Jamestown (The Keepers of the Ring) (57 page)

His eyes stung from the fine layer of ash that coated everything in sight, and his muscles ached.
Too tired to think, Fallon slumped to the ground under a scorched tree and rested his head on his knees while he waited for the sun to rise.

Back in the hillside cave, Gilda curled into her bed of furs and dreamed.
She was small, and in a canoe traveling west on a river that flowed east. Noshi lay beside her, his green eyes shining in trust, and behind Noshi she could see that Fallon’s long and lanky body was tense with responsibility.

The canoe gently beached itself on a sandbar, and Gilda peered over the edge of the boat.
A palisade rose before her in the semi-darkness, and a small opening under the wall beckoned toward her. “That’s it,” Fallon said, his voice high-pitched and reedy with youth. “That’s where we have to go.”

She slipped out of the canoe and splashed toward shore, then paused and put her finger into her mouth as she looked up at the tall timbers of the palisade.
They towered over her, making her feel slight and insignificant, but then Fallon’s warm hand engulfed her smaller one. “I’ll help you,” he said, pulling her closer to the opening. “Just go through.”

Gilda stopped, for odd wind-borne sounds came to her:
agonized screams, the thunder of muskets, the low moans of suffering. Fallon’s face clouded with disappointment when she would not follow, then Noshi appeared at her shoulder, his eyes level with her own. “I’ll go first,” he said, stepping toward the hole. “I’ll go to the other side and pull you through.”

Gilda watched in amazement as Noshi dove toward the hole.
Wriggling like a rabbit, his head disappeared, and a moment later his body followed. His voice called joyously through the opening: “Come on, Gilda! Don’t wait!”

She looked toward Fallon, ready to falter again, but he stepped back and crossed his arms.
“I won’t tell you what to do,” he said, his voice deepening to that of a man. “You must decide.”

The roar of absolute silence engulfed the other sounds, and Gilda stepped forward and knelt near the edge of the crevice.
She could not see what lay beyond the wall, only a few pebbles in the narrow passageway. She considered putting her feet into the opening first, but knew she could not maneuver in such an awkward position. She had to dive head first, totally commit herself, or do nothing.

Taking a deep breath, she lay flat on her belly, pressed her face to the dirt, and shimmied forward.
She kicked and wriggled her hands as if she swam through mud, and after her first thrust she saw nothing. But as she pushed and kicked again, strong hands caught her, and suddenly she was through the opening and inside the palisade. Standing before her were two couples: an English couple, both brown-haired, tall, and thin, and another couple who had wrapped Noshi in an eager embrace.

The brown-haired woman came forward and opened her arms.
“Gilda, darling,” she said, her eyes shining with love. “We knew you would come.”

“
We knew you would understand,” the man said, nodding formally though a smile played upon his handsome features. “We taught you things that can never be forgotten.”

“
About God,” Gilda whispered, fingering the circle of gold at her throat.

“
Yea,” the woman whispered, touching her finger to the ring. “And about love.”

The woman drew Gilda into an embrace, and she reveled in the warmth of it.
She clasped her own childishly chubby arms around the woman’s neck, and turned to see Fallon embracing a red-haired woman who stood with a tall, majestic warrior at her side. Unbidden, their names surfaced in her mind.
Audrey. Rowtag.

She turned again toward the dark-haired woman.
“Mama?” she asked, and the lady nodded slowly, her eyes bright with tears. “Papa?” Gilda asked, turning to the man.

“
Yea,” he answered, coming to stand beside her. “We have always been so to you.”

Gilda buried her face in the woman
’s shoulder and held her tight. “God hath taken me,” she whispered in relief, her voice muffled by the thick fur the woman wore on her shoulders. “I am dead, and so are Fallon and Noshi. This must be heaven.”

She stirred in sleep, and murmured the lovely phrase again.
“This must be heaven.”

Suddenly the comfortable warmth of the woman
’s embrace evaporated and Gilda’s arms closed upon empty air. “‘Tis only heaven if you and I are together,” a masculine voice said, cutting through her dream, and Gilda opened her eyes, fully awake. Fallon stood before her in the glory of sunrise, her fur blanket in his hand, his face caked with mud. Yet he was the most beautiful, precious thing she had ever seen, and she leapt to her feet and threw herself into his arms.

The force of her welcome rocked Fallon back on his feet, but she was warm and alive in his embrace.
He blinked back tears of gratitude and relief as he folded her close.

“I thought you were dead,” she said, her voice a low murmur in his ear. “The warriors at Opechancanough’s village danced to celebrate their victory, and then I dreamed—I saw them all, Fallon: Mama and Papa, Audrey and Rowtag and Noshi—”

“
You saw them?” He pulled back, his eyes scanning her face. He’d never mentioned his parents’ names to her. “What did you see?”

“‘
Twas my old dream,” she said, laughing as she brought her hands to her cheeks. “Name of a name, ‘tis like I was just there! We were in the canoe, but I wasn’t afraid because I knew you and Noshi were with me. And we beached on the riverbank, and we walked to the palisade. I didn’t want to crawl under the wall, but Noshi went first. And then I followed, and I saw Mama and Papa and your parents—”

Her eyes darkened in love, and she reached out, tangling her hand in his hair.
“Your mother had red hair, too,” she whispered, smiling. “And Noshi’s green eyes were hers.”

Emotions tumbled in Fallon
’s heart so that he could not speak. He nodded wordlessly.

“
And I hugged my mama and papa, and I knew everything would be all right. But I thought you were dead because I saw you there, too—”

“
You and I are alive,” he said, slipping his arms around her. “‘Twas not heaven you visited, but your past. Y’are of the English and the Indians, Gilda, but more than that, you are of Ocanahonan.”

