There was a fine wooden house, Georgian in style but of modest size. Near it were neatly fenced outbuildings of many types; she saw two barns, and at some distance, the steeple of a small church. Placid, fat cows grazed lazily on the pasture which was surrounded by forest. Beyond that, a man with a span of oxen turned soil in a wide expanse of field. In a garden behind the main house, women worked with hoes. Children ran back and forth in a game involving a ball; she could hear their shouting above the river. Then the canoe was at the bank, and there was nothing left to do but to get out and go up to the manor house with Nathaniel on one side and Runs-from-Bears on the other, just as she was, in Kahnyen'keháka overdress and leggings, carrying Many-Doves ' wedding dress of finest white doeskin carefully embroidered with beads and quills in the pack on her back.

Chapter 24

"Nathaniel!" cried a voice before they had climbed all the way up the bank. "Sakrament, if it ain't Nathaniel! And Runs-from-Bears!"

In front of them had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, a huge man dressed in rough work clothes. He clenched an old pipe in one corner of his mouth while he talked, but managed to bellow quite impressively all the same over his shoulder. "You there, Johnnie! Go on and tell 'em in the house, Nathaniel Bonner has come to call and Runs-from-Bears with him, and young lady just to put the sugar on top!" As if to verify the importance of this errand, he lifted his wig off his head completely, revealing a pate as creamy white and bare as the moon, and set it down again with a determined tug. Then he grinned and stuck out one reddened hand in Nathaniel's direction, lurching forward at the same time to intercept him.

Elizabeth didn't know what to make of this man, but he certainly was not the prim and disapproving country gentleman she had expected. He shook hands with such enthusiasm that she found herself grinning absurdly.

"Good to see you, Anton," said Nathaniel with a broad grin of his own. "Let me make you acquainted—"

But at that moment the children, who had heard the commotion and given up their game, arrived on the scene. They were older than Elizabeth had first thought, boys of about fourteen, and a girl perhaps twelve with plaits flying free and wild, her cheeks red with exertion and her dress ripped. There was a moment of frozen silence, and then the whole band of them launched themselves at Runs-from-Bears, the boys in a unified front at his head, the girl flinging herself around his torso. In no time at all they had pulled him down to the ground and sat, looking pleased with themselves, on his chest and arms.

It was Elizabeth's strong impression that Runs-from-Bears, thoughtful and serious as was his habit, was enjoying this game. Otherwise, she reasoned, he could simply have tossed them off. He had a smile on his face which said this was an indignity he could live with. That lasted as long as the first pinch, which one of the boys inflicted with a total lack of decorum to Runs-from-Bears' nose.

"It's all right." Nathaniel laughed at Elizabeth's horrified look. "They just need to get this out of the way."

The wrestling match which followed was punctuated by a conversation which made it clear that the youngsters and Runs-from-Bears all considered this confrontation fair price to pay for stepping onto their territory. Anton was watching them with some great amusement, his hamlike fists on his hips, when he seemed suddenly to remember his company.

"Come on now, enough for the moment. Your granny will be wondering what we're up to. And where's the general? Johnnie!" He turned and started back toward the house in a thumping march, turning back toward them so suddenly that his wig threatened to part company with the shiny slope of his head.

"Boys! Mathilde! Leave Bears alone before he decides you'll do for his dinner!" And he laughed uproariously at his own wit. "Aren't you coming?" he said to Nathaniel and Elizabeth. "Let's go up to the house, see what's keeping General Schuyler and the missus."

Nathaniel took Elizabeth by the arm and with a backward glance at the wrestling match that carried on behind them, he set off.

"Who is that?" she whispered when the big man was a few steps ahead of them and bellowing once again toward the house.

"Anton Meerschaum. The overseer. Look," Nathaniel said, "here she comes. Brace yourself for Mrs. Schuyler."

* * *

It was a bit like being enveloped in a great warm fog. Mrs. Catherine Schuyler took one long look at Elizabeth, listened to Nathaniel's brief introduction, and drew her into her home and her protection without a question or word of doubt.

In a short time she saw her guests settled at her good dining table. The door to the kitchen passage began to swing busily and in minutes two young women had set and filled the board, casting shy glances not so much at Elizabeth as at Nathaniel. There was no opportunity for talk but Elizabeth was not unhappy with that for the moment. She listened to Mrs. Schuyler ask Nathaniel and Runs-from-Bears about people and happenings in Paradise, and she realized with some surprise how familiar the woman was with the smallest circumstances of her home.

When they had eaten—Elizabeth managed only some ale, cold fowl, and bit of bread—Mrs. Schuyler put her small hands flat on the table before her. This was a strange gesture; Elizabeth's own hands were folded tightly in her lap. But it was also, somehow, a comforting one, as it matched the kind but firm set on the woman's face.

"Tell me, Miss Middleton," she began. "How exactly it is that you come to visit us in the company of Nathaniel Bonner and Runs-from-Bears?"