He didn’t realize that she’d been holding her breath, until she let it out in a long, deep sigh that touched his face.

“Thank you,” she said. “Now that you know—you will take Tòtis?”

“I will.” He said it without hesitation, even as he wondered how on earth he’d tell Rachel about this.

Emily’s relief touched him, and so did she, clasping his hand hard against her breast.

“If your wife will not have him at her fire,” she said, a note of anxiety creeping into her voice once more, “I am sure you will find a woman who will care for him?” That was done sometimes; if a man’s wife died and he married someone who didn’t get along with his children, he’d go to and fro and look until he found a woman who would either be his second wife or, if she was married, would care for his children in return for his providing her with meat and skins.

“Perhaps your mother?” Emily said, hope mingling with doubt in her voice.

“Neither my wife nor my mother would see any bairn starve,” he assured her, though his imagination was unequal to envisioning what either one was going to say. He squeezed her hand gently and let go. He already knew that he couldn’t explain Emily to Rachel; now he realized that he could never explain Rachel to Emily, either, and smiled wryly to himself.

“My wife is a Friend, ken? And she paints her face with wisdom.”

“I am a little bit afraid of her,” Emily said honestly. “Will you go and tell her—ask her—now?”

“Come with me,” he said, and stood up. It wasn’t until they had come out into the pale light of snow and fog that something occurred to him, and he turned to her.

“Ye said ye prayed, Emily,” he said, and she blinked at the sound of his name for her. “Who were ye praying to?” He asked it out of curiosity; some Mohawk were Christians, and might pray to Jesus or His mother, but she had never been a Christian, when he knew her.

“Everybody,” she said simply. “I hoped someone would hear.”

IAN SAW RACHEL walking toward the longhouse with Oggy when they pushed back the hide over the door, and Emily went out to her at once, inviting her in.

Rachel stopped for a moment, blinking into the darkness; then her eyes found Ian and she saw what she wanted in his face, for she smiled. The smile lessened, but still lingered, when she turned to Emily. It vanished when Ian told her about Tòtis, but only for an instant. He saw her swallow and imagined her reaching for her inner light.