Dorothy Garlock - [Annie Lash 03] (31 page)

In less than two days the lodge was finished.

Eli watched with interest as Light’s winter home took shape. He and Paul had been staying in the shed on the boat. It served as a shelter, but did very little to keep out the cold. Eli and Paul had talked over the idea of taking a canoe and going downriver with the trappers who had stopped a few days back. The two rivermen had decided that everything they had in the world was here, and here it would stay until their flatboat was repaired.

Work had stopped on the flatboat until planks for the deck could be hewn from downed oak trees MacMillan had cut the year before. It would not do to use green wood on the deck because when dried it would shrink. That backbreaking work on the oak was better suited for weather colder than the present warm autumn.

Bodkin and Dixon had decided to cast their lots with MacMillan and become the first residents of his village. Eli was certain that the homesteader’s two older daughters had a lot to do with the decision.

Work began on a stockade-type cabin for the two men. Eli, Caleb and Paul cut trees, trimmed them, and used the oxen to drag them to the homestead. Under MacMillan’s direction, the logs were cut to the proper length and set upright in a trench. The work continued from daylight until dark and the cabin took shape rapidly.

Autumn was also a busy time of year for the MacMillan women. Pumpkins and squash were gathered; some were dried, others stored in the dugout root cellar. Beans were shucked and corn shelled. The corn that was not made into hominy was ground into cornmeal or bagged for future grinding and hung in the rafters. Some meats were smoked and others salted. Fish was caught, skinned and placed in brine. Walnuts and pecans were gathered by the younger children.

Maggie was delighted not only with her first home, but that they would be near the MacMillans for the winter. Watching his young wife, Light was grateful for the patience of the MacMillan women. Maggie was as unskilled as the youngest MacMillan child when it came to preparing food for winter and other housekeeping duties. Knowing this, Mrs. MacMillan worked with her, or gave her jobs to do with one of the older girls.

Maggie was a willing helper but she occasionally ran off to look for Light. When she found him, she would throw herself into his arms and kiss him soundly as if all she needed to know was that he was there and that he was safe.

*  *  *

The middle of November brought a few flakes of snow. The first pole cabin was finished. The clay in the rock fireplace had slowly dried so that a fire could be built. Linus built a table, benches and shelves for the new owners and received ample praise for his work. Bunks were attached to walls and a scraped skin was stretched over the window to afford a measure of light. Although small, it was a snug and comfortable cabin.

MacMillan suggested building another cabin some distance from Bodkin’s and Dixon’s and the work began. Paul and Eli could use it this winter, and later, if they did not stay, it would become part of a homestead for a settler. Eli had not committed to settling here permanently. He talked of going back downriver in the spring to try to recoup his loss. Nevertheless, he appeared to Paul to be more content than he had been in a long while. He and Aee did not snipe at each other quite so much, but there was still a coldness between him and Light. They avoided each other when possible.

The crewmen, Paul and Eli were still eating at MacMillan’s table. The work they would do during the winter, MacMillan assured them, would more than pay for the food they ate. The family enjoyed the evenings. The younger children had taken to Paul, and little Eee would often climb onto his lap. The men sat before the fireplace spinning yarns while the women cleaned up after the meal. They all missed Zee. Many Spots had taken him back to the Osage.

Aee continued to ignore Eli and had managed, so far, not to be alone with him. She was, however, aware every time he looked at her, but not once did she let him catch her looking at him. Her large brown eyes passed over him as if he were a fly on the wall.

Bodkin wanted to court her. Everyone in the family knew it and often teased her about it. Even though he was clean and pleasant, compared to Eli, he was plodding and dull. Sometimes when Eli was watching, she deliberately turned her attention to young Bodkin. This brought happy smiles to the crewman’s face and disapproval to Eli’s. None of this went unnoticed by Paul.

One evening, feeling she could sit still no longer under Eli’s watchful eyes, Aee threw her shawl about her shoulders, picked up the bucket and went out to the well. The night was still and cold, the stars bright. She breathed in the cool pine-scented air.

At the well she lowered the tin bucket and waited to hear the plop as it hit the water. Suddenly a hand reached over her shoulder and took the well rope from her grasp. Aee jumped and let out a little squeak of fright.

