Chapter 4

The following day, the group set out for Seattle just before dawn, despite everyone running on far too little sleep from the events of the night before. Even after it had come to light that their would-be intruder was in fact the Munro sisters' missing guide, it had taken a while for things to settle down. Magua had explained that he had led two of the train robbers away into the woods, managing to get far enough ahead of them to climb a tree and wait. The men had ridden on past him but had come back through a while later. After Magua dispatched them both, he commandeered a horse and went back to the railroad, but by this time the Munro sisters had been long gone. Not finding any evidence that they had been harmed or killed, the horses' tracks splitting off to the northwest had prompted Magua to try to track the sisters down, which was how he had ended up at their camp at a most inopportune moment.

Alice had worried to no end over Magua attacking Uncas on her behalf, and her own reaction to him trying to keep her quiet before that. Uncas had insisted he was all right and the cut Magua had inflicted was only a flesh wound, so she had let him be and tried to go to sleep again. She was drawn into herself today, quiet and pensive as she rode, sticking close to Cora but casting Uncas a furtive glance here and there. He and Nathaniel rode at the rear of their group as they had the previous day, and Magua rode up front with Chingachgook, the two of them talking quietly for short periods between stretches of silence. Cora was much the same as Alice, brewing inside over her conversation with Nathaniel last night, before all hell had broken loose. She had been pleasantly surprised when his sense of humor had come through a little, and she focused on that to take her mind away from the other part of their interaction – the way he had touched her face, and the way that touch had made such an odd, weak feeling spread through her. Exhausted from lack of sleep and lost in her own head, her previous hypervigilance was not nearly as present today.

Even Nathaniel and Uncas were slightly off today, not exchanging their usual quiet banter. They watched their surroundings closely but remained mute for the most part. Uncas kept recalling how violently frightened Alice had become last night when he'd tried to protect her, feeling guilty for being the cause of it at that moment and wondering what in the world was at the root of it. Nathaniel was equally lost in his own head, though on a different tangent of thoughts; mostly the pleasure he'd felt at Cora coming out of her shell some. He liked the sense of humor he'd glimpsed, and he liked her grit and fire, and the way she hadn't hesitated to take charge of the situation when Magua had showed up. But also hanging in his mind was the moonlight on her face in the dark, and the soft draw of her breath when he'd absently touched her cheek. Somehow that was more memorable than anything, and he fought to push the irrationality of it away. They were here only to help these women reach their destination, and once they did it was likely they'd be out of each other's lives unless they happened to cross paths in Nome.

In an effort to make good time, they rode hard for the rest of the afternoon, stopping only when absolutely necessary. The sisters breathed a sigh of relief when they finally reached Seattle close to sunset, which was far later in the day being this far north at the start of summer. Weary, bedraggled, and hungry, the travelers arrived on Occidental Street and dismounted in front of the Gateway Hotel where Cora and Alice had been instructed to meet Duncan Heyward. He would have been expecting their train the previous evening, but it would clearly not have arrived, and Cora didn't know where he would be by now – she supposed they'd have to inquire at the hotel desk. She and Alice untied their few belongings from the horses' saddles, prepared to do just that.

"Cora!" A man's voice cut through the sounds of the evening bustle of the street. She turned to see Duncan Heyward hurrying toward them, well-dressed in a dark wool suit and burgundy waistcoat, nearly losing the bowler hat atop his pale ginger hair in his haste to reach them.

"Duncan!" she cried, her face breaking into a relieved smile at the sight of their friend's familiar face. He wrapped her in a hug, and she returned the embrace, happy to have arrived at last and be that much closer to reaching her father. Duncan turned to Alice next, clasping her hands in his.

"My God, Alice, you've grown up!" He exclaimed.

"You look well, too, Duncan," she replied, beaming at him.

