Текст книги "Charmed by His Love"
Автор книги: Джанет Чапмен
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Текущая страница: 20 (всего у книги 21 страниц)
a good portion of her right shoulder. “You’l be back with
them by sunrise, I promise.”
“I don’t want them to see me like this,” she whispered,
holding the unfastened bra against her breasts.
“They won’t, lass. I’l have ye right as rain before we leave
here. But I’m going to need your cooperation, wife, to let
me heal you.”
She lifted her head to final y look at him. “H-how?”
He smiled. “By kissing away your boo-boos,” he said,
partly to piss her off but mostly because he was serious
about touching every inch of her trembling body.
She looked down at her lap, but not before he saw a
slight scowl tug at one corner of her swol en mouth, and
Duncan took his first ful breath since he’d heard Peter and
Jacob shouting from the boat out on the fiord.
“Where … where’s Chris?” she asked, glancing at where
he’d been standing.
“Right here, actual y, only four hundred years in the past.”
She looked up, this time with a hint of a smile as she
pressed a trembling hand to his cheek and sighed. “You
can be a real bastard like that sometimes,” she said,
dropping her hand and snuggling against him with another
sigh. “Okay, husband, you may start kissing away.”
Epilogue
Peg stood at the end of the Inglenook road, undecided who
was going to burst into tears first, her or Duncan or Mac.
Wel okay, the men might not actual y cry, but they definitely
weren’t looking al that big and strong and unkil able at the
moment. But having barely survived this ordeal twice
already and knowing this time would be even worse, Peg
had al her pockets stuffed with tissues.
Hel , even Hero knew something was afoot.
Olivia seemed to be the only one who didn’t look as if
she were attending a funeral, instead appearing eager to
have the whole matter over with so she could get to the
Drunken Moose for some cinnamon buns. Yeah, wel , the
woman would be wearing a different expression six years
from now. But then, Peg thought with a sigh, she’d be
wearing the same expression herself for the fourthtime.
She real y, real y needed to have a little talk with
Providence, because she real y didn’t think she could go
through this a fifth or sixth time.
“Mom,” Jacob whispered, tugging on Peg’s sleeve. He
held up his other hand to her. “Maybe you should keep this
in your pocket today, ’cause you look like you need it more
than me.”
Peg dropped down to one knee and closed Jacob’s
fingers over the smal , smooth stone Duncan had given him
last night when he’d tucked the boys into bed, which was
identical to the one he’d handed Peter. “Thanks, sweetie,
but I think you better take it with you. And if you get even a
little bit scared today, you reach in your pocket and close
your fist around your very own piece of home.” She pul ed
the straps of his backpack together to press them against
his chest and smiled. “Remember Duncan said that rock is
fil ed with very powerful magic because it came from deep
inside our mountain, and that al you have to do is close
your eyes and picture swimming in the warm water pool
when you’re holding it, and you’l start feeling right as rain in
no time.”
“But don’t forget to take it out of your pocket first,”
Duncan said thickly, having also dropped to one knee. He
brushed a hand—that Peg noticed was shaking slightly—
over Jacob’s hair. “You’re going to be fine,” he murmured,
even as Peg wondered if he was trying to reassure the boy
or himself.
She saw her husband suddenly stiffen then quickly stand
up, his gaze shooting down the main road. He scooped
Peter up in one arm, then reached down and helped her
stand before he scooped Jacob up in his other arm. Mac
was also holding Henry, Peg noticed just as she heard the
rumble of the school bus climbing the long grade that
crested a quarter of a mile down the road.
“Quick, everyone,” Olivia said, pul ing a camera out of her
pocket. “Al of you stand together and I’l get the bus in the
picture with you when it stops.”
Everyone dutiful y moved to the opposite side of the
Inglenook road as directed. Peg pul ed Charlotte and Isabel
in front of her as she tucked herself up against Duncan’s
chest between the twins. Sophie held Mac’s hand as he
held Henry in his other arm, and Hero trotted over and sat
down in front of everyone—only facing the main road
instead of the lens.
