by Almost Eden
An uneasiness struck Light on hearing they had been spied upon. He had scouted the area before he let Maggie search for the roots.
“Got his foot caught in a sawyer,” Paul explained.
“Sawyer can hurt ya. Hurt ya bad. Good ya moved off that sandbar. River ’long here goes down fast. Ya’d a been left high and dry. Happened to me oncet. Had a hell of a time gettin’ off.”
“You don’t miss much, do you?” Paul looked past him to where Maggie was talking to MacMillan’s youngsters.
“If I did, I’d not a lasted. Been here nigh on five year.”
“Five years?” Eli looked impressed. “You were here when Clark came back downriver?”
“Shore was. Surprised he was to see me all settled like I was.” MacMillan chuckled. “Had me a goin’ tradin’ business even then.”
“That so?” Eli said. “What do you trade? We might do some business.”
“Beaver, muskrat, shaved deerskins, whiskey, salt. Found me a rich deposit in a cave. Might be a deep salt mine someday. Folks are always needin’ salt. Almost like gold to some folks. Trappers use it to cure leather and to salt hides. Indians learnin’ to use it too. Salt keeps their meat and fish from spoilin’. Settlers need it for pork and for brine barrels. Barrel a coffee beans worth its weight in gold. You takin’ trade goods up to Bellevue?”
“Yeah,” Eli said. “Tools, cloth, whiskey and salt.”
MacMillan laughed. “I was hopin’ ya had tobaccy. Ain’t had none for a spell.”
“We got that too.”
“Yeah? Might be we can barter before ya go.”
Paul took off his hat and scratched his head. “M’sieur, aren’t you a bit close to the Delaware for comfort?”
“A bit. But they don’t bother us to speak of. This place spooks ’em. I give ’em salt and a little whiskey now and then. Got me a little barley patch and a still over at the place.” MacMillan looked curiously at Light, who had not said a word. “Ya got ya a right sightly woman. My gals was sure worked up ’bout seein’ her. They ain’t never seen but a handful of white women.”
“Where you from, Mr. MacMillan?” Eli asked.
“My folks come to Kaskaskia from somewhere in Ohio when I was a tad. My pa never liked bein’ too near folks. Guess I took after him. Choosed me a woman, crossed the river and roamed for a spell with my woman’s people. Later we met up with old Dan’l Boone and squatted on a piece a ground near him for a spell. Folks come movin’ in there and scrounged us out. Ol’ Dan’l still livin’?”
Eli and Paul looked to Light to answer.
“I’ve not heard that he died,” Light said even as his eyes went past MacMillan.
Kruger, who had climbed the bank with an axe on his shoulder, was standing as if in a trance, his eyes on Maggie and the two girls.
MacMillan was aware when the scout went still, and every nerve in the man’s body went on the alert. Turning to see what had taken Light’s attention, MacMillan saw a large bald-headed man staring intently at his girls and the scout’s wife. The boatman’s head jutted forward on his broad shoulders and it was clear that he was totally absorbed in his perusal of the women.
MacMillan’s brawny body went on the defensive as Kruger continued to stare. An uncomfortable silence stretched for a full minute before the settler spoke.
“Mister, I ain’t likin’ the way ya stare at my women folks.”
Kruger turned his bullet-shaped head to look at MacMillan. His eyes glittered dangerously. His lips pulled back in a snarl that bared his teeth.
“Verdammt! Tink I care vat ya like? Dey’s breeds, ain’t dey?”
MacMillan sputtered a vicious oath, “Keep a civil tongue in your goddamn rotten head!”
“Mein Gott!” Kruger snorted. “’Tis plain as sin. ’Alf-breed sluts, is vat dey iss.”
A stunned silence followed the German’s words.
“Kruger! Damn you!” Eli struggled to get to his feet.
MacMillan took the two steps necessary to reach the musket he had leaned against a stump. His daughter, Aee, darted to him and took hold of his arm.
“He ain’t worth it, Pa. Let’s go.”
Kruger’s glittery eyes swept over the girl. He snorted an obscenity in German, gave MacMillan an impudent stare and turned his back.