"By God, it's good to see you both safe and sound," Duncan said, releasing Alice's hands. "I expected you by train last night, but none ever arrived, and I've been terribly worried. Now here you are on horseback instead, dressed more like cowboys than ladies, and in rather motley company." He looked to Magua, the only other face in the group he knew. "What on earth happened?"

"The train was attacked by a big group of men. They blew up the track and derailed it, shot passengers and crew, and stole the gold the train was hauling from Colorado," Magua answered sternly.

Duncan paled. "And yet here you are, by the grace of God."

"Thanks to Magua," Alice interjected. "He distracted them so that Cora and I could escape."

"And these men were passing through, and willing to help us as well," Cora added, introducing Chingachgook, Nathaniel, and Uncas, who stood quietly observing the reunion.

"My thanks to you for keeping Cora and Alice safe. No doubt their father will be grateful as well, when he hears of this. Magua, it appears we were right to trust them to you, and you will be rewarded by Colonel Munro for delivering them unharmed."

"When will we leave for Nome, then, Duncan?" Alice asked.

Duncan frowned slightly. "I had planned to make passage on the steamship leaving tomorrow morning, but with this late arrival we may be delayed."

"Could we still try?" Cora asked hopefully.

Nathaniel chose that moment to speak up. "It might be better to accept the delay and make a statement about the robbery to the proper authorities here."

"That would delay us for certain, possibly for days depending on when the next ship leaves." Duncan's tone changed to one of superior annoyance as he eyed Nathaniel. "I have a shipment of mining supplies sitting ready to go, and we are already off our timeline as it is. I don't see how their statement will change much of anything."

"Near as we could tell, they're the only ones who lived to tell about it, that's how." Nathaniel's eyes sparked with challenge. "We don't know how many of those men got away, but however many it is, the railroad's gonna want that precious cargo they made off with back."

"Nathaniel is right, Duncan," Cora interjected, looking between the two men. "I don't… I don't think anyone else lived, and those men should be caught and pay for what they did."

"Very well," Duncan replied with a sigh. "Your father sent money along with me to outfit you both for Alaskan weather anyway, so we will need to do that as well as get you some proper clothing so you look more ladylike." He eyed their attire with mild disdain.

"Then it's settled," Cora said, inwardly rolling her eyes at Duncan's last comment. "We ought to go first thing in the morning. Magua, you will come with us as well?"

Magua nodded. "For as much as my word may mean to them. Your words will sit better with them because you are white, but I will tell them what I saw, too."

Alice bristled at that – why would Magua's word, or the words of Uncas or Chingachgook mean any less just for the color of their skin? But she knew that it would, despite the unfairness of it, because the world was not a fair place.

"Where will you stay tonight?" she asked the four men, looking at Uncas as she spoke, concerned at how drawn and tired he looked. She was not so naïve as to think these men would be welcome as guests at the Gateway Hotel.

"We have friends here, the Camerons. We will be able to stay with them, we always do when we come to sell furs. Magua may come with us, if he wants to, I'm sure they wouldn't mind." Uncas replied, his voice somewhat strained.

"I think you had better find a doctor first. You're bleeding." Duncan pointed to where Uncas' hand was pressed to a spot below his ribs on the left side. Fresh blood was seeping onto the fabric of the plum colored shirt he wore, hard to see except for the fact that it was now staining his fingers.

Alice gasped in dismay. "You are hurt! You told me it wasn't that bad!"

"Let me have a look," Cora demanded, daring him to say no, but Uncas knew better than to fight either sister by now. He moved his hand aside and let her lift the bloodstained fabric enough to see the gash in his side from Magua's Bowie knife, still seeping steadily.

"It had stopped bleeding, but it started again while we traveled. I didn't want to delay us." He looked at his father and Nathaniel apologetically, then at Alice, her hazel eyes wide and full of regret. "Please don't, Miss Alice. I'll be all right."

"This needs to be cleaned and stitched, and soon." Cora finished her assessment and let go of Uncas' shirt hem.

"No white doctor in Seattle is going to want my son as a patient," Chingachgook stated. "Perhaps Alexandra Cameron can help."

