The Windcatcher's Cave

Chapter 3: Such a Harmless Lie

Chapter 3

Such a Harmless Lie

A few miles away stood the Stonewell cabin. The cabin had a nice porch and a small window in the front looking out towards the Clearwater. Aggie stood in the door of the cabin looking out toward the river. Tired of nothing to do, she wanted to be doing, and ready for a little private time she decided to take a basket and a long walk.

Alice could see she was looking a little bored and considered that she might be ready to start something, but the day was half spent as it was and a little late to begin anything of consequence. She saw Aggie pick up the basket and start for the door.

“If you are going out,” she said, “don’t wander far. It will be time to start the evening meal soon.”

Aggie didn’t plan to be gone long. She just wanted to get a little air. What she really wanted to do she knew would take longer than she had if she would be needed at home soon.

“I was hoping to be gone till around dark,” she said. “I wanted to spend a little time on the river. It’s getting kinda late in the year. Won’t be many more days to enjoy the nice weather before the snow comes.”

Alice knew Aggie. She knew that she couldn’t hold her forever. She was getting plenty old enough to be making a family of her own and that always makes a woman feel a little restless she told herself.

“Well,” said Alice “I guess I can get May to help. I don’t know where you are planning on going but choose careful. There’s a lot to be considered.”

Alice hoped that she would take that last statement in all the ways she meant it. She couldn’t imagine where Aggie would go, but she was fairly sure that she wasn’t just looking for berries. She half suspected that Talon Windcatcher was involved, even if he wasn’t aware of it yet and worried that he might be a bit dangerous.

Like most folk in the area she wasn’t sure what to think of that cabin. She reasoned that anyone who wanted to stay there might have more to talk about than they were willing to say when it came to why things were so mysterious around there.

She hoped someone else would show up in the area, but the only other man she knew of was Louis Willis. He was the blacksmith in town and she thought him a good man. Maybe she is going to the crossing she told herself maybe she hopes that somehow he will see her on the path across the river and want to talk. Not much chance of it but who can tell. She smiled knowingly at Aggie and went back to her needlework.

Aggie reasoned that if she planned to be picking berries May might not want to come along and she was hoping for a little solitude.

Tom was working on firewood near the front porch when she set out on her trek.

“Where you off to Aggie?” he wanted to know.

She lifted her berry basket in his direction and smiled. She loved that he wanted to know but didn’t want to get involved in any conversation that would delay her trip.

“You be watching for bears,” Tom told her. “I saw tracks for blackies upstream a little and grizz too. Grizz and blackies don’t get along any at all. You hear anything in the brush you get scarce. Could be a bear fight.”

To Aggie, the black bear was the one to be most afraid of. Her father had always told her that they don’t just want to maul you, they often want to eat you. Now that it was late and the berries were ripe she planned to be on her toes all the time.

“Where you planning on looking?” Tom wanted to know.

She thought about her answer for a second. Talon had not been by so far as she had noticed for a good while. He could have passed on the trail without her seeing if he stayed on the trail and she had not been looking. There was a short piece of the trail that she could see from the front porch that happened well past the junction of the trail to her cabin and the river.

She tried to keep up with whatever traffic came and went. If for no other reason it was good to know who was coming and going in her part of the woods.

Him being a neighbor and all, she planned to drop by for a little observation. It was a trip she had made a lot that summer. She liked to drift up the Oxbow just close enough to see the cabin but not so close as to be noticed.

On occasion, she would catch him outside caring for the horses or working.

Not often, but when she could she liked to watch. She thought him an interesting and good looking man but was a little afraid of him at the same time. Besides that, she felt it would be disrespectful to her father to try to get to know him any better. For now, he was just very interesting to watch.

She knew better than to say she was headed upriver. So she shrugged her shoulders smiled a little and said “Downstream… I guess.” She cringed at the thought of lying, but she knew that he could be a little too protective. She feared that he still thought of her as a ten-year-old child in some ways. Besides that, she told herself it isn’t like I’m going down there to do anything bad.

No one in Aggie’s life meant as much to her as her father did, and she would not have hurt him for the world, but she could feel the tug to try her wings and she felt he would not understand if he knew. What difference does it really make? she asked herself. I’ll be back before the sun sets anyway. Tom watched her start down the path to the river, her long hair blowing in the cool breeze, and couldn’t help smiling. She’s a pretty girl, he thought, and a good one. He watched until she went out of sight around a bend in the trail and then went back to work.