“That son of a bitch yore man?” MacMillan jerked around after Kruger disappeared into the woods.
“He’s one of my crew. I apologize for his rudeness.”
“If he comes sniffin’ ’round my girls, I’ll blow his blasted head off.” MacMillan paused, then added menacingly, “It’s been done before.”
“You’d have a perfect right. We’ll be gone from here as soon as we get the boat in shape.” Eli was standing on one foot, resting his hand on Paul’s shoulder.
“Dad-blamed horny river trash,” MacMillan grumbled, his eyes on the spot where Kruger had disappeared in the forest.
“Pa. Pa—” Aee shook her father’s arm to get his attention. “Don’t forget Ma said you could invite them t’ come and eat tomorry . . . if they were decent.” Aee spoke aside to her father, but her words were heard by all.
MacMillan’s face softened when he looked down at his daughter.
“Aye, she did say it. The woman thinks the younguns ort’a see more folks,” he explained to Eli. “Ain’t been nobody I could take to the place for quite a spell now.”
“We could bring a canoe down for . . . him.” Aee’s eyes darted to Eli and then back to her father.
“I thank you for the invitation, that is if one is on the way, but I’ll stay with my cargo.” Eli’s eyes passed fleetingly over Aee before he eased himself back down on the ground.
“Thinkin’ somebody’ll make off with it? Ain’t nothin’ moves on this river without me knowin’. How’d ya think I knew ya was here?”
Aee braced herself to offer her mother’s invitation to Light and Maggie.
“Ma’d be pleased if ya’d come to our noon meal.”
“Can we, Light? I like Aee. I like Bee, too, but she won’t talk to me.” Maggie clutched his arm with both hands, her eyes pleading. Light covered her hand with his before he answered.
“M’sieur, my wife and I will be pleased to accept your invitation.”
“Yo’re welcome t’ come too,” Aee said to Paul.
Paul doffed his cap and bowed. “I thank you, Mademoiselle, but perhaps it would be best if I stay with my friend.”
Aee shrugged. “Suit yoreself.” Her eyes darted to Eli and then away.
“My place is a mile upriver,” MacMillan said to Light. “Ya’ll have no trouble findin’ it.”
“Will you sell me a canoe?” Light asked bluntly.
The homesteader met Light’s gaze steadily before he answered.
“Could be. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Without another word the settler motioned to his girls, and they followed him to the edge of the clearing. Aee looked back one time, then disappeared into the woods.
* * *
By late afternoon the hole in the bottom of the boat had been repaired. While Kruger worked on a piece of wood he had selected for the steering oar, Paul and Light carried the cargo back to the flatboat and stored it in the shed.
Light had brought down a fat turkey with his bow and arrow. The bird was roasting slowly over a low fire. Maggie sat cross-legged feeding the blaze with small sticks. Each time Light came to pick up a load, his dark eyes took in the sight of his Maggie in earnest conversation with Eli Nielson.
Regardless of what was going on around him, the Ohio boatman’s eyes never left Maggie’s face. It was clear to Light that Nielson was fascinated with his wife, not that he blamed him. Maggie exercised her magical power to attract men without any intention to do so. In all her innocence, she appeared to be unaware of the foundation she was laying for trouble.
“Do you think Aee is pretty?” Maggie asked Eli when Light went over the bank to the flatboat.
“She’s . . . fair.” He shrugged his shoulders.
&
nbsp; “Fair? She’s almost pretty as me. I wish I wasn’t pretty a’tall,” she said with a sigh. “It makes trouble for Light. He’ll have t’ kill Kruger.”
“Has Otto bothered you?”
“He wants to. He’ll be gettin’ ’round to it sooner or later. He’ll get Aee or Bee if he can.”
“MacMillan can take care of his women. It seems he’s had to deal with rivermen before.”
“He didn’t like Kruger. I don’t like him either. He’s like a ruttin’ hog!” she declared, then added, “You and Paul ain’t like him.”
“Thank you.”
“Jefferson’s half-brother tried to rape me. Light killed him. He’ll kill Kruger too.”
