Nay, not his own but his sworn enemy’s.
From outside came the sound of bubbling laughter. Not Watseka’s but Oceanus’s. The joyful intrusion spread a balm over the ill feeling left in Laurent’s wake. Yet in the ensuingsilence, a new sorrow began to unspool inside Selah. How she had misjudged Xander.
Her mouth felt dry, her tongue tied. “I have a confession.”
He looked at her, his eyes glittering with emotion. If ever a man could undo a woman in a glance...
“I have thought wrongly of you for years.” Tears nearly closed her throat. “I’ve been a fool to believe you sent your son far away from you in a callous gesture when he is not even your son, when his very presence must remind you of what that vile—”
“Nay, Selah.” He swallowed, the cords of his own throat tightening. “He is all I have of Mattachanna. And I choose to believe her beauty and her character trump any evildoing Laurent did her.”
She slipped her arms about his waist and laid her head upon his chest. Long moments passed as the truth took root. She let go of the lie that Xander wanted to wed her for ignoble reasons. She would not even give that voice.
Outside the laughter ebbed. Oceanus appeared at the door, holding out Watseka’s English garments. “She says she is a beaver.”
With a sudden, bottomless laugh, Xander banished all remaining tension from the room. “Soon I will take you to pay a visit to your grandfather the chief, and you will see that most of your kinsmen do not wear a great many clothes in summer. Watseka is only following her custom.”
“She isn’t the only beaver hereabouts.” Selah took the clothes and impulsively kissed Oceanus on the top of his thoroughly wet head. “Meegwetch.”
“That means ‘thank you.’” He smiled up at her. “Meegwetch.”
“Good words.” She smoothed his hair back, wondering when Xander had had it cut. Perhaps at breeching, as was common. She searched for any telltale sign of Laurent in his sweet face.
Lord, may it only be Mattachanna I see.
With another smile, he ran off with the boundless energy of a boy not yet five.
“Where is your father?” Xander’s question turned her around.
“Unwell, thus I am here in his stead.”
“What happened here today before I came? With Laurent, I mean.”
“Nothing of consequence, as you arrived soon after. But if you had not come when you did...” She all but shuddered. “Save for the Almighty, rogues such as he are hard to redeem.”
“I suspect ’tis not only Mattachanna who has suffered at his hands.” Xander’s gaze held a warning. “Or who else will.”
Selah returned to the counter and closed the ledgers. “If you would see me home ... I have no heart for merchanting today.”
Together they toted most of the remaining goods inside the storeroom before locking up, then called the children to follow once Watseka was dressed again. In the bright sunlight, with the river gliding on as before, the shore soothed by a freshening wind, Selah could almost believe nothing had changed. Yet in the span of a tense hour, her small world had turned on end. Everything before her held a different cast, including the man whose saddle she shared. The boy running ahead of them after Watseka. The precious memory of Mattachanna.
She herself.
31
Once home, Xander helped Selah dismount, his hands lingering at her waist. “Have you given any more thought to the beads?”
Smile returning, she looked up at him. “I can think of naught else.”
“Nor can I.” His countenance eased. Had he somehow been unburdened by all he had told her? “Once the harvest is well under way, Oceanus and I will head west to the Powhatans. Have you anything for your brother?”
“I’ll gather some small things to give him. How long will you be gone?”
“Long enough to ascertain how the exchange is faring. When I come back, we’ll talk more about the future.”
She blinked into the glaring sunlight that snuck beneath her hat brim, wishing she could go with him. How she missed Shay. The world he’d gone to was strange, indeed. She craved but a glimpse.
Behind them came Ustis’s raspy voice beneath the arbor. “Home early, Daughter?”
