“You were saying?” Pearl asked.
“Hmm? Oh … Red Moccasins.” Otter continued to shoot nervous glances at the Contrary. Be honest. Otter. “It’s gone forever. For instance, let’s say … let’s say that Four Kills divorced Red Moccasins. She wouldn’t take me, Pearl. And I wouldn’t take her. I know better, and so does she. Before she married, we could be wild and irresponsible, fool ourselves about who we were. But she’ll never leave Tall Cane holdings— except perhaps to travel to the City of the Dead for a ceremony.
And I’ll never stay home and be a responsible husband.”
Pearl turned halfway around to meet his eyes. The sun had bronzed her skin to a deep golden brown, highlighting the sepia tones of her eyes. “I can’t live in her shadow, Otter.”
He told her seriously, “You cast your own shadows. In the storm, I realized how much I’d come to love you.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
Black Skull turned his head at her outburst but quickly returned his concentration to his paddling. Green Spider was churning froth with his upside-down paddle, apparently fascinated by the sound the handle made in the water.
Otter shrugged unhappily. “Why? Because I was afraid.
Afraid that you’d be frightened. After the storm, you seemed hesitant.”
“I was—but that’s because you looked as guilty as a thief!”
“That’s because I thought the last thing you’d want was to fight off another man! I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable when all you wanted was a friend.”
She bowed her head and stared down at her reflection in the water over the side. It wavered in the ripples from Green Spider’s upside-down paddling. “When it comes to women, do you always have to act like you’re walking around water moccasins?”
“It doesn’t take much to become unwelcome.” Both he and Pearl had stopped paddling.
“By the sacred ancestors, from now on, will you just talk to me? I’m over that, Otter. Over what the Khota did to me. Green Spider, well, the night he set his sassafras root on fire and charred those gourd balls of his, he gave me an escape hole through the pain. I don’t understand how, really, but he did.”
“He’s special, isn’t he?” Otter looked up at the sky, seeing the first of the evening stars. He filled his lungs, savoring the cool smell of the water.
“Yes.” She smiled at him, reaching back to take his hand.
“And Black Skull, too. Each of you, in your own way, has become more like family to me than my real relatives.” She paused. “But, Otter, tell me, how will it be when we go back to White Shell clan grounds? Will I have to suffer in Red Moccasins’ presence?”
He rubbed. the back of her hand with his callused thumb.
“Suffer? In her presence? I don’t think so. Assuming we live through this and do go back, it wouldn’t be for long. I’ve made my deal with Grandmother. She won’t try to hold me.”
“And if she did?”
“I’d just leave. I’ve done that often enough in the past.
Grandmother understands me better than I thought she did.
Strange, isn’t it? The older I get, the smarter she turns out to be.”
“That doesn’t solve the problem, Otter. What part do I have in your life?”
He leaned forward, drawing her back into his arms, feeling her resistance as he settled her into the position that he’d held her in after the storm. Yes, like this, the way he’d memorized.
“This is as honest as I can get,” he told her, using a finger to push strands of black hair away from her soft cheek. “Red Moccasins was my lover once. Her responsibilities led her to make the choices she made—and they were the right ones. But now … I want you to let me love you, Pearl. Will you? On the night of the storm, we were partners, working together, doing what we both love, and I can’t imagine any other woman who’d want to share my crazy life the way you do.” “Partners,” she whispered, her body finally conforming to his. She glanced sideways at him, a soft glow in her eyes. “And if we should become lovers? What’s in the future, Water Fox?
Partners for how long?”
‘ ‘, if I have any say about it. Maybe you’d even marry me one of these days.”
“You’d better think about that.” She tilted her head questioningly.
“What is a wife to you? Explain the term to me.
These Ilini, they trace their lineages through the men. A woman’s children belong to the man. Property belongs to the man.
Therefore, Trout could say to me that he’d marry me.