A/N

I made it! Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I fought may way beyond everything in life trying to get in the way to upload my chapter. Hurrah!

It has been a tiring week.

Thank you again for the reads, and reviewers, thank you for taking the time.

To answer a question Mohawk Woman had about the story. In my AU timeline a historical story happened with these characters and then I novel was written based on that story.

I hope that explains things.

I hope you enjoy :)

/

They stopped when hunger finally made them, eating a few dried rations and stale bread, there was no time for more.

Erin joined Cora and Alice as they walked, chatting affably, all the while knowing she was going to have to find a way to turn them from this path; if only she could think of a way to divert them from the fort. Perhaps if she warned them all about the siege, that could change things? They could go somewhere else and no one would even have to see the horrors that would come at sundown.

But the question was how?

"I cannot wait to see Papa," Alice said, and a smile lit up her delicate features.

"I'm sure he'll be glad to see you too." Erin cringed, knowing this was not the truth. Colonel Munro would be distraught that his daughters had made the journey, the dispatch warning them not to travel had never reached its destination; Magua had made sure of that.

"You must feel the same about seeing your own father after so long?"

"Oh... yes." Erin tried to sound as eager as her young companion, but knew she fell very short.

"Will we be able to bathe, Duncan?" Alice asked, addressing the Major like the family he was to her.

"The men of the regiment will fetch water from the lake, build fires, and provide every comfort you desire, dear Alice."

This appeared to give Alice renewed vigour. Erin couldn't deny the thought of any kind of bath was highly appealing right now, she felt encrusted with dirt.

"Duncan, you are absolutely gallant. If Cora doesn't marry you, I shall!" There was such a mischievous edge to Alice's voice that Erin was a little startled. The statement had been but a fun jest, but so off hand from the quiet girl that Erin wondered just how much of Alice's personality she had actually seen.

"Alice!" Cora obviously disapproved.

Duncan chuckled and Nathaniel looked uncomfortable.

"We can wash all this away and then have tea and cake," Alice said, interlocking her arm around Erin's in a companionable way.

"Tea and cake." Erin repeated the words as if she could almost taste those delectable morsels. She imagined herself falling face first into the biggest strawberry cream cake, her stomach rumbled. "That would be heaven."

"Yes, heaven!" Alice said, becoming excited by Erin's validation of her creature comforts. "At the dances Cora and I attended in London, the cake was always heavenly."

"You must miss it," Erin said, seeing the longing upon Alice's face.

"London? Oh yes. Very much." She seemed to be falling back in to some semblance of the Alice she had once been, before she'd witnessed so much death and fear. "We'll return with Father soon." Her face lit up again as if she'd had the most wonderful idea. "You should travel with us Miss Cooper, come and stay with us?"

"Alice, I'm sure Miss Cooper has better things to do than attend parties in London. Her family is here." Cora's tone was a little off hand.

"You'll love all the things there are to see: dances are always a big social occasion; the water fountains; Madeira wine; and all the beautiful gowns!" Alice ignored Cora completely, giddy by the memories she had conjured. "There is a new fashion almost every week! I saw one lady with such tight curls in a tĂȘte de mouton that she always looked surprised..."

Erin tried to smile as if she understood all this, having no idea what a tĂȘte de mouton was. It was French, her brain told her sagely, and had translated it in her mind as 'sheep's head'... a hair style was her best guess. She had the unnerving image of a well dressed 1750s woman with a literal sheep's head pop into her mind, and smiled secretly to herself at her own amusements.

"Oh and there is oftentimes a lady from France who wears so many roses in her hair as to be like a flower garden, and so much rouge it's thought of as quite scandalous!" Alice's laughter was like a soft bubbling spring. "There are so many gallant gentleman waiting to take your hand and lead you in to a minuet, it's like a dream."

"It sounds magical." Erin really meant those words. Alice did indeed make it sound charming.

"Father knows everyone and he can make your introductions." She was becoming rather carried away with the fantasy. "It will be perfect. Say you will?"

Erin glanced towards Cora, who gave her a look that betrayed just how far they all were from that opulent world now.

"It would be lovely Alice," Erin said, patting the young woman's hand tenderly.

Alice beamed at her, behind her eyes was a whole world of imaginings, of all the mischief they would get up to when things were back to how they should be, structured, ordered and what she knew. Erin could see, she couldn't wait to return back to that world.

Could these two people Erin was slowly getting to know really become such great and tragic lovers?

There was so little of Alice and Uncas' relationship in either novel or accounts. The novel had a glance here and there, a possible embrace or kiss, the wording vague and left very much to the reader's imagination. There were no scenes of conversation, no slowly growing flame kindled by kinship with another, like Nathaniel and Cora; just that one sharp moment of decision, chase, and final defeat, then complete acceptance, that love was there.

