Wilderness Double Edition 18 by David Robbins

Author:David Robbins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: the old west, the rockies, david thompson, piccadilly publishing, american frontier fiction, david l robbins, westerns fiction ebook, mountain man nate king, trappers and hunters, wilderness series
Publisher: Piccadilly

Two

Blue Water Woman prided herself on two things. Foremost was her wise decision to take Carcajou, as McNair was known to her people, to be her mate. Second was her ability to stay calm when danger loomed. In times of crisis, when others around her were in a panic, she always managed to maintain her composure—a trait she demonstrated when she had barely seen seven winters, on the day Bloods raided her village. Many of the women and children had been running about in mindless fright, screaming and wailing, but not her. She’d had the presence of mind to grab her father’s bow and quiver and rush outside to give it to him, then stood close by and watched as all around her warriors fought in fierce combat and people she knew and cared for were callously cut down. Eventually the Flatheads drove the invaders off, but at a terrible cost.

Her father had been impressed by her courage and bearing. Afterward he’d commented with pride to all who would listen that she had been as calm as the blue water of the tranquil lake near the village. From that day forth she was known as Blue Water Woman. Many winters had gone by since, but in all that time she had never lost her inner calm, never let fear or anxiety rule her.

Until now.

Seven sleeps had gone by since their cabin was entered and ransacked. Initially, Blue Water Woman assumed that the creature would drift elsewhere, since large animals seldom stayed in one area for long. They roamed far and wide in search of forage or prey, and she figured the intruder would do the same. But she was wrong.

The second day, late in the evening, as Blue Water Woman sat in her rocker knitting and Shakespeare was cleaning his matched set of smoothbore pistols, an eerie cry rose from the surrounding forest. A ghastly shriek that seared into the core of her being and brought her out of the chair with a hand to her throat and her heart fluttering.

Shakespeare jumped up too, his face drained of color, and ran to the front door to unbar it.

“No!” Blue Water Woman had shouted. For a reason she couldn’t comprehend, raw fear flooded through her, fear that if her man went out she would never see him again. “Wait until daylight and track it down.”

There had been a time when Shakespeare would have laughed and stalked out anyway. But that night he let go of the long wooden bar and nodded. “Makes sense to me. Guess I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Blue Water Woman had seldom seen Carcajou scared. Concerned for her safety, yes. Afraid that she might be hurt, most assuredly. But never scared of anyone or anything. Yet that night she sensed fear in him, fear and something else. Shame. To ease his self-reproach she had joked, “Just like a man. Always ready to rush off to battle and leave us women on our own.”

For a long time they had listened, but the unearthly cry wasn’t repeated, and at their usual hour they turned in.

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