Mara: A Georgian Romance

by Barbara T. Cerny

  They laughed again. “I really wished I coulda been there.”

  “Yes, but you had such an important role to play.”

  “They accepted as true the letters as well. Those were perfect.”

  “The whole bloody plan was perfect.”

  Their peals of laughter caused the women to pause, and look their way.

  “Shhhh.”

  “Lord Phantom is the most wanted man in England. King George has put up a princely sum for information leading to his arrest and hanging.”

  Jake put his hands to his neck in mock horror. “Oh, my poor neck!”

  The giggling was good for what ailed them.

  *****

  Just in time for Mara’s nineteenth birthday, they moved into the cabin. She and Jake had the bedroom on the right and back, their side wall against the end of the fireplace and nearest the kiln, located behind the fireplace. Luke and Deirdre had the far left bedroom, Cecilia the middle room, and Pete and Alvin the room closest to the front door.

  The group was overjoyed to be able to unpack the crates and bring in the furniture in order to sleep in real beds again.

  Their new lives finally came together. Kentucky was now a real home.

  But soon, Pete became bored with the simple country life. Since he had no interest in breeding horses, he decided to see about setting up a blacksmith shop in town.

  *****

  Pete found the perfect spot. A former resident who couldn’t make ends meet had abandoned a piece of property in Columbia not far from the town square. The town now owned it, and looked for a buyer. It had formerly been a general store, with an apartment above it. The store itself had a front door for customers, and a larger back door for deliveries. The square footage was sufficient for a blacksmith’s shop. Pete just needed to build the fireplaces.

  With the cabin complete and winter coming on, Alvin and Luke were able to help Pete construct the fireplaces. In return, Pete gave Luke a corner of the store behind the old counter to set up a cobbler shop. Luke would live at the cabin most of the time, but would come to town two or three times a month to take orders and deliver finished shoes and boots. Pete would now live in town permanently.

  Being experts at making bricks, the settlers had no problems supplying the materials to build the big furnaces for the smithy. In no time at all, Pete was a working blacksmith with paying customers. Columbia had needed a competent smithy for a long time, and was glad to have the huge young man around.

  *****

  Pete soon settled into a comfortable routine. He would put in long days at the shop, but it was work he enjoyed, and he left feeling fulfilled each evening. Deirdre traveled to town once a week to bring him food, since he wasn’t much of a cook. Some evenings he took his meals at the Commonwealth Tavern. The fare was simple, but delicious. Pete always spent time talking to the cook when he ate there. Bess was over fifty, and loved the sweet attention Pete gave her, almost as much as his generous tips!

  One evening, as Pete enjoyed a bowl of Bess’ tasty beef stew, he heard a noise outside the tavern. After finishing his dinner and giving Bess a thank-you kiss on the cheek, he decided to find out what all the commotion was about. He put on his coat to ward off the cold January air, and walked toward the center of town.

  His height allowed him to see over the heads of the people gathered there. Two men were holding onto something at the end of a rope and were hawking it to the men in the crowd.

  Curious, he worked his way to the front, his size allowing him to easily push others aside. What he saw appalled him.

  At the end of the rope, in tattered animal skins, knelt a young girl—an Indian, by the looks of her. A rope was around her neck, and another around her waist. There were deep rope burns on her neck and wrists. Her waist-long black hair was matted, and hung lifeless about her face. Her body was filthy and gaunt. Her eyes were closed, her lips cracked with dried blood. Her arms were around her in a protective stance, and she rocked back and forth, keening silently.

  The two men were trying to sell her for sport to the townsmen.

  Pete was outraged. Having been abused himself as a child, he had no tolerance for the abuse of others.

  “You let her go right now!”

  The crowd hushed, as the two men turned toward Pete.

  “Why? She’s ours. We found her, we aim to keep her! You want her, you pay for your sport and return her to us.” The man crossed his arms, and stepped up to Pete.

  “She be a human being, and you dinna treat her like that!” Pete’s fury grew.

