Torn Covenants by Lois Swann

Author:Lois Swann [Swann, Lois]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781524612948
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Published: 2016-06-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

Gilbert Worth rocked in the open air, on Sam Spinney’s creation. His niece sat at his feet, her hand on his knee. They did not force speech but listened to the shouts of men working to push fresh long poles into the ground. The sachimmaacommock was torn in two. The space between the sleeping chambers was being filled by a round third room.

Worth smoothed the slender hand that rose and fell with his legs as he pushed to work the chair. The breeze from the sea stood his untied, uncovered hair high, and pushed Elizabeth’s hat brim back from her face. He examined her through the lashes of his partly closed eyes. He found her to be beautiful, more hale than when he had left for Maine. According to Mac, her eyes were fine. Gil found them a tint darker toward true brown than he remembered.

With his eyes actually shut, he said, “My dear, what do you want with such a big house? Has it to do with Wakwa’s being sachim?”

“The new house is only practicality, Uncle Gil.” Elizabeth took one of his hands into her own.

“Seems very impractical. What an awfully big place to heat in the winter.” Gil twisted around to see it.

The elliptical room, which was Elizabeth’s and the round one, which was Qunneke’s had been stripped of their bark skins. Their skeletons were being moved, now positioned as the legs of a U. A perfectly round room was being constructed to complete the handsome arc that would tie each wife’s room together into one house. There was a yard for planting and playing between the east and west wings.

“The little, round room shall be where we eat,” Elizabeth pointed out.

“When you are eating out of a pot, what do you need with a formal room for the purpose?”

“It will do us good!”

“I do not see it.” His eyes clamped shut.

“I know.” Elizabeth placed a kiss on the hand that she held. “Uncle Gil. …” Elizabeth’s next words tumbled over her affection for him, and his affection for Tame Deer. “She is wife to him.”

Gil’s eyes blinked open. He waited for meaning to be fully delivered.

“Uncle Gil, dear, she lies with him. After so many years.”

The runners of the chair sank somewhat into the meadow grass. Motion stopped. Gil looked through the face upturned to him. After a bit he saw Elizabeth again, and he said, “What happiness!” Then his arms extended down. “Oh, Beth!”

As he reached for her, she rose to him, and ended in his lap. They wrapped each other from dismay.

“She loves you, you know.”

“I do.” He swallowed. “I love her, too. We are a perfect match.”

“Since you kept her, uncle, she has become the perfect match for me.”

Their rocking resumed, too hard for comfort.

“True?” Gilbert undid the bow of her hat and it skidded away on a hot gust.

“Truly. Do you think me bad for loving him through it?”

Gil kissed the back of her graceful neck, as he had done when she was a young child.

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