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"No, Polly McBride and her daughters did all the cooking. Why?"
"I don't want to expect too much from you."
"I suppose Seneca women are all excellent cooks?"
"Yes, all of them."
"Good, then we can hire one to do the cooking until I learn. I do know how to sew, arrange flowers, read, and write, of course. I can do all manner of useful things, Hunter. Perhaps not as you expect to have them done, but in my own way."
Hunter doubted that he would be alive had she not had the courage to kill two men, or the stamina to care for him while he was ill, and he did not doubt that she possessed a multitude of talents. He smiled at her and winked. "Do you expect to have servants?"
He was clearly teasing her, and she responded in kind. "Not unless you find my cooking inedible."
The pheasant was done, and Hunter removed it from the spit he had constructed over the fire. He drew his knife and began to carve the delicious bird. "The Seneca have dozens of recipes for corn, squash, soups, and stews, but none are written down. When we come back here, I'll
find a woman who can teach you how to prepare the things I like."
"Are we going to live in your house near the trading post?"
Alanna was drawing the pheasant's brightly colored tail feathers through her fingers, but Hunter could see this question was a serious one. "Yes, the trapping is good here. Would you rather live in Virginia?"
"I was born in Maine. Virginia was never really my home."
"So you won't mind living in New York?"
"I'd not mind living anywhere with you."
Hunter gave her a portion of the pheasant, and sat down across from her to enjoy his own. "Thank you, but I don't think you'd like living in my village. My house is very small compared to what you would find there. We build our homes for at least a dozen families, and I think you would find them very crowded and noisy, compared to the big empty rooms of your aunt and uncle's house."
"A dozen Seneca families live together?"
Hunter found her astonishment enormously appealing. "Sometimes more. Each family has its own space, with a sleeping platform and a storage shelf above, like I have in my house. But as I said, the long houses are much larger. They can be one hundred fifty feet long, twenty-five feet wide, and nearly as tall as a two-story house."
Having seen his home, Alanna thought she could imagine such a structure. "How do you decide who lives where?"
"Each long house belongs to the oldest woman in the family, to her and her sisters, daughters, and granddaughters. They are the ones who live together. When a man marries, he goes to live in his wife's long house."
Alanna nodded thoughtfully. "Then you've made a very poor choice of wife, Hunter, because I have nowhere to take you."
"That may be true, but you have other advantages," Hunter revealed between succulent bites of superbly roasted pheasant. "There are a great many things to consider when choosing a wife. First, a man must pick a woman from a different clan. I'm from the wolf clan, and you are not, so that makes you a good choice. It's also best if the woman is not related to any of the man's female relatives. Clearly you are not related to me, so that's also in your favor."
Alanna was paying such close attention, she had difficulty remembering to eat, and paused long enough to swallow a bite. "The ideal wife then, is a complete stranger with a long house?"
Amused, Hunter chuckled. "Yes, for some men, but not for me. You are the ideal woman for me."
Alanna had donned her own clothes when they were dry, but Hunter had not bothered to reclaim his shirt. She looked at him now, seated on the ground, bare-chested, his ebony hair flowing free, eating pheasant with his fingers, and felt that despite the many differences between them, they were indeed the perfect pair. "To wed an Indian brave gives my life a certain symmetry," she mused.
Hunter had never heard the word. "What is that?" he asked.
"Balance, beauty of form."
Hunter nodded. "Yes, I understand. To escape the Abenaki to wed a Seneca is an unusual destiny, but it does seem right."
They had been discussing marriage all day, but Alanna still had questions. "Do you consider us married now?" She attempted to sound nonchalant, but clearly his answer meant a great deal to her.
Hunter finished the last of a piece of breast, and then wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "We have no fancy ceremonies like whites do. When a couple wants to marry, they simply say so, and the man moves into the woman's long house. You have already pointed out that you have no house, so I have no choice but to live with you wherever I can."
"Just being together makes us husband and wife?"