  “And what do you think you’re gonna do about it, boy? She’s an Injun, and Injuns aren’t human. Everyone knows that. She’s a savage.”

  Pete’s eyes narrowed. “The only savages I see here are the men standing at the end of that rope.”

  “I don’t need no English bastard telling me I am a savage.” The man clenched his fists.

  “Maynard,” the other man warned, “he’s a really big guy.”

  “Shut up, Josh. I will handle this youngster.”

  “I may be young, but I know right from wrong, and you be very wrong treatin’ her like that. I will say this only one more time. Let her go!” Pete’s teeth were clenched, and so were his fists.

  Then Maynard made his one and only mistake. He took a swing at Pete, only to have the boy stop his strike cold in the middle of the swing by catching his hand. Pete didn’t have to hit Maynard; he only had to take that captured fist, squeeze it and turn it backwards toward his opponent.

  Maynard screamed in pain, and dropped to his knees.

  “I said let her go!” He squeezed and twisted the fist harder.

  “Okay! Okay! Let her go,” Maynard screamed, the pain in his wrist and fingers unbearable. “Josh, for God’s sake, let her go!” Josh dropped the ropes and ran. Pete dropped Maynard’s hand and walked over to the girl. Maynard lay on the ground trying to catch his breath, waiting for the paralyzing pain in his hand and wrist to subside.

  The crowd watched in silent wonder. The men decided they would never do anything to anger their new smithy.

  Pete unwrapped the rope from the girl’s neck. She opened her eyes, and looked up at this huge man in terror.

  “I dinna know if you can understand me, but I am going to help you,” he said gently, as he unwrapped the rope from her waist. When he was done, he picked her up and carried her to his smithy. He saddled Crookshanks, and put water and food in his saddlebags for the ride out to the farm. He didn’t have the necessary skill to heal this young girl, but he knew Cecilia, Mara, and Deirdre could help.

  The girl watched him, her fright beginning to abate as this man talked softly to her while he went about his work.

  “I will be taking you to Cecilia, she will know how to heal you. I canna do it, you being a woman and all. Besides, I need to get you out of town where ye’ll be safe.”

  He led Crookshanks out of the yard and into the street. He then went back for the girl, wrapping her in a blanket to protect her from the cold January air. He mounted the horse, putting her in front of him, and rode out of Columbia.

  The entire way to the farm, he talked gently to the girl. “I dinna know you name, can you understand English?”

  No response.

  “Can you hear me?” He clicked his fingers off to her right. She looked at the noise.

  “At least you can hear. That’s good. you be an Indian, so I will call you Indy for now. Is that okay?”

  No response.

  “Indy it is then. If you ever talk or learn English, we can learn your real name.”

  He pulled some bread from his saddle bag, and offered it to her.

  “Are you hungry? Miss Bess made this, and it is really good.”

  Indy looked at the bread for a second, then snatched it from his hand and shoved it in her mouth. Pete felt pangs in his gut as he remembered doing the same thing as a child. He easily recalled the pain of a stomach too long empty. He reached in for more and handed it to her. Indy devour
ed that roll, too. They kept this up until his saddle bag was empty, and she had drunk most of his canteen of water.

  Sometime during the fifteen-mile trip, Indy fell asleep. Pete held her tightly to him, to keep her from falling off the horse.

  It was past ten o’clock when they arrived at the farm. All the lights were out. Everyone was in bed.

  Pete woke up Indy, dismounted, and helped her down off the saddle. He walked and she limped into the cabin.

  “Indy, sit here.” He indicated to a chair before knocking on Cecilia’s door. He then knocked on Alvin’s door, the Holloways’ door, and finally the Abbots’ door. One by one they sleepily emerged and filed into the main room, very surprised to see Pete standing there with an Indian girl.

  At the sight of all these strangers staring at her, Indy ran to Pete and hid behind him.

  “I think you all be frightening her. Please sit and be quiet.”

  Mara spoke up first. “What’s this all about, Pete? Who is this girl, and why are you here with her?”

