The next morning dawned bright and clear, the summer squall having passed over them in the night.
Nathaniel and Chingachgook had gotten straight to work with the sunrise; when Alice emerged from the cabin she saw them dismantling one of the fences and throwing the loosened beams into a pile. She turned her head and gazed back at the structure: to her it seemed a blackened, half-destroyed wreck, whereas all they must have seen when they looked on it was a long list of tasks.
She was put to work drawing water from the well, which she and Cora then used to begin cleaning the interior, washing away ash and soot from the floor and the walls. They threw out the ruined furniture and, after soaking them thoroughly, handed the charred cast-iron cooking pots over to Uncas, who was visibly pleased to at last be made useful. He sat outside in the glaring mid-day sun, whistling as he scraped away the built-up residue with his knife.
The two women sorted through the rest of the belongings left inside the house. They found a chest made of solid oak, apparently undamaged, and Alice's heart sank when she opened it and saw on top a crudely-made stuffed doll, clothed in an embroidered green jacket and petticoat. Alice set the doll aside, gently placing it on the floor, and turned back to the contents of the chest. Inside were quilts, a few men's shirts, and a pale yellow cotton skirt that looked like it had never been worn. She stood up, holding the skirt in front of her own, which was covered in dirt and grass stains and still held the ruddy silhouette of blood. Checking to make sure that no one besides Cora could see her, she unlaced her skirt from the back and let it drop to the floor. Even in the warmth of the day, she shivered a little. Quickly she pulled the new skirt on, only to discover, as Cora fastened the waist ties for her, that it was several inches too short, the bones of her ankles displayed scandalously. She sighed. It would do for now, and it was not as if she would be making social calls any time in the near future. In Albany she would get something new, something proper.
Gathering up her old skirt, she went outside to throw it on the pile of discarded goods. Uncas looked up at her, his warm eyes in an instant turning stony and dark.
"Where did you get that?" he asked, his gaze fastened on her lower half.
"Inside..." Her voice wavered a little. "I found it."
He said nothing, but continued to stare. She started to blush.
"It didn't belong to anyone," she offered.
"It might have belonged to someone once, for all you know," he replied, his voice cold. He turned back to the metal pot in his hands, the conversation apparently over.
She stood there for a moment, biting the inside of her cheek, and turned to go back inside. Cora was still in the back corner of the house, looking for anything salvageable. She watched silently as Alice stripped off the skirt, replacing it with her old one, and then folded it, put it back into the chest, and shut the lid.
The afternoon passed quickly, in a haze of activity, Alice keeping her hands and thoughts occupied. Late in the day, Nathaniel sent her over to the small plot of corn fields to see if there was anything still left worth eating; if there was, he said, she should have Uncas show her how to shuck the ears so that they all might enjoy something fresh for supper.
With a basket on her hip, she pulled down each dun-colored stalk, ignoring the ears filled with mold or ones that had been pillaged by birds. She managed to find a few that seemed edible, although her lack of familiarity with planted corn made this conviction less than certain. Placing the last one in the basket, she looked down at her hands: they were filthy, covered with soot marks, little scrapes and scratches marring her skin. She tried to wipe them on the sides of her skirt.
She would be glad of the chance to speak to Uncas, even if nothing was said about what had happened earlier. Surprisingly, the idea of him being upset with her sat very ill and, as she thought more on it, she felt increasingly worse about her actions. To be honest, she had not really considered the fact that the article of clothing in question might have belonged to someone before she took it, that the original owner was no longer in a position to reclaim it, and that this might be distressing to him. The thought of righting things between them made her hasten her step.
Halfway back to the cabin, she saw Chingachgook, who had emerged from behind the woodpile a short way from the entrance, heading in one direction but turning towards hers once he saw her coming. He quickly intercepted her.
"He's busy now," he said, nodding in the direction of Uncas, still occupied outside.
"I'll take care of that." The basket was out of her hands before she even had a chance to speak. He continued to look at her matter-of-factly.
"Your sister needs you."
He seemed to be waiting for her to leave, so she did, looking once over her shoulder to see him approach Uncas, the younger man looking up at the older, words passing between them that she couldn't hear.
But Cora didn't seem to need her at all. She was starting a fire in the hearth, which being made of stone had survived structurally intact, feeding the small flames with kindling and then adding firewood to for them to latch upon. Alice sat down on a rough-hewn bench with her elbows planted on the repaired table, thoroughly perplexed.
Soon enough, the shucked corn emerged, brought in by Nathaniel, cooked over the flame by Cora, and finally ready to be served, along with the obligatory dried deer meat. Nathaniel and Chingachgook carried in Uncas, one man under each of his shoulders, Nathaniel steering him towards the free space next to Alice on the bench. They left him turned the wrong way, however, facing away from the table. Alice froze; she could sense the nearness of him but didn't want to look up, for fear of seeing the same expresssion on his face as earlier, which somehow, at this level of proximity, would be too much to bear.
He gingerly lifted his legs up and swiveled around, moving his hand onto her shoulder for support, squeezing it gently, then releasing it as he set his legs down. She glanced up through her lashes to see the briefest of smiles appear before he turned back towards the others.
Even half-way opened to the darkened canopy of night, the space felt warm to Alice, filled as it was with the light of the fire and the closeness of her companions.