Thieving Forest by Martha Conway

happened to her, the Potawatomi, the forest. Maybe she’s confused or doesn’t remember. “Old Adam and I found you. We’re in Risdale now. In the tavern. Eager Tavern. Sirus told us that the owner has a pet deer and we didn’t believe him but it’s true, her name is Becky.”
    But of course Aurelia would not be interested in any animals, only her birds.
    “Your hens are fine,” Susanna tells her. “Mop is tending them. I showed him the feed bucket before I left. I told him about the mash.”
    A slight frown. Susanna touches Aurelia’s cheek. Her skin is burning up. There is a knock on the door and Cade comes in with some broth.
    “Are you hungry? Why don’t you drink some of this, Aury?”
    Aurelia is struggling to get out a word. Not .
    Susanna bends closer.
    “ Not. Mop.”
    Her voice is slurred and strangely low. It is unsettling to hear her struggle. Susanna always thought it was fitting that in Sirus’s mnemonic—Please Be Neat And Seldom Late—Aurelia became a conjunction, since she usually talks in one long sentence peppered with ands and ors and howevers. A conversation with Aurelia might find you with your mouth closed for ten minutes on end. Susanna knows more about Dominico chickens than she has ever cared to. And isn’t it silly, she always thought, to waste feed on penned-in birds here in Ohio, where there are so many wild ones easily caught?
    Susanna touches the spoon to Aurelia’s lip. “Take another sip, Aury. Just a little one.”
    Cade says, “Anything?”
    Susanna has forgotten about Cade. She shakes her head.
    “Want me to try?” he asks.
    She gives him her chair. Unlike Susanna, Cade doesn’t try to convince Aurelia, he just goes about tipping her head back, opening her mouth gently, and tilting a small spoonful of broth between her lips. Then he massages her neck until she swallows. It takes a long time to get half a mugful in her. Finally he puts the broth back on the little oak stand.
    “I think she’s asleep.”
    “Probably good for her,” Susanna says. But every time Aurelia closes her eyes she is afraid they will never open again.
    Cade pinches the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Then he stands. It is still morning, and outside a low fog clings to the trees. “Why don’t I go see if there’s any news,” he says. One of his trouser legs is unbuttoned at the knee and his hair needs combing. He picks up his hat but then just stands there, turning it over in his hands.
    “One thing,” he says finally. “About your team and wagon?”
    “I already know. They were stolen.” Susanna looks down at Aurelia.
    “Well yes, I mean, that is, I wondered...could maybe one of your sisters, say Penelope, could she have decided to sell them?”
    “That would be foolish. We were thinking of leaving, you know, going back to Philadelphia. We’d need our wagon.”
    Cade looks at her, still turning his hat.
    “As soon as I get the others back...” she begins, and at the same time Cade says, “My father...”
    They both stop. Susanna thinks of all the things she’d like to say about his father. A drunkard who wouldn’t fetch the farmers and who needlessly delayed her.
    “I blame him for this,” she says angrily.
    Cade looks surprised. Susanna knows it is unfair of her to say this to him. In truth she blames herself.
    He opens his mouth and closes it again. Then he puts his hat on his head. “Well, if I find out anything...”
    As he is closing the door behind him, Susanna calls out, “Cade, what about Old Adam? Where is he, do you know?” But Cade doesn’t know.

    Cade finds his brother walking along the stream bank ahead of a horse he borrowed off a Risdale farmer. Seth’s dark hair is out of its customary ponytail and he leads the horse loosely by the reins. She’s a young mare but well trained, not grabbing her mouth around every full branch she passes. Seth is looking down at the water as if for someone drowned.
    Cade says, “You been back?” He