Blackbird (22 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

KATHERINE scaled the stockade wall.  Breathing deeply, she balanced herself on the top of the narrow walkway.  She searched the horizon, the never-ending sea of forest, but saw no sign of Adahya.  He had been gone for three weeks now.  Everyday she climbed the wall to look for him, and everyday nothing.  She wondered where he was, if he was hurt.

Or--

She would not consider him dead.  She could not.

The longing she felt for him was almost unbearable at times.  She shared all her meals with either Star or Sunshine because Adahya’s lodge was just too painful to be in without him there.  She wondered when she had become so used to taking care of him.  She knew it was not sudden.  It had been gradual and constant, just as he had worked his way into her heart.  And now she worried.  She worried about him all the time.  If he was eating.  If he was warm at night.  If he thought about her.

Cautiously, she sat down on the high wall and dangled her legs over the edge.  She watched a group of children play in the river.  Before her miscarriage, Song had gone to the river every day.  Now, Katherine never saw her there.  Song still stayed with White Swan because her family wanted nothing to do with her.  Her physical condition had improved, but her mental state still suffered.  Katherine wondered if she would ever recover.  She rarely came outside, and each time Katherine tried to talk to her, she would run back inside and bury her head under the blankets.  She had not even visited her baby’s grave.

Katherine saw something in the distance.

Two figures.

She could not make out their faces, but they were not redcoats or Mohawks.  They looked like--white men.

* * *

ADAHYA tore his way through the thick forest, his tomahawk slicing through underbrush that blocked his path.

The raid had been a one-sided British victory, but it had brought no honor to him.  He had not even taken any scalps.  He had left before it was totally over, leaving word to his brothers that he was going home.  Home to Katherine.

She would be worried about him.  He had never had anyone worry about him, and the feeling brought an unfamiliar warmth to his soul.  He had never been away from her this long, and the void her absence made was almost physically painful.  He wondered what she was doing right now, if she was safe.  Grandfather had promised to take care of her, and while he appreciated the old man’s concern, he was worried.  What if--No, she would not run.  She gave her word to him, and--and he trusted her.

Instead of going directly home, Adahya found himself backtracking toward Knox’s mission.  He had promised to take her back to get her belongings and to say goodbye.  And he would because he had promised to trust her.

But he wanted to see Knox.  He had heard so many stories about him, but he had never seen him.  He suddenly wanted to just catch a glimpse of the man whom Katherine had loved for so long.  He did not know why, but it now seemed very important to him.

His jaw dropped when he found Knox’s mission burned to the ground.

* * *

THOMAS stared up at the stockade village and swallowed.

Kate was inside that demon hell, and she was the prisoner of one of the worst kind of savages.  From Robert’s description, the redcoats at Fort Ontario had immediately recognized which ones held her hostage.  Adahya, they called him.  Or something like that.  They had said he was one of John Butler’s most loyal savages and was often in the company of Joseph Brant, another notorious bloodthirsty Mohawk.  Lieutenant Pratt said he was a violent one, respected by them for his service to the Crown, but one who was easily provoked and definitely not to be trusted.  Especially with Kate.

He swallowed hard.  If Katherine was in there, she was likely dead, and they would soon be too.  But he had to find out.  He was a man of God, and as so he must do what was right.  He must save Kate from this hell.  He hated to think of her with such a demon.  But Kate was strong.  She had helped build the mission, had pulled her weight just like any man would have done.  She would survive.

Thomas recalled how she had sat up with him so many late nights, teaching him to read by the candle fire, telling him that if he spoke slower he would not stutter--an impossibility when she made him so nervous.  Telling him the funny things her Oneida student had said or done.  Laughing at his jokes.  He regretted now never telling her of his feelings for her.  Perhaps if he had, things would not have led to this.

All because of that goddamned Knox and how she was always trying to impress him.

Thomas gripped Robert’s shoulder.  The boy had demanded to come along, claiming it was partially his fault because he had done nothing to stop her, and he suddenly hoped it was not a mistake agreeing to it.  They each exchanged looks of silent fear.

Thomas saw movement from the top of the stockade wall.  It was too late now.  They would be alerting the others.

The stockade gate opened, and six Mohawks headed their way.

“They’re no different from the Oneidas, Rob.  Just remember that.”

But they were different.  They were bloodthirsty cannibals, and they favored the redcoats.

* * *

IF she had expected them to be allowed to walk into the village unharmed, Katherine had been sadly mistaken.  She had, after all, been treated the same way herself when she was first brought here.

But everything had changed now.  She knew these people, and she now understood why they felt Thomas and Robert were outsiders, enemies until proven otherwise.  The Hodenosaunee was a dwindling race, and they must protect themselves.  Trusting was a weakness that could lead to their destruction.

