Prodded into wakefulness by cold, Cora drifted out of the dream-filled and odd nap to find Nathaniel kneeling across from her, his proximity doubtless due to the fact that the base of the tree was the driest place to be. He had his rifle out in front of him, laid on the ground in several parts on a piece of hide, and he was reassembling it. His turquoise eyes, so odd in his tanned face, met hers thoughtfully.

At least the rain had stopped. Cora became aware of an ache in her neck. Rubbing it, she shifted, rearranging her damp skirts. "I...I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"Quite all right," Nathaniel said. She wondered if it cost him an effort to sound pleasant. He indicated something with a jerk of his head, and Cora followed the motion to see Uncas and Alice in a very odd position a few feet away. Uncas was sitting up against the tree much as Cora had been, his chest rising and falling evenly and his eyes closed. One hand was on his belt near his tomahawk; the other arm was wrapped around Alice, who, thoroughly tucked into the blanket, had curled up against his chest, her hair obscuring her face from view.

For a moment Cora just stared, conflicting emotions competing for attention in her heart. On one side, they looked enviably peaceful. On the other, that was her little sister, virtually sleeping in the arms of a, well, a savage. A savage who had helped them, certainly, but who was not a member of any society they could acknowledge or recognize as civilized.

"What are they doing?" she asked at last.

"Sleeping, or so it appears." As she turned her gaze back on him, Nathaniel met her eyes boldly and lifted the corner of his mouth in a quirk of a smile, daring her to say something.

But she had to. She could not let him think that she would let just anything go unchallenged. "Sir," she began, taking a deep breath, more for courage than for oxygen, "I want you to know that I do deeply appreciate what you are doing for us in guiding us to the fort, and I am honestly sorry if anything I've said or done in the past week has led you to believe otherwise, but--"

"Cora."

She was stilled by his use of her first name.

"Cora," he said again, as if he liked the sound of it. Or maybe he was just trying to offend her, but oddly enough, to her ears now it was preferable to the too-formal "miss" that had been coming from him. "I can assure you that your sister is safe with my brother."

"It is not her safety to which I am referring." Not exactly.. "It is her...reputation and morality that I wish to keep secure."

"Her reputation?" Nathaniel repeated with a short laugh. "Forgive me, Miss Munro, but I haven't noticed a wealth of your breed of folk out here--anyone who would gossip or tell tales about an innocent child."

"It is exactly that innocence that I desire to preserve. Furthermore, I do not understand your use of the word "breed" to describe our people." Cora felt herself getting irritated, though she was determined to maintain equanimity in this conversation no matter what cost. "You are a white man, an Englishman by blood if not upbringing and you should be as concerned about the preservation of standards and morals as I. I realize that here in the new world circumstances are different and we may be forced to...to relax some of our conditions while we travel and accustom ourselves to your frontier, but..."

Again Nathaniel cut her off. He certainly hadn't been schooled in the niceties of formal debate. "First of all, my upbringing was, I'd wager, superior to any my peers on your tiny island received. Furthermore, you seem to keep forgetting the fact that we're all in the middle of a war here, and your conditions take second place to my need to keep you alive. So I'd appreciate you not lecturing me on the need to maintain standards and morals. I haven't noticed any slippage in those respects in any case."

Alice murmured something unintelligible in her sleep and let out a little happy sigh of warmth, her breath sending tendrils of hair fluttering around her face and then falling again. Uncas shifted, his head dipping.

For a few moments, an awkward silence fell. Then Nathaniel said, a little more gently, "Your sister is very young. And it is your duty to protect her. I understand that."

"Thank you." She was only slightly mollified.

"I still don't think you have anything to worry about."

Cora tugged at a dusky curl of hair by her ear, aware suddenly that she had not seen her own face in far too long and that it must be ridiculously dirty, rain notwithstanding. "Until I can get Alice back to our father, protecting her is my only duty. Perhaps I have been...too occupied with my own thoughts and troubles these past few days."

She recalled Alice's turning her foot earlier. Guilt, which had been lying dormant the last little while, suddenly propelled her into saying this last statement aloud, though she would never have thought Nathaniel would be the sympathetic ear into which she poured it. She glanced down, unable to look into those piercing eyes any longer, and fidgeted with some twigs that were lying at her side.

"How fond were you of Hayward?" Nathaniel asked quietly. It was a completely unexpected change of subject. And it was the unexpectedness of it, rather than any feelings she had had for Duncan that made Cora's eyes suddenly fill with tears.

The frontierman rose. "I'm sorry. It was not my place to ask that."