"Nonsense," Cora huffed. "I can take care of it just as well as any doctor. I've got supplies in my things."

Duncan gaped at her. "Cora, really, do you think you ought to - "

"Yes, I do," she interjected. "I've stitched up more miners than I can count, and half their children. I'm more than capable. Remember, it's been a long time since you and my father left Cripple Creek, and I've learned a thing or two."

Duncan let it go, clearly defeated, and Nathaniel smiled just a little at her mettle. She and Alice took their things and went inside the hotel with Duncan to find the room he had procured for them next to his, and once they had settled in, Cora sent him downstairs for a glass of brandy to disinfect the cut. Once he had brought it and retreated, Alice fetched Uncas and spirited him up the back stairs. Nathaniel came with him, and Chingachgook remained with Magua and the horses. No one was about in the dim hallway to see them being ushered into the Munro sisters' room except Duncan. Cora let out a sigh of relief as she shut the door and directed Uncas to the washstand where she cleaned the wound, then had him sit down on the chair by the window where Alice had lit a lamp and set out suture supplies on the room's small desk. He winced a little when she applied the brandy on the open flesh, but stayed still, his breathing shallow as she began to stitch a moment later, dabbing blood away with a damp cloth as she went. It stung like hell, but at least she worked quickly. Alice stood a few feet away ready to help, unable to stop herself from stealing a glance here and there at the shirtless patient in her sister's care. Staring longer than a proper lady ought to, she took in the muscular physique beneath his dark, coppery skin, the length of his glossy black hair hanging down his back, and the full view of the dark geometric design tattooed across his chest as well as the ones on his forearms. She'd never seen anyone quite like him before, darkly beautiful and strengthened by the wilderness, and it made her both curious and somewhat short of breath.

Nathaniel watched Cora in silence from the doorway, fascinated by this new facet of her precocity. Her head was bent in concentration, her hair now pinned up, curly deep brown strands escaping to brush against her neck where the soft, elegant line of it met her shoulder. She and Alice had both changed out of their dirty men's clothing, and she now wore a plain linen blouse with a navy and tan striped skirt. As simple as it was, he liked seeing her like that. He certainly hadn't minded the sight of her in trousers either, but the clean, feminine lines of a dress left more to the imagination; just hinting at the slim curves beneath as she moved. He cleared his throat quietly and looked away when Cora spoke, tying off the end of her thread and then applying some type of tincture from a dark brown bottle to a folded cloth, placing it over Uncas' wound.

"It will seep, and then it's going to draw," she explained, taking a roll of linen bandage from Alice to wrap around his torso. "Keep it clean, change the dressing daily, and do not exert yourself too much, or you'll burst the stitches and it will fester."

"Thank you, Miss." Uncas nodded.

"We've only got to get to the Camerons' tonight, so we'll travel slow," Nathaniel said. "We'll be getting back to Nome by steamship once we've finished our trading business in Seattle." He looked at Uncas and gave his brother a lopsided smile. "You about done holdin' hands with Miss Munro? We've got to get going."

Cora's mouth twitched, a blush creeping up her neck, and Uncas laughed quietly and moved to retrieve his shirt. Alice picked it up and handed it to him, her cheeks pinkening as well. He almost smiled at her shy effort not to stare at him without his shirt on, but he didn't want to embarrass her given that she already felt like this was all her fault. He wished he could tell her that he was almost glad for the opportunity to spend a little longer in her presence.

"May I?" Nathaniel asked, picking up the remainder of the roll of linen bandage and meeting Cora's glance. She nodded, giving permission for him to take it for his brother, a wisp of hair falling across her cheek at the corner of her parted lips. The lamplight made her dark eyes appear fathomless and cast a dancing shadow across her skin above the blouse's partially unbuttoned neckline. He found he was unable to look away from her, and that he didn't particularly want to. As much as he didn't like to admit it, she'd gotten under his skin in the last couple of days. Even though he'd see her again before they traveled north, it would be in far more company than this moment, so he looked his fill now, memorizing her face, her hair, her voice, the stubborn, courageous, bewitching essence of her that spoke to him from someplace deep inside her. It made him ache in a way he'd never known before, made him wish for more time to know her.

