Chapter 3

Through the Wilderness

Alice made her way around the cabin and back to her sister. Cora looked up with relief as Alice approached and took her arm when she drew near.

"You had me worried," Cora whispered, sounding chastising. "You should not wander off, not out here."

Alice looked at her sister and nodded mutely but felt nothing. Apathy was settling over her heart since the discovery of the dead child. Something of her innocence had broken behind that house and without it, she felt empty. For a moment, with Uncas, something else had replaced it. It was a feeling she couldn't explain but it had made her heart speed up and her palms sweat. Her face felt hot, possibly from the onset of fever or from something else.

Up ahead, their guides were holding a low voiced conference that Duncan was trying very hard to listen in on. Even going so far as to ask what they were saying. Alice felt his behavior improper and ungentleman-like. She decided to tell him so later, if she had the opportunity. Duncan did have the decency to look embarrassed as the three men finished their council and approached. He shook himself, trying to look as though he had no interest in their conversation. He turned his attention to the dead instead.

"Let us look after them," He said gently. As he approached, Nathaniel shook his head.

"No. Leave them." He ordered, his voice thick with what Alice thought might be grief. Cora, however, took it for apathy and was enraged by it. She pulled away from her sister and marched purposefully toward the american.

"They may be strangers but they are at least entitled to a christian burial."

Nathaniel was moving past her as she said it and stopped, not turning to look at her. He shook his head for a moment and started to walk again.

"Let us go miss."

He sounded tired, and that thickness still hung in his voice, whatever pain he was feeling was waiting just below the surface. Anger crossed over Cora's pretty face and she glared at his retreating back as she fired off her next words.

"I will not," She cried at him. "I have seen the face of war before sir, but never war made upon women and children."

Cora bunched her hands into her skirt and took a step forward, determined that he would hear her.

"It's almost as cruel as your indifference."

Nathaniel stopped and turned around, the pain in his features colliding with anger. He strode purposefully back toward Cora and the girl's face paled. She took a step back but kept her determined expression. Nathaniel stopped when he was standing in front of her.

"Miss Munro," He began softly, staring into her eyes "They are not strangers,"

Alice watched them size each other up, for a moment she was afraid to breathe. The tension in the glade was thick enough to cut with a knife.

"And they stay where they lay."

With that he turned his back on her and walked away.

They stopped for the evening in a clearing with odd wooden structures. The structures were decorated with feathers and spears and other oddly assorted items. Upon arrival, Alice had moved forward to touch one of the structures but Uncas had grabbed her hand and pulled it away. He shook his head, silently telling her to leave it well enough alone. She didn't argue with him and made it a point to make her sleeping arrangements near him. Soon enough she was laying on soft moss and sleep came to claim her exhausted body.

Alice was awoken later by the sounds of snapping twigs. Her eyes came open and she darted her head up to see what was happening. Ahead in the woods, she could see shadows darting around in the trees. She narrowed her eyes in confusion and scooted forward on her stomach to get a better look. She stopped at an over turned log and felt her blood turn to ice. Ahead, In the trees, were a large number of Indians and french men with muskets. She felt a scream rising in her throat which very quickly turned itself into a cough. She tried to suppress it but the pain of it burned her throat. When she was about to lose the battle, a calloused hand covered her mouth while the other drew her against a familiar body. Her hands came up to grasp the arms tightly as the small army approached their hiding spot.

"Keep still miss," Uncas whispered in her ear as she continued to fight the cough in her throat.

"Try to hold it in"

Just as it seemed they were about to be discovered the men stopped. She heard them converse in french, catching a few words here an there. The french men wanted to push forward, the Indians said no. After a brief debate and much to Alice's relief, they pulled back. One by one they disappeared into the darkness until the forest had swallowed them and the clearing was empty.

Uncas held Alice against him until every last one of them was gone, until she sagged weakly in his arms and her hands lost their death grip on his wrists. They fell slowly from his arms and hung weakly next to her. In a rush, Alice realized two things. The first was that she had cheated death twice in one day and the second was that she was now quite ill. Uncas must have realized it as well because his hand moved slowly from her mouth and he used it to guide the rest of her back to the ground. When her mouth was free she began to cough raggedly and hard. It went on for a quite a while and when it was over, her chest hurt. The same calloused hand came to rest on her forehead and stroked it's way down to her cheek.

"You have a fever miss," He told her quietly, as she tried to catch her breath.

"Will you be able to go on tomorrow?"

Alice looked into his handsome, concerned face and felt herself smile inside. Then the smile broke over her face and she brought her had to cup his cheek.

"You may call me Alice," She whispered, "I believe we have moved past polite formality this day."

Her boldness surprised him and her alike but she had already accepted that there was an attraction between them. Unfortunately, she didn't know what to do with it past what she was doing now. She supposed that giving him permission to use her name was a start. He looked startled with her hand on his cheek and more than a little nervous. He brought his hand up to cover hers and was about to say something when another round of coughing took her. She rolled one her side and covered her mouth with her free hand, muffling the sound from her sister and Duncan. Uncas rubbed her back gently until it was over and she looked up at him with tired eyes.

"I will have to try to manage tomorrow," She told him, her voice a bit raw with the effect of coughing.

"No one can afford for me to be weak now."

There was something in his eyes that she thought might be admiration though his face showed nothing. Alice felt herself growing tired again as she lay there with him, her eyes wanted so badly to close.

"Please stay close by," She whispered as sleep came for her again. "I feel safer with you nearby."

Her only answer was a tight squeeze on the hand he still held.