“Wait. You need to be in the picture, too,” Peg said. “Trip
the timer and set the camera on the hood of your truck.”
Olivia snapped one quick shot, then rushed around the
front fender of Mac’s SUV. She set the camera on the
hood, then leaned down to align it, pushed a button, and ran
over to tuck herself behind her daughter against Mac’s
side. “Smile, everyone,” she said just as the school bus
ground to a halt on the main road, sending a bil owing cloud
of dust toward them.
“Duncan,” Jacob said. “You got to let us down ’cause we
got to get on the bus.”
Peg took a fortifying breath and turned, reaching up to
take Peter away from him. Only Duncan stepped back, his
grip on the boys tightening. “I’ve got them,” he growled
thickly. “You’re not supposed to be lifting anything heavy.”
Peg looked down to hide her consternation as he turned
and very slowly walked to the school bus, stil carrying the
twins. And then she took another deep breath when
Charlotte slid her hand into hers.
“You’l be okay, Mom,” her daughter said as she started
leading Peg toward the bus. She gave her a squeeze as
she tilted her head up with a smile. “I’m not real sure about
Duncan, though.”
Peg pul ed her to a stop, then grabbed Isabel’s sleeve to
stop her, also. “What am I going to do al day without the
boys stuck to me like glue? And you two,” she said,
smoothing down each girl’s pretty new jacket. She tucked a
strand of hair behind Charlotte’s ear to expose one of her
shiny birthstone earrings. “We had so much fun together
this summer out on Bottomless and hiking the mountain.”
Charlotte patted Peg’s arm, smiling crookedly. “We’l be
back this afternoon, Mom. And don’t worry; Isabel and I wil
keep an eye on Pete and Repeat.”
Peg bunched Charlotte’s jacket in her fist. “You don’t let
anyone at school cal him Repeat, you understand? If you
hear them, you go tel the principal.”
“Mommm,”Isabel said, pul ing Peg along. “Duncan’s
waiting at the door for you to kiss the boys good-bye.”
“Oh. Oh! Peter, Jacob,” she said, rushing to them. She
pul ed each one down and gave them each several loud
kisses. “You both be good, you hear?” she said, gripping
their arms as she valiantly held her tears inside. “I promise
I’l be right there at Ezra’s store waiting to pick you up off
the bus this afternoon.”
“Mommm, good-bye,”Peter whispered tightly, eyeing
the children on the bus eyeing them.
Only instead of setting them down, Duncan walked right
up into the bus behind Sophie and Isabel and Charlotte,
fol owed by Mac carrying Henry.
Olivia slid her arm through Peg’s with a laugh. “Wouldn’t
it be nice if there were a bus that took the men away al day,
too?”
Peg found her first real smile of the morning as she
patted her slightly bulging bel y. “I swear Duncan spends
more time watching me than he does working.” She sighed.
“Apparently pregnant women can’t even lift something as
heavy as a paintbrush, much less hang curtains. And God
forbid I should want to go for a walk in the woods all by
myself,” she said with a laugh.
Olivia snorted, patting her own protruding bel y. “Mac flew
into a panic the other day when I said I was taking Sophie
to Bangor to have a mother-daughter day before school
started. I swear no fewer than two dozen seagul s fol owed
us al the way down to Bangor and back, the little spies.”
She gestured toward the bus—which the men were stillon.
“Honestly, you’d think Henry was going to Siberia the way
my dear sweet husband has been acting al morning.”
Peg shook her head. “I would like to have been a fly on
the wal after you took Henry in to be tested for his grade
level. I bet no one at school knew what to do with him.” She
gave Olivia’s arm a squeeze. “I’m glad you only let them put
him ahead two grades. He might be the smartest kid on the
planet, but he’s stil only six years old. Isabel’s pretty miffed
Henry’s starting school in the third grade with Sophie
instead of in her class.”
