“I just wanted to discuss with you the letter I got from head-quarters. I haven’t had opportunity, with all that keeps you busy.” He reached over and took my hand. “Don’t you think that you could slow down a bit now?” he asked me.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “I like being busy. It makes the days go faster.”
Wynn smiled but was silent again.
“But what about your letter?” I quizzed him.
“They have new orders for us.”
“New? What do you mean?” I asked, my face lifting quickly to study Wynn’s eyes.
“They don’t want us to stay here for the winter.”
“I don’t understand—”
“They feel they will not be able to get a proper building up for us in time for winter.”
“But you said they were coming soon to build,” I reminded him.
“Yes, they are. But the native people must be provided for first. They have no other place to go.”
It was becoming more and more confusing to me. I shook my head to clear the fog. Wynn’s grip on my hand tightened.
“Let me start at the beginning,” he said.
I nodded my head in assent and he began.
“The Force has promised not only to send in the required materials, but also to send in some government-paid men to build new cabins for the people of the village. They also will send in a man to take my place for the winter months. He will be single and will be quite able to spend the entire winter in tight quarters.”
I couldn’t help but smile, remembering the cabin where Wynn and I had spent the past winter.
How could one have “tighter quarters” than that? I
wondered. But Wynn was continuing.
“He will carry on the law enforcement necessary while the village is being rebuilt.
“They have also taken my suggestion of compensating LaMeche to some measure,” he explained. “The trading post will be the first building to be constructed because of its importance to everyone. They plan to partition off a very small room in the trading post for the officer to use as a sleeping quarter. This later will be turned back over to the trader, or used as a temporary lock-up room if LaMeche and the Force reach an agreement. Just like we had at Beaver River.”
I remembered the little room in the McLains’ store. It had been the place where Crazy Mary had been kept until her untimely death.
“When everyone else has been properly sheltered, they will turn their attention to building a new cabin for the Mountie.”
“Then we can come back?” I quickly cut in. I suddenly realized how much I wanted to stay now that things had changed with the villagers.
“They didn’t state that for sure,” Wynn said honestly. “They did say that it would be considered.”
That didn’t sound too promising as far as I was concerned. I chafed under such hedging, but I said nothing to Wynn. There was little that he could do about it.
“When do we go?” I asked, with little enthusiasm.
“We are to go back with the wagons that bring in the supplies.”
That would not be long then. We expected the wagons and supplies in any day now.
“And where are we to go?” I asked. Then with sudden hope-fulness, I continued, “Can we go back to Beaver River?”
Wynn smiled but shook his head. “I’m sorry, but no Beaver River. It would have been nice, though, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh, yes,” I said, sighing. ”
“We are to go to Athabasca Landing.”
“To do what?”
“I will work in the office there, supervising the two younger men who will be on patrol in the area. You will ... I guess you can just be a ... lady of leisure.”
“I don’t think I will like that,” I said soberly.
“Who knows,” said Wynn, in an effort to cheer me, “maybe you will learn to like it.”
I stubbornly shook my head. I could not see myself enjoying having nothing to do but make the beds and cook the meals. It would be as bad as the last winter when I had nothing to do and nowhere to go. I had hated it. It had been all that I could do to keep my outlook cheerful so that I wouldn’t be a drag on Wynn.
“It will be quite different there than it is here at the village,” Wynn went on, knowing where my thoughts were leading me. “It is already a fair-sized settlement. You will find many new neighbors—both white and Indian. It will give you a nice break from roughing it.”
I still wasn’t sure I was going to like the new arrangement, but I knew Wynn needed my support. When I thought about it, I wasn’t sure if Wynn would welcome the new life either. He wasn’t particularly fond of paper work, yet he would be stuck with it for the winter while younger men did the patrolling and contacted the Indians. I tried to look a bit more enthusiastic and turned to Wynn with a slow smile.
“Guess we can stand it for a few months,” I said, and he pulled me close.
Kip came bounding up to us and nearly pushed me over with his exuberance. I laughed and fought my way upright again, shoving Kip away and playfully rubbing his ear.
“Take it easy,” I told him, “we won’t go without you—” then I looked quickly at Wynn, my concern in my voice, “will we?”
“We’ll take Kip,” Wynn assured me.
“What about the rest of the team?” I asked him, hoping that
Wynn would not be asked to give up his well-trained dog team.
“I plan to take them.”
“You are still short two or three dogs, aren’t you?” I reminded him.
“That’s one of my reasons for taking them. I hope that soon I will have a batch of Revva’s pups old enough to start training.”
I was excited about seeing Revva’s litter when it first arrived. I wanted to help train them right from puppyhood onward. I knew that was the way Wynn preferred to train his dogs. Living in Athabasca, I was sure I would have lots of spare time to help him.
I stood to my feet and looked out over the little lake. In the distance I could hear the calls of the children in the camp. A loon cried—a lonely, wilderness-sounding cry. I knew I would miss it.
“What did LaMeche say?” I asked Wynn.
Wynn stood beside me, his arm around my waist. “About what?” he asked me.
“About all this?”
“I haven’t talked to him—and I don’t expect that they told him anything about it when they gave him the letter with the new orders.”
“Then he doesn’t know?”
“I wanted to talk to you before I talked to anyone else,” Wynn informed me.
I smiled at him. “Thank you,” I said softly. “I’m glad I was first.”
