His Spoilt Lady (21 page)

A saddle and a
blanket roll were on the ground to the left of the fire, and she
noticed that, strangely, another bed roll lay a few feet away.
Linnett frowned, but then her face cleared as she realised that of
course it was Hans. He obviously planned to show John the route and
travel a little farther on with him. She crept over to one of the
blanket rolls and giggled as she planned how she would surprise
them.

She tethered
Penny back in the trees so that she was out of sight of the camp
and then went and unrolled the blanket. Wrapping herself up,
Linnett lay on the ground and waited. After a few minutes, she
heard male voices coming nearer. Linnett giggled; just stop it, she
scolded herself, you will spoil the surprise for John. She lay very
still, her heart racing as the men entered the clearing. One of
them went to the fire and Linnett could hear wood cracking as he
threw on more kindling. Then it went very quiet. Oh ho! Linnett
thought, stifling another giggle and failing. They know I’m
here!

She waited
expectantly. Suddenly, she felt a vicious kick in her side and a
male voice shouted, “Come yer bastard, up yer get!”

Shocked and
groaning with pain, Linnett threw back the blanket and found
herself staring up the end of a musket. “Well....what ‘ave we got
here. God damn it...a female! Will.... lookee here, there’s a doxy
in me bed, just a waitin' fer me ter give it er!”

Linnett
scrambled to sit up. She was so shocked, she couldn’t speak. A
second man ambled over, and Linnett noticed he carried a musket as
well. She stared at them in horror. They looked very similar to one
another with scruffy beards and dirty, odd-looking clothes made up
of a mixture of leather and fur. One of the men was slightly
thicker set than the other, and he wore a fur cap that seemed to
have the tail from the animal still attached. It was this man who
spoke to her. “Well now, where did yer hail from, little lady? Come
ter warm our old bones at night, ‘ave yer?”

Linnett
swallowed and tried to speak, but when she finally found her voice
it sounded high and squeaky. She cleared her throat and tried
again. “I am really most terribly sorry, gentlemen, but I thought
to surprise my husband who is, er, camping in these parts. I
actually thought this was his camp.”

The two men
looked at each other and back at Linnett. They had started to grin
when Linnett had first begun speaking. Linnett shifted uneasily,
disliking like their horrible grins. “Hoity-toity ...English are
yer, an’ is yer husband English, too?”

The man who had
spoken pronounced “husband” with a fake accent, mimicking Linnett.
She nodded “Why yes, yes we are. Although my....” Linnett hesitated
and then said, “John thinks of himself as an American. He was only
a small boy when he moved to Boston.”

“Boston yer
don’t say! Long way from home, ain’t yer? What shall we be doin’
with yer now, that’s the thing!”

Linnett tried
to smile breezily and said, “Please, no need to concern yourselves,
I will just be on my way! I expect my husband is camped a little
farther on, and he will wonder where I have got to.”

The man who was
doing all the talking frowned. “There ain’t no one camped around
here, missy. We’d know, see, as this is our regular trapping area.
I’m Ned and this ere ugly bugger’s called Will. Er, hope I didn’t
hurt yer none miss, when I kicked yer arse?”

Linnett had no
idea how to reply to that remark so she simply shook her head. What
on earth was she going to do? More to the point, what were they
going to do with her? She shuddered with fear and disgust.

John and Hans rode back late afternoon. As they were
getting nearer to the farm, they could see someone approaching them
on foot. They realised as they drew closer that it was Sarah, and
it became apparent that she was running and waving her arms
frantically.

“What do you
mean gone?” John sounded sharp. He hadn’t intended to, but he was
stunned.

“As I said, she
is gone, and Peter, too.”

It was Han’s
turn to look shocked as he breathed, “Peter?”

Sarah sighed,
thinking really, men could be so obtuse at times. “Linnett left
here this morning. As I explained, she thought you had gone to
Boston. Peter went after her at lunch time after I got back from
berry picking. He felt bad about telling Linnett you had gone on a
journey, so he went to fetch her.”

Hans looked
thunderous, shouting, “Why did you let him go?”