“She can’t be any more upset than Mac is,” Olivia said.
“When Sophie showed him some of her schoolwork from
last year, he threatened to open a private school for al our
children right here at Inglenook.” She leaned closer. “He
wanted to bring in a couple of teachers from Atlantis,
claiming he was fluent in six languages and doing algebra
by the time he was Sophie’s age.”
“He’s a friggin’ wizard,” Peg said on a laugh. “He
was probably doing algebra in the womb.” She glanced
down at Olivia’s bel y, figuring they’d have their babies
within a few weeks of each other. “So, when are you going
to tel me if you’re having a boy or a girl?”
“When it’s born,” Olivia said. “Mac wants to be surprised,
so he’s not peeking.”
They both looked up at the sound of the bus final y
leaving, and Peg had to grab Duncan as Olivia grabbed
Mac, and the women pul ed them over to the side of the
road. Duncan had brought his little clan over on the pontoon
boat this morning to join the Oceanuses so al the children
could meet the bus together for the thirty-mile ride to
Turtleback Station on this first day of school.
“The bus turns here,” Olivia explained when Mac frowned
at her, “because this is its last stop now that Peg lives
across the fiord.”
The men wrapped their arms around their respective
wives, Duncan resting his chin on Peg’s head. She smiled
when she felt the tension in him as the school bus backed
into the Inglenook road then turned and headed toward
town, and Peg felt her first tear slip free when she saw
Peter and Jacob’s excited little faces looking out the
window as they waved to her.
Duncan dropped his arms from around her when the bus
suddenly stopped not a hundred yards down the road and
the driver’s head popped out a window. “Somebody want
to come get this dog off the bus?” he hol ered back with a
grin.
Duncan took off with a muttered curse, running down the
road and disappearing up the ditch side of the bus, only to
reappear a minute later carrying Hero as the dog kept
whining and frantical y struggling to get down.
Mac suddenly ushered Peg and Olivia toward the SUV.
“We should probably hurry to the Drunken Moose before
al the buns are gone,” he said, opening the back door for
Peg before leading Olivia around to the front passenger
side.
Duncan tossed Hero in the back, then got in the seat next
to Peg. “Let’s go,” he said, his attention on the bus rumbling
out of sight down over the hil .
Mac pul ed onto the main road without even looking for
traffic, and Olivia glanced over her shoulder at Peg, her
eyes dancing with amusement. But instead of going around
the bus when it pul ed over to let them pass, Mac patiently
made every stop it did to pick up more children before
reaching town. And then, instead of pul ing into one of the
open parking slots, he stopped right in the middle of the
road.
“Why don’t you ladies go in and visit with Ezra,” Mac
suggested to Olivia. “There’s a store in Turtleback that
Duncan says has the exact pair of work boots I need for the
construction site, so I believe we might as wel run down
and get them right now. We’l be back in no time, and then
we’l al go over to the Drunken Moose for breakfast.”
Peg figured Olivia didn’t move quite fast enough when
she saw Mac unclip his wife’s seat belt, then lean over and
give her a quick kiss on the cheek just as her door suddenly
opened on its own. “See you soon, honey.”
Duncan pul ed Peg out his side of the truck with him,
gave her a quick kiss on her forehead, then hugged her.
“Ye don’t fret over the boys,” he whispered. “They’l be just
fine,” he said, again making Peg wonder who he was trying
to reassure when he jumped in the front seat and Mac took
off before he even had his door closed.
Olivia slid her arm through Peg’s and started walking
toward the path leading down to the newly reconstructed
park at the foot of the fal s. “How much do you want to bet
they get halfway back here before they remember they went
to buy boots?” she asked, pul ing Peg down beside her on
one of the benches.
Mimicking Olivia, Peg also leaned back, folded her
hands over her bel y, and shook her head with a laugh that
stil had a lingering trace of tears. “Aren’t we lucky to have
both fal en in love with big, strong, invincible men?”