  Pete told the story. As he talked, Indy peaked out from behind him at all the people in the room.

  “I just know I canna keep her at the smithy. That ain’t proper, and I ain’t able to heal her. Plus, I dinna need Maynard and Josh finding her. Can I leave her here with ye?”

  Cecilia stood up. “Of course you can! We have never turned down an orphan yet, have we?”

  They all laughed at that, the noise sending Indy back behind Pete again.

  ‘I fed her on the way here so I think a good night’s sleep is in order.”

  “I will find a bedroll. She has lice, and God only knows what else, so she shouldn’t share a bed with any of us,” said Deirdre.

  She retrieved a bedroll from the back room, took it into Cecilia’s room, and laid it on the floor. Deirdre came back out and indicated to Indy that she could sleep there.

  Indy followed her into the room, picked up the bedroll, and went right back out to Pete. She looked up at him, expectantly.

  Mara smiled. “I think she wants to sleep with you, Pete.”

  Pete looked aghast. “She’s a she! She canna do that! I… I…”

  Jake laughed. “Mara is right; you have yourself a pet Indian.”

  Pete looked at those big brown eyes staring up at him, his own pale blue eyes now wide with fright.

  Luke patted Pete on the back. “I hear they only sleep on the ground, so she should be happy on the floor while you sleep in the bed. Go for it, me man!”

  The rest of them went back into their respective rooms, turning off lamps as they went, leaving Pete and Indy alone in the dark.

  Pete finally turned toward his old room, with Indy trailing behind. Alvin was already on the top bunk, smiling in the dark.

  “Good night, Pete.”

  “Oh, shut up.”

  She did sleep on the floor. Pete dreamed of young Indian girls turning into pet dogs and sleeping at his feet.

  *****

  The next morning, Indy wandered out into the main room, tentatively watching the three women as they worked. The white women smiled at her, and nodded in encouragement. None of them approached her.

  She sidled out of the front door and into the woods to do her morning business. She watched the front of the wooden teepee for a moment, wondering if she should run away. But the smell of food wafting out of the house lured her back to it.

  “Good morning Indy. Nice to see you!”

  “Welcome to the Abbot Horse Breeding Farm. We just call it the farm for short. We really didn’t have a proper introduction last night.”

  “Do you speak or understand English?”

  “Do you have a preference for breakfast? The boys like eggs and bacon with toasted bread and jam. Is that okay for you, too?”

  “We made our own jam this summer. Turned out pretty good for our first time, considering we really didn’t know what we were doing. Wild berry something or other, but it is good.”

  The women kept up the light conversation. Indy eventually turned back into the bedroom to wake up Pete. This was the first time since her capture that Indy, her Cherokee name being Alini, had not been sexually abused by the man who bought her for the night. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of this big man—boy really, as he looked so young—who untied her ropes and fed her and brought her to this white man’s teepee in the woods.

  Pete awoke to find a wide-eyed Indy kneeling by his bed, staring intently at him. He looked at her in fear and jumped back, pulling the covers up over his bare chest. She was amused, and smiled at him. He tentatively smiled back.

  She patted him on the hand, stood up, and indicated for him to follow her out of the room.

  Pete paused and then got out of bed. He had pulled off his shirt and shoes and stockings before going to bed, but he still had his breeches on, so was partially decent. He put on his shirt, and padded barefoot after her.

  The ladies looked up to see a disheveled Pete following Indy out of the room. They smiled at him in amusement.

  Jake, Alvin, and Luke soon returned from the morning chores of feeding the chickens, chopping some wood, and making sure the horses had water. Mara had already gathered the eggs for breakfast.

  Everyone took their place at the table; Indy sat on the floor next to Pete. She seemed comfortable there, so they let her be. Pete gave her a plate and tableware and passed her food as it came around the table. Indy dropped the spoon and fork to the floor and used the knife and her fingers.

  “I haven’t heard her mutter a sound since I found her.”

  “Look at those rope burns,” said Cecilia, appraising Indy’s neck. “They probably have damaged her voice.”