Cora and Nathaniel already held a bond, Erin could see it as vividly as it had been written, their souls both calling for freedom, but could this reticent young upper class Georgian woman really give up all her luxuries, her whole world, for a harsh and nomadic life with a man she barely knew? What if their love story was just a moment of desperate frozen time, spurred into being by terror, grief and peril? If Erin stopped that terrible fate and they had a life afterwards, in the sober light of day could such an ethereal love still exist?

Erin wasn't sure of the answer, but the questions left her feeling disquieted and a little queasy.

She shook herself inwardly, these thoughts were useless, because Erin knew with her whole heart that they did fall in love, against all odds; for once, love won.

"Father will like you Miss Cooper. I know it. He loves adventure too," Alice said, squeezing Erin's arm.

Erin gave a half hearted nod, guilt flooding into the pit of her stomach again. If she didn't try and change things Colonel Munro would be murdered in days, the man responsible intent on killing both his daughters too.

But just how was she to go about warning them? She could just tell them all she knew, and then what? They would think she was a lunatic if she was lucky, and some kind of witch at worst, just as Uncas had pondered upon, and perhaps still suspected. Exactly how long ago was it in this time that a witch was burned alive or hanged? Erin felt it was far too close for comfort.

"I will be glad to be away from all this." Alice pushed her body closer to Erin's, as if a little afraid of their very surroundings and this caused Erin to return from her inner musings.

"Hmm?" She meant the noise as comfort and encouragement for Alice to speak her mind, but they moved forward in silence. Concerned by her companion's sudden quietness, Erin glanced over only to see Alice's eye line firmly fixed upon the three men guiding them, scouting ahead.

She watched the young woman's face for a long moment, trying to read the bright hazel hooded eyes, but only saw uncertainty.

"Are you all right, Alice?" Erin ventured the whispered question.

Alice took in a breath and gave a doleful smile. "Yes, I just really want to see Papa." She glanced at Erin, and seeing more was needed she sighed wistfully. "It frightens me a little."

Erin nodded dumbly as if she understood, and her heart flipped a tiny amount, did Alice mean her surroundings, the men ahead, or perhaps her own feelings?

"Frightens?" she questioned, lowly.

"It's different here." Alice turned her head to the dense trees around them, the greenery so close it was almost suffocating.

"You mean from London?" Erin probed.

"From everything." Alice let out another sigh.

"Yes, I suppose so." Erin followed Alice's gaze, taking in the vastness of the wilderness around them. She wondered how much of it was left in her own time? Was it mostly cleared and gone, replaced by big cities and quiet little suburbs? She suddenly felt a deep sorrow for the loss of it.

"It is monstrous," Alice looked down at her hands as if debating if she should say more, "and it is... beautiful."

Erin smiled, the sadness still heavy in her chest. "It is."

"How can something be awful and lovely?" Alice's eyes went to the heavy canopy above them, the leafy branches blocking out most of the sun's rays.

"I think two things can be true at the same time," Erin said, with a comforting squeeze upon Alice's forearm.

She watched as Alice's sight drifted back down to the path they walked. Erin was sure she lingered just a little too long upon the form of Uncas, and her own courage felt emboldened.

"What about him, do you think he is also two things at once?" She nodded her head in Uncas' direction, trying to keep her tone conversational and light, just two 18th century women exploring this brave new land and all that dwelt within it.

"These men are as much a mystery as this place," Alice said, lowly.

"Does he frighten you too?" Erin was pushing Alice's comfort level, and felt the young woman squirm a little under the question.

"Maybe. But he has protected us, they all have. I think he is kind. His eyes are kind. He is very different to what I expected."

"What did you expect?"

Alice gave her a quick glance and a slight flush rose in her cheeks. "Either domesticated creatures or vicious... savages."

Erin gave a stiff nod, her modern day sensibilities pulling her to reprimand Alice, while the other part of her knew that she couldn't have possibly known any better.

"In England there are so many tales," Alice whispered, "about the wild red men." She looked abashed, with a quick glance to Erin's face. "Awful tales. How they aren't like other people, how they aren't people at all. I thought it would be like going to The Tower of London Menagerie to see them here. An exciting adventure and a fun story to tell my friends once we returned." Erin felt a small shiver run through the younger woman's skin. "And now..." Alice drifted off, her eyes going to the form of Uncas again.

"And now?" Erin said with encouragement.

"I don't see how they are different to anyone else." She looked down at her hands. " It's easy to believe stories when you haven't seen the truth of things, perhaps."

Erin could see the small pull of distress on Alice's face and wondered what exactly she was feeling. It could have been shame, apprehension or... Erin found trying to guess was a losing game, she wasn't inside the woman's own head after all.

"So, you don't believe the stories?"

"I don't think so." Alice sounded just a little unsure. "At least I don't believe it about these men." Her large questioning eyes found Erin's. "I do wonder where such stories came from, do you think people just make them up, like your beastly story about the dog?"