Cora's breathing stopped momentarily as Nathaniel regarded her, the color of his eyes deepening to a golden grey in the dim flicker of the lamp. She recognized something of what she saw there and thought about the way she'd been stared at so many times working at The Patroon's House. It wasn't hard to tell when a man had designs on you, but the way those men leered at her had made her feel repulsed, and sometimes frightened. Nathaniel staring at her made her feel nothing like that, and it baffled her. He looked at her not with the drunken, debauched lust she was accustomed to, but with a certain reverence; in such a way that she could almost feel a gentle, whispering caress on her skin as his eyes traveled over her. It made her tremble and ache deep in her belly, and it shocked her when she began to wonder what the touch of his hands could do to her if the mere sweep of his gaze could steal her breath like this. Mortified at herself and hoping the things she was thinking weren't plain for him to see, she at last found her wits enough to raise her chin and look back at him.

"What are you looking at, sir?" she asked quietly, hoping that she looked and sounded more confident and defiant than she felt.

"Well, I'm looking at you, Miss," he replied, still watching her fixedly, and she felt suddenly as if he had stripped her, not in the sense of the flesh, but to the very soul, as if every part of her inner self was laid bare to him. This unnerved her enough to make her glance downward briefly, then instilled a sense of wonder at the fact that he seemed to like what he saw, if the expression that flashed across those mesmerizing eyes of his was any indication. This revelation awakened a foreign flame of pleasure within her and emboldened her anew. She raised her eyes to his, and unable to help herself, felt a tiny, shy smile forming on her lips. He rewarded her with one of his own, the first full-blown smile since they had met. Its brilliance flashed across his face, the corners of his twinkling eyes creasing as the broad curve of his lips exposed even, white teeth and the deep lines at the corners of his mouth. She thought it might be the loveliest thing she had seen in quite some time. Dimly, she heard Uncas thank her again and say good night to Alice as he moved to the door, and just like that, Nathaniel disappeared into the dark hallway behind his brother, leaving a spellbound Cora staring after him.


"Duncan, I… I don't know what to say!" Cora exclaimed, feeling as if she might faint. Perhaps it was the afternoon humidity of a purportedly rare sunny day in Seattle, or the tightness of the corset she'd gotten used to not wearing the last several days, or exhaustion from such a busy day. That morning Duncan had insisted on escorting her and Alice to the Pinkerton Agency office to make their statement about the train robbery. Magua had met them there along with Nathaniel, Uncas, and Chingachgook, and fortunately the detective they had spoken with was grateful to have a number of direct witnesses, regardless of their cultural or societal background. Once they had concluded there, she and Alice had bid goodbye to their guide and rescuers, and Duncan had taken them to purchase clothing in addition to the limited supply they had brought from Colorado – dresses, as well as sturdy, warm items for the cold weather in Alaska. She and Alice had been fairly done in by the time they'd made it back to the hotel and Duncan had asked her to have tea with him alone on the patio, so yes, perhaps exhaustion was the cause of her woozy state. But then again, it was most likely because Duncan Heyward had just asked her to marry him, and she had to figure out how to say no gracefully. He was staring expectantly across the table from her, awaiting her response.

"Duncan, you have been invaluable to my father these past years, and a friend to myself and Alice. I truly wish they did, but… my feelings don't go beyond friendship. Don't you see?" She looked at him in earnest as his face fell, his dark eyes clouding.

"But are respect and friendship not a reasonable basis for a couple to marry?"

"Some people would say that's how it is… even my father, but I -"

"Then why not at least take time to consider it? Let those you trust, your father, help decide what is best for you. Will you do that?"