“And charmed,” Olivia whispered, nudging Peg’s
shoulder with her own. “Let’s not forget how charmed they
both are.”
LETTER FROM LAKEWATCH
Spring 2012
Dear Readers,
Mother Nature absolutely has no modesty. I can
personally attest to this, as for the last several days
there’s been a lot of sex going on just outside my
writing studio. I’ve stormed out onto my deck and
shouted that I’m trying to write a book here, so could
everyone please go get a room, only to be answered
by such raucous laughter that I had to slink back
inside and close my windows and pull the shades.
Honestly, I swear they shouted right back at me to
get a life, lady.
It’s not just those horny mallard drakes all vying for
the attention of a single harried hen, either. It’s my
dear sweet crows renewing their vows of monogamy
while directing maiden aunts and bachelor uncles on
building a new nest. It’s a pair of bald eagles trying to
get this year’s family started while putting up with last
year’s offspring complaining that they’re bored and
can’t find anything to eat. And it’s loons showing up
with the first crack in the ice large enough to be a
landing strip and immediately starting in with their
haunting, tremulous calls day and night. It’s male
woodpeckers incessantly tapping a metal chimney,
hoping there’s a cute little female within earshot.
Muskrats, robins, squirrels, skunks, fox, osprey,
Canada geese; you name it and LakeWatch has it—
all having sex (or trying damned hard to) right there
in broad daylight, in plain sight of children walking
home from school. Heck, even the frogs and peepers
are calling from the bogs before the ice is completely
gone from the lake.
I’m beginning to think one of the most powerful
forces in the universe is the need to reproduce.
Pacific salmon die swimming upstream to lay their
eggs. A mama octopus starves tending her brood
and is too weak to save herself once her little octopi
set off to explore the deep blue sea. Even plants are
more concerned with furthering their species than
saving themselves, putting their energies into
propagation at the first signs of stress. (I believe I’ve
mentioned before that I’m addicted to the Discovery
Channel.)
Speaking of energy; I must be getting old, because
I look at young people and wonder where they get the
energy to deal with all the drama involved in pairing
up while trying to get their own lives in order. I feel
even older still seeing them having babies, when my
husband and I need naps after our grandkids come
visit for just a few hours.
I digress. Sorry. Back to Mother Nature’s
immodesty and how that inspires my writing. I get a
lot of raised eyebrows when I say I’m a romance
author—usually from the men. The women usually
just ask for titles. (When my husband gets one of
those raised eyebrows, he just says he does all my
research. Honestly, he says that with a perfectly
straight face! But it effectively forestalls any more
questions, and is quite often met with envy from the
men.)
From the prudes I immediately get, “Oh, you write
those kinds of books.”
Yes, I do, and I’m damned proud of it. Can
somebody please tell me how to tell a story involving
two people falling in love and not have sex be part of
their journey? Sure, I could have the hero sweep the
heroine into his arms and carry her into the bedroom,
then have him kick the door closed with his foot to
keep the reader out. But honestly, I want to go in there
with them, because I’ve discovered you find out an
awful lot about people when they’re naked. Stuff you
would never find out when they’re all dressed up in
their designer-label armor. A sassy-mouthed vixen
suddenly becomes self-conscious; a powerful warrior
hesitates; a wallflower awakens.
It’s not about the sex; it’s about the love. It’s
discovering who is really hiding behind the masks
people hold up to the big scary world, and about the
truly most powerful force in the universe—that of love
rippling with passion and desire.
Birds do it, bees do it; and if those noisy ducks can
do it with wild abandon right there on my beachfront,
then by God my hero and heroine had better let me—
and my readers—sneak into the bedroom while they
do it.
We promise we won’t giggle … too loudly.
Until later from a raucous LakeWatch, you keep
reading and I’ll keep writing.
