Nathaniel & Elizabeth
excerpt from Fire Along the Sky
forthcoming Bantam Books
All Rights Reserved
Copyright Sara Donati
She found Nathaniel by himself rumbling through the baskets in the workroom.
"Am I glad to see you, Boots." He thrust a bloody hand toward her. "I'm no good at bandages. Can you tie this up for me?"
"You're no good at stitches either," she said, catching his hand to look more closely at the gash that ran just below his knuckles from thumb to little finger. Blood trailed down and over the Kahnyen'kehàka tattoos that circled his wrist.
He put his head down next to hers to look at the wound more closely. "It's just a scratch. I already cleaned it out, so bind it up for me now and let me get back to work. We were in the middle of bringing down that dead oak on the other side of Squirrel Slough."
Elizabeth touched her forehead to his and looked him in the eye. "Nathaniel Bonner," she said. "I want you to listen to me very closely. You need stitches or this wound will not close properly, and you know it very well yourself. You must go to Hannah or Curiosity -- that much you may choose." Then she pressed a piece of linen to the wound and began to wind it firmly.
He pushed out a frustrated sigh that rippled through the muscles in his shoulders and down his arms, giving in without more argument.
"And there's company coming," she added, tying off the linen and avoiding his gaze. "You'll want to be here."
A little spark of interest replaced the resignation in his expression. "Good company, I hope."
"The very best," Elizabeth promised, and kissed him on the forehead. He pulled her closer with his free arm around her waist and kissed her properly before he let her go. He smelled of honest sweat and pennyroyal ointment and pine tar and blood, and his mouth tasted of mint. Then he swung her around to pin her where she stood, his arms stemmed to either side of her head. It was one of Elizabeth's greatest pleasures in life, to have her husband catch her up against a wall to kiss her. He knew this very well, and he used it now to his advantage.
"Are you going to tell me or will I have to tease it out of you?"
"Promise me first that you'll let Hannah see to your hand straight away."
He grinned at her, a flash of teeth that made him look half his age and up to no good, her wild backwoodsman of a husband, too clever by half.