Cora pressed her lips together, unsure of whether to be angry or sad. She had trusted her fate to her father to the point of folly, and she and Alice had ended up at The Patroon's House, exposed to all manner of lewdness and danger. They loved Franny and she did not want to be angry at her father, but he had let gold dictate his path one too many times, and it had cost much. She certainly did not want him to decide who she should marry. She was perfectly capable of doing that for herself, and she would rather die an eccentric spinster than marry someone she did not love, for she had no romantic inclination toward Duncan. She recalled the way Nathaniel had looked at her the previous evening, and the way it had made her feel. She had never felt like that when Duncan looked at her, and while there was certainly no expectation of a future involving Nathaniel, she felt in her heart that Duncan was not the right match. As much as he seemed to care for her, she did not like his thinly veiled questioning of everything she did, or the superior way he treated the men who had saved her and Alice from certain death. Barely having gotten away from her checkered life in Cripple Creek, being hit with this now was the last thing she wanted, and Duncan clearly had no clue. Physically and mentally drained and wishing only to escape the conversation for the time being, she nodded in assent to his request for consideration, though she doubted very much that she would change her mind.


Five days later, Cora's mind had not changed, though many other things had. Two days after their arrival in Seattle, she and Alice had boarded a 200-passenger steamship bound for Nome along with Duncan and her father's cargo, and they were currently two-thirds of the way to their destination. The ship had sailed through the northernmost corner of the Pacific Ocean and was now passing the Aleutian Islands into the frigid waters of the Bering Sea. This was like nothing either young woman had ever seen, and while the circumstances weren't the finest, it was bracing to face a whole new world so far north.

"Look, Cora!" Alice exclaimed as they stood on the steamer's deck one late afternoon. Cora looked to where her sister was pointing, at a group of strange, rotund creatures lounging on the icy shore in the distance.

"Walrus," said a deep voice behind them. Uncas stepped up to the rail beside Alice with a gentle smile. "They don't look like much from this distance, but they're big, and they can be dangerous."

"I could believe it," Alice replied. "I've read about them in books, but to see them now… look at the size of their tusks, you can see them all the way from here!"

Cora enjoyed Alice's enthusiasm and smiled in secret gladness for the unexpected company of Uncas and his family. The sisters had been both surprised and pleased when they had boarded the ship at Seattle Harbor and discovered that they would be traveling north with their rescuers, including Magua. Though they were bunked in a different area of the vessel and there were many other passengers on board, running into them was inevitable here and there, since a ship was only so big. She and Alice had made a few other new acquaintances as well, people traveling to Nome hoping to find some fortune there in mining, or to serve the miners in business. The sisters often roamed the decks together during the day, as Duncan was rather prone to seasickness and spent much of the journey in his cabin feeling unwell.

"Well, if it ain't the Misses Munro!" A tall, smiling man around fifty years of age stepped up to them, wearing a well-made wool suit and frock coat. His brown hair was combed back beneath his black beaver hat, and his impressive, thick handlebar moustache curved upward as he smiled at them, his pale blue eyes sparkling. His wife was beside him, her dark curly hair piled up beneath a fashionably perched hat, coat buttoned over a dark purple day dress trimmed in soutache braid.

"Hello Mr. Earp, Josie." Cora smiled and nodded her head in greeting.

"Wyatt." Uncas accepted the man's handshake, gripping his forearm as a friend would. Wyatt and Josephine Earp were past acquaintances of Uncas, Nathaniel, and their father from time spent in Seattle trading, and this year the couple had decided to head north to make a go of it in Nome. They planned to open a big saloon, since Nome had none very grand as of yet, and Wyatt's plan for success was to "mine the miners", as he always put it with a laugh. The couple stayed to converse briefly, and then moved on.

"I ought to check on Duncan, Alice," Cora sighed. "He is feeling especially wretched today, and I hate to abandon him for too long."

"Shall I come with you?" Alice asked.