Her head sank against his chest as she considered his words, and he gingerly ran his fingers through her thick hair.

“
Y’are right,” she whispered after a moment. She turned her head and smiled up at him. “Are you always right, my husband?”

“
Usually,” Fallon answered, grinning. “But not everyone is quick to believe me. At Charles City and Henrico I did my best to warn the planters, but no one would listen.” He paused as his eyes sobered. “Until Jamestown. An Indian boy confirmed my story, and the settlement was alerted in time. Opechancanough’s victory was not complete, Gilda. Our friends are safe and well.”

“
God be praised,” she whispered. “I know now that I was wrong to oppose your going to them. ‘Twas selfish and prideful of me to argue with you.”

“
My heart resisted every step that took me away,” he confessed, his gaze focusing on her lips. “I’ll never leave you again.”

Surrendering to the crush of feelings that drew them together, his mouth moved over hers with exquisite tenderness.

“Y’are freezing,” she whispered when they finally parted. “And tired, too, no doubt.”

“
Nay,” he whispered, flushing as a rush of warmth flashed over him. “I am happy to be with you. Only God knows how much I have missed you, Gilda. I feared that you were at Harden’s plantation and had been killed in the attack—”

“
I was there, for a time,” she said, her hand pressed against the strong drumbeat of his heart. “But that traitor traded me to Opechancanough like a sack of beads. The chief held me prisoner for a while—”

“
And you gave him such grief that he will be delighted to find you gone,” he said, smiling against her mouth.

“
Fallon Bailie,” she scolded, tilting her head back to look up at him. “You sound as if y’are sorry you found me.”

“
Never,” he answered, his lips trailing a path along the side of her cheek. “If I had to search to the ends of the earth, I would seek you.”

He relaxed and enjoyed the soft feel of her in his arms as he kissed her, then he paused and settled his hands about her waist with easy familiarity.
“We have much to consider, love,” he said. “The English revenge upon the Indians will make Opechancanough’s attack pale in comparison. The militia at Jamestown is already planning raids of reprisal. No Indian will be safe in an English settlement for a long time.”

“
Neither can we make a home among the Powhatan,” she answered, looking at him with something very fragile in her eyes. “Opechancanough knows ‘twas you who warned those at Jamestown.”

They had no place to go.
Guilt poured over him as he considered the thought. “I never meant to take you from your people,” he said, overwhelmed by memories of the loneliness he’d felt while at the school for homeless orphans. He knew the anguish of being alone, and yet he had taken her, irrevocably, from both worlds in which she had found a place. “I never realized how I might hurt you—”

“
You have never done aught to hurt me,” she said, cradling his head in her hands. “I am no longer of the Powhatan. I am bone of your bone, Fallon Bailie, and flesh of your flesh. My home is in you, and the sky should sooner fall than I would leave your side.” She lifted a hand and gestured toward the deep green folds of the forest around them. “Mayhap ‘tis God’s call for us to make our own home, with our own children.”

The thought was comforting, something to hold onto.
“Think you so?” he asked, feeling his heart turn over as her eyes shone toward him in love.

“
Yea,” she answered, her expression seeming to fill the woods with light. “And I know where we should go—the place where we began, the city where Englishmen and Indians lived together with respect and love for the true God.”

“
Ocanahonan?” His eyes clouded with hazy sadness. “But there is naught left, Gilda; ‘twas destroyed years ago.”

“
There is much left,” she whispered, taking his hands. She gave him an abashed smile. “There are two survivors, a man and a woman who believe they should boldly, faithfully, and successfully venture forth into the new world. If these two go in God’s blessing and grace, who can stand against them?”

“
A man and a woman,” he echoed, his reservations vanishing in the space of a heartbeat. He pressed his finger to the circle of gold at her throat, the ring God had used to bring them together again over the space of years.

“
A husband and his wife,” she corrected. She gave him a shy glance and led him into the cave, then knelt on the pile of furs and lifted her fingertips until they brushed his hand. Her touch send a wave of warmth along his pulses. Fallon smiled at his bride, then lifted the heavy bearskin to shield them from the breath of the wind.

In the next week Fallon and Gilda collected supplies from the abandoned village, then repaired a canoe they found hidden
at a point where the small stream below their cave deepened. According to Fallon’s calculations, the creek would join with other south-flowing waters and eventually widen into the Chowan River. ‘Twould be along the banks of the Chowan that they would find the ruined walls of a village once called Ocanahonan.

As the colors of sunrise painted a new day, Gilda settled herself into the front of the canoe and watched a pair of cardinals court each other among the branches of trees overhanging the water.
Behind her, Fallon stroked expertly and hummed a tune that harmonized with distant chords of memory in her heart. He had doffed his English coat and wore a pair of supple leather breeches and a shirt made from the softest buckskin Gilda could find at Ramushonnouk.

She ran her thumb over the gold ring circling her finger and smiled in the calm strength of knowledge.
Fallon had slipped it onto her hand last night, telling her that the ring would symbolize their marriage and his unending love.

But it meant so much more. When she looked within the clouded surface of the gold band she could see the reflection of her mother and father, of Fallon’s parents, of Noshi and Pocahontas. Boldly, faithfully, successfully, they had surrendered their lives and hopes to God, and she had forever been changed by their faith. She and Fallon would follow their example, and trust God with the future.

Flooded with the wonderful sense of going home, she leaned back upon a bundle of provisions and felt the first rays of morning touch her face.

And the river carried them away.

Epilogue