Part 16 (1/2)

Some looked away abashed, while a few nodded. Bailey and his allies regarded me with hostility.

”Moreover, being a papist does not make a traitor of a man-or a woman,” I added in Betty's defense.

”But what if they are are guilty?” someone shouted. guilty?” someone shouted.

”Now is the time to find out,” Bailey said, heading for the armory where Betty and her brother were being held.

Silently I berated myself for speaking out. Why could I not learn to hold my tongue? Now Betty would be judged by the four a.s.sistants who remained: Bailey, two lazy gentlemen who did his bidding, and Ananias.

Everyone crowded into the armory as Betty and her brother were brought forward. Betty's eyes were wide with dread and her lips moved in prayer. Bailey questioned her first, perhaps thinking she would confess easily. But she shook her head when asked to reveal the details of her husband's plot. Bailey held up a pair of iron pliers. Still she confessed nothing. He placed her fingers in the pliers and pressed. She gritted her teeth, and he pressed harder. I saw Ananias cringe. I stared at Betty's brother, willing him to confess in her stead, but his eyes were tightly closed. There was a crack of bone and Betty screamed the names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Jane Pierce, far gone with Bailey's child, fainted. Alice and I carried her out and laid her on a bench. My own stomach was churning. I wished with all my being that Roger Bailey would be struck dead.

Georgie Howe stood by the door of the armory, rocking back and forth, fear in his eyes.

”Papa's in the ground. Georgie is cold,” he said, although there was sweat on his forehead.

”Cate is cold, too, Georgie,” I said.

After Roger Bailey broke three of Betty's fingers, her brother shouted out what everyone waited to hear: that he and Ambrose had conspired with Fernandes to betray the location of Fort Ralegh to the Spanish. I was certain he lied, except in swearing that Betty was innocent. Still, Bailey decreed that they would be taken to the mainland, rowed upriver in the shallop, and left to fend for themselves. It was a sentence of death, more cruel even than hanging. The punishment stunned everyone, and Bailey had to carry it out himself to ensure that it was done.

I simmered with rage against Bailey and all the a.s.sistants. A sense of my own guilt and helplessness plagued me. Every one of us, I felt, had been complicit in making the Vickers family scapegoats for our fears. The only innocent one was little Virginia, who smelled of milk and sweetness, her happy smile belying the suffering all around her.

My desire to escape the company of the other colonists made me decide to go to Dasemunkepeuc on that fateful day. Graham, as usual, accompanied me. Alice left her baby with Eleanor and joined us, saying she was weary of her husband's talk of conspiracies. Jane Pierce was also glad to come. She had confessed to me she was afraid of Roger Bailey.

”He has called me a wh.o.r.e and denied the child is his,” she said, pulling up her sleeves to show me the bruises on her arms.

”You must not marry him,” I said. ”All your days will be miserable.”

”But it would make me an outcast to have no father for my baby,” she said, touching her belly.

”I will be your friend,” I said, ”if you promise not to be such a gossip.” Once she had asked me if I had a lover at the Indians' village, to which I had responded with a cold stare.

We were in the rowboat when, to my surprise, Manteo appeared on the sh.o.r.e.

”I do not wish you to go to Dasemunkepeuc,” he said. ”You may be in danger there.”

Jane glanced from Manteo to me and raised her eyebrows. I knew what she was thinking and I gave her a warning look.

”Lord Manteo,” I said. ”At present we are in more danger from certain men here at Fort Ralegh.”

”You do not understand. Some of the Croatoan have gone over to Wanchese,” he said to me in his tongue.

”Surely not our friends at Dasemunkepeuc,” I said. ”They are too few to merit Wanchese's interest.”

Rather than argue, Manteo climbed into the boat. He picked up an oar and stood in the stern holding it like a staff. To show his displeasure, he refused to row. His back was to me. A deerskin hung down over his loins, and a leather thong held his bow and a case of arrows behind his shoulder. The muscles in his legs quivered, holding him in perfect balance.

I took a spare oar and, surprised by my own strength, helped Graham row the crowded little boat to Dasemunkepeuc. The village looked as peaceful as ever. Because of the warm day, the mats over the doors of Tameoc's house were tied back. Jane exclaimed over everything from the houses to the frames for tanning hides, for this was her first visit to the village. A bowl of grain sat beside a quern as if someone had just been grinding it. Then Mika appeared at the door. If I had looked more closely at her eyes, I might have seen a warning there. But I was watching with some dismay the direction of Graham's gaze, which had settled on Mika's uncovered b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Jane also noticed and began to giggle.

”Where is everyone?” Alice said.

And then events befell in a confused and rapid sequence.

Manteo shouted a warning and drew out his bow. Graham whirled around and aimed his musket. From the bushes warriors rushed forth with sharp cries. They were bedecked with feathers and paint and carried their muskets as if they were mattocks for breaking the ground. Graham fired but had no time to reload before they were upon him. Jane, Alice, and I fell to the ground in a huddle, too frightened even to cry out.

Manteo was soon disarmed by the leader of the attackers, a smaller Indian with a beaked nose and scars on his face. I recognized him from long ago, when he strode with Manteo into the queen's banquet hall. It was the hated Wanchese. He and Manteo were arguing, speaking so rapidly I could not understand them.

”Manteo, you betrayed us!” cried Graham.

Manteo turned to him with a look of fierce denial. I did not want to believe he had led us into a trap. He had warned us, after all. Some of the Croatoan have gone over to Wanchese. Some of the Croatoan have gone over to Wanchese.

Then I saw the sword Tameoc had stolen-in Wanchese's hand. Tameoc himself stood beside the Roanoke chief. I thought he had promised John White he would not become Wanchese's ally. Since then he had not only stolen the sword, but apparently the muskets now in the Roanoke warriors' hands.

”Graham, don't blame Manteo. It was Tameoc's doing,” I said. ”See the sword?” I suspected Tameoc had been forced to do Wanchese's bidding, for he would not have given up the fine sword of his own will.

The warriors made us rise and they bound our hands. Alice began to weep.

”My son, my dear little boy, what will he do without his mother?”

”Let her go. She has an infant to care for,” Manteo said.

Wanchese hesitated, then motioned for Alice to be freed.

”Take her back. And warn the English what their fate will be if they do not leave the island,” Wanchese ordered Manteo.

”If I return there, they will say I gave you these captives, and they will kill me,” Manteo said. ”If I am dead, who will persuade the rest of the Croatoan to take your side?”

I stared at Manteo in confusion. Was he planning to deliver his own people to Wanchese? Perhaps he was simply afraid to face Bailey and Ananias with news that Wanchese had captured us. Why had he let Wanchese take us without a fight?

”If the English kill you, then the Croatoan will turn against them, which will serve my ends,” said Wanchese with a sneer.

”You forget that I am Lord of Roanoke and Dasemunkepeuc. I have allies throughout Ossomocomuck,” said Manteo calmly. ”You have need of me.”

Wanchese hesitated.

”Send Graham back with the woman. I exchange myself for him,” said Manteo, holding out his hands to be bound. ”If he brings soldiers against us, you may hold me to account.”

”What are they saying? What will become of us?” said Jane in a voice shaking with tears.

I shook my head, for I did not understand Manteo's deed. Like me, Graham was attentive to everything that pa.s.sed between Manteo and Wanchese. I hoped he could make sense of it.

After a long moment, Wanchese reached his decision. He told Tameoc to take Graham and Alice to the boat. But Graham, though his hands were tied together, threw off Tameoc.

”I have sworn to protect the Lady Catherine!” he shouted. ”Lord Manteo, you are the queen's deputy. Command him to release the women.”