"Not unless you really want to. Stay here and enjoy the air, I'll return soon enough." She turned and left the deck. Uncas watched her go, then turned his attention back to Alice. She looked like a picture standing there in a rose-colored day dress, a warm hooded cloak around her upper body and her cheeks ruddy from the brisk, cold breeze as she looked at him and spoke.

"I imagine Nome is not a big place, then, if Mr. Earp and his wife are the first to build a proper saloon."

"It isn't, at least not now. I expect it will be soon enough, though. People go where they think they will become rich. And some of them are already becoming so."

"Like my father," she mused. "And then there are the opportunists like Mr. Earp, and I imagine he will do well for himself. If I've learned anything these past few years, it's that miners like to spend their gold on drink and women."

"From living in a mining town, you mean?" He stared at her quizzically, her blunt observation catching him off guard.

"That, yes, but mostly living in a saloon among women of ill repute, since Papa sold our property and went to the Klondike without us." Uncas swallowed, shaken by this revelation, and looked out over the deep blue water. Alice began to regret her offhand admission of where she and Cora and spent the last two years, wondering what conclusion he might be reaching about them, and suddenly felt panicked. "Of course, we stayed there with the owner, who is the widow of Papa's late mining partner," she continued in a rush. "We didn't work there. I mean, we did, but not… not like that, I mean, we weren't… we never…"

Uncas watched her face change as she stammered. She had been open and casual at first, but now her cheeks flamed deep red, and her eyes filled with a desperate kind of shame that made him feel like he had a stone in his chest.

"You did what you had to do," he spoke gently.

She nodded. "Franny was good to us, really. It was the only place we could go. Mama was dead, and we weren't close to anyone else."

"But not where you ought to have been." He wondered at how driven her father must really be, to have left her and Cora like that. "There's a long list of bad things that could happen to women in such a place, even if they aren't working as prostitutes."

"And sometimes they did," she said woodenly, figuring she might as well come clean to him since the damage was done. "Not as bad as they might have been without Franny and Liam to protect us, but they couldn't be with us all the time. Men have gone after Cora a few times, and one time she almost didn't get away. And me, too." She continued, telling him what had happened the night Magua had come for them. "If it hadn't been for Cora, I'm sure it would have been so much worse."

Uncas frowned in quiet anger, his eyes going impossibly darker, and his stomach clenched painfully. "Miss Alice, that night in the woods, when Magua came… I had no idea. I couldn't imagine what I'd done to scare you so bad. I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault." She shook her head. "Nor mine, I suppose, though I still feel terrible about you getting injured because of me."

"It's healing just fine. Besides, I think we ought to just put the blame on the bastard who started the whole thing. That seems fair, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, I think that would do just fine." The sadness was gone from her hazel eyes now, and her lips quirked just a little. "Thank you," she said softly. He didn't need to ask what for. He could imagine the poor judgment she might receive by telling her story to the wrong sort of person, especially since he'd been on the wrong side of people's opinions his entire life, by birth alone. He simply stood beside her until Cora returned, and then excused himself quietly.


Not feeling tired in the least, Cora set down the book she was reading by candlelight with a long sigh. Up here the sun set much later than she was used to, and it had been affecting her sleep the last several nights. She hadn't even bothered to change into a nightgown yet, knowing she'd likely be awake until at least midnight. Alice had fallen asleep about an hour ago, and Cora remained awake, turning over thoughts of what the future held in Nome, and the inconvenience of Duncan's proposal, which she had confided to Alice along with her disinclination to accept. She wondered if part of his self-seclusion had anything to do with her rejection.

At last restlessness drove her to don her coat and venture out onto the ship's starboard deck. The noise of the daytime was absent with all the passengers asleep in their bunks, and the silence was welcome. The air was even colder at night, carrying a faint spray from the sea now and then to the deck railing where she stood. She tipped her head back with a faint gasp, taking in the entire magnificence of the clear night sky. She'd certainly seen beautiful starry nights before, but not like this. On the open sea with nothing blocking the view, they were so thick she could scarcely make out the patterns of constellations, and the Milky Way stretched across the sky in an ethereal streak of smoky, faded blue, copper and grey.