Janet
Keep reading for an excerpt
from the next Spel bound Fal s romance
by Janet Chapman
Courting Carolina
Available September 2012 from Jove Books
Alec heard the distinct rumble of thunder over the gush of
the cascading fal s and tossed his shovel onto the stream
bank with a muttered curse before vaulting up behind it. He
picked up his shirt and used it to wipe the sweat off his
face, then turned to glare at the dark clouds rol ing across
the fiord toward him. “Go around!” he shouted, pointing
north with his free hand as he wiped down his chest. But the
storm gods didn’t have any sense of humor, apparently,
and the hairs on his arms stirred just as lightning flashed on
a sharp crack of thunder. “Wel , fine, then!” he shouted with
a laugh as he bolted toward camp. “Take your best shot,
you noisy bastards!”
Alec slipped into his shirt when the wind pushing ahead
of the storm took on an ominous chil , and lengthened his
stride when he realized he was losing the footrace to the
sheet of rain sweeping up the mountain. How in hel had he
been caught by surprise? There hadn’t been a cold front
forecast to come through or even any clouds in the crisp
September sky ten minutes ago. Another crack sounded to
his right just as the wind-driven rain hit with enough force to
make him stagger, and Alec scrambled to catch himself
with another laugh.
But he came to an abrupt halt at the sound of an
unmistakably feminine scream, fol owed almost
immediately by an enraged shout that was also human—
and male. He held his breath through several heartbeats,
trying to discern its direction in the downpour, then took off
at a run again, leaving the trail at a diagonal down the
mountain. He weaved through the old-growth forest even as
he wondered who was out here, as this section of the
resort’s wilderness trail was closed to guests until he had
al the footbridges and lean-tos in place.
Alec came to a halt again next to a large tree and lifted
his hand against the rain as he quickly calculated his odds
of saving the woman without getting himself kil ed in the
process. The two brutes attacking her weren’t much of a
worry, whereas the large dog racing up the mountain
toward them might be a problem.
The woman gave another bloodcurdling scream as she
bucked against the man straddling her, and twisted to
clamp her teeth over the wrist of the guy kneeling at her
head pinning down her hands. His ensuing shout of pain
was drowned out by a vicious growl as the dog lunged at
the man on top of her, the animal’s momentum sending
them both tumbling to the ground.
Okay then, the dog was on her side. Hoping it realized he
was also on the woman’s side, Alec drove his boot into the
ribs of the man she’d bitten, sending him sprawling into a
tree just as lightning struck so close the percussion
knocked Alec to his knees. And since he landed next to the
woman, he caught her fist swinging toward him, grasped
her waist with his other hand, and lifted her to her feet.
“Run! Up!” he shouted as he gave her a push. “God
dammit, go! The dog and I wil catch up!”
She hesitated only a heartbeat, but it was long enough
for him to see the stark terror in her eyes as she glanced at
the dog before she turned and ran uphil . The guy he’d
kicked lunged at her on the way by, and Alec leapt to his
feet when he realized the bastard had a knife.
The woman scrambled sideways, crying out as she
grabbed her leg and kept running. The man started after
her again but suddenly turned at Alec’s roar. Alec caught
the wrist holding the knife and drove his boot into the man’s
ribs again, twisting the guy’s arm until he felt it snap before
plunging the blade into the bastard’s thigh. He then spun
around when the dog gave a yelp, only to see it regain its
footing and lunge again, this time going after the arm
holding a goddamned gun.
Alec slammed into the guy, grabbing his wrist just as the
weapon discharged. The dog tumbled back with a yelp,
and Alec snapped the bastard’s arm over his knee,
causing the gun to fal to the ground. He then shoved the
screaming man headfirst into a tree, watching him crumple
into a boneless heap before he turned and rushed to the
dog that now had its teeth clamped down on the other
man’s neck.