  “Could be fright,” said Alvin. “I remember many an orphan acting the same way when they were first brought to the children’s home.”

  After breakfast, the women cleared the table and started the dishes. Indy came over and watched in amazement. She started touching everything.

  “Good sign,” said Cecilia. “She’s becoming more comfortable around us. Maybe she will agree to a bath this morning. We need to clean her up before we can assess the real damage.”

  Pete spoke up. “I’ll go find the tub.” He left to go pull it out of the crate. Indy ran after him.

  She followed him as he brought it into the cabin. She followed him as he drew water from the creek. She followed him as he heated up the water. She followed him to the outhouse, but realized what it was for and let him go in by himself. She followed him as he took an apple to Crookshanks.

  The other men watched in amusement. “Yup, the family pet we always wanted but didn’t know how to find,” Jake chuckled.

  “He is never gonna rid himself of her now. I hope his future wife wants an Indian for a pet!”

  They laughed.

  The bath posed new problems for Pete. Indy wouldn’t let him leave the room. He finally just had to turn his back, sit in a chair, and pretend he wasn’t there.

  As soon as the water was ready and Mara indicated the bath was for Indy, the Indian girl stripped and stepped in. She hadn’t had a proper bath for as long as she could remember. And this water was warm! She allowed the women to wash her hair, and sat patiently as they combed out the knots and the nits.

  Cecilia picked up what was left of her buckskin dress between her thumb and finger. “This is awful, and I don’t think we can clean it.”

  “I wouldn’t dare throw it away,” said Mara. “That is probably all she has from her former life. We’ll try to wash it when we are finished with her bath.”

  The ladies drew water from the tub as it became dirty and scooped the lice from the top. They added hot water to keep it warm. When they finished scrubbing away all that grime and filth, a lovely young woman with bronze skin emerged: big, dark-brown eyes; and thick, pure-black hair.

  “Well, that is certainly an improvement,” remarked Mara. “Before we cleaned her up, she looked like I remember the boys looking when I first met them—thin as a rail, half starved, dir
ty. The only thing missing was the rope burns.”

  Deirdre looked at Pete’s massive back. ”Wouldn’t know it by the looks of him now, would you?” They all giggled.

  “Hey! I resemble that remark!” Pete threw back over his shoulder. They laughed some more, and even Indy smiled, not really sure what they were laughing at, but happy to hear joyful laughter again after months of cruel laughter at the hands of her captors.

  After the bath, they handed Indy a set of bloomers and a camisole to put on. She shook her head, and grabbed her buckskin.

  Deirdre took the buckskin and pretended to scrub it, so Indy would know they wanted to wash it. Deirdre then pointed back to the bloomers and camisole. Indy thought for a minute, and then decided the buckskin could use a washing. She washed it herself. And she put it back on the instant it was dry. It still looked awful.

  Luke came up with the solution. He’d already been tanning hides for shoes, mainly smaller animal skins like rabbit and raccoon. He would hunt a deer and tan the hide for Indy to use to make a new buckskin.

  Indy actually tanned the hide herself. Luke watched, marveling at her skills as she expertly created a lovely soft piece of leather for her new outfit. She was a natural working with animal skins. He could definitely use her skills at the cobbler shop.

  Communication was the main problem. Indy still wasn’t talking, and they weren’t sure if she even understood English. So they had to rely on hand signals and gestures to explain things to her. Pete walked around, pointing to various items, telling Indy their English names. “Tree. Flower. Cabin. Water.”

  Indy quickly learned each person’s name. Her favorite was the big man with the gentle voice named Pete. She still followed him everywhere, and slept on the floor next to his bed.

  Pete wanted to learn more about Indy. One day, he decided to try to find out how old she was. He sat down with her at the table, and drew a circle on a piece of paper. At the bottom he drew a tree with no leaves and a snowflake; at the top, he drew a tree with leaves and an apple. To the right, he sketched a tree with flowers, and to the left a tree with most of its leaves on the ground. Indy looked at the picture, and recognized the seasons.