“What makes you say that?”
“If it’s not ’cause of me it’ll be somethin’ else. Kruger’s bad.”
“Maybe Otto will kill Light.”
“He won’t,” Maggie said confidently.
“But if he did, you’d be alone.”
“I’d kill him . . . slow—with my knife and my whip!” she said with teeth clenched tight.
Out of the corner of his eye Eli saw the scout linger before picking up a load to take to the boat. Was Lightbody resentful that his young wife was spending time with him? In all fairness, Eli thought, the man had every right to be jealous. He waited until he was sure that Lightbody was out of hearing before he spoke.
“How did you meet Light?”
“On the river. Our raft got caught in the current. He saved us.”
“Did you know his folks?”
“No. They was killed a long time ago, I think. He had a wife before me. She was killed too. Light loves me more’n he did her.”
“What makes you think so?”
Maggie frowned. “He calls me his treasure.”
“Did he tell you he loves you more?”
“No. I just know.”
“It’s a long way to the Bluffs—”
“Bluffs? Where’s that? Light said we’ll winter near the Osage, and when the snow melts, we’ll go on to his mountain and stay there forever.”
Eli’s brows beetled in a puzzled frown. “Where’s that?”
“Light’s mountain? He knows where it is!” Maggie said crossly. “He’ll build us a cabin right on top away from ever’body that’s mean.”
“Was his pa French or his ma?” Eli prodded gently.
“His pa.”
“Where’d he come from?”
“I don’t know. He trapped and traded with the Osage . . . Light said.”
“His ma?”
“—was a princess. Her pa was the chief,” Maggie said proudly. “Osage princess. Light had a sister. She died with their ma.”
Eli nodded gravely. The only new information Maggie had given him was that they were headed toward some mountain and that Light had not talked to her about the Bluffs. Was it possible he was not going there? Eli wanted to keep Maggie talking; and not being much of a talker himself, he had to strive to think of something to say without asking direct questions.
“Your folks will miss you.”
“Uh-huh.” She tilted her head and for a moment there was sadness in her clear emerald eyes. “But I was trouble to ‘em. Poor pa. Folks was mean t’ him and ma . . . all ’cause of me. I was the only youngun they had, but Uncle Lube Gentry, that’s Pa’s brother, has lots of younguns. Ma won’t be lonesome. Pa gave me t’ Light t’ take care of.”
“Gave you?”
“Light wouldn’t take me with him less’n Pa said I could go.”
“You married in St. Charles?”
“No. Light promised Pa we’d marry. We married each other on the bluff over the river the first day. Light promised t’ love me ’n’ keep me as safe as he can for as long as he lives. God was his witness. I said the words too.”
“You didn’t stand before a man of God, or a . . . magistrate or a witness?”
“God was witness. I told ya that.”
“Nobody was there?”
“Me and Light was there. We didn’t need nobody else.”
“Then you’re not legally married.”
“Legally? What’s that mean?”
“It means that the law may not recognize that you and Light are married to each other.”
“We are too! I ain’t carin’ ’bout the law!” Maggie stood, placed her hands on her hips and glared down at him. “Why’er you sayin’ that for, Eli? We promised before God.”
“Folks usually get married by a preacher or by some public official, and it’s recorded.” Eli’s brows came together in a puzzled frown.
“Why?”
“It’s the law.”
“Light took me t’ wife and we mated! I don’t like ya sayin’ that, Eli.”
“I just meant that—” Eli knew he had made a mistake. Her feelings ran deeper for Lightbody than he had thought. He groped for words to keep the conversation going, then said, “Sit down and tell me where you learned about gonoshay.”
CHAPTER NINE
In the tops of towering elm trees, branches reached out and intermingled with one another, lacing over the forest trail. With an unblinking eye the creature perched on a limb watched Light and Maggie leave the camp and walk through the woods toward MacMillan’s homestead. Sure-footed, it leaped lightly from spreading branch to spreading branch in order to follow their progress.
