The shelters of stone - Jean M. Auel [205]
“You do it like this, Lanoga,” Ayla said. “You pull the scraper across the meat. It gets the essence out and leaves the fibrous part behind. See? Now you try it.”
“What are you doing here?”
Ayla jumped with a start at the voice, then turned to face Laramar. “I’m showing Lanoga how to prepare some food that this baby can eat, since her mother has no more milk for her,” she said. She was sure she detected a look of surprise flit across his face. So he didn’t know, she thought.
“Why should you bother? I doubt that anyone else cares,” Laramar said.
Not even you, she thought, but held her tongue. “People care. They just didn’t know,” she said. “We only found out when Lanoga came and got Zelandoni because Bologan was hurt.”
“Bologan is hurt? What happened?”
This time there was concern in his voice. Proleva was right, Ayla thought. He does have some feelings for the eldest. “He drank your barma and …”
“Drank my barma! Where is he? I’ll teach that boy to get into my barma!” Laramar stormed.
“You don’t have to,” Ayla said. “Someone already did. He got in a fight, someone hit him hard, or he fell and hit his head on a rock. He was brought back home and left. Lanoga found him unconscious and went to find Zelandoni. That’s where he is now. He was badly hurt and lost a lot of blood, but with rest and care, he should be fine. But he won’t tell Joharran who hit him.”
“I’ll take care of it, I know how to get it out of him,” Laramar said.
“I haven’t lived with this Cave very long, and it’s not my place to say, but I think you should talk to Joharran first. He’s very angry and wants to know who did it, and why. Bologan was lucky. It could have been much worse,” Ayla said.
“You’re right. It’s not your place to say,” Laramar said. “I’d rather take care of it myself.”
Ayla said nothing. There was nothing she could do about it, except tell Joharran. She turned to the girl. “Come on, Lanoga. Get Lorala and we’ll go,” she said, picking up her Mamutoi haversack.
“Where are you going?” Laramar said.
“We’re going to take a swim and clean up a little before we go to talk with some of the women who are nursing, or will be soon, and ask them if they will share some of their milk with Lorala,” Ayla said. “Do you know where Tremeda is? She should come to this meeting, too.”
“Isn’t she here?” Laramar said.
“No. She left the children with Lanoga, and hasn’t returned since she went to Shevonar’s burial,” Ayla said. “In case you’re interested, the rest of the children are with Ramara, Salova, and Proleva right now.” It was Proleva who had suggested that she get Lanoga and the baby cleaned up a little. Women with infants might not want to hold such a grimy baby for fear she might soil their own child.
As Lanoga picked up the baby, Ayla signaled Wolf, who had been lying down watching the activities, partly hidden by a log. Laramar hadn’t seen the animal, and when Wolf stood up, his eyes widened with surprise as he became aware of what a large, powerful carnivore he actually was. The man backed off a few steps, then gave the foreign woman an insincere smile.
“That’s a big animal. Are you sure it’s safe to bring him around people, especially children?” he asked.
He doesn’t care about children, Ayla thought, reading his subtle body language. He’s talking about children and implying that I am doing something that might harm people to hide his own fear. Other people had voiced a similar concern without offending her, but she disapproved of Laramar because he had so little concern for the children for whom he should have been responsible. She didn’t like the man, and his objections evoked a negative reaction in her.
“Wolf has never threatened a child. The only person he ever harmed was a woman who attacked me,” Ayla said, looking directly into his eyes. Among the people of the Clan, such a direct glare would have been construed as a threat, and a subliminal impression of that was communicated. “Wolf killed