“Scared you, did I?” It was the Swede’s voice.

“Ya sneaked up on me!”

“You’ve been avoiding me as if I had the plague. This is the only place I can catch you alone. And . . . I was
not
sneaking.”

“Then what would ya call it?” she demanded. “Ya certainly didn’t come up behind me like a herd a buffalo.”

“I could have been a Delaware. You shouldn’t come out here alone.”

“Why not?”

“You know why not. Did you think that poor love-sick Bodkin was going to follow you and you’d have a few minutes alone in the dark with him?”

“Linton Bodkin?”

“He’s the only Bodkin here,” Eli said dryly.

“Well . . . what if I did? It ain’t no business of yores.” Aee’s heart was beating so fast that she was breathless.

“He’s not for you.” he said crossly. “Not by a jugful!”

“Well . . . I never—” she sputtered.

“Mind what I say, Aee. Stop leading him on. He’s a decent enough fellow. It’s not fair to let him think he’s got a chance with you.”

“Leadin’ . . . him . . . on? How do ya know that he don’t have a chance—”

“—You’re stammering, Aee.” Eli chuckled. “It isn’t like you. You’re usually ready with a smart answer.”

“I . . . I could slap ya!”

“If you do, I’ll slap you back. On second thought I’d rather kiss you.” He poured the water into the bucket at her feet, swung the well-bucket back and tied the rope. “Come on. Your pa knows I came out here with you. I don’t want him coming out with his gun.” He picked up the bucket. “Come on,” he said again when her feet seemed glued to the ground. “Or do you like being here in the dark with me?”

“I’d rather be here in the dark with a . . . with a polecat!”

He laughed.

“Don’t ya laugh at me, ya . . . ya mule’s arse!” She headed for the cabin, her face flaming.

He laughed again. “You ever been kissed, Aee?”

“No!” she gasped.

“I’m going to kiss you someday . . . soon,” he said just as she reached the cabin.

Aee pushed open the door, hurried inside and retreated to the far corner of the room. She busied herself hanging her shawl on the hook.

Unable to keep the grin off his face, Eli followed. Every eye in the room turned toward them when they entered. Eli set the water bucket on the shelf.

“I think I’ll turn in. Thanks for the supper, Mrs. MacMillan.”

Eli was still smiling when he went out and entered the room in the side cabin where he and Paul were staying while working on their own cabin.

*  *  *

Light and Maggie cooked their meals in their own lodge. Light hung deer, turkey, goose and ’coon in MacMillan’s smokehouse. There was no shortage of fish, nuts and root vegetables. The days were short this time of year. Light and Maggie spent long hours in the warm cocoon of their blankets, making love and making plans for their future.

It was an ideal time for Maggie.

“Will our home on our mountain be like this?” she asked one night. Snuggled close to Light, she could just barely see the outline of his features in the red glow of the fire in the middle of their lodge.

“Better, pet, because it’ll be ours. We’ll have a cabin with a floor. We’ll have our own smokehouse and corral for our horses. You’ll have a root cellar and a well and . . . a privy.”

“A privy?”

“A privy,
mon amour.
My wife will not have to squat in the woods. In the winter, I’ll set a trap line and we’ll take the furs to a trading post.”

“Is one there, Light?”

“There will be. People are moving west.”

“Maybe Eli an’ Aee’ll come with us.”

Light was quiet for a moment. “Why do you say that,
chérie?
”

“She likes him. Her face turns red when he looks at her.”

“She talks to Bodkin—”

“That’s to bother Eli. He don’t act like it, but he likes her.”

Light rolled her over and looked down at her. “I suppose you
just
know that too.”

“Uh-huh. I wish you an’ Eli liked each other, Light. He wonders about ya.”

“Has he said that, sprite?”

“No. But he looks at ya . . . funny.”

Light rolled onto his back and took her with him. The intuition of this small, wonderful creature never ceased to amaze him. The Swede seldom spoke to him but always listened intently when he was speaking to someone else. For a while it seemed that Maggie was the contention between them. Light was sure the Swede wanted her. He was still interested in her, but now it was a different interest, one Light couldn’t put his finger on.

