In the Land of the Long White Cloud

wouldn’t let herself be fleeced.”
    James laughed. “That would be unlikely. According to what I’ve heard, she’s got a good head for business. But for that reason the land still belongs to the Maori. The Crown only has the right of preemption. Which naturally guarantees people a certain baseline price. But for one thing, that’s not how the world works, and for another, even now not all of the chiefs have signed the treaty. The Kai Tahu, for example, haven’t as far as I know.”
    “The Kai Tahu are our people?” Gwyneira asked.
    “You’ve got it,” James replied. “Of course they’re not really ‘our people.’ They merely carelessly sold the land on which their village rests to Mr. Warden because they let themselves be tricked. That in itself shows how unfairly the Maori have been treated.”
    “But they seem perfectly happy,” Gwyneira objected. “They’re always very nice to me. And they’re often not even there.” Whole Maori tribes occasionally took long treks to other hunting grounds and fishing areas.
    “They still haven’t figured out how much money they’ve been swindled out of,” James said. “But the whole thing is a powder keg. If the Maori ever have a chief who learns to read and write, there will be trouble. But forget all that for now, my sweet. Shall we try again?”
    Gwyneira laughed at his words. It was the same way Lucas prefaced their efforts in the marriage bed. But what a difference between Lucas and James!
    Gwyneira increasingly enjoyed the physical act of love the more time she spent with James. At first he was tender and gentle, but when he recognized the passion that was awakening within Gwyneira, he loved to play with the tigress within her. Gwyneira had always liked wild games and she loved it when James moved inside her quickly,bringing their intimate dance to a passionate crescendo. With every new tryst, she cast more of her reservations about propriety aside.
    “Does it work if I lie on top of you instead of the other way around?” she asked at one point. “You’re kind of heavy, you know.”
    “You were born to ride,” James said, laughing. “I always knew that. Try it sitting down, then you’ll have more freedom to move.”
    “Now how do you know all that?” Gwyneira asked suspiciously, when, intoxicated with happiness, she later snuggled her head onto his shoulder, the commotion inside her slowly ebbing away.
    “You don’t want to know that,” he dodged.
    “I do. Have you already loved a girl? I mean, properly, from your heart…so much that you would have died for her, like in books?” Gwyneira sighed.
    “No, not until now. Though one rarely learns these things with the love of one’s life. Rather, it’s an education you have to pay for.”
    “Men can be instructed in this sort of thing?” Gwyneira asked, astonished. Those must have been the only lessons that Lucas ever skipped. “And girls just get thrown into the deep end? Seriously, James, no one tells us what to expect.”
    James laughed. “Oh, Gwyn, you’re so innocent, but you’ve got an instinct for the most important things. I can imagine those teaching positions would be highly sought after.” Over the next quarter of an hour, he imparted a lesson on how love could be bought. Gwyn vacillated between disgust and fascination.
    “At least the girls make their own money,” she said in the end. “But I would insist that the fellows washed up first!”

    When, during the third month of their affair, she didn’t get her period, Gwyneira could hardly believe it. Of course she had already noticed signs—her swollen breasts and intense cravings if there wasn’t a specific cabbage dish on the table. Now thatshe was completely sure, her first feeling was one of joy. But a bitter feeling of imminent loss followed. She was pregnant, so there was no longer a reason to continue cheating on her spouse. The idea that she would never again touch James, never again lie naked beside him, kiss him, feel him inside her, or scream with lust at the climax cut her like a knife to the heart.
    Gwyneira could not bring herself to reveal the news to James right away. For two days she kept it to herself and saved up every one of James’s stolen, tender glances like a treasure. Never again would he wink at her secretively as he muttered, “Good day, miss” or “But of course, miss,” in passing when they met each other in company.
    Never again would he steal a quick kiss from her when no