Merline Lovelace Read Online Free Page B

sold. Only later, when the moon tipped the mountain peaks, would they emerge from their male domain and settle down to the feast prepared in the visitor’s honor.
    The women went about their tasks with a complacency that comes from ruling absolutely in their own domain. Hands slapped and shaped loaves from pounded acorn flour. Fingers sorted through dried onions to pick out weevils before soaking the flavorful roots in a tightly woven basket. Mothers spitted smoked salmon steaks and chided children to have a care of the fire.
    Only Tatiana could not lose herself in the busy routine. She paced the length of the lodge, the shells decorating her borrowed dress jangling with each agitated turn. Her impatience mounted with every passing hour, as did her nervousness. When the door flap lifted and Cho-gam’s senior wife finally entered, Tatiana almost tripped over a cache of storage baskets in her eagerness to reach the older woman’s side.
    “It is done,” the senior wife announced calmly in answer to her anxious question. “The fringe person agreed to your purchase price.”
    Tatiana murmured a fervent prayer of thanksgiving. She would see that the American was repaid. Whatever he’d given for her, she’d see that he was repaid the minute they reached Fort Ross. She was so excited by the prospect of reaching her journey’s end at last that she almost missed the other woman’s next comment.
    “...generously for your lodging until he sends for you.”
    Her chin jerked up. “What do you say?”
    “Do you not listen, Ta-Ti-An? You will remain with the Hupa until the fringe person sends one of your own tribe to collect you.”
    Disappointment and disbelief crashed over her in great waves. “I cannot stay here! I will not!”
    The senior wife drew herself up in offended dignity.
    Tatiana stuttered an apology. “I’m...I’m sorry. You’ve been most kind. I thank you from my heart for your generosity. But I must, I will, go to Fort Ross most immediately.”
    The older woman clucked in reproof. “That is for your man to say.”
    “My man?”
    “The one who has purchased you. You belong to him now, and he will decide where you are or are not to go.”
    “We will see about that,” Tatiana muttered through clenched teeth. “Most immediately.”
    She stalked to the door, determination in every line of her taut body. Re-Re-An pushed herself up awkwardly and snatched at her friend’s arm in alarm.
    “Ta-Ti-An! The men have gone to the sweat house! You must not disturb them!”
    “You say not? Watch me.”
    She marched through the camp, trailing a retinue of shocked, disapproving women, openmouthed children and yipping dogs.
    The small, flat-roofed lodge that served as sweat house for the tribe stood at the edge of the village, close by the ice-encrusted stream that fed it. Although not strictly forbidden to females except during that time of the month when evil spirits flowed from their bodies, few Hupa women had the time to waste in the sweat house. The men, on the other hand, lazed away many hours casting painted bones and gossiping like magpies while a cleansing steam sizzled with each drip of water onto heated stones.
    Consequently, a ring of astonished male faces turned to Tatiana when she threw back the flap and stalked inside. One by one, jaws dropped. Dozens of dark eyes rounded. Cho-gam started up in dismay, only to remember that he was no longer accountable for her actions. A wide grin splitting his sweat-streaked face, he sank back to his woven mat.
    Ignoring the headman, Tatiana stalked to the flabbergasted outsider. He scrambled to his feet, snatching at the closest object to cover himself. Skin already flushed a bright pink from the damp heat turned a furious shade of red as he slapped a flat gambling basket across his midsection.
    The sight of his powerful body glistening with sweat stopped Tatiana in her tracks. By the saints, he was most—she swallowed—most impressive.
    Another long-forgotten memory