The Land of Painted Caves - Jean M. Auel [216]
“Amelana, you are a grown woman who has been mated and unfortunately widowed, and will soon be a mother who will have the responsibility of taking care of the new life that is growing inside you. The choice is entirely yours. You don’t need my permission or anyone else’s,” the First began. “But since you asked to speak with me, I presume it is because you want some advice.”
“Well, yes, I guess so,” Amelana said. She seemed surprised that it had been so easy. She thought she would have to wheedle and coax the Zelandoni to agree to the proposed new mating.
“First of all, have you met the people of his Cave, or any of his relatives?” the woman asked.
“Sort of. I’ve shared a few meals with some cousins, but mostly there have been so many feasts and celebrations, we haven’t needed to eat with his Cave,” Amelana said.
“Do you remember what you said when you asked to come along on this Journey? You said that you wanted to go home so you could be with your mother and family to have your baby. More than that, you weren’t happy when Jacharal moved with friends and relatives to start a new Cave—at least in part, I’m sure, because you didn’t know them very well. They were all excited about starting in someplace new, but you had already left the familiar behind and were in a new place. You wanted to be settled and wanted people to be excited about your new baby. Isn’t that right?” the First said.
“Yes, but he’s older. He’s settled. He’s not going to start a new Cave. I asked him,” Amelana said.
The First smiled. “At least you asked that. He is a charming, attractive man, but he is older. Did you wonder why he wants a new mate now? Did you ask if he already has a mate? Or if he ever had one?”
“Not exactly. He said he had been waiting for just the right woman,” Amelana said, frowning.
“Just the right woman to help his first woman take care of her five children?”
“His first woman? Five children?” Amelana’s frown deepened. “He didn’t say anything about five children.”
“Did you ask him?”
“No, but why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because he didn’t have to, Amelana. You didn’t ask him. His mate told him to find another woman to help her, but everyone here knows he already has one woman and her children at his hearth. Since she’s his first, she would have the status and the say. She’s the one who brings the status to that arrangement, in any case. He doesn’t have much besides good looks and a charming way. We’re leaving tomorrow. If you decide to mate him, no one here will bring you back home to your mother’s Cave.”
“I am not staying here,” Amelana said, angrily. “But why would he trick me like that? Why didn’t he tell me?”
“You’re an attractive woman, Amelana, but very young, and you like attention. He will no doubt find a second woman, but she won’t be young and pretty, with no one to stand up for her once we’re gone. That is what he’d rather have. That’s why you are so right for him. The woman he’ll find will likely be older, maybe not very attractive. She may have a couple of children of her own, or if he’s lucky she’ll be a woman who couldn’t have children, and will be happy to find a charming man with a family, willing to take her in and make her part of his family. I’m sure that’s what his first woman is hoping for, not a pretty young woman who will leave with the first man who makes her a better offer. I’m sure that’s what you would do, even if it means you would lose status.”
Amelana looked shocked at the First’s straightforward remarks; then she started to cry. “Am I really that bad?”
“I didn’t say you were bad, Amelana. I said you were young, and like most attractive young women,