During the morning it had observed the man with the injured foot move around the camp with the help of a staff and the hairless man work with an adze to shape a steering oar for the boat. The bald man’s eyes went often to the woman who kept her distance from him. The creature marveled at her persistence as she practiced with the whip and the knife while her man sat nearby carefully repacking their belongings. She appeared to be tireless in her endeavor to perfect her skill.
Her man was undoubtedly part Indian, but not she. Her skin was still startlingly white despite the summer sun. Not a single flaw that he could see marred her beauty. Hair, black as midnight, lay in tight ringlets around her face and hung to the middle of her back. She constantly pushed it back from her face until her man went to her and tied it at the nape of her neck with a thong. He watched over her as if he were starving and she was his last meal.
Now, desiring to get a closer look at the woman, the creature, high in the giant elm, made a misstep and knocked a scab of dried bark to the ground. Scurrying back into the concealing foliage, the watcher peered down through the lattice of leaves at the couple below.
Light stopped and threw his hand out to grasp Maggie’s arm and draw her with him into the thick undergrowth. His sharp, dark eyes searched the overhead branches for movement and saw a fluttering of leaves.
“What?” Maggie whispered.
Light shook his head.
The quiet was absolute.
Not even a bird moved in the trees above them. After waiting several minutes until the birds began to chirp again, Light decided that they must have drawn the attention of a curious raccoon. He drew Maggie away from the animal path they had been following, and together they slipped quietly through the wood that bordered the river.
The creature, its face so grotesque it appeared not to be human, turned so that the unblinking eye could follow the couple until they were out of sight.
* * *
MacMillan’s home was set in a clearing completely shielded from the river. Light was not sure what he had expected to see but it certainly wasn’t a homestead as permanently established as this one. Several buildings of various sizes and a stockade fence surrounding a hog lot sat well away from the house. Osage plum bushes had been planted around the kitchen garden. The wiry shrubs had grown into an impenetrable hedge surrounding the plot, creating a veritable barrier between it and the wildlife that might devour it. The land around the homestead had been cleared of brush so that an enemy could not approach without being seen.
The cabin was of “poteau” construction: logs set upright in trenches and chinked with mud. Hewn shingles instead of thatch covered the
roof. The noonday sun shone on two glass windows—a rare luxury this far from civilization. Wild rose vines climbed the cobblestone chimneys that rose above the roof on each end. A black wash-pot sat in the yard, and a stout clothes drying line stretched from the corner of the house to a tree. In the distance a small patch of barley grain stubbles lay golden in the sun.
In this territory where a man with a couple of mules and a wagon was considered well-off, MacMillan was evidently very wealthy.
“Can we have a place like this on our mountain, Light? Oh, looky, they got a well in the yard.”
Light’s sharp eyes caught movement near a large open-ended building and saw a bare-chested Negro man wearing buckskin britches disappear inside.
As Maggie and Light approached, MacMillan came out of the cabin to greet them. He was followed by his pregnant wife, a tall, large-boned woman with shining dark hair parted in the middle, coiled, and pinned at the nape of her neck. Her back was straight despite the load she was carrying in her belly. She wore a loose blue-flowered dress with a white collar. MacMillan walked out into the yard, a smile on his face.
“Welcome to our home.”
“It’s a pleasure to be here,” Light replied.
Maggie, eager as a child, smiled up at MacMillan.
“Where’s Aee?”
“She’s lookin’ forward to yer comin’, Miz Lightbody.”
Maggie loosened her hand from Light’s and stepped up to the woman standing beside the door.
“Hello.”
The tall woman looked down and smiled. “Hello.”
“Miz Mac,” the settler said from behind Maggie, “this is Mr. Lightbody and his wife.”
“Welcome to our home.” She repeated the words her husband had spoken.
“Madame.” Light nodded politely.
“Where’s Aee ’n’ Bee?” Maggie asked.
The doorway was suddenly filled with children. One by one they stepped shyly out into the yard, the smallest one first. They all wore freshly ironed homespun dresses with small white collars. Their hair, neatly combed and braided, ranged in color from dark to golden brown. When they were lined up, MacMillan proudly presented them.