To A Far Country

by Oliver, Marina

  'Why did you bring these?' Flora asked, bewildered. 'we don't have fodder for them.'

  'They have plenty of grass for a few weeks. We can slaughter them one by one, for bacon and fresh meat, or for salting down, shared out as small pieces at a time. It's better than bringing meat which would have to be dealt with at once.'

  Flora was kept busy, curing the many rabbit skins they had collected, sewing warm clothes for the children and themselves, preserving and storing food for the winter. Jamie had cleared an acre and ploughed it before the first frosts, and it would be ready to sow seeds when spring came. Despite the unremitting labour she grew to love the forest all around, the lake and the busy life on it to watch when she was outside the cabin, and the satisfaction of making as comfortable a home as she could for her family.

  The only worry was Jamie's continuing remoteness. He had not again touched her, apart from dutiful kisses night and morning. Would they ever recapture their former love and closeness? Or had she lost him to the memory of Arabella?

  ***

  It was the end of November, and Jamie was busy with the other men chopping wood for their winter fires. Meg, who sometimes confessed to Flora that she felt lonely since her father's marriage, had come to play with the children.

  'I'd like to go down to the lake to see whether the fish lines have caught anything,' Flora said. 'Will you look after the children for a few minutes? It's really too cold for them to be outside.'

  Much as she loved the children she relished a few moments to herself, a rare occurrence. Wrapped in her shawl, she walked along the shore. It was a bitterly cold day, some snow lay on the ground, and soon she'd need the furs Jamie had bought for her in Quebec.

  No fish had taken the bait. Too cold for them, too, she thought. She wondered if they were snug at the bottom of the lake. Then she recalled another line she'd put down along the stream and walked slowly along its banks until she came to the pool where she had often bathed in the summer. No more of that now.

  As she approached she heard a groan, and halted abruptly. None of their small community could be there. She knew where they were, the men working in the forest, the women in their cabins, looking after the children.

  She gulped nervously. They had met other settlers who had concessions of land along this road, for land close to the lake was popular, snapped up as soon as it was offered for sale. The next farm was owned by a young American couple, the son and daughter of Loyalists families who had moved from Boston after America had declared its independence more than thirty years ago. It couldn't be them. They had left the previous day to visit their parents in Montreal, where they still celebrated the American Thanksgiving festival. So who was it?

  Cautiously Flora slipped behind a tree and peered over the rim of the hollow which enclosed her pool. A canoe was pulled half way out of the water, and two men, Indians, one with his hair long and tied back with a leather thong, the other with both sides of his head shaved, leaving a tuft on top, lay on the bank as if exhausted. One was bleeding, blood oozing sluggishly from beneath a rough bandage on his arm, and an open gash on his thigh.

  'Don't hide, we in no fit state hurt you,' the other said quietly, and Flora jumped. How could they have known she was there? She had been so quiet.

  'Do you need help?' she asked nervously, stepping out from behind the tree trunk. 'Are you both wounded?'

  'My brother,' the man who had spoken before said, sitting up slowly. 'I have bruises, few scratches, nothing worse. But he lost much blood, and we have no blankets. Long row across the lake.'

  'Can you walk?" Flora said, swiftly making up her mind. 'I have a cabin just a short way away, a little upstream.'

  'You not betray us?'

  'Why should I?' Flora asked sharply. 'Do you wish to come, find help, and perhaps you need food and shelter?'

  'Thank you, Mistress. We brothers. He Tier, I Atonsa Tiakothare.'

  'Don't waste your strength talking,' Flora said. 'Can you walk, or shall I fetch men to help?'

  Atonsa stood up and shook his head. 'We walk. Only few know we here. For your sake, too,' he added as he bent to help his brother stand.

  How they came to be there could wait, Flora decided, as she reached down to catch Tier's hand and help him stagger up the small bank. With one arm over her shoulders, the other across his brother's, he managed to limp towards the cabin. Flora pushed open the door and called out to Meg.

  'Meg, it's me. Pull our palliasse near the fire, if you will, and find me some rags and the medicine chest.'