He took my hand then and we started back to the campsite. I knew I would see it differently in the days that lay ahead. Each time I looked around me, I would be thinking, “I will leave this soon.” It would make a difference. Undoubtedly the tears would fall at times.
“Wynn,” I said as we walked, “there is something that I have wished to speak to you about. I am concerned about Kinnea and Kinook. What will happen to them? Will they be given a cabin of their own again? What if they aren’t? I’m really concerned about them, Wynn.”
“I am, too,” returned Wynn. “I hear that Chief Crow Calls Loud has been looking at Kinook.”
I stopped in my tracks and stared at Wynn. “No!” I said. “Surely not?”
“She could be in worse circumstances,” Wynn assured me.
“But the fourth wife? Who would ever want such a position? She would be the servant of all the rest of them.”
“Until she bore her first child, maybe.”
“A child? She is still a child herself. Wynn, that’s unthinkable! Can’t you do something?”
“Our laws do not govern their marriages, Elizabeth. You know that.”
“Can’t we take her with us,” I blurted out. “Both of them. Can’t we get some kind of custody and—”
“Do you think they’d be happy?” Wynn asked softly.
I started to say that of course they would, but even before the words formed I knew it was wrong. The two girls would be happy only in their own village, with their own people.
It seemed a hopeless situation. I swallowed the lump in my throat and took Wynn’s hand again. In my heart I prayed for wisdom and God’s help as I walked. Surely there was something that could be done—some way to make arrangements for them. I prayed that the Lord would work on their behalf.
The next evening Wynn invited me to go with him to care for the dog team. I went readily enough, but inwardly I suspected that he might have other reasons for asking for my company.
I was right. As soon as we passed from earshot of the village people, Wynn took my hand and slowed my stride. We never felt free to talk for very long in front of the Indians when we wanted a private conversation. We both knew they could not understand our English, yet we couldn’t bring ourselves to discuss a private matter in front of them.
“I had a long talk with LaMeche,” Wynn informed me.
I turned to Wynn in my eagerness, forgetting to take a forward step, nearly tripping over my own feet.
“Why don’t we sit down for a minute?” Wynn asked me, nodding toward a shaded spot near the path.
We took our seat and Wynn idly picked a blade of tall grass, broke a piece of it and put it in his mouth. I could almost taste it, cool and sweet.
“LaMeche was excited to hear that he will get help in rebuilding and restocking his post,” said Wynn. “He can hardly wait for the supplies to get here—but I’ve this strange notion that it might have more to do with Silver Star than with the trading post.” Wynn smiled.
“He is quite willing for the Mountie who comes to relieve us to have a small room,” Wynn continued. “Later’ he will let the Force have the room for a temporary cell as they had hoped.
“After the two of us had discussed this for a while,” said Wynn, taking both my hands in his, “he started asking me some questions about you—about how a white woman in these circumstances could have the inner strength and the wisdom to save the whole village from certain destruction.”
I was watching Wynn’s face carefully, my mind racing ahead to what he might be telling me.
“I explained to him that without God’s inspiration and help, you probably would not have been able to do what you did. He looked so interested and so—so
wistful
at the same time that I went on to explain to him about our faith in Jesus Christ.
“‘I wish I had a faith like that,’ was his comment. I could hardly believe my ears—” Wynn’s voice was full of deep emotion as he talked. “The people here have never showed the slightest bit of interest in Jesus or in our faith when I’ve talked about it in the past. I told LaMeche that he
could
have a faith like that. I told him that Jesus died for him—that he could repent of his sin, receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior, and be born into God’s family.”
I’m sure my eyes were as full of wonder and joy as Wynn’s when he said, “And you know what, Elizabeth? LaMeche did just that! We prayed together on a log out there in the woods, and he is now a Christian!”
The tears rolled down my cheeks as I thanked the Lord for this one small light in the spiritual darkness of Smoke Lake. “Oh, Lord,” I prayed, “help him to be strong and to grow and to convince others here to follow his example.”
“LaMeche said something else that I think will make you very happy,” Wynn went on, and then hesitated, driving me mad with curiosity.
“Silver Star had already spoken to him. It seems that she has gotten quite attached to the two orphan girls.”
I held my breath.
“Silver Star has asked LaMeche if he would mind if they took them. Kinook will soon be of marriageable age, but Kinnea would have two or more years to be on her own yet. It seems that Silver Star has been as worried about them as you have.”
I bowed my head in another prayer of thanks. Then I asked God to also bless Silver Star for her love and concern. I would have no apprehension about leaving the two young girls in the care of Silver Star and her new husband.
“Oh, Wynn,” I said, “that’s a real answer to prayer. I never even thought of Silver Star taking them. That’ll be perfect! They already love her and her little ones.”
“But there is something else, too,” Wynn went on, “and I think that it will make you equally as happy.”
“What?” I prompted, wondering what in the world could make me as happy as that last bit of news.
“I dared to have a talk with the chief.”
“And?”
“And he heard me out—very patiently. I told him of my concern. And I dared to tell him of the concern of the white woman—you. And he nodded solemnly and then passed a decree that no man in the village shall take gifts to Kinook until the frost comes a year from now.”
“Oh, Wynn,” I cried, “did he really? Did he really say that?”
“He did. And he made sure that every male in the village knows about it, too.”
A new, more sobering thought struck me.
Did the chief pass his law to save the young girl for himself?
I didn’t like to think of it.