Uncas & Alice

#03 - young

She is so young and inexperienced, this Yengeese miss they've tasked themselves with protecting; he should find her annoying, and a burden, yet Uncas finds himself drawn to her, unable to look away.

#04 - last

Cora has been on campaigns since she was fourteen, Duncan is a soldier, and their three guides live and move in this wilderness; nevertheless Alice is upset with herself that she always seems to be last on the trail.

#05 - wrong

Almost all of her society shuns them; his people are more accepting of the love they share, and the life that they are striving to build together.

#06 - gentle

After that day at the cliffs, they are inseparable, and their families are so very careful with them as they slowly heal.

#07 - one

"... find a delaware speaking woman for Uncas, who will say 'You are the one,'" Nathaniel had teased, seemingly a lifetime ago; it amuses him that he has found his "one," and she doesn't speak delaware at all.

#08 - hundred

Alice holds his unresponsive hand tightly as Cora closes his many wounds, stitch after stitch after stitch.

#09 - king

Chingachgook and Uncas are the last of their people, and Alice shows his father the respect he is due as an Elder.

#10 - learn

Before coming to the colonies, the idea of learning to load and fire a musket would have been ludicrous in the extreme; since the cliffs, and everything that happened before, Uncas is adamant that he teach her, and she eventually agrees.

#11 - blur

She doesn't remember much of it, the time between leaving the fort and finding herself in Uncas' arms under the waterfall; it is all a confusing blur of screams and blood and death.

#12 - wait

He'd watched her being taken away by Magua and his men, and he'd sprinted off after her, seeing no other choice for himself; it isn't until months later, when Uncas is fully recovered, that his father and brother furiously berate him for not waiting.

#13 - change

After the ambush on the George Road, Alice wanted nothing more than to reach the fort, and then return post-haste to Portman Square; after her rescue and their recovery, to leave this country - and him - is unthinkable to her.

#14 - command

She has never been truly angry with her father before, but knowing he has given the command to have Nathaniel hang for sedition fills Alice with fury, and disillusionment.

#15 - hold

After Uncas pulls her from the canoe, Alice grasps his arm as tightly as he holds onto hers as they labor up the ramp to the sally-port together; when Duncan comes between them, and they need to let go of each other, she feels oddly bereft.

#16 - need

It is during warm, still nights that they explore each other; Alice learns which touch brings him to shuddering need, Uncas what will cause her to arch her back with a quiet cry.

#17 - vision

Taking his place on one side of Nathaniel, Chingachgook on the other, he can see Alice up ahead, riding behind her sister as they abandon the fort; even as he uneasily scans the trail and trees, his every sense on high alert, Uncas never loses sight of her.

#18 - attention

At first it made Alice apprehensive, to feel his regard as they traveled to the fort; but that uneasiness slowly fell away as he quietly assisted her again and again over the rough terrain, somehow always knowing when she needed help.

#19 - grave

She watches his stoic face as Uncas hoists his musket onto his shoulder, striding away from the burned out cabin; she's caught a glimpse of his grief, and doesn't understand why they don't give the little family a Christian burial.

#20 - solid

She wakes with a start, knowing something is wrong, and her fear makes her too loud; Uncas pulls her to him, whispering quiet reassurance, and Alice relaxes into his warm, solid body, trusting him to protect her.

#21 - book

Chingachgook, Nathaniel and Uncas will leave in the fall, to hunt and trap furs to trade with the Dutch; when he returns, weeks later, he never fails to bring her a new book or two, which they will read to each other by firelight.

#22 - speed

Uncas and Nathaniel are forever arguing who is the fastest, challenging each other to races through the forest, the winner crowing to the loser as they rejoin an amused Cora and Alice at the end.

#23 - child

Even though they are eager to start a family, Uncas and Alice are equally content with this time that it is just the two of them.

#24 - fortune

Neither Cora, nor Alice, have any desire to return to England to settle their father's estate; they write to his solicitors, and leave the matter to them.

#25 - shadow

Uncas can see the shadows in her eyes, and know she is mourning her father and Duncan; he tells her the story of the stars, and knows when Alice watches them at night, that she is remembering them.

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