  Tier collapsed gratefully onto the mattress, and Meg stared at him and his brother is alarm.

  'Flora, what on earth – ?'

  'It's all right, Meg. They won't hurt us. They need help. And I suspect they're hungry. Fill two bowls with some of that rabbit stew while I see to the wounds.'

  Half an hour later, when dusk was falling, Jamie came home. By then, washed, fed, their wounds tended and salves applied, the Indian brothers were recovered enough to tell their story, but Flora shook her head.

  'Let my man eat, and then we can all hear,' she said.

  The children had been watching the visitors with interest, but Meg, still fearful, kept them at the far end of the cabin. Now Jenny came to sit on a stool by the table, Meg picked up Matthew and held him on her lap, and they ate their suppers, eyeing the strangers warily over the edges of their bowls. Flora withdrew to give Matthew his last suckle, while Meg undressed Jennie and told her stories until the child fell asleep.

  'I ought to go home,' Meg said. 'Are there any more of you hiding in the woods?' she asked Atonsa abruptly.

  He shook his head and smiled, revealing perfect white teeth. 'No. My people skilled hiding in woods. They not hurt you. You not fear, we came alone. But if you meet any of my people, not speak, and they leave you alone.'

  'Shall I come with you?' Jamie asked, looking doubtfully from her to Flora.

  'No, you must stay here with Flora. Don't worry,' Meg said, and went out quickly.

  Atonsa grinned wryly. 'We not harm white man,' he said softly. 'Only when they attack us.'

  'Is that what's happened? Tell us now.'

  Atonsa bowed his head and spoke slowly, as if reciting a frequently told tale. 'There was battle, yes. The white men take our land, hunting grounds south great lakes, pushing us west. We of Shawnee tribe.'

  'You had much land?' Jamie asked when he paused.

  'We had big hunting grounds. But American white men not content with what they purchased. They want more, White River where we lived. My chief, Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet Tenskwatawa, made Confederacy of tribes to stop this. We want live in peace with white man.'

  'Yes, I heard,' Jamie said quietly.

  Tier raised himself slightly from where he'd been lying, and glanced round proudly. 'The Prophet saw many things, visited other times, other worlds of spirits. Name means Open Door. He and chief wanted all our people join together.'

  'To resist the Americans?' Flora asked gently.

  'To keep our way of life. We keep and use our land, we not drink evil fire-water, no longer marry white women.'

  'Last year Tecumseh asked for land to be returned,' Atonsa went on. 'It belongs to all, no one chief can sell it. White man refused. American white man. He came to Canada for advice. Men of Canada help us, they trade, not want destroy us. But he away in south, talking other tribes, when it happened. The Prophet disobeyed him.'

  'What could he do when they camped by our village?' Tier demanded, and Atonsa sighed. It was clearly an old argument.

  'What happened?' Jamie asked into the silence.

  'Chief knew small number of us not prevail. We must be united. But Tenskwatawa impatient. White man's General, William Harrison, attack us.'

  'Isn't he the Governor of the Indiana territory?'

  Atonsa nodded. 'He camped at Tippecanoe Creek, we attacked him first, but we had few guns, it went wrong, many more of them, they drove us off. Then burned our homes, in Prophet's Town. Many d
ied. We escaped. We rode for Canada, but Tier not ride more, he too weak, so we took canoe through Lake Erie, and came to shore here.'

  'You carried the canoe past the Niagara Falls? When Tier was wounded?' Flora asked, astonished. 'How did you manage?'

  Atonsa smiled. 'He able to help. Canoe journey helped him a little. But we go no further. We need rest, then I make toboggan and we try find our chiefs. The fight not over yet.'

  ***

  Chapter 13

  Tier was so exhausted by the loss of blood that he slept all night and all through the following day. After they had heard the story of the battle and the long, terrible journey through the cold winter conditions, clad in little but thin clothes and with only one cloak between them, Jamie went to the roughly constructed barn where they kept the horses and filled another sack with some of the wild hay they also stored there. The wounded Indian slept near the fire, with his brother close by. Atonsa insisted he was used to sleeping on harder beds than their earth floor.