"No," Cora said, blinking. "It is a fair question. And..." she glanced up at him, framed by the gray sky and the waving branches of the willow. "...one I've asked myself."

At this, Nathaniel looked very uncomfortable.

"The truth is, I met him only one time. And so I am not grieving for the love I bore him--but rather for the love I might have borne for him." Cora swallowed. It was hard for her to admit this. Even Alice had thought she was deeply in love with her fiancé. That was the way it was supposed to be. And indeed the way it might have been, had she had more time.

Nathaniel was spared from the discomfort of further discourse as in the momentary silence they both heard the thrashing of bushes not too far off. Cora's first instinct was that it was an animal, but Nathaniel didn't hesitate. His gun ready and tomahawk out, he whirled towards the source of the sound. Cora, though she knew he would be furious, darted after him. If he was going to kill someone again it would have to be right in front of her this time.

They broke out of the bushes and, in the still early evening light, saw a young British soldier, dressed in full uniform stumbling rather haphazardly through the wilderness. When he saw them, he paused for just a second and then made as if to dash away, but Nathaniel was after him. "Hold!"

He could not outrun Nathaniel and moments later Nathaniel had caught him. "What is your purpose here, soldier?"

The young man threw a startled look at Cora, who had just drawn up. "I...are you local militia?" He had obviously been running for some time. His uniform was in sad shape and he looked on the point of exhaustion.

"No--civilian. Where did you come from?"

"Oswego. Montcalm has overrun us."

Nathaniel glanced back at Cora and sighed as if he knew she would not listen if he told her to go back. "Your colonel? Munro?"

"Killed in the bombardment," the soldier replied, panting. "They hadn't surrendered when I made it out but it won't be long now."

***

Uncas never slept for very long at a time, or very deeply. For him sleep was more like an underwater adventure, where sounds and sights from the world above the surface were still part of his reality, though blurred by time and space. When he did wake, it was like coming out of the water--a very sudden and sometimes jarring entrance back into the present time. So it was with some bewilderment that when he found himself stirring, he also felt reluctant to wake completely, and when he did, it was almost night. The light of day had faded to a deep blue.

His arm, around Alice, had gone slightly numb. He worked his fingers experimentally until the feeling came back into them, and tried, very carefully, to dislodge her. She murmured in dreamy irritation and twisted her hand into his shirt. Uncas sighed. Actually, it was not unpleasant to be there, leaning against the tree with a spectacular red sun falling in the distance, the now warm soft body of the girl curled against him. Still, it was not quite right, not quite his to enjoy. If Alice had been awake she would certainly not still be in his embrace. He didn't like the sense of taking, participating in, something that did not belong to him.

And yet...

It felt good. He couldn't deny that. Didn't really try to. He had never had a strong interest in any of the women at the wolf camp. His father had urged him last summer already to start thinking about settling down. A young warrior needed a woman, he said. Needed to start his own family. Uncas had resisted. Not that he didn't think any of the girls were appealing in their own way--but they were more like childhood friends to him. And he liked his life with his father and brother just the way it was. So Chingachgook hadn't pushed him. Hadn't yet made it an imperative.

What this had to do with Alice, Uncas wasn't really sure, but there was something about her that made him wonder if it was something like this he was waiting for. Something gentle and fragile. Something with big gray eyes.

He shook off such thoughts with an effort. She was from another world. And the only reason she was lying next to him at the moment was because she had been cold. She'd needed him.

It was nice to be needed.

Manto...

But it is nice to be needed.

The last remnant of drowsiness he might have been feeling was shaken off as soon as he heard the cry. Animal or human, something had just been wounded.

"Alice." And then he knew. "Your sister."

Alice came awake reluctantly, drawing away from him, untwisting her hand and staring with confused eyes at the growing darkness. "Where..."

"Stay here." He pushed something into her hand and leapt to his feet in almost the same motion.

Alice blinked down at the handle of the knife, but by then Uncas had already vanished.

He bounded through the underbrush with the speed of a young deer, came skidding to a stop only a few hundred metres from their makeshift camp. Nathaniel held out a hand.

Uncas felt his heartbeat slowly steady. All he could see of Cora was her splotchy dress, again reminding him of an inverted hornbell flower as she stood there, swaying, in his brother's arms. Her back was to him as Nathaniel held her, his face taut with control.

With his free hand, Nathaniel made a few quick gestures, in the sign language that he and Uncas had been speaking, along with English and Mohegan, since they'd known each other. Uncas understood. Gray-Hair was dead or captured. The fort was taken. French victory. Say nothing to Yellow-Hair.