Thomas had stormed into the village as if he hoped to overthrow it.  Warriors had attacked him almost immediately.  They had made him run the gauntlet and had beaten him badly.  Because of his young age, Robert had been fed and well cared for, and Katherine had been allowed to take him under her protection.  Thomas, however, had been tied to a burning stake with all intentions of killing him when rest of the warriors returned.

Katherine would get him out of this.  She had only spoken briefly with him, and he had told her about the mission being burned. The loss of her mother's meager possessions left her with a dull sadness.  Though it hurt to realize part of her past was gone forever, she had known for quite some that time things had changed.  With Adahya in her life, however, it did not seem so terrible.  Thomas claimed Joshua had fled to Albany after learning the documents were missing.  She could not bring herself to believe that Joshua would abandon the mission and the people in his care.  Yet, it was Thomas who had come to the village to find her--not Joshua.

Such news would have shattered her three months ago.  Now it filled her with an odd sense of understanding.  Joshua had not been the man she had thought he was.  She knew now that he never loved her, never possessed the ability to ever love her.  It was not her fault.  It was his.  And now it no longer mattered.

Adahya would have risked everything to find her had he been in Joshua’s place.  She knew it with every fiber of her being, and it filled her with an emotion she had never felt before.  Adahya was belonging.  Home.  He was where she belonged, and--

And she still had never told him she loved him.

She suddenly wanted him here.  She wanted to tell him she loved him.  She wanted it more than anything in the world.

* * *

VALISE in hand, Katherine crept to the center of the village where Thomas was tied.

It was pointless to be angry at Joshua for not coming to her aid.  But she just could not believe he would have ever have left his mission voluntarily.  He was at Fort Ontario, regardless that Thomas thought otherwise, and he was in trouble.  She knew it as surely as she knew the sun would rise again.

Betrayal or not, she had to help him.  He had been her friend, and she could not let him down.  It was the godly thing to do.  Joshua would have preached something like that she was sure of it.

A quick glance at the stockade gate proved that Robert had successfully crept past the guards.

She reached for her knife, and then shook Thomas. “Tom, it’s me.”

“K-Kate?”

Quickly, she sliced his bindings.  It was long past sunset, and although she could not see his face, his breath was rapid and uncontrolled.  Thomas was always nervous, and she knew he must be terrified.

She helped him to his feet.  “Go slowly, and stay close to the ground.” 

Once outside, she led them into the forest.

Thomas threw his arms around her, lifting her off the ground.  “Oh, K-Kate.  D-don’t you worry.  I’ll take you to Albany, back to your f-f-father.”

“No.”

He set her down and gave her a puzzled look.

Nervously, she straightened his collar.  “We’re going to Fort Ontario.  We have to try to help Joshua.”

“He’s not there!  I told you--”

“Yes, he is.  He wouldn’t leave his mission.  I know it, Tom.  I just know it, and you’ll have to trust me.”

She was gripping his hands as if it would somehow make him believe it too.  But Thomas frowned, his jaw tense.  How many times had Adahya given her that same look when she had upheld Joshua to him?  Joshua had disappointed Thomas too.  She saw it in his expression.  Joshua was not a hero like they had first thought, like she had thought.  He was simply a man.

A man no one had faith in anymore.

“He didn’t even try to help you, Kate.”

“I know.”  And she still wanted to help him.  Even if he had turned tail and run when she needed him most.  Joshua was a disappointment to her, and she no longer loved him, but he was still her friend.  And he would always be her friend.

She could not let him down.

* * *

ADAHYA loosened his grip on Star, suddenly realizing he must have been hurting her.

“She said he was in trouble.”  Star looked at him through wide, red-rimmed eyes.  “I tried to stop her, but she would not listen.”

Adahya released his sister-in-law.  He could not stop his hands from shaking, and the lump in his throat felt like it contained his heart.  Betrayal, rage, and humiliation fought for dominance within him.  Leaving the kitten in Star’s care, Katherine had left with the documents.

She would still do anything for Knox.

Adahya recalled how she had cried in his arms the night before he left for the warpath.  She had cried because she had not wanted him to go.  She had not wanted him to be killed.  And she had married him before her own god.  Surely that meant something to her.

He wanted to believe that she intended on coming back.  But if she was not, if she planned on leaving him, he wanted to hear it from her.  He would not make it easy for her.

He quickly left Star’s hearth and ran to his own, grabbing his weapons.

Regardless that she had left him or not, she could be in trouble.  Katherine was stubborn and headstrong and mouthy, and Butler’s men would not put up with her.  The very thought scared him more than he could handle.

Even if she left him, if she were dead--

He could not think of it.

Leaving the village, he tore through the forest as if hell were at his heels.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“I insist on speaking with Colonel Butler.”

Katherine glared at the lieutenant.  He did not have the decency to look at her.  He shuffled through a mountain of paperwork on his desk as if looking for something terribly important, something far more important than what she was here for.

