Another Tribe

Part 9 Bushwhackers

Last night's food had been eaten during a heavy silence. It was more than silence; it was a silence full of inner pain, self-recrimination, repressed anger and seething glances that seemed to speak clearer and louder than any words Julii had ever heard.

It had been an angry silence that dominated them all as they sat by the fire trying to make the venison edible without a cooking pot. It was a silence that seemed even louder than the dead blue man's smoking branch on the field at the awful place called Shiloh.

Even before the completion of the tense, inedible, horrible meal, Robert lay down on the ground, a good way away from the fire and the others, and slept restlessly. There in his misery, he tossed and turned.

Observing his suffering, Julii regretted her treatment of the man she loved. There was no doubt that he deserved it but expressing herself so clearly would not bring her any closer to the intimacy she craved.

She moved closer and tried to comfort him, but he would not let her cuddle up to him and that rejection hurt. He would not even let her lie close to him, not even close to his back.

Julii felt cheated by circumstances beyond her control. It was not her fault that the brown family had entered their strange journey, but it was clearly her that Robert blamed and rejected – pushing her far away.

She had been connected to him on the back of his horse since leaving her home, her family, her world, but now he withheld the security his touch provided because of something outside of her control, and that did not seem fair. In fact, as she drifted off to an exhausted sleep, it seemed downright cruel.

When she woke in the morning, Julii was feeling less anxious. She hoped Robert's bitter feelings for her would have lessened with sleep but he showed no sign of change.

She expected his mood to improve when they parted company with the nice brown couple, but no one showed any sign of moving. Julii liked the brown couple, but they upset Robert and she really wanted something to happen.

As the day went on, neither Robert nor the brown man showed any interest in leaving the thicket. All day they just sat there looking at each other without speaking.

Julii tried to defuse the brooding tension between them by asking polite questions, but each innocent word that escaped her mouth seemed to build a charge of aggression between the two men.

Even asking their names made Robert angry and when they answered "Matilda and Paul" his body tensed, so Julii simply stopped talking, leaving a massive silence hanging in the charged air between the two men that was even more filled with danger.

The tension was only broken when evening came and Robert silently packed up their few possessions, attached them to the saddle, then walked his horse from the thicket.

Fearing he may leave without her, Julii quickly hugged Matilda, hugged Paul, kissed the beautiful brown baby on the head, and ran after Robert.

Catching him up, Julii saw Robert's leg move to mount his horse. He had always mounted first and then easily lifted her up and on to the rear of the horse, but this time she was afraid he would not do it.

Pushing his leg away, she placed her moccasin-covered foot in the stirrup and pulled herself onto the horse. Robert was clearly surprised by her actions.

Although she looked directly ahead, she could see him staring at her from the corner of her eye. She noticed the exact moment he worked out why she had done it. She cursed herself. Now she had either offended her Robert or put the idea of leaving her in his mind. This was a disaster.