Blowing out a silent breath of mingled surprise and concern, he gestured quickly that he apprehended the import of all that, and backed away. Back to Alice. The girl he had been holding just minutes before. The girl who was now fatherless, and unaware of it.

***

It had not been a conscious decision on Nathaniel's part to take Cora into his arms after she cried out. He'd just suddenly found her there. And in the brief moments where he tried to rally his senses and determine in those few seconds what the best course of action now was, the British soldier had disappeared, evidently not wanting to throw in his lot with them.

Not that Nathaniel, who had no particular fondness for deserters, could really blame him.

After Uncas showed up and almost as promptly departed, Nathaniel had a few moments to think. He knew they had to get back into relative shelter. They had to move. If it was true what the soldier had said, and he had no reason not to believe him, it was imperative now more than ever that they get the girls to a place of safety. If a couple thousand-odd French troops along with their Indian scouts were marching their prisoners in the vicinity, they would have a hard time going unnoticed.

"Cora." He took her by the shoulders for a moment, though she resisted and would not unbury her head from his shoulder. "Cora, you must listen to me now. We have to go."

To his horror, she shouted, "Where? Where can we go now that--"

He kissed her. It was the only way he could think of to shut her up given that Alice was still in hearing distance. He didn't want to risk having two women insane with grief on his hands. It was going to be hard enough with just this one. She could slap him if her honor, or morals, or whatever it was that drove her demanded it. He didn't care.

Cora didn't slap him. After a few seconds she broke free, stared at him with a look of complete confusion that he could only just make out now that darkness had fallen, and let her arms fall from around him.

"Alice mustn't know," he said, as gently as he could manage. "Whatever else happens. We must keep it from her as long as possible. Do you agree?"

"Yes," she whispered after a few more moments. "Alice...mustn't know."

"All right." Nathaniel ran a hand through his tangled hair and sent a quick, impassioned prayer for wisdom to the Great Spirit, or maybe the Christian God, he wasn't entirely sure. "Come." He took her hand and led her through the bushes back to the cluster of willow trees.

Alice's face was a pale oval in the darkness. She still sat by the base of the tree, Uncas crouched by her. Nathaniel was infinitely thankful now for the quickness with which night had set, because it released them all from having to control their expressions.

"Uncas." Nathaniel switched to Mohegan. "Brother. We've got to head out. I've got to get to the fort and confirm this. I should be able to make it there by dawn."

"I'm a faster runner than you," Uncas argued. "Let me go."

"No. I need you to take them to the wolf camp. That's the only place they'll be safe now until...until we can figure out what to do with them."

"Alice's foot is hurt. I don't think she can walk."

Nathaniel swore, and crouched down by Alice. "Girl, can you move?"

"I'm not sure," Alice said uncertainly. "I twisted it. Why, do we have to...?"

"Just try standing up." He gave her his arm, and swore again when he could see that she was in no shape to move beyond limping, let alone move quickly.

Cora stood a bit apart from them, a white streak in the darkness, evidently trying to get herself under control until she could trust herself to speak.

"All right." Nathaniel took a deep, steadying breath, forced himself to think. He addressed Uncas again in their shared language. "Camp is southwest of here, right? I'll go there first. Send a couple men with a canoe upriver for you and the girls. Then I'll check out the situation at the fort, and meet you back at camp in a few days."

Cora stepped in then and grabbed his arm. She had a surprisingly strong grip considering how small her hands were. She spoke in an undertone. "I am coming with you."

"No--"

"I'm coming with you, or I will tell Alice."

"Tell me what?" Alice looked from one to the other, trying to see their faces. "What's going on? Why are you acting so strangely?"

"Alice," Cora turned to her sister, speaking in a low steady voice. "The fort has been attacked. Father has been taken prisoner." She looked back at Nathaniel. "Nathaniel and I are going there as soon as possible. You must stay here until you are well enough to walk."

"But--"

"Don't argue with me, Alice," Cora said, continuing to look at Nathaniel. "My mind is made up."

Uncas exhaled, a sigh of resignation. "She's right. Go, brother. Manto keep the both of you safe until we see each other again."

Nathaniel gathered his supplies, slung his bag over his shoulder, shouldered his rifle. "And you, Fox. Take care of the yellow-hair. I'll send the canoe."

Uncas gestured his understanding. Nathaniel paused for a moment, giving Cora time to fling her arms around a bewildered Alice and hug her fiercely, whisper something in her ear. Then she was by his side, everything about her reading determination.

Well, it was going to take a lot more than mere determination to reach the fort. He just hoped she knew that. It was going to take everything she had. Maybe more...