"Miss Munro, I didn't expect to see you on deck at this hour." Cora nearly jumped out of her skin, turning to find Nathaniel approaching. Hand over her pounding heart, she let out a shaky breath. "My apologies," he offered. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"No harm done, Mr. Poe. I have had some difficulty getting to sleep the last several nights, and I thought it might help to take a walk. And yourself?"

He leaned forward, resting his elbows against the railing beside her. "About the same. I'm used to being on land, used to moving distances, going different places. I always get restless on a boat. But the one thing I do like about it is this." One of his long arms stretched out, indicating the glory above them.

"It is a sight to behold, isn't it?" Cora whispered. "I've never seen anything quite like it. No trees, no mountains, only the sea and the sky. It almost feels as if we're sailing into the heavens."

"The Delaware say that the Milky Way is the road to Heaven. That's what my father always told us."

"Ah, yes. And the stars reminders of the souls who travel upon it." She looked up at him, just able to make out his stark profile in the light of a barely waxing moon, the stars reflected in his pale eyes. "And your mother's people, the Haida – what do they say about the origin of the stars?"

Nathaniel glanced back at her and grinned. "Now that's quite a tale, and one I made her tell me over and over as a boy. When the world was first made, people lived in darkness and cold because there was no light. Raven felt sorry for the people and went in search of a solution. He flew far away to a place where an old man and his daughter lived, and in their house was a box that contained a ball made of light. Raven transformed himself into a pine needle and fell into the water so that the man's daughter scooped him up one day and drank him, and he was later born of her as a boy child. The girl and her father loved him, so he eventually tricked them into letting him play with the box that held the light, and then the light itself. When the old man tossed the ball to him, he transformed back into Raven, stole the great ball of light, and flew away with it into the sky. The whole world was suddenly filled with light, and the people and animals could at last see all the beauty around them. Raven was so busy looking at the world below that he didn't see Eagle coming after him until it was almost too late. He ducked out of the way to escape, but part of the ball of light fell to the earth. It shattered and the bits of it bounced back into the sky, and those became the moon and stars. Raven let go of the remaining light when Eagle finally chased him to the edge of the world, and it stayed in the sky and became the sun. So that is why Raven the trickster is revered among my mother's people, because he brought light to the world."

Cora smiled. "I think I like that story even better than the other."

"There are plenty more stories about Raven, but that's the most important one."

"I should like to hear them one day." She looked up at the sky, and then at Nathaniel. "Thank you for indulging me in my sleepless state. Perhaps the longer days are what keep me awake, but I don't think it's just that. It's… this is all so different from what I've ever known, and I hardly know what to expect anymore. Where I've come from seems like another universe compared to this, and that's not how I thought it would be, living in Colorado while we waited to be sent for."

"I hope you're not disappointed." He cocked his head to one side.

"No, on the contrary. It is more deeply stirring to my blood than any imagining could possibly have been."

Nathaniel could say nothing in reply to this. She was gazing up at him as if surprised by her own admission, her quick breaths clouding in the cold air. Beneath her coat she still wore the pale blue walking dress she'd been wearing earlier that day. It glowed in the starlight, as did her pale skin. But her eyes, dark as they were, mirrored the sky so that they looked like tiny galaxies all by themselves, and for a long moment he was lost in them, his own blood equally stirred. She broke the enchantment at last, casting her eyes downward and bidding him a whispered 'good night', and this time it was she who left him gazing after her long after she'd disappeared from the ship's deck.