“Hey, come on!” he shouted over another sharp crack of
thunder. He grabbed the dog by the jowls and pul ed it
away. “That’s enough,” he said, holding its head from
behind so it couldn’t turn on him. “I know you’d like to see
them both dead, but they’re not worth the hassle it’s going
to cause us. Easy now, calm down,” he said loudly over the
raging storm, guiding the dog uphil several steps then
giving it a nudge with his knee. “Go on. Go find your lady.”
The dog hesitated just as the woman had, its eyes
narrowed against the rain and its lips rol ed back, then
suddenly took off in the direction she’d run and
disappeared into the storm. Alec looked down at the man
cradling his broken arm against the knife in his thigh, knelt
to one knee, and drove his fist into his face. “Sleep tight,
you son of a bitch,” he muttered, glancing over to make
sure the other guy was stil out before he also headed uphil
at a run.
Only he hadn’t gone two hundred yards before he found
the woman lying facedown on the soaked forest floor, the
dog licking her cheek. Alec approached cautiously,
crooning calm words loud enough to be heard over the
pounding rain, and slowly knelt on the other side of her. He
laid a firm hand on the dog’s raised hackles when it
stiffened on a warning snarl. “You’re going to have to trust
me, ye big brute. Your lady’s hurt, and I need to see how
badly.”
He felt the dog—he suspected it was a wolf or at least a
hybrid—tremble with indecision, and Alec slowly reached
out with his other hand and touched the woman’s hair,
which was plastered to her head. “Easy now,” he said when
the snarling grew louder, moving his fingers to her neck to
feel for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief to find it strong
and steady, and careful y rol ed her over. “There we go,” he
said, releasing the dog when it lowered its head and
started licking her face again. Alec slid an arm behind her
shoulders and a hand under her knees, and stood up.
He headed uphil until he came to the trail and turned
toward camp. “No, heel!” he snapped when the dog
stopped and looked back down the mountain. “They’re not
going anywhere.” The animal fel in step beside him, and
Alec repositioned the woman’s head into the crook of his
neck to keep the driving rain off her face, and blew out a
harsh breath to tamp down his own anger. Christ, it had
been al he could do to keep from kil ing the bastards
himself when he’d caught them brutalizing her.
What was she doing out here? Had the men brought her
into the wilderness to rape and kil her and bury her body?
The nearest old logging tote road was six miles to the
south, and the resort itself was over ten miles away on top
of the mountain. But she’d been running up from the fiord—
which was just a mile below his camp—which meant they’d
probably come by boat.
Alec scaled the lean-to steps, then dropped to one knee
and careful y set the woman on the plank floor beside his
sleeping bag, keeping her upper half cradled against his
chest. He slid his hand from under her knees, then had to
shove the dog away when it started licking her again. “Nay,
you let me check her out,” he murmured as he smoothed
the hair off her face—only to suck in a breath.
She was stunningly beautiful but for the angry welt on her
pale cheek and the darkening bump on her forehead that
ran into her hairline. Alec looked down at her endlessly long
legs and saw the bastard’s knife had drawn blood.
Realizing she was shivering violently, he started undressing
her, but stil ed in surprise again when he pul ed her soaked
blouse out of her pants and saw the dark bruise on her
side. It ran over her ribs into her sheer blue bra, and he
recognized that it was two or three days old. Fil ed with
renewed rage, he careful y worked the blouse off her
shoulders, only to find her arms also covered in smal
bruises, some of them appearing to be fingerprints.
It was obvious the woman had been struggling against
them for several days, and he started rethinking his
decision not to kil the bastards as he continued exposing
the ful extent of her nightmare. Feeling much like the storm
raging directly overhead, Alec fought back the darkness
that had been his life for eight years when he caught himself
thinking there wasn’t any reason he couldn’t bury the men
out here; quietly, efficiently, and with the calm detachment
he’d once been known for.
The woman had obviously been bound, as evidenced by
the raw chafing on her wrists. He found more bruising on
her legs when he careful y peeled down her slacks, and she
was missing a shoe. Alec pushed the dog out of the way,
lifted back the edge of his sleeping bag, and careful y set
her inside it.