Sarah flushed
with temper. “I did not
let
him go, Hans. Peter left here
without my knowing! I told him he was to stay here, and the next
thing I know, he is galloping off towards the river.”

Hans and John
dismounted, Hans muttering furiously in Dutch, something he rarely
did now-a-days and only when he was extremely agitated.

Linnett was
feeling rather pleased with herself. She had left Penny tethered a
little way away from the camp, initially because she thought she
was surprising John, but now it was to be her salvation because
when the men were asleep, she planned to escape quietly. They
wouldn’t even hear Penny riding off until it was too late for them
to give chase. Linnett had been very lucky so far; the men had
argued at first over her fate. The talkative man had wanted to bed
her, but to Linnett’s huge relief, the thinner man named Will had
protested. Linnett heard him say that he thought they should wait
until they were certain that John and his friends -- Linnett had
told them there was a whole party of men out hunting together --
were not in the immediate area. Will didn’t want any trouble and
his partner, Ned, had seemed to agree with him.

Linnett was
very relieved to have overheard the men and felt slightly less
afraid than before. Linnett tried to smile at Will whenever he
looked in her direction to show her gratitude. The men cooked some
fish they had caught earlier over the fire and gave her a stick
with a burnt fish speared onto the end. She had nibbled dubiously
at it, but was surprised to find it tasted quite good, and she was
so hungry, she had devoured every last morsel. Linnett tried to
stay awake while the men made preparations for the night, building
up the fire and tending to their horses.

She must have
fallen asleep at some point though because she awoke suddenly to
terrible screams, horse screams, she thought, punctuated by the
fearsome roars and growls of some wild creature. Petrified, Linnett
scrambled to her feet. Will ran across to her, signalling to her to
stay quiet, and then he grabbed hold of her and towed her along
with him. They ran in the darkness, the terrible noise following
them, echoing in the still night air. With the horrible screams
ringing in her ears, Linnett stumbled and staggered along in wake
of the men. Finally, they reached the river, and the men urged her
into the shallow water, dark and oily in the faint light from the
moon. Linnett shuddered with fear as she put her foot into the ice
cold fast-flowing water. It was horrible not knowing what was under
her feet. They began to push their way against the current,
upstream in single file, stumbling on slippery water weed that
covered the stones under their feet.

Linnett
whispered to Will in front of her, “What was that creature?” Will
turned his head and Linnett, could see the pale oval of his face in
the faint moon light but couldn’t see his features clearly. “Bear,”
he said shortly and carried on walking. Linnett was none the
wiser.

The water was
so cold, and the strong current pulled at her legs. She was
thankful she had had the foresight to put on a pair of John’s
trousers that morning; it would have been impossible to walk
against these swift waters with long heavy skirts weighing her
down. They trudged on for what seemed like ages to Linnett before
they scrambled out of the water onto dry land. The men knew where
they were going and soon they came upon a large rock face. Will,
the first man, started to climb up, and then it was Linnett’s turn
to follow. When she refused, Ned wasted no time with argument. He
simply grunted and picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder,
climbing slowly up behind Will, who had already reached the top.
Will lent over the lip of the rock and grabbed hold of Linnett
under the arms, hauling her upwards and onto the flat top of the
huge outcrop. At last, they were all safely up, Linnett shivering
from wet and cold.

“What was that
creature?” she managed to ask again between chattering teeth.
“Grizzly, nasty one, too” said Ned.

“What is
grizzly?” Linnett asked.

“Yer are a real
green horn, ain’t yer girly? Bear, a great big old grizzly bear,
been tracking it nigh on a week now. Clever old bastard, this un!”
Ned spat sideways to emphasize his point, and Linnett gagged with
disgust as a phlegm blob hit the rock beside her.

Will grunted
agreement as he was unrolling a blanket that he had the foresight
to grab before they had left their camp. The two men seated
themselves either side of Linnett and wrapped the blanket over them
all. Linnett was grateful for the warmth but felt embarrassed that
she sat so closely sandwiched between the two men. She covered her
confusion with talk. “A bear, you say? Well, what was all that
screaming? I thought it sounded like a horse, and why did we walk
in the river?”