Author's Note:

I owe my readers sixteen different apologies for taking almost three months to post this damn chapter! Take comfort in the fact that it drove me nuts, too, but the last few months have been jam-packed and there never seemed to be enough free time to make real progress until recently. We adopted a super amazing cat back in September who had been previously injured, and he ended up having a damaged front leg amputated back in November, so that occupied some time. Then came the end of the year busy surgery season at work and the holiday season, plus life and family and all, and BOOM, the LOTM gang ends up twiddling their thumbs in a corner of my brain for quite a long time! I'm hoping future chapters will not take that long, and I hope this one was worth the long wait.

I don't think this chapter needs a huge amount of explanation. Pieces of the film wove themselves nicely into the text throughout, and that is always fun and challenging to do. I wanted the story to move forward, but with more "inbetween" interaction with Cora, Nathaniel, Uncas, and Alice that allows for the awakening of feelings between both couples. And enter Duncan, the unfortunate third wheel. I tried not to make him too dickish, poor guy, but he's certainly no Nathaniel. His chronic seasickness was something mentioned in the original movie script, but the line was cut from the film, so I added that detail here.

You all know by now that I really enjoy including interesting characters in my fics, especially when they're real historical figures, so it shouldn't surprise you in the least that I have been incredibly excited about being able to put Wyatt Earp in this story. I blame my husband for that; he was helping me decide which firearms to give everyone in Chapter 2, when he stumbled upon a photo of the Smith Wesson Model 3 revolver that Wyatt Earp carried during his time in Alaska. Everyone knows Wyatt Earp from the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, but aside from that he lived a very eventful life in several other locations, one of which was Nome, Alaska. He and his third wife Josephine really did travel there in 1899 to open the Dexter Saloon, running it in the warmer summer season and then returning to the lower U.S. in the winter. After a few years they returned permanently, having "mined the miners" for about $80,000 – a hefty sum back then. Historical characters are so much fun, heehee!

All in all, this chapter leaves everyone appropriately twitterpated (Except Duncan, he's just disappointed and seasick). I might have been done with this chapter sooner except that Alice and Uncas wanted to have that conversation about what happened to her in Colorado, so I had to indulge them before I let Nathaniel and Cora have their fine moment at the end of the chapter. The Raven story Nathaniel told Cora is fairly widespread among northern Pacific coastal cultures, where Raven is highly revered and is usually one of the main two or three moieties to which clans are related in those societies. I adore this particular Raven story, and it seemed like a really good one for Nathaniel to tell Cora since it's another 'origin of the stars' type of legend, and it was a way to work in his mother's culture (and her clan) since that's something that is different in this AU.

As for music, this chapter starts off with Tony Furtado's "The Knave's Bane" as the group travels on to Seattle. At the very end of the modified surgery scene when Nathaniel and Cora have their famous interaction and he turns to leave, I was hearing Steve Buckingham's "Interlude", followed immediately by Andrea Zonn's "Hick's Farewell" again when Cora reject's Duncan's proposal (those two have very similar melodies and tie in the Nathaniel vs. Duncan conflict in Cora's mind). "Sundin" by Tony Furtado was in my head for the scene on the steamship when Uncas and Alice are talking. Though it's not necessarily the official "track" for the last scene between Nathaniel and Cora, "Restless" by Alison Krauss Union Station really reminds me of Cora at the beginning of that part, but the song I like best for that whole interaction is "McGuire's Landing" by Pete Huttlinger. It's soft and pretty just like their conversation, and the end of it kind of leaves you hanging, just like Nathaniel at the very end of this chapter.

That's all for now, dear readers, but I promise to make a truly concerted effort to not take so long with my next update. I'm having PRK eye surgery in a week to correct my extreme nearsightedness and I've taken a week off work afterward, so I'm really hoping that I'll be doing well enough after a few days to get some writing done on the next chapter while I'm home. Thank you all so very much for being patient these last couple of months – in general it definitely takes longer to write a chapter than it did before I started working again, and I appreciate each and every one of you for waiting, PMing to check on the status of in-progress updates (truly, that lets me know you care and I love that), and most especially for reading and reviewing when I finally manage to post. Stay tuned!