He spoke to her. He told her of the history of his people. How they had come to be. His story differed greatly from the Christian creation story. She told him this.
“I hear there are more true believers even north of the world. Different theories but there’s a constant. A creator. It was...” He had almost told her that he had seen her in his dreams, but he feared that would scare her off. It was too soon. He could sense her watching their environment and it was not because of the scenery.
“Wherever we come from. Whoever we serve. We have the same creator. And a troublemaker.”
“Troublemaker?”
“Yes. The trickster.”
“Oh. We call him the devil,” Hannah said with understanding.
Bear Claw burst into a laugh. She waited for him to calm down then explain. “My people. We believe the trickster created your kind.”
Now was her time to smile. “Well, I would say the same for my people.”
He smiled back at her. Despite the different places they came from, they were so much alike.
“Tell me about your family,” Bear Claw said.
Her smile disappeared. For a moment it seemed like she would not talk. “It has always been my mother and I for as long as I can remember. My father died when she was pregnant. He never saw me.”
His heart ached at her pain. He had lost his father but at least the man got to see him become a man. It must have been a lonely life without a father, with just her and her mother.
“I worked at the seamstress and she ran a little bakery which we managed to survive.” She told him of how she had to start writing for the preacher so they could have more money. The kind preacher had taken pity on her and her mother and helped them any way he could.
“It was at the church she met Samuel,” Hannah said with a grimace.
“Sanuel?”
“Samuel,” she corrected. “My stepfather.”
The man he had wanted to knock out with how much he complained about those books. He had been more worried about the papers, instead of his stepdaughter.
“I believe he saw my mother as vulnerable. A single widow with a child with a small income and a house. He swooped in and tried to be a knight in shinning armor.”
He frowned, not familiar with the phrase. She explained it to him. “Knights are warriors. They protect and defend. In the old times, maidens were saved from dragons and bandits by knights.”
He nodded, getting the drift although not clear enough.
Hannah told him of how Samuel had courted her mother sweetly. He would come with flowers and books, and the occasional sweets. For so long, her mother had lived a single life, with barely any suitors. She was not an ugly woman, but a sad and harsh life had caused more than physical scars. A seemingly well respected man like Samuel casting his attention on her, had made her mother bloom.
However, while she liked seeing her mother happy, Hannah had seen something foul in Samuel. He had come off as a sleaze. He had no proper job, except a pastor title. He was new in town and cast his eyes on her mother. She saw a swindle, but her mother had paid no ear to her advice.
Three months into their courting, they had been married. Hannah had voiced her worries then.
“It is too soon mama! You don’t even know him!” she cried as her mother ironed her clothes for the week.
“It doesn’t matter how long we have know each other. I knew... Your father for ten years, and we did not even last a year as husband and wife,” Regina said.
“But mama—“
“That will be all on the matter. I have made my choice,” Regina said with a rare firmness.
The wedding was held the following week at the courthouse. Regina wore a blue gown Hannah had grudgingly made. Samuel had worn a borrowed suit. Hannah has stood in as a witness. And so had the old preacher.
She had hoped that she was wrong. That Samuel was a actually a kind man she had misread. A man who would care and love her mother. Her fears had been confirmed two weeks later. Samuel left for a trip and when he returned, it was with two children, a boy and a girl.
She laughed at the stunned look on Bear Claw’s face.