Lieutenant Gaylord Pratt was the same redcoat who had been to Adahya’s village that day, the same one who had held her by the arm and asked if she were a prisoner there.  Katherine had recognized him immediately, but she knew he did not recognize her for she now wore her own clothes, the same dress she had worn the day she first started for the fort with Adahya.  A day that now seemed like years ago.  The dress was torn and filthy, and she realized she must look terrible.  But this redcoat could at least look at her, at least show her that much respect.

He finally looked up, his eyes raking over her as if she were as insignificant as his men.  “I’m afraid that’s impossible.  Colonel Butler has gone back to Fort Niagara.”

“For how long?”

“I’m not at liberty to say.”  His eyes fell to her valise of documents, which she had showed him but now refused to give up.  They were her ticket to free Joshua.  They were the only card she had left to play.

Joshua was here--locked in the jail.  Lieutenant Pratt refused to let her see him, but he assured her he was well.  He would be held there and would await trial for treason against the Crown.

“You have no grounds to keep him.”

“That is for higher powers to decide.”

“You have no proof of his treason.”

The lieutenant stood, straightened his six-foot frame so that he towered over her.  “No, but you do.”

As if on key, Thomas moved protectively in front of her.

Katherine swallowed, raised her chin.  “Let him go, and I’ll give you the documents.”

The lieutenant laughed as if she were mad.  “Now why would I do that?  The documents are useless without a prisoner.”

The truth hit her suddenly, coldly.  The documents only convicted him deeper into his own crime.  Joshua was going up on trial, and she had the very documents that would execute him.

“Excuse me, Lieutenant.”

A private opened the door.  “There’s a savage outside.  He says he has need of Miss St. James.”

* * *

KATHERINE’S heart leapt.  She knew exactly who was waiting for her outside Lieutenant Pratt’s quarters and why he had come.  She was just about to go to him when he appeared in the doorway.

Adahya looked exactly as he had the day he had come to the mission.  Only now she was no longer threatened by him.  Now he was something very familiar.  He was a part of her.  He had changed her, and there was nothing she could do to ever be the same again.

And he was alive.

He was everything she had remembered and more, and she ached to throw herself in his arms and tell him how glad she was that he was back.

But the look on his face made her stop.  His face was a mask of stone coldness, as his eyes went from Thomas and Robert, to Lieutenant Pratt, and finally rested on her.  He was furious with her for coming here.  He thought she had betrayed him like Song had.  In his eyes, she had simply left him.  He had no idea of her intention of returning to him after Joshua was free.  And now he thought she had left him for Joshua just as she had fully intended to do before.

Before she had fallen in love with Adahya.

His eyes leveled on the Lieutenant.  “I ask that you let the woman go.  She has the documents you need.  She’s of no use to you.”

Something in the Lieutenant sparked, and Katherine knew he remembered her now.  But before he could speak, Thomas pushed Katherine aside and blocked her from Adahya.  “Stay back, Kate.  I won’t let him harm you again.”

“Tom, no!”

Adahya reacted before Thomas saw it coming.  The chaos was immediate.  Adahya sent a crashing blow to Thomas’ jaw.  Thomas crumbled to the floor, and Adahya lunged for him again, but two soldiers caught his arms.  Two more came to stop his thrashing, and they shackled his wrists with irons.

“Adahya!  No, let him go!”  Katherine ran toward him, but Thomas had her arms and held her back.

As the soldiers dragged him outside, Adahya shouted in Mohawk.  “Get out of here, Katherine.  You are in danger!”

* * *

“SO now that they have me, will they still pay you?”

Adahya opened his eyes.  They took a moment to adjust to the dimness before finally focusing on Knox.  Knox looked at him as if waiting for an answer.  Adahya did not think the man was taunting him but genuinely curious.  Payment for Knox was the furthest thing from his mind, so he chose to ignore the question.

The boy, Robert, Knox called him, had not come to see Knox in quite some time.  Butler’s man had not taken Katherine prisoner, he had learned from their conversations, and he was grateful.  Worry still ached in the pit of his gut.  He did not like the way that other one, Thomas, had looked at her, had stood so close to her as if she were his property.

He wondered if she had ever sensed that the man was attracted to her.  He did not see how she could not.  Adahya did not like her being alone with him.  Katherine was too trusting.  She only saw the good in people.

That was one of the things he missed most about her.

He stared at the reverend.  Both of Knox’s eyes were swollen.  It was too dark to see, but he knew they must be bruised.  He did not know if it was jealousy that had pushed him to hit Knox or the fact that he still had a hold on Katherine and continued to put her in harm’s way.  He knew now, just from the way Knox spoke of her, that Knox had no romantic interest in Katherine.  If anything, she was friend to him, much like a younger sister.  Still, he was not sorry he had hit him.  He deserved it just for hurting Katherine’s feelings.

