Part 16 (1/2)

Such a light touch. Perhaps she was merely dreaming it. Perhaps everything was a dream. Everything. She lay back and closed her eyes, and when she felt his mouth on hers Nicole parted her lips to receive him.

There had been plenty of rain in the spring, followed by bright sun for much of July and all of August. The gra.s.ses were lush, the fronds so heavy with seed they bent with their own weight. The hay made from such gra.s.s would be excellent, full of nourishment that would keep the horses and cattle healthy throughout the long s...o...b..und winter that was sure to come. Every hand not doing other vital work had been put to the haying: all the slaves from the sawmill and a number from the gristmill and the sugarhouse. The twins, Lilac and Sugar Willie, were too small to swing scythes, but they ran to and fro gathering the cut gra.s.s and helping to build the haystacks that dotted the fields.

The first flaming arrow landed in a haystack right near eleven-year-old Westerly, the youngest of the three slave brothers who worked the sawmill. The boy beat at the flames with his hands and tried to tear the burning hay away from the stack itself. ”Sampson! Sampson! You over there? I needs you to-” Another arrow caught him in the throat and cut off his words. Six more fire arrows were launched at the field. The flames licked at the ripe gra.s.s and crackled across the ground, and a few plumes of smoke rose into the overcast sky.

Sally Robin was bent over, sweeping the hay into a pile for Sugar Willie to carry away, when she saw the child caught up by a tall brave with a red- and black-painted face. A knife slit Willie's throat and scalped him before she could draw a breath. Then the savage grabbed a hatchet from his waist and Sugar Willie's naked skull flew in one direction while his body was hurled in another, into the flames leaping up around them. Say Robin composed herself, waiting to die. A song rose in her and she let it loose. The tall Indian stood over her and she saw his knife red with Sugar Willie's blood, and how the blood dripped down the front of his buckskins. The field was full of screams and war whoops and the sound of fire. Sally Robin's song couldn't compete with all that bitter noise, but still it wanted to sing itself and she allowed it to do so.

Lantak stared at the woman who was singing in the face of certain death and realized she was a witch, and a great danger to him. He turned away just in time to avoid the thrust of the pitchfork carried by a huge man hurling himself forward. Lantak's hatchet cut the air between them and the man fell. The witch stopped her singing just long enough to scream ”Solomon!”

His tongue traced her teeth; she was as sweet as he'd known she'd be. Her hair started to come loose and Quent let his blunt fingers play with the strands the way he'd longed to do for so many weeks. Nicole breathed a sigh into his mouth and arched toward him; her small, perfect b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressed against his chest. He wanted to know all of her. He kissed her eyes and her nose and her cheeks and tasted salt. Her tears or his? He wasn't sure and it didn't matter.

Her skirts had worked themselves up above her bare legs to her waist. He let a tentative hand stroke the inside of her thigh and Nicole uttered a little cry that thrilled him, filled with both desire and innocence. He would teach her everything, show her everything, and she would be his forever. ”I want you,” he whispered. ”Now.” She did not pull away.

The platform he had made to sit above the laughing water with Shoshanaya was made of elmwood. He'd given the planks their final smoothing with his own hands. It was hard and unyielding beneath them and he gathered Nicole close, intending to lift her to the softer, moss-covered earth. ”No,” she whispered. ”Here.”

He was large with wanting, but he did not hurry. Nicole had contrived to release the laces of her bodice and he bent his head to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and lost himself in the incredibly sweet smell of the skin between them.

Here, she had told him, because it was Shoshanaya's place. Nicole could feel the presence of the woman he had loved before her, but she knew she would triumph. I am alive and you are dead. I can satisfy the fire in him, but you cannot. I will give him live sons. Yours is nothing but bones in the ground.

”Here,” she whispered again. Her hand sought his and she guided it to her breast.

Quent felt her nipple swell with desire beneath the palm of his hand. He took her mouth again, more eagerly this time, his tongue more demanding, sucking her breath, her life force, into himself. He stretched full length over her, pressing her into the boards. She belonged to him, was his to-There was the sound of someone running, cras.h.i.+ng through the woods.