  Atonsa sat quietly the next morning and watched Flora as she cooked porridge and cut slices from the side of bacon hanging near the chimney. Jamie was outside chopping logs they needed for the fire. When the bacon was cooked Flora carefully poured the fat from the skillet into a small crock.

  'You lack grease for cooking?' he asked suddenly.

  'We lack most things,' Flora said, with a slight sigh. 'We didn't come here until it was too late to grow crops, so we must live on what we've bought for the winter.'

  'You have game,' he said, indicating the birds and rabbits hung in a corner of the room.

  'Yes, plenty of meat, but no vegetables except dried or salted ones.'

  'And need fat. Tomorrow I take your man and find bear.'

  'A bear?' Flora exclaimed. 'We haven't seen bears since we arrived. I though they kept to the forests.'

  'Yes, it may be long day before find one.'

  Flora was not at all sure she wanted Jamie to go bear-hunting. She had heard many stories of how ferocious these animals were, how big and strong.

  'I thought they slept all winter?' she said.

  'We find lair, smoke him out.'

  'But – why? I didn't think you could eat bear flesh.'

  'Much fat, use skin as bedcover.'

  He explained to Jamie after they had eaten, and Jamie agreed. 'I have thought of it, but I lack the forest craft to find a bear, and would not know what to do if I met one,' he said with a laugh.

  'I show you. It needs fire, torch, to drive bear out. I do that, you ready shoot it in head. And I show you how trap beavers for skins. Good cloaks.'

  It was two days before Atonsa felt strong enough for this expedition. Meanwhile he sharpened the knife he carried, a long blade fixed into a handle of a deer's antler. This was to skin the bear, he explained. Then one bright day, when the sun shone brightly on the newly fallen snow, he declared the time had come.

  'We not need snowshoes yet,' he said, looking at his ankle-high moccasins. 'Soon, though. I show you how make them with strips of rawhide.'

  'Do we need to take the horse?' Jamie asked.

  'No. They fear bears, might frighten him too soon. Bring just your gun. We go today.'

  All day Flora fretted. It was dangerous, she was sure. Any animal woken from its winter sleep, forced out of a warm peaceful den, would be angry. Bears, she had heard, were often angry for much smaller cause. Jamie would have to be close by. Alonsa would be in most danger, closer to the den as he filled it with smoke, but could Jamie be sure to kill the angry animal before it attacked him?

  Tier, by now much recovered, though still weak, tried to reassure her. 'My brother do this many times,' he insisted. 'He one of best trackers in tribe.'

  'But how can he track animals when there's snow on the ground?'

  'We not track their footprints. Eyes can see many other signs. Broken branches, trees eaten, bark rubbed, fur or feathers caught on bushes.'

  Flora was partly reassured, but when she heard Jamie and Atonsa returning, and Jamie's laugh as he opened the door, she dropped the embroidery with which she was keeping herself busy and flew across the cabin to greet him.

  'It's long past dark!' she said, flinging her arms round him. 'I was so worried!'

  Jamie kissed her briefly. His lips were icy cold, and there was frost on the fur of his hat. 'Atonsa could find his way on a moonless, starless night, I do believe,' he said. 'Is supper ready? We've brought two deer as well as the bearskin and a turkey.'

  'How did you carry that? You didn't take the waggon, or even a horse.'

  'We made a sledge from branches lashed together. I've had many lessons today on how to survive.'

  ***

  It was decided to take the Indians to Mary, who would be able to pass them on to others of her tribe, and so help them make contact with their comrades who had fled to Upper Canada.

  'I will take you in the waggon,' Jamie said. 'The trail's open, and we've enough hay to feed another two mares over the winter. I'll buy some in York and bring them back with me.'

  Because of the weather he would be gone two days, staying overnight in York, and Meg came to keep Flora company while he was away.

  'Weren't you terrified?' she asked. 'I was, they looked so strange.'

  'They were ordinary young men,' Flora said, laughing at her. 'In fact they were far more considerate than some of the young men who were on the ship, or that we met in Quebec. And Jamie said he'd been taught some very useful tricks.'

