I looked up, into the deep blue shadows of the mountainside above the cabin. It was early in the year for foraging, but there was food in abundance in the forestfor those who could recognize it.
Jamie came and knelt down beside me, a big hand lightly on my back. Cold as it was, a trickle of sweat streaked his neck, and his thick auburn hair was dark at the temples.
The grave is ready, he said, speaking low, as though he might alarm the child. Is that whats killed the bairn? He nodded at the scattered fungi.
I think soand the rest of them, too. Have you had a look around? Does anyone know who they were?
He shook his head.
Not English; the clothes are wrong. Germans would have gone to Salem, surely; theyre clannish souls, and no inclined to settle on their own. These were maybe Dutchmen. He nodded toward the carved wooden clogs on the old womans feet, cracked and stained with long use. No books nor writing left, if there was any to begin with. Nothing that might tell their name. But
They hadnt been here long. A low, cracked voice made me look up. Roger had come; he squatted next to Brianna, nodding toward the smoldering remains of the cabin. A small garden plot had been scratched into the earth nearby, but the few plants showing were no more than sprouts, the tender leaves limp and blackened
with late frost. There were no sheds, no sign of livestock, no mule or pig.
New emigrants, Roger said softly. Not bond servants; this was a family. They werent used to outdoor labor, either; the womens hands have blisters and fresh scars. His own broad hand rubbed unconsciously over a homespun knee; his palms were as smoothly callused as Jamies now, but he had once been a tender-skinned scholar; he remembered the pain of his seasoning.
I wonder if they left people behindin Europe, Brianna murmured. She smoothed blond hair off the little girls forehead, and laid the kerchief back over her face. I saw her throat move as she swallowed. Theyll never know what happened to them.
No. Jamie stood abruptly. They do say that God protects foolsbut I think even the Almighty will lose patience now and then. He turned away, motioning to Lindsay and Sinclair.
Look for the man, he said to Lindsay. Every head jerked up to look at him.
Man? Roger said, and then glanced sharply at the burned remnants of the cabin, realization dawning. Ayewho built the cabin for them?
The women could have done it, Bree said, lifting her chin.
You could, aye, he said, mouth twitching slightly as he cast a sidelong look at his wife. Brianna resembled Jamie in more than coloring; she stood six feet in her stockings and had her fathers clean-limbed strength.
Perhaps they could, but they didnt, Jamie said shortly. He nodded toward the shell of the cabin, where a few bits of furniture still held their fragile shapes. As I watched, the evening wind came down, scouring the ruin, and the shadow of a stool collapsed noiselessly into ash, flurries of soot and char moving ghostlike over the ground.
What do you mean? I stood and moved beside him, looking into the house. There was virtually nothing left inside, though the chimney stack still stood, and jagged bits of the walls remained, their logs fallen like jackstraws.
Theres no metal, he said, nodding at the blackened hearth, where the remnants of a cauldron lay, cracked in two from the heat, its contents vaporized. No pots, save thatand thats too heavy to carry away. Nay tools. Not a knife, not an axand ye see whoever built it had that.
I did; the logs were unpeeled, but the notches and ends bore the clear marks of an ax.
Frowning, Roger picked up a long pine branch and began to poke through the piles of ash and rubble, looking to be sure. Kenny Lindsay and Sinclair didnt bother; Jamie had told them to look for a man, and they promptly went to do so, disappearing into the forest. Fergus went with them; Evan Lindsay, his brother Murdo, and the McGillivrays began the chore of collecting stones for a cairn.
If there was a mandid he leave them? Brianna murmured to me, glancing from her father to the row of bodies. Did this woman maybe think they wouldnt survive on their own?
And thus take her own life, and those of her children, to avoid a long-drawn-out death from cold and starvation?
Leave them and take all their tools? God, I hope not. I crossed myself at the thought, though even as I did so, I doubted it. Wouldnt they have walked out, looking for help? Even with children the snows mostly gone. Only the highest mountain passes were still packed with snow, and while the trails and slopes were wet and muddy with runoff, theyd been passable for a month, at least.
Ive found the man, Roger said, interrupting my thoughts. He spoke very calmly, but paused to clear his throat. Justjust here.
The daylight was beginning to fade, but I could see that he had gone pale. No wonder; the curled form he had unearthed beneath the charred timbers of a fallen wall was sufficiently gruesome as to give anyone pause. Charred to blackness, hands upraised in the boxers pose so common to those dead by fire, it was difficult even to be sure that it was a manthough I thought it was, from what I could see.