Will answered
her this time. “A grizzly tracks by smell, see, and they can’t
smell our tracks in water and this rock’s high enough up to carry
our scent away, winds blowing in the opposite direction to the camp
where the bear is at, see? We should be safe enough here till
mornin’.”

Linnett felt
relieved and asked, “What will we do when the morning comes?”

Ned put his arm
around her waist and gave her a squeeze. “Don’t worry, darlin’, the
bear will be gone. Bears sleep most of the day this time o’ the
year, they hunt afternoon and night. Anyways, yer got old Ned ter
keep yer safe and warm.”

Linnett
shifted, uncomfortably aware of his arm snaked around her waist.
“Oh well, that’s good, thank you,” Linnett muttered uneasily. She
was beginning to feel very sleepy. Anxious that she might lean into
one of the men if she fell asleep, Linnett sat up and put her head
on her knees, clasped her arms around her legs, having no intention
of giving these men any ideas.

John and Hans
decided to ride through the night. They found that they could
follow the path by the pale moonlight fairly well. Once they
reached the river, it would be easier to keep to the path, which
was marked by the course the river flowed. They rode silently, each
man with his own grave thoughts, with Hans leading the way.

John realised
after a while that he could hear a faint sound, and stopping his
horse, he listened hard. He thought he could hear a distant voice
calling -- yes, there it was again. “Hans! Listen!”

Hans halted his
horse, putting his head on one side. He could hear the sound, a
faint calling off to their right and away from the river. “I hear
it, John! Faint, but certainly a voice calling for help! It means
us leaving the river path. I do not like it; we could get very lost
in the dark.”

John was
desperate to go and follow the voice, he was so frantic with worry
about Linnett, but he knew that Hans must be equally worried about
his young son. John was a sensible young man, and he knew that Hans
would have more luck tracking the two than he would.

“I will stay
here by the river edge, and you go and search for them, Hans. You
know the country better than I. If you get lost, fire your pistol,
and I will fire mine that way you can follow the sound back.”

Hans reined his
horse in and turned it so that he could put his hand on John’s
shoulder. “Are you sure of this, my friend? Would you rather go and
I will wait?”

John shook his
head. “Go, Hans. As I said, you know the country better than I.”
John reached out and slapped Hans’s horse’s rump, and the horse and
rider disappeared into the darkness. John kept his horse, still
listening to the sound of hooves until he realised he could no
longer hear anything. He dismounted and tethered the animal,
thinking he might as well try to rest. He would probably have a
long wait.

Hans,
meanwhile, walked his horse slowly, listening intently for the
sound of the voice they had heard. But now there was only silence.
He went some way and then stopped and listened again but still
nothing. “Peter? Linnett!” he called into the darkness, his voice
sounding hollow and strange.

He listened but
heard only the whisper of the night breeze and the faint rustling
of grass and trees, no voice replying. He tried again, “Peter!
Linnet! Answer me!”

Hans listened
again, Ah! This time he heard it, a voice, slightly louder now but
unmistakably his son! Hans trotted his horse for a short while,
following the direction that Peter’s voice had come from. He
stopped to listen and called again and this time there was no doubt
about the reply. “Pa! Pa! I’m here! Pa!”

Hans jumped
down from his horse, running towards the sound of his son’s voice.
“Keep calling out, son, so that I can find you, just keep
calling!”

“Pa! Pa! Over
here, Pa, I’m under a tree!”

Hans saw a
movement under the dark, looming tree and ran to his son, gathering
the boy into his arms Hans clasped him to his chest. “Peter, oh
thank the Lord!”

He loosened his
hold and took his son’s pale face between his palms, gazing
anxiously into his small face. “Are you hurt?”

Peter tried to
nod, saying, “My leg, I think it’s broke, Pa! The horse was
snake-bit, I think, and he threw me and bucked and dived and then
he collapsed and he
died,
Pa!” Peter’s small face was awash
with tears. His father rocked him and crooned to him in Dutch
before he lifted him onto his horse and turned back towards the
spot where he had left John.