Quent rolled off her. He'd left his gun back in the clearing and the only weapon he had was his dirk. It was in his hand before his feet touched the earth.

”Master Quent! Praise G.o.d, it do be Master Quent!”

”Sampson?” What in Christ's name was the sawmill slave doing here when he should have been haying with the others? For as long as Quent could remember the haymaking at Shadowbrook had begun at the western edge of the Patent, with the fields beyond the topmost sluice that fed the millrace.

”They be burning up everything, master. And one of 'em, he killed Westerly. Little Sugar Willie, he be dead too. Got his head chopped right off. I didn't wait to-”

”Who? French soldiers?” Fort Frederic was the nearest hostile sanctuary. But it made no sense for- ”Not no soldiers.” The boy was weeping. ”I saw what happened to Sugar Willie and I figured best thing I could do was run and tell.”

”Who? d.a.m.n it, Sampson, make some sense! Who's attacking Shadowbrook?”

”Savages, Master Quent. With painted faces and their hair all standing up in the middle of their heads like this.” He ran his hand from his forehead to the nape of his neck to signify a scalp lock. ”Them Indians be screaming and burning and killing and-”

Quent heard a small gasp and turned. Nicole was standing behind him; she'd made no attempt to adjust her clothing. She was staring at Sampson and the look on her face was of pure anguish. Quent grabbed her arm and pulled her back toward the stream. ”Don't move,” he shouted to Sampson. ”Stay right there till I come back.”

As Quent dragged Nicole across the clearing, the small stones and twigs cut her flesh and lacerated her feet. She felt nothing except the thoughts that pummeled her. My fault. My fault. My fault. Death everywhere. My fault.

Quent s.n.a.t.c.hed her into his arms and waded with her into the center where the stream was deepest. ”Hold your breath.” Nicole looked at him as if she hadn't heard, as if she had no idea who he was or what they were doing there. ”Nicole! Do as I say. Take a deep breath and hold it.”

He saw her chest move and plunged them both below the water. Holding her with one arm, he swam toward the falls with the other. The entrance to the cave was behind the wall of falling water, entirely hidden by a fold in the cliff face. Solomon the Barrel Maker had shown him this cave, back when Quent was six years old. He had no memory of learning to swim. It seemed like something he had always known, but the cave ... He remembered how it was when he'd first seen that. Solomon watching and laughing, delighted with a little boy's wonder.

A pale aqueous light filtered through the falls. Fresh air came in from an opening some distance to the rear that led deep into another part of the forest. The walls were gla.s.s smooth, except where things had been drawn by people so ancient they were beyond memory, a few faint symbols etched into the rock that meant nothing now but had once meant everything to the artists. ”Way I figure, Master Quent, the folks who lived here before, they left these marks to sort of say h.e.l.lo. I can't rightly figure what they were saying. Maybe when you grow up, you'll know what the signs mean. Till then, I figure this place has to be our secret, yours and mine.”

There was a chance that someone who didn't know about either opening could stumble into this cave, but it was a small one. Quent had no choice but to take it. ”Nicole, listen to me. I have to go, but you must stay. You'll be safe here.”

She made no sign that she'd heard, and he put his hands on her shoulders and shook her. ”Nicole! This time you have to do what I say. Your life depends on it. Promise you'll stay here.”

”I promise.”

Her whisper was so quiet he read her lips more than heard her voice. And she was still staring beyond him, into terrors he could only imagine. ”I love you,” he said. ”I brought you to the clearing to tell you that. I have to leave now, but I will come back for you. Do you understand me, Nicole? You will be safe here and I will come back for you. I swear it.”

She put up a hand and touched his cheek. ”Be careful. Do not-”

He clasped her small hand in his. ”Nothing is going to happen to me. I will return, Nicole. I will always return for you. If you know nothing else, know that. Wait for me.” He leaned forward and kissed her gently. Then he was gone.

There was no point in heading back to the big road. The shortcut that had brought Sampson to the clearing would get them to the sawmill faster.

