, we will all die."
Tess lowered her head. "I am English," she said softly. "The French are our enemy. If you fight for the French that will make me your enemy."
Raven stared at her with clear dark eyes. "It is wrong that friends can become enemies so easily." He looked away. "But I must do what is best for my people. The French-Canadians say they will not take our land from us as the English manake have. They say they will protect our women and children, but they have not told the truth in the past."
"So how can you trust them now?" Tess offered softly.
"I cannot. But I cannot trust the English either. They are all liars."
Tess was silent.
Raven looked at her. "It is wrong for me to speak of your people like this."
"No." She shook her head. "They're not my people. I mean, they are, but—" She found his gaze. "The King makes the decisions, not us, not the common people."
"In my village we will decide together. We will vote, man and woman. As War Chief I will say what I think, but the people will decide."
She smiled as if he was teasing her. "The women? You said the women of your village will vote?"
"Of course."
Her laughter rose in the treetops. "Women with a vote, what a silly idea!"
"Why would a woman not have a say?" Raven asked, frowning. "It is she who will carry on the blood of the People. It is she who will raise the little boys to become warriors."
Tess chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Women voting . . ." She looked up at him. "Why not?" She laughed again . . . "Why not indeed?"
Raven smiled. He liked the sound of her voice. He liked to see her smile. Takooko said her white skin was ugly. It wasn't really ugly, just different. A Lenape woman had skin the color of red clay, while this woman, her skin was the hue of a glimmering Hunter's moon, pale and full of light. He was fascinated by the little brown markings that ran across her cheekbones and the bridge of nose. He wondered what it would be like to run his fingers through her waves of fiery hair. Was there truly magic in the flaming hair, as many said?
He wondered what it would be to kiss that mouth.
Raven looked away from Tess, disturbed by his thoughts. It was so unlike him to lust after a woman. Not that he didn't have physical desires, but he was a man with more important issues on his mind. The very survival of his race might depend on the decisions made by his people in the next year. He had no time for women.
Still, this woman tugged at his heart in a way no woman had ever done.
Minutes later the sound of a dove's call caught Raven's attention. He grabbed Tess's arm.
She spun around. "What?"
He brought his finger to his lips, still holding tightly to her arm.
She suddenly looked so fearful, and Raven wished he could do something to take that fear from her face.
He heard the sound of the dove again. This time Tess heard it, too.
"What is it?" she whispered.
"Takooko," he answered, his voice barely audible above the soft sound of the wind rustling the leaves overhead.
"Your brother?" Tess scanned the trees.
Before Raven spotted Takooko, he heard the sound of horses and men. He dipped down in a crouch, pulling Tess with him. The men were crashing through the forest, shouting. From somewhere in the distance came the sound of hounds tracking a scent.
Raven heard the sound of his brother as he approached them from behind. Tess gave a start, but Raven squeezed her arm. "Takooko," he whispered. "It is only Takooko."
She looked up to see his brother crawling toward them.
"They look for her," he whispered harshly in English. "Let us go quickly from this place, brother Wee-ee-yox-qua."
"Me? They're looking for me?" Tess started to stand up, but Raven pulled her back down.
"Looking for her, how do you know?" Raven whispered in Algonquian. "They could be more evil English white-hairs."
"They call a name," Takooko answered impatiently.
"Her name?"
"A name."
Tess was trying to wriggle her wrist from Raven's grasp. "Maybe it's my uncle," she said excitedly. "They've come for me."
"Shhh," Raven warned. He touched her chin to make her turn and look at him. "Do not give away where we hide. We do not know if these men are good or bad."
"But your brother, he said they were looking for me. They must be. They must be looking for me!"
Such an innocent, Raven thought. Even after all she has been through with the Mohawk, she still doesn't realize what evil is in our world. Raven held onto her wrist fast. "Listen to me, Tess. If it is you they seek, then you will go to them, but let us wait and be sure."
Takooko lifted his bow and reached for an arrow from his quiver. "They approach quickly, make up your mind, brother," he urged.
Raven glanced into the forest. It would be so easy to slip away. The white-hairs would never see the two brothers of the Bear Clan disappear in the underbrush . . . But what if it was not Tess's family? There were many evil men about the forest these days; renegades both red and white, slave hunters, soldiers. . . . If he left her here now, she would be unable to defend herself. She had nothing but the Mohawk skinning knife to protect herself.
"Brother . . ." Takooko bid. "A decision." He notched his arrow.
Raven suddenly stood up, waving an arm for Takooko to step off the game path and into the forest. Takooko wanted a decision? Raven had made it. He would stand beside Tess and deliver her safely into the hands of her family.
"Jocelyn!" came a voice. "Jocelyn?"
Tess's face lit up in a smile. She grabbed Raven's bare forearm just below his copper armband. "That's my cousin, Leo. I know that voice! That's Leo's voice! I told you they would come looking for me!" She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Leo! Leo! I'm here!" She jumped up and down excitedly. "Oh, God. I'm here! Here!"
"Tess?" called a distinctively different voice. "Tess, is that you?"
"Myron?" She turned to Raven. "That's Myron. He's going to marry me." She turned back toward the voices, waving her arms over her head. "I'm here Myron! It's Tess!"
Raven could see the horses coming through the forest now. The undergrowth was thick for horseback, so they moved slowly. Two men had dismounted and were walking toward them, still partially obscured by the trees.
"Raven," murmured Takooko from the cover of the forest. "Let us go, brother!"
Raven looked back toward the men appearing out of the forest. He could go now. Tess had been returned to her family. She was safe. He had fulfilled his duty. He had to let her go.
Raven was just turning away when a voice broke through the trees.
"Redskins!" cried a man in alarm. "Redskins got her!"
A musket fired in the air and Raven instinctively dropped to his knees dragging Tess with him. Fools, they would kill her with their own lead!
"Myron!" Tess shrieked. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! They haven't hurt me! They—"
More musket fire drowned out the sound of her voice and Tess sank down beside Raven, covering her ears. "Why are they shooting at us?"
Lead balls whistled through the air striking the trees around them. Everything was happening so quickly that Raven had no time to think. If he didn't protect her, the white-hairs would kill Tess trying to get to him.
Raven grabbed Tess by his leather vest that she still wore, and began to drag her backward. She struggled, confused and frightened by the musket fire. "Down, Tess, keep down," he ordered.
"He's carryin' her off!" shouted a man who had dismounted and was running toward them. "Get the filthy red bastard before he gets away!"
Before Raven could react, Takooko appeared from behind a red cedar tree and released an arrow from the bow that had been a gift from Raven. The arrow flew straight and true, sinking into the chest of the man who ran toward them. As the white-hair sank to his knees, a man behind him pulled the trigger of his flintlock and it belched smoke and fire.
Raven threw himself over Tess to protect her and only out of the corner of his eye did he see his brother fall . . .