Posted by Elyse on July 03, 2000 at 22:44:30:

In Reply to: Re: Re: PART ONE... posted by Vickie on July 03, 2000 at 18:01:09:

The part in the elipsis is about a woman needing a man in life. Yeah, Ethan is part wolf, and he lives his life by observation, whether it's beaver tracks or romantic dynamics. Bendigo didn't make much of the significance of this advice -- I guess because back then it was common knowledge that women had to have a man to speak for them.

But I feel sure Ethan had noticed that there was something subtle between Ruth and Cain. She says later on that she only wanted one man, and he was dead. But is that really true? Was she in love with Cain, couldn't have him and decided to live her life alone instead?

People didn't used to just run off and ruin other people's marriages back then. There was ostracization for those who did. (However, people did go west in such situations, LOL! I know, my own great aunt did. Or they had affairs. People had to be married back then make all the kids look legitimate.)

Anyway, as far as the storytelling goes, this remark of Ethan's is a foreshadowing to start preparing us for the scene near the end of the book. It gets the romantic tension going, which this book would be lacking otherwise. L.L. said that there's almost always a romance in his books.

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