Quent ran along the track trying to unravel the puzzle. There hadn't been an Indian attack on Shadowbrook in half a century at least, perhaps more. A scalp lock in these parts likely meant Iroquois, and around here that meant Mohawk, Kahniankehaka. But they had been English allies for years. All the same, Sampson was adamant. He kept insisting, ”I seen 'em, Master Quent. I seen them savages. They was-”

”Stop your wailing, Sampson. I believe you. Save your breath for running. We'll be at the sawmill soon.”

Quent smelled the blaze before he saw it. There was no wind and the smoke from the burning buildings rose straight up into the sky. He saw Matilda Davidson's body first, an arrow in her chest and her ten-day-old child still in her arms. They'd both been scalped. Sampson reached for the infant. It uttered a single cry and died. Quent took the tiny corpse away from the boy and lay it back on its mother's breast. ”There's no time now. This way.” He'd spotted Hank's body as well. Matilda's husband had been brought down a short distance farther on. There was no sign of Ely. And no way Quent and Sampson could put out the flames that were devouring the mill.

A nearby maple was the tallest of the trees beyond the screen of smoke. Quent scaled it quickly. The heat from the flames of the burning sawmill was stronger the higher he climbed. Sparks flew with sudden bursts of vigor as they consumed the moist, fresh lumber waiting to be dressed.

Quent shaded his eyes, blinking them clear of the soot flying everywhere, and peered across the horizon. Dark as the afternoon had become, the smoke made a darker smudge in the sky revealing the destruction. It was a thought-out burning, Quent thought; the wheat fields are the target. All the same, the woods will go as well if a wind comes ... Thank Christ for the day's stillness. Feels almost unnatural, but I'll take the devil if he's the only ally available.

”Master Quent! Look here, Master Quent!”

Sampson had found Ely Davidson. The boy was propping the old man up with an arm around his waist. Stil, the sawyer was alive and standing on his own two legs, and his scalp was intact.

Quent came down the tree faster than he'd gone up. Ely looked dazed but unharmed, except for an ugly gash on his forehead. A long gun was slung over his shoulder. The barrel was clean and the ramming rod in place. It did not appear to have been fired. ”What happened? Are you all right?”

”I'm not exactly sure.” Ely's voice shook. He was staring at the bodies of his son and his daughter-in-law and his tiny grandson. ”I'd gone up to the 'race to check the dams. I heard a commotion down here, started back, and-”

”What kind of commotion?”

”Couldn't tell at first Then I saw smoke and figured it meant fire. Panicked me, I guess. Didn't look where I was goin'. d.a.m.ned stupid after all these years. Ran so d.a.m.ned fast a branch caught me in the head and knocked me out. By the time I got here they was leaving. And”-he gestured to the three corpses-”it was too late to do any good. Never got off a shot.”

”Just as well. You'd be dead too if you had.” Quent put a hand on the older man's shoulder. ”They're burning the wheat fields. Did the ones you saw have horses?”

Ely shook his head. There was another shower of sparks and the flames roared. ”Didn't see no horses.”

No matter, the war party wouldn't be on foot for long. There was a paddock between the sawmill and the sugarhouse. Sweet Jesus, at least a dozen animals were there for the taking. Quent turned to go. ”We can head them off if we take the path around Big Two.” The sawyer didn't move. ”Ely,” Quent's voice softened. ”I need you.” The old man continued to stare at the corpses of his family. ”There's no time to bury them now, Ely.” Once they had horses, the braves could get from the sugarhouse to the big house in under half an hour.

Davidson hesitated half a moment more, then took his gun from his shoulder and began ramming powder into the barrel. ”Sampson, you come with us!” he called.

”I be coming, Master Ely. Just getting me something to bring along.” Sampson had spotted Hank Davidson's musket, just a corner of the stock showing beneath the dead man's shoulder. The boy dragged the musket free and ran into the woods after the two men.

Quent turned his head and spoke over his shoulder. ”The ones you saw, Ely, were they Kahniankehaka? Mohawk?”

”No. Wrong war paint. Not blue. Red and black”

It sounded like Huron. Quent felt a chi;l start in his belly. ”Red and black? You're sure?”

”I'm sure.”