Erin shook her head, not knowing the answer. "I don't know, maybe when people are afraid they make up stories so they feel their fears are valid?"

"Do you think they have any truth to them?"

"I don't know," Erin said honestly. "But, I suspect not. People are just people, some are good, some are bad, we are all just trying to live.. I guess." Erin didn't feel she was quite up to the task of explaining how people as monoliths did not exist.

"Yes, perhaps." Alice's gaze again drifted to the men in front, her brow creased in what Erin could only assume was again uncertainty.

Erin supposed it was a big ask to change a whole world view in so short an amount of time, but she felt Alice was trying, and it made her heart glad.

/

They stopped at what felt to be around noon to catch their breaths, Erin still pondering over what tactic she could use to tell them all of the danger ahead.

Cora came to perch upon a flat rock beside her as they rested. Erin massaged her stocking covered foot a moment, watching as Alice wandered towards a small stream. The young woman bent and dipped a hand into the cool water, allowing her fingertips to linger there, her curious eyes intent on everything about her, with a wonderment Erin found she envied just a little. She starkly reminded Erin of old Victorian paintings she'd seen of fair and innocent maidens lost in the beautiful but threatening woods of folk tales.

She took out her drawing pad and began to sketch, Alice was her subject and Erin hoped to catch even a little of the girl's awed reverence. She glanced over to Uncas, who she was not at all surprised to find was watching Alice, his skin gleaming from the exertion of the long trek, his face composed yet not guarded. Erin could see him admiring what he saw.

As if sensing unwanted attention upon him, his eyes flicked to Erin and she felt a heat rush through her at being caught, once again, gawking. She looked straight back down at her work and only chanced a glance a few moments later, but was a little dismayed to find he was still looking, curiosity dancing within his gaze and a wry humour too. He knew he was making her uncomfortable, in fact Erin got the distinct feeling that was exactly his goal.

She forced herself to take no notice and focus upon her pad, her tongue poking out the corner of her lips in the effort of her art, and not looking up again. After a little time had passed she heard Uncas' voice drifting across the clearing, in conversation with Nathaniel and then Duncan.

She sighed in inner relief, and let out a huffed breath, finally relaxing her body. She adjusted herself, trying to find a comfortable position to sit, but it was becoming near impossible in her current clothing.

"Are you alright?" Cora ventured, seeing Erin's squirming.

"Oh.. yes." She hesitated. "It's my stays." She hissed the words, not knowing if it was taboo to talk about under things. "They are a little tight."

"Can you not loosen them?" Cora was whispering too, although Erin couldn't tell if it was because she was right in her polite etiquette assumptions, or she had just made it all feel conspiratorial.

"No, my laces are loosened as far as they will go. The stays are borrowed." In fact they were not even real laces, just some off cut Ada had on hand, she was only meant to be wearing them for a few hours after all.

"I see," Cora said, pondering the situation. "I'm sure we can do something at the fort. You must have been so uncomfortable all this time, I am sorry."

Erin smiled and felt that welling of guilt again, but it was damped a little by the blatant and direct gaze of Nathaniel, who was currently watching Cora very intently.

"Don't look now, but you're being watched!" Erin mumbled out of one side of her mouth.

Of course Cora instantly looked over.

"I said don't look!" Erin tried to repress a giggle, but was unable to help herself, as Cora's cheeks became suddenly rosy and she averted her gaze to her hands, at a loss for words.

"He likes you," Erin stated boldly.

Cora's eyes widened, her cheeks reddening further.

"You like him too," Erin continued.

"I do not," Cora blurted, and the untruth of it was plain on her face.

"Oh, OK." Erin was laughing again.

Cora regained herself from Erin's forward manner, her eyes narrowing in what was a mischievous look.

"His brother oftentimes stares at you." Cora was obviously able to give out as good as she got.

Erin chuckled, "I believe he thinks I'll turn into a black cat at any moment."

"A black cat! Why?"

Erin waved her question away. Cora had obviously not been paying much attention, because Uncas often had his eyes upon Alice when she looked. She glanced up and was just in time to see, once again, Uncas' gaze move from Alice's form to her, his eyes squinting just a little as if he found the new sight rather distasteful.

"I think he distrusts me, is what I mean," Erin said, as explanation, averting her eyes back to Cora and deciding not to go into the whole witch accusation.

"I think Duncan feels the same after that story the other night. Where on earth did you learn such things Erin?"

It was the first time Cora had used her first name, and the friendliness of it brought a pleasant jolt up Erin's spine.

"At sea," she said, hazily, as her mind suddenly sprang forward with an idea.

Of course, Duncan!

He was the key to it all. She glanced over to where Major Heywood stood talking with Alice.

Erin began to form a plan in her mind, one she hoped she could pull off. It was becoming very tiring to constantly lie to everyone around her, but she had no choice if she wanted to save any of them from what lay ahead.