Chapter 23
The Shawnee village was situated on a rise overlooking a patchwork of well-tended corn and bean fields. Unlike the dome-shaped dwellings she’d seen at the fort, they appeared to be made of tree bark.
‘These are the houses for summer living,’ Ethan explained. ‘The women build them. They also work the fields.’
A host of children came tumbling out from the village to meet them.
Behind them were several men, the women holding back in wary groups, their eyes weighing up the approaching strangers before settling on Lochranza.
The meeting and greeting were left to their menfolk who stood in a small group, their expressions unflinching, narrowed eyes watching the white people’s approach.
The tallest of the group took a step forward from his compatriots. He was wearing a grey coat and blue leggings. Like the rest of the men, his hair was jet black reaching halfway down his back. His skin was a brownish red. Two feathers, yellowed at the ends, drooped from his head.
Lochranza did not need Ethan to tell her that this was Grey Coat and not just because of the colour of his coat; he had the look of a leader of men.
As she observed both the handsome men and their neat bark-built dwellings, Ethan carried on explaining to her things he knew about these people.
‘The men build the winter houses for the women and children to stay in when they go hunting. When they get back, the women cure the skins and the meat. Everyone here has a job to do. It’s a very tough life.
They move with the seasons and the availability of game.
When game is scarce or the crops fail, they starve.
A very hard life. I certainly wouldn’t want it.
No matter what the abolitionists say, even my slaves are guaranteed to eat better than they do. ’
‘But these people are free,’ she murmured so only he could hear. ‘They can go where they please.’
He shot her a warning look. ‘Say nothing here.’
She had no intention of interfering, but she would not be dislodged from her views.
Grey Coat welcomed them heartily, setting them places round the fire, where a cauldron of something meaty-smelling was simmering gently to perfection.
During a brief lull while Ethan and Grey Coat smoked and it was not acceptable for women to be present, Lochranza wandered outside.
The women eyed her warily at first until she spoke to them.
By means of sign language and small words that they may have heard at the fort or a trading post, she asked them to take her around their fields, to show her the other things they did, to tell her the names of their children.
By the time they’d finished, she was picking beans with the best of them, playing with the children and having her auburn locks plaited, her hair interwoven with feathers.
Strings of coloured beads were placed around her neck.
They even persuaded her to take off her riding boots and don a pair of soft moccasins decorated with blue and yellow beads.
‘I certainly wouldn’t mind that too much,’ she exclaimed as she pulled them off. ‘My feet are killing me!’
There was much laughter when she made a big show of having aching feet. Taking a firm hold on each foot, the women used stones to massage her soles.
Laying back her head, Lochranza closed her eyes. ‘That… is… so… wonderful!’
When Ethan came looking for her, decorated with feathers and beads and wearing the brightly coloured moccasins, she was sitting amid a group of women removing the husks from bright yellow corn.
He frowned on seeing her. ‘What are you doing?’
She waved her hands at the corn. ‘Stripping the husks. Phoebe, your cook at Glen Dirk, cooks sweetcorn. And she made cornbread. It was quite delicious.’
He seemed far from impressed, his jaw clenching and his lips clamped together as though he were swallowing a hurtful response.
‘Will you ever act like a lady?’
She looked up, surprised by his tone and got to her feet.
‘I act as I wish. If I want to curtsey to a king or squat tearing husks from corn, then that’s up to me.’
‘If you’re going to be my wife, you have to be less… liberal.’
Sensing the white man and his woman were on the verge of an argument, the Shawnee women exchanged knowing smiles, their smooth faces shiny and dimples appearing at the corners of their mouths.
‘I like these people,’ Lochranza insisted.
‘But you are not one of them,’ Ethan growled through gritted teeth. ‘You are being too friendly, and they may become too comfortable with your presence. It could make my task trying to move them out of danger more difficult.’
‘How can that be?’
Then it came to her. Her warmth for him was obliterated by coldness. ‘They must not feel too comfortable with us because those that are coming to steal their land will be less than friendly. Is that right?’
His silence and the set of his jaw were enough to tell her that she was right.
‘So you’re not here to protect them. You’re here to move them on.’
He looked away. ‘They are not your concern.’
‘I’ve warmed to them and am concerned.’
He fixed his eyes on her. ‘My inclination is to leave as quickly as possible, but I will not insult him. He’s a good man, a wise leader of his people. He’s offered us sleeping accommodation in his own lodge. I’ve declined. The three of us – you, me and Wellow – will bivouac out in the open.’