She whispered, “No! No more! I can take no more!”
He placed his hand over her mouth, it causing her to awaken. Her eyes wide, she looked up at him, and as he searched her face, he felt as though he lost himself in her simple gaze.
“We must be quiet,” he whispered. “They are encamped close to us. When they earlier spoke of returning to the inn, they meant to lure you out of hiding and then capture you.”
She nodded, and he lifted his hand from her lips.
“But, why are they so persistent?”
“What means this word, persistent?”
”It means,” she mouthed, “they do not easily give up.”
He shrugged, as though she were only stating what he already knew. Then, looking down at her, a sliver of a white misty moonbeam caught in her hair, the beauty of both hair and light intriguing him. He held his free hand up, his palm and fingers open as though he might stroke her hair, though he didn’t touch a single hair. He muttered, “Like the golden leaves of autumn, it is in your hair.”
“Is it?” she asked as silently as possible.
He didn’t answer. However, after a short while, he mumbled, “The men down there will soon tire and will go home. But, until they do, we must remain here. You sleep. I will awaken you when they are gone.”
“And, what if you go to sleep?”
He grinned. “I am Oneida. A scout, as well as a warrior if I need to be. I will not sleep when there is danger about.”
When she wiggled a little, obviously seeking a comfortable position, his arm tightened around her. With her head against his shoulder, she looked up to him and said softly, “Thank you for what you have done for me, Mister… I do not know your name.”
“Skenandoah,” he answered in a whisper.
“Skee-nan-doe-ah?”
“White men call me Skenan.”
“Skenan,” she repeated, and he thought he had never heard his name whispered so sweetly. “I thank you for coming to my aid, Mr. Skenan.”
“And, what should I call you?” he asked softly.
“Abagail,” she said.
“Abagail,” he repeated in as low a voice as he could muster. “It is a beautiful name.”
“Thank you, Mr. Skenan. And now, if you will, I believe I will do as you say and try to sleep. You won’t drop me, will you?”
He smiled down at her. “I will not.”
She grinned back at him, showing straight white teeth. A beautiful smile it was, and he was at once even more fascinated with her. Perhaps he was too taken by her.
She whispered, “I believe you when you say you will stay awake, though you give me leave to sleep. I trust you, Mr. Skenan.”
Under her compliment, Skenan thought he might have grown a little taller. However, he simply smiled. “You sleep now,” he said. And, as his fingers touched the soft skin of her arm, he knew he was lost. He sighed. He would take her to the fort and he would leave her there while he returned to his home. After all, he had no room in his life for the problems a white woman would bring him.
But, he feared he would always remember her.
“The woods are alive with the English man’s war.”
Abagail had been following closely behind Skenan as they traipsed though the woods. The trees were so dense in this forest, the light of the moon couldn’t shine all the way to the ground because the many branches above were seemingly hungry for and swallowed up the moonlight. Indeed, so darkwas it here on the ground, she was forced to hold on to a piece of Skenan’s jacket so as to not lose him amongst the shadows.
She’d heard what he’d said, but because he had stopped so suddenly, she ran into him. If he noticed or objected, however, he didn’t show it.
He said, “We must find shelter quickly, or we will be discovered by enemy scouts.”
