Into the Wilderness Read Free Page B

was, in short, intimidating in a way she had
not anticipated from a backwoodsman. With a little regret for her brother,
Elizabeth
conceded
Hawkeye Bonner's superiority.
    She
glanced up, found Nathaniel looking at her again, and blushed as if he had read
her thoughts.
    Hawkeye
finished his perusal of Julian and then spoke to the point. "First
off" he began, in his low, steady voice, "I was hunting in these
woods long before your father set claim to them—"
    He
held up a large and callused hand to ward off Julian's interruption.
    "You
want to tell me what I already know, that the judge paid good gold for this
land when it was took away from the Loyalists and auctioned. I won't argue that
with you—now. Not right now. You want me to sell your father the doe as a
gesture of goodwill, but this ain't a matter of goodwill," Hawkeye finished.
    "What
is it a matter of, then?" Julian asked with one brow raised.
    "Hunger,"
said Nathaniel, speaking for the first time since he stepped into the sleigh.
    At
that moment, they came to a halt in front of a house built of timber and stone
and
Elizabeth
looked up in surprise. They had driven through the settlement of
Paradise
and arrived without her taking in even the
smallest detail of her new home.
    The
judge took the opportunity to interrupt the argument at hand. "Well, there
is a meal waiting for us now, and no one will leave this house hungry today.
But first we need Richard to look after Nathaniel's wound. Galileo! Have Manny
see to the luggage, and go after the doctor yourself. We need him
straightaway." The judge helped his daughter from the sleigh, and then he
turned to the hunters and smiled. "We'll have your needs addressed
immediately," he said, and started for the house, with Hawkeye and her
brother close behind.
    Elizabeth
was
left alone with Nathaniel Bonner. She hesitated, searching for something to
say.
    "Never
mind if you're going to make excuses for your brother, miss.Don't bother
yourself."
    "I
was going to ask you if you have a large family to feed, Mr. Bonner."
    For
the first time, Nathaniel smiled at her."I've got no wife, if that's what
you mean."
    It
was the smile that set her temper flaring and her heart beating unevenly,
Elizabeth
told herself.
She must forgive him his uncivil manner, and his forwardness, but the smile was
more than she could rationalize.
    "It
makes little difference to me whether or not you are married, Mr. Bonner."
    "We
don't stand on such ceremony here. Call me Nathaniel. You're spinster woman,
no?"
    Elizabeth
's
mouth fell open in surprise, but then she nodded."I am unmarried, and
content to remain so."
    Nathaniel
raised an eyebrow. "Are you now? And is your father as content to have a
spinster daughter as you are to be one?"
    This
was too much. "Mr. Bonner, you are too familiar—"
    "Am
I?" he said, and smiled again, this time with something akin to kindness.
"Or just too honest?"
    "Not
that it's any of your concern, Mr. Bonner, but my father respects my wishes and
would never try to force a husband on—a spinster daughter when I have no need
or desire for one." Satisfied with this speech and her own logic,
Elizabeth
thought that
Nathaniel Bonner must now desist.
    "And
what do you desire?"
    The
question took
Elizabeth
by surprise. I don't think anyone has
ever asked me that, she thought, and then in an attempt to hide her
confusion, she turned toward the house.
    "We
should go in," she said. "My father has called for a surgeon. He
truly wants to put things right with you."
    Just
as suddenly as Nathaniel Bonner's smile had come, it left.
    "We'll
see how much your father wishes to put right,
miss.
" he said, and he started for the
house.
    * * *
    Her
father's housekeeper was a long and very wiry black woman with a thin face
framed by layers of calico. She took one look at Nathaniel's bloody shoulder
and disappeared into the far end of the house, a loud and pointed monologue
trailing along behind her.
Elizabeth
was left to find her own way to her