  Meg shrugged. 'Don't you find this life tedious? There is no one to talk to apart from our own family, and Isabella and Gordon. Brendan and Moira are so busy with making their cabin the finest in the whole of Canada they have no time to spare.'

  'That's not true,' Flora said quickly. 'They often come here in the evenings and we talk, he plays the fiddle, and they sing. And he tells the most wonderful stories. I swear even Matthew listens to him and understands what he's saying.'

  Meg smiled. 'Matthew's almost walking. He's a clever laddie, only just a year old. He's quicker than Jenny was, and growing bigger every day.'

  Flora nodded. 'He'll be bigger than she is in a year or two.' She suppressed a sigh. Jamie was so uninterested in her this last year she doubted if she'd ever have another child. And despite the difficulties of Matthew's birth, she wanted more children. Her sickness then, she was convinced, was due solely to the dreadful conditions of the journey.

  Meg was staring into the fire. 'Would you go back to Scotland if you had the chance?' she asked, and Flora gave a start. She had been thinking about the same thing.

  'I certainly could not endure another voyage like we had!' she said with a laugh. 'I want to see my sister and my aunt again, but only if I can travel in a cabin, in greater comfort.'

  'Maybe there'll be steam ships going one day, like those on the river. Andrew says there's sure to be, some day.'

  'You've seen Andrew?'

  Meg nodded and smiled to herself. 'He comes every few weeks. Hasn't he been here to see you?'

  'No.'

  Flora told herself she did not wish to see Andrew, but she could not help being slightly concerned to hear he had been so close and not bothered to come and see them. Perhaps, she thought later, when she had sent Meg home before dusk fell, he was interested in Meg. Would that be a good thing or not? The girl was restless, not openly unhappy, but not enjoying any part of her life. She was probably feeling left out now her father was absorbed in Jane. She was old enough to wed, would be kept busy with her own home and babies to look after, and have less time for brooding.

  It was dark and the children were asleep before she heard the sound of the waggon. She went outside to help Jamie unhitch the horse which pulled it, and settle the two new mares he had brought into the barn.

  'We'll leave the stores on the waggon till morning,' Jamie said. 'Nothing will come to any harm.'

  They worked together in silence, anxious to be finished and back inside the warmth. Only when Jamie had stripped off his gauntlets an
d boots, and unwrapped the many layers of warm clothing he wore, did they have leisure to talk.

  'All went well?' Flora asked as she handed him a bowl of broth and some bread.

  'Yes. Mary was pleased to help, and said her cousin would know where the rest of the Shawnee warriors are. And Hamish has acquired a new stallion, a strong, sturdy one, and he says I can borrow him in the spring to cover my mares.'

  'That will cost less than buying our own?'

  'Far less, which means I will perhaps be able to buy some more mares next spring, and he can cover them too. Soon we'll be able to sell some of the foals, and the herd will increase faster than I hoped. But I have a small present for you.'

  Flora could not breathe for a moment. She had never confessed to him about the stolen pearls, and jewels were the presents he had brought her before. Surely he had not spent any of the little money they had remaining on jewels she could have no occasion to wear?

  'What is it?' she asked in a low voice when she recovered her wits.

  He grinned. 'A tin bath. Now you and the children can bathe in comfort in the warm, before the fire.'

  Flora laughed in relief. 'I haven't been near the pool for months. Not to bathe there, I mean. That is the best present I could hope for.'

  The long, cold winter passed slowly. When the weather permitted it Jamie spent his time felling trees and constructing fences for the paddocks they would need. When the snow fell and the wind was too fierce from the north he remained in the cabin, making better furniture than the stools and tables he had nailed together in the beginning. Soon they had bedsteads and did not have to lie on the floor. There was a smoother, better finished table and some sturdy benches, and a cupboard where Flora could store the clothes. They even had a partition of woven willow, similar to the roofs they had made before, separating the sleeping areas from the rest of the cabin.

  Gradually they noticed signs of spring, and suddenly it was all frantic activity once more. The mares foaled, Hamish brought his big black stallion and turned him out into the paddocks, and as soon as the ground was free of frost Jamie sowed his precious seeds for their vegetables and oats.