James Visits Little Dove

James visits Little Dove at her lodge (excerpt continued)

   
   They heard a voice outside the lodge. Hummingbird pushed open the deerskin door and stepped out.
   “If it’s no bother, would you mind me seein’ her?” said James.
   “It’s a bother,” said Hummingbird. “Come back later.”
   She opened the door a crack, slipped in and shut it.
   On the other side of the door, in a frantic whisper, Little Dove said, “What have you done?”
   “Don’t be so easy,” said Hummingbird.
   “I can be easy if I want,” said Little Dove.

   She grinned. James grinned back.
   “You two,” said Eagle Eyes.
   They stared into each other’s eyes.
   “Do you want to come in?” she said.
   “Ah, shur.”
   He stepped past her and drank her sweet fragrance of sun-drenched juniper berries that reminded him of black pepper Old Tom gin. A better compliment there was not.
   They sat next to each other and contemplated the fire. Their shoulders touched.
   “What were you doing in the woods?” she said.
   He was mesmerized by her deep blue-blue eyes.
   “We were fetching water.”
   “No water anywhere else?” said Hummingbird, sitting in a corner, folding clothes.
   “You’ve the whole of the water,” he said, “enough to drown all of County Galway.” He wanted to bite his wrist. She must think I’m a feckin’ cabbage.
   “Streams are everywhere,” said Hummingbird.
   “Shhh,” said Little Dove.
   
   He was very white and it was hard to tell one white man from another. However, he stood out from the flock of white faces because of his good hair. She liked that he looked at her when he spoke. She felt heat from the shoulder he pressed against her and dizzy watching his lips move. She tried to imagine herself lying with him and having his babies.
   On second thought, she couldn’t see it. Maybe he would grow on her.

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