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safe return.  And she also prayed for his change of heart.
     
    ***
     
    THE Indian was in a foul mood the next morning.  Katherine, however, woke up refreshed and anxious.  She had bathed in the stream, and her mood was joyous.  She would do her best to stay positive today.  Everything would work out for the best.  She would return from Fort Ontario with news which would make Joshua proud.  And he would fall in love with her.
     
    After a morning of walking in silence, she became determined to get the Indian to talk.  He had not made any move to harm her last night, so she decided he was trustworthy enough.  Now she was bored.  Her legs ached, and she longed for conversation to take her mind off her discomfort.
     
    She hurried her pace to catch up to him.  “Tell me about your family.”
     
    “No.”
     
    “Why not?”
     
    “Because you are meddlesome.”
     
    Determined to get through his hard exterior if only for the sheer challenge of it, Katherine ignored his insults.  “How many children do your brothers have?”
     
    “Zachariah has one boy.  Two Guns has one boy and one girl.”
     
    “How old?”
     
    The Indian slowed his unnerving pace.  “Zachariah’s is an infant.  Two Guns’ boy is eight.  His daughter is four.”
     
    “Do you love them?”
     
    He muttered something in Mohawk and shook his head.
     
    “Well, I was just asking.”
     
    “Why would I not love them?”  His tone was heavy with sarcasm.  “I am their uncle.  They are my family.  Of course I love them.  Why would you even question such a thing?”
     
    Silence passed between them again.  The late morning was already sultry, and Katherine felt the weight of her heavy skirts becoming unbearable.  Adahya had removed his soldier’s jacket and carried it slung over his shoulder.
     
    She watched him cut through the forest ahead of her.  His bare back was lean and corded with muscle.  With a backside like that, surely some member of his tribe must find him handsome, in a rugged sort of way.  She wondered why he had no wife.
     
    “Have you any children?”  She began another round of questions.
     
    “None that I know of.”
     
    “I have heard that some Iroquois take multiple wives.”
     
    “Some choose to.”
     
    “Yet you don’t even have one.”  When he made no comment, she pressed, “Why is that?”
     
    After a noticeable silence, he gave a curt answer. “Adahya’s woman is gone.”
     
    There was no mistaking the sadness in his voice.  Katherine kept silent for a long while.  Perhaps she should not have pried.  Obviously his wife’s death must have affected him deeply.  She could not help but hope someone would mourn her like that after she passed on.
     
    Right now that prospect seemed very bleak.
     
    * * *
     
    THEY stopped at midday, and the Indian shot a rabbit for them to eat.  Katherine built a fire and a spit of branches as Adahya dressed the rabbit with his knife.  Wordlessly, he laid it by the fire, and then wiped his knife off in the grass.  He slid the knife back in the sheath at his belt and stretched out on the grass beside her.
     
    Katherine slid the rabbit onto the spit and tended it as it fried and spat against the flames.  The Indian’s eyes were closed, and she studied him.  Vertical lines and intricate triangular patterns were tattooed down both arms from his elbows to wrists.  Katherine had seen similar designs on Oneida pottery.
     
    This Indian’s wife had probably resembled Oneida women.  She had probably died young.  Katherine could not help but wonder if she had been more personable than this man.
     
    She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she did not notice that the Indian had opened his eyes and was now watching her stare at him.  “Do you like looking at me?”
     
    Heat rushed to her cheeks.  “I--I wasn’t looking at you in particular.  D-did you do that yourself?”  She motioned to his arms.
     
    “Yes.”
     
    “Did it