“I had a bath t’day in the washtub,” Maggie whispered as if it were news of monumental importance.

“I could tell. You smell like soap.”

“We put the tub in the girls’ sleepin’ room an’ started with the littlest first.” Maggie giggled. “After Eee an’ Dee, it was my turn cause Cee is bigger than me.” Maggie giggled again. “Noah Dixon likes Bee. Did ya know that, Light?”

“I kind of suspected it, pet.”

“Are ya goin’ to love me again tonight, Light?” Maggie moved to lie on his chest so that she could kiss his face.

“Do you want me to?”

“Uh-huh.”

He rolled with her again, locking his arms and legs about her.

“Ho! Ho! I’ve got a little vixen for a wife.”

“Is . . . that . . . good?” she murmured between kisses.

“It is very, very, very good for your husband,
mon amour.
”

*  *  *

Because Light was more skilled at hunting than at carpentry, he was the designated hunter. It took a goodly amount of meat to feed fifteen people, and he had not forgotten his promise to take meat to the Osage camp. Each day while the others worked on the cabin, he took to the woods with his rifle, bow and quiver of arrows. For the first couple of weeks after his lodge was finished, he hunted through the area five miles east of the settlement, leaving the north and west for the Osage.

One morning, launching a canoe, Light paddled down the creek to the river. Here the Missouri made its great turn to the north, to continue northward over fifteen hundred miles to the distant towns of the Mandan that Meriwether Lewis had written about in his journal. Here, also, the character of the forest bordering the river began gradually to change. Patches of unwooded prairie appeared more frequently, especially on the south side of the river.

Crossing the river, he kept warily close to the south bank, paddling around the willows that leaned out from the bank. Suddenly he thrust his paddle into the mud to hold his craft motionless.

Above him on the bank not fifty feet away stood a huge buffalo bull. He was rubbing and scratching his back against the low branch of a pecan tree. Light loosened the paddle and let the canoe drift below the willows. He drew it to the shore, tied it and began to crawl up the bank that led to the grassy area above. Knowing that it would take two, possibly three trips to transport the meat across the river and also aware that scavengers could make off with what he left the moment he was out of sight, he decided to try and make the kill. Cautiously, Light reached the top of the bank and peered through a fringe of gooseberry bushes. He held his breath.

A half-hundred buffalo were peacefully grazing in the shallow valley. It was a small herd. Having not yet grown full coats of winter hair, their great bodies stood out boldly against the still green meadow grass. A few of them were lying down, contentedly chewing their cuds. Young calves, their reddish coats smooth and wavy, playfully butted each other. A number of the older animals stood placidly while tick birds strutted up and down their spines picking at parasites. Several of the beasts were within a hundred yards, easily in range of Light’s long gun.

He was ready to lift the barrel and sight when the tick birds suddenly took flight. The buffalo herd, their noses to the wind, paid no attention to what had alarmed the birds. But Light was instantly alert. He carefully scanned the edge of the woods behind the beasts and discovered a circle of Delaware slowly creeping up on the herd.

Light counted twenty braves armed with hunting bows and spears and decided it was time to leave while they were intent on the hunt. He edged carefully backward until he reached the bank, then slid down to the canoe. Many Spots had reported that the Delaware had gone south. They had, but had stopped just across the river, within a mile of the settlement.

When he heard the first yips as the Indians charged and the thumps of hoofs as the startled herd stampeded, he pushed the canoe out from under the willows and paddled furiously for the opposite shore.

*  *  *

For several days Light watched the shoreline across the river through his glass. When he had returned after seeing the Delaware, he had instructed Maggie to stay at the MacMillans’ whenever he was away and told the crew cutting poles for the new cabin that when they went to the woods, they should be well armed.

One morning when a heavy fog had lifted from the river, and after Maggie had gone to the MacMillans’, Light trotted down the river path, stopping often to listen. Turning his ear to the north, he could hear the faint ring of the axe as the choppers worked felling trees. He continued east until he came to the sandbar where Ramon de la Vega’s boat had blown up. The cannon was there, sunken in the sand. Most of the debris had washed away as the river had risen due to rains in the north.