* * *

JOSHUA rubbed his throbbing head.  Apparently, the savage was not going to speak to him.  He looked through his right eye which was only half swollen shut.  The savage looked less dangerous chained to the wall now.  He thanked the good lord the soldiers had bound him when they had or else he very well might be dead now.

He had heard talk of this one through the colonial militia meetings he had attended.  Adahya was one of Colonel Butler’s most loyal Mohawks.  His raiding parties were notoriously bloodthirsty and instilled fear in every settler along the valley.  It was only a matter of time, of course, before Butler’s men released him, and by his arrogant manner, Adahya knew it too.  Then he would leave and take Kate with him.

The savage actually seemed to care for Kate.  That was the strangest, most astounding, most terrifying part.  When they’d first been locked in this cell together, Adahya had pinned him to the wall demanding to know why he had not honored Katherine by keeping her from danger.

Honor was not the talk of a captor about his prisoner. 

Honor was the talk of a man who loved and respected a woman.

Surely Kate did not actually love this warrior.  Surely, she had not --

Oh, dear god!

* * *

THOMAS watched the British officer step around his desk and sit regally on one corner.

“I remember you,” Lieutenant Pratt said to Katherine, looking at her with a curious sort of fascination.  “You wanted to tell me something that day, but the savage stopped you.”

“I wanted to clear Reverend Knox’s name.  I already told you that.”

“How do you expect documents which prove his guilt clear his name?”

Katherine’s grip tightened on the valise.

Pratt seemed to sense her resolve. “Documents or not, Knox will still go to trial.”

“But--”

“But we have no proof?”  He laughed, as if he were dealing with a silly child.  “We have witnesses.  People he had bribed to the enemy’s cause.  Church records which prove his embezzlement.  Treason against one’s country is illegal, Miss St. James.”

“But you’d have to arrest every colonial militia--”

“And we will.”  His arrogance was unwavering.  “Your America doesn’t have a chance, Miss St. James.  You’ll see.”  He stood, opened the door for her and Thomas to leave.  “It’s late, and you and your friends are welcome to stay the night.  You must leave in the morning, and I’m sorry, but Reverend Knox’s fate will be decided by the courts, not by you.”

Katherine did not budge.  “And what of Adahya?”

“Kate, what the hell is wrong with you?” Thomas yelled.  He stormed toward her so fast that she stumbled back.  Rage came hard and powerfully.  He wanted to hit her.  He wanted to knock some sense back in her head.

He hated the part of him that always agreed with her, that made him forget about his own needs and agree to bring her here.  He had hoped she would return to Albany with him.  Then he could ask her father for permission to court her.

Instead, he had been forced to listen to her speak about going back to the savages, back to the savage who had nearly broken his jaw this afternoon.

“I love him.”  She met his glare with no hint of remorse or shame. Nervously, she turned a pewter ring on her finger.  “I married him, Tom.  Whether you like it or not, Adahya’s my husband, and I love him.”

“Kate--”

She turned to Pratt.  “Please.  I need to see him.”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible,” the officer said.

“Yes it is!”  Thomas spat, hating the way she stood there so high and mighty as if he meant nothing to her, as if all this thoughts of her had been wasted.  Wasted because he was just a stuttering fool who was not good enough for her.

She opened her valise and dumped the documents on Pratt’s desk. “Here.  Take them, I don’t care anymore.  Just release Adahya.”

Thomas could not believe what she had done.  He lunged for the documents, knocking Katherine on the floor and sending papers everywhere.  Grabbing fistfuls of pages, he stuffed them back in her bag.

“Tom, it’s his only chance to get out--”

The back of his hand came hard across her face and sent her sprawling across the desk.  “You little whore!  You couldn’t wait to wrap your legs around Knox.  Now it’s that savage!”

“Enough!” Lieutenant Pratt yelled.  Then called for his men.

Thomas’ gaze locked with the eyes he had just filled with tears.  He had never hit anyone before.  He had vowed to love and protect Kate no matter what.  Instead, but he had struck her.

* * *

KATHERINE was still shaken when Robert crept into her room with the keys to the jail cell.

She did not know what time it was, but the moon shown high through the casement of the soldier’s barracks where Lieutenant Pratt had put them up for the night.  “Is Tom asleep?”

Robert nodded, and Katherine breathed a sigh of relief.  Thomas had always been a trusted, dear friend in whom she could confide her dreams and secrets.  Everything about him unsettled her now, especially the way he had looked at her, the hatred in his eyes right before he had slapped her.  Pratt’s men had asked if she had wanted him locked up, but she had said no. 

However, she now feared him.  She had been wrong about Thomas.  She had been wrong about everyone.

Except Adahya.

Robert tugged on her sleeve, the candle lamp he carried swaying nervously.  “The guards went to the privy.  We have to hurry.”