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After a while, Mrs. Rafferty seemed to relax and enjoy being served. Mariah guessed this might be a first. |
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Thorn joined the family for the meal, while Mariah, trying to accept humility, waited on them all. In the course of the conversation, she learned that Rafferty was a trader who traveled from post to post, bartering goods. Given the names he dropped and the stories he told of who'd found what goods or been attacked where, she suspected he also exchanged gossip. And thanks to his wife, who was the daughter of an Ottawa chief, he was also welcome to trade in the camps of several Indian nations. |
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That explained why he had married her. More questionable was why she had married him. |
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Her name, Mariah learned, translated to Little Elk. The coarse Rafferty had nicknamed her Elkie. Mariah wasn't sure whether she was being treated like a second-class citizen because she was Indian or because she was a woman. |
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Either way, Mariah didn't like it. |
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Rafferty mentioned that their son was seventeen. Youthful Little Elk must have been little more than his age when she'd borne him. |
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"We'll be off first thing in the morning," Rafferty was saying. He spit crumbs of bread from between his teeth as he talked, but that didn't stop him from either stuffing more bread in his mouth or from talking. "Next post downriver ain't too far off, a new one named Harrigan's. We'll hit it, then go on a bit. No fine inns like this where we're heading." |
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Harrigan's. Why did the name sound familiar to Mariah? She knew nothing about any trading posts in this time. Her hands were full of dirty dishes, but she hesitated at the common room door to eavesdrop further. |
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"You been to Harrigan's yet?" the younger Rafferty asked Thorn. Mariah hadn't heard him say much, but his voice, though higher, was as gruff as his father's. His table manners weren't much better, either. |
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"Several times." Thorn seemed oblivious to his guests' foul habits, though he, too, ate as though he'd been hungry. "It's farther down the Ohio than Pittsborough is upstream, but I've found it worth the trip." |
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