“The Iroquois believe in dreams. The origin of the universe began with a dream which could only be fulfilled by uprooting the Sacred Tree of Life in the Sky World. The act of uprooting the tree caused chaos. An entrance to another world opened.”
They entered a deep lake and, at last, Juliet let a breath pass between her lips, the unparalleled shimmering sapphire waters bloomed beneath the sun. And like every cloud in the azure sky with its own story to share, she listened to Joshua’s impassioned voice.
“The Sky Woman peered down through the hole to see vast waters. Pregnant, Sky Woman’s husband raged and shoved her through the hole. In the freefall, animals rushed to save her, ducks and muskrat cushioned her fall and placed her on the turtle. The animals determined to help the woman dove deep beneath the waters, scraping up mud and placing it on the turtle’s back. The creatures sacrificed this for the Sky Woman to exist.”
Humming a tune, Juliet braided her hair, and then leaned over to see her image, the sky reflected behind her, and a half-dreaming mood arose in which she naturally floated away in the mirror of the river. To have her life compared to the fantastic Sky Woman? What did Ojistah’s confusing predictions mean? She’d give birth to a daughter, and her daughter would give birth to a daughter, a long line of umbilical cords connecting and binding.
How could it be? He pulled back from any kind of attachment. She touched her lips and her face heated remembering his kiss on their wedding day. A longing manifested itself in the pit of her stomach and she stared off into the distant lonely forests.
Why should she be surprised? Had not her father taught her how selfish and faithless men could be? Because her mother had died, he’d abandoned her at birth. Every day was to be a remembrance of her crime and punishment. No matter how hard she tried to please her father at accomplishing her studies, riding, languages, pianoforte, he’d not take any interest in her. He tossed her aside and her hurt and loneliness left her feeling unlovable and unworthy.
She straightened. No matter how painful, it was better to forget Joshua and move on. He was committed to his trapping and trading, a man destined for the uncivilized wilds. There was no sense questioning a relationship that failed to exist.
“What do you think of Ojistah? Do you think her visions are real?”
“She is much the same as Two Eagles’ mother, her twin and despite their distances they have an uncanny exchange of each other’s thoughts and feelings. Both are esteemed medicine women, eminently skillful in the preparation of specifics believed to be of great efficacy, but whose extraordinary virtues are attributed to their powerful incantations and influence with the good spirits, with whom they profess to have daily communication.”
“Superstition, fear, mingled with awe?”
“At one time, I might have scoffed at their supernatural capabilities. But I’ve seen firsthand what they have prophesized come to light.”
He was foreign to her, this man who had taken vows to be her husband in a hasty marriage ceremony in a remote Indian village.
Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.
Did Father Devereux’s divine words still ring in his ears as they did hers?
“I want you to learn how to paddle,” said Joshua, navigating to the side of the lake to switch places.
The paddling looked easy enough. Juliet climbed in the front of the canoe with Joshua immediately behind her, then Mary. Two Eagles shoved their wobbly vessel off the bank and hopped into the stern.
Joshua leaned over her, guiding her hands and pulling with her. “Move with the rhythm,” he spoke huskily into her ear. She colored fiercely and stiffened with the near naked man pressed up against her. A band closed around her chest, held her lungs in a viselike grip and refused her breath.
She responded to Joshua’s slow, steady instruction, her body throbbing.
She couldn’t see where his eyes traveled but rather felt his heated appraisal. When she stretched the paddle farther, his biceps stroked her arms like a second sinuous skin. When his lips touched the lobe of her ear, she closed her eyes on a moan.
Heat encased her hand. She looked down at Joshua’s hand covering hers and his warm breath tickled a frond of hair on her cheek. A warning voice in her head told her to pay attention.
“Steady, Juliet. Remember, we’re in this together.”
Soon she adapted, keeping the canoe from wobbling, and working in tandem with Two Eagles, guiding with his paddle to correct any mistakes she caused.
Every so often, they spotted Indian villages a little inland. The fields were not plowed, yet rich black earth was piled up on hills two feet high, placed a long step apart. The hills were in rows and the women advanced, planting in the top of hills and singing. Not like the fields planted in England with horse and plow.
“They are planting the three sisters,” Joshua said to her.
“Three sisters?”
“Corn, beans and squash. It will see them through the winter starving period when game is scarce.”
“What are they singing?”
“They are singing to both the Great Spirit, Hä-wen-ne-yu and to Grandfather Hé-no, the Thunder God. They thank the Great Spirit from the world and all that is good. He made the corn and the plants of the earth to grow, to blossom, and bear fruit. To the Thunder God, they ask for rain to wash the earth, and to slake the thirst of the corn, beans and squash.”
“Life is so simple and meaningful,” Juliet said. Joshua chuckled, and she turned to look behind her. He reclined against the pile of furs “What is so humorous?”
His hands were folded behind his head. “The days hum sweetly when I have enough bees to do my work.”
