Blackbird by Nancy Henderson

had.  Adahya did not deserve that.  He deserved a woman who would love and take care of him and give him children.
     
    But that woman was not her.  Katherine belonged to another world.  To another man.  To Joshua.
     
    She listened to him tell her of his childhood, of his brothers and the short time they had spent with their father.  Katherine recalled all the things she had lost:  Mama, the mission, her friends Thomas and Robert.  And Joshua.  And now her freedom.
     
    If only she could convince Adahya to take her back to the mission to get her belongings.  Joshua had to be back from Albany by now.  He would save her from this Indian.  He would kill Adahya, and she would be free.
     
    But would Joshua really save her?  He did not even own a gun.  And she really did not want Adahya to die.
     
    Katherine sighed.  Her situation seemed hopeless.  Still she had no choice but to try to persuade him into taking her back.
     
    He was untangling some sort of fishing net.
     
    “Adahya,” she interrupted his endless chattering about fishing.  “I need to ask you something.”
     
    “What?”
     
    “I need you to do something for me.”  She paused, watching his expression.  He raised an eyebrow, already skeptical.  “I need you to take me back to the mission to--”
     
    “No!”
     
    “But just to--”
     
    “Your place is with me!”
     
    “You’re not listening to me!” she cut him off, feeling both weak and vulnerable against his anger.  Tears of frustration threatened to spill.
     
    He gripped her shoulders hard enough to bruise.  “Hear my words, Katherine.  Your old life is dead now.”
     
    “I won’t listen to you!”
     
    “You belong to Adahya!”
     
    Katherine brought her hand hard across his face.  He released her, and she stumbled to her feet.  Not caring where she was going, just as long as it was far away from him, she ran into the woods.  She ran fast.  Faster.  Faster until her lungs ached from want to rest.  Until she could no longer hear him shouting her name.  She stopped dead in her tracks.
     
    She had no idea what it was.  But it was certainly something.  But what?
     
    Only an ordinary tree stump, but a tomahawk had been embedded into the center of it.  In fact, it had been sunk into the stump so violently that the blade was completely buried in the tree.  Black beads adorned the handle, along with six white feathers that floated in the gentle breeze.  But the strangest thing was the color.  Red paint had been poured over the entire hatchet.  Even the feathers were bleeding with it.
     
    In front of the stump, two branches were stuck in the ground.  Three strings of shells were suspended between them.  Feathers also adorned this display.
     
    And red paint had been dumped over them too.
     
    Katherine touched the shells.  This was some sort of monument.
     
    But a monument to what?
     
    Katherine looked back toward the direction in which she had come.  To her surprise, Adahya had not followed her.
     
    He would know what this monument was for.
     
    But she never wanted to see him again.
     
    Night fell and still Adahya had not come for her, and she began to wonder if he had given up on her.  Her heart leapt at the prospect.  If he had, she would have to find her way back to the mission alone.  She could do it.  She would do it come first light.
     
    Unsure of when she had fallen asleep, she awoke shivering at the base of the tree stump.  The sun had not been up long, for the dew still lay on the tops of her moccasins.
     
    She looked down at them.  The red and green beadwork reminded her of Mama’s Christmas quilt which was back at the mission.  Homesickness struck her in a desperate, heart-wrenching wave, and she sobbed in loud, gasping hiccups until she was completely exhausted.
     
    The shrill cry of a blue jay sounded in the distance.  She looked out over an ocean of dew-laden ferns.  Standing in the center of them, arms folded over his