He pul ed over his duffel bag and dug around until he
found a T-shirt. “Sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured as he sat
her up and unhooked her bra, “but I’m afraid getting you
completely dry trumps modesty at the moment.” He worked
the T-shirt over her head, careful y slid her arms into the
sleeves, and smoothed it down over her utterly feminine,
rose-tipped breasts al the way to her thighs. He pul ed her
heavy mess of long, wet hair out of the col ar and laid her
down, then grabbed a towel hanging on the back wal of the
lean-to and wrapped it around her head. Setting his jaw
determinedly, he slid his hands under the T-shirt and
careful y worked off her matching blue panties, but stopped
when he reached the knife gash. “Damn,” he growled,
pul ing off the panties and tossing them beside the
discarded bra. He tucked the sleeping bag over her upper
half and opposite leg, then dug through his duffel for the
medical kit.
The dog settled against the woman’s side and rested its
chin on her shoulder, keeping a guarded eye on him.
“You’re a good friend,” Alec said conversational y as he
examined the wound on her thigh. “Ye can guard my back
anytime you’re wanting.”
It wasn’t a deep gash that needed stitching, he was
relieved to see as he careful y cleaned it with gauze then
started placing butterfly bandages along the length of the
cut. He dabbed it with salve and covered it with another
piece of gauze, taping it into place before tucking the baby-
soft leg into the sleeping bag.
“Had ye reached the end of your strength or is that bump
on your head making you sleep?” he asked the
unconscious woman, careful y lifting first one and then the
other of her eyelids. Again relieved to see her pupils
appeared normal and even, Alec sat down and took off his
boots. He then stood up and started stripping off his own
wet clothes as he studied what was definitely a ful -bred
wolf. A northern timber wolf, he would guess; its long guard
hairs muted black over a soft pelt of gray, with piercing
eyes of hazel-gold watching him from a broad wet face.
“Aye, you’re a good partner in a fight,” he said as he
shoved off his pants and boxers. “And I thank you for not
going for mythroat.”
The wolf’s brows were al that moved as its gaze fol owed
Alec around the shelter as he dried off with another towel
and slipped into clean clothes. He pul ed the band off his
wet hair, toweled it dry as wel , then combed his fingers
through the shoulder-length waves before tying them
against the nape of his neck again. He crouched down and
laid a hand on the woman’s forehead, gently smoothing her
brow with his thumb. “She’s going to be okay,” he promised
the wolf as he stood up and walked to the front rail of the
three-wal ed lean-to that sat twenty yards up from the trail.
The storm was final y making its way north between
the mountain they were on and the one at the end of the
fiord, leaving in its wake an almost obscene silence but for
the water gently dripping off the leaves. Alec glanced in the
direction of the men and blew out a sigh, then walked to the
rear wal and pul ed down a smal backpack. He placed a
coil of rope inside, along with the resort’s satel ite phone
and the medical kit, and slipped the pack over his
shoulders. He sat down and dug two pairs of socks out of
his duffel, putting on one pair fol owed by his boots, then
rol ed to his knees and peeled back the bottom of the
sleeping bag.
He slid off the woman’s socks—one of them
shredded from her running in only one shoe—and covered
her feet with his hands to take away some of the chil . He
then slipped his oversized socks on her and tucked the bag
around her legs before moving to her head. Alec reached
inside the sleeping bag, pressed his palm just below her
col arbone, and felt her steady heartbeat and even
breathing.
“Ye stay here and keep warming her up,” he told the wolf,
tucking the bag tightly around the woman before standing
up, “while I go tie our two sorry friends to a tree and cal the
sheriff to come get them. And I’l cal the resort to come get
your lady.” He grinned down at the wolf. “I hope ye like
riding in a helicopter.”
Alec started to leave, but stopped when the woman
suddenly moaned, and he turned to see her lift a hand from
the confines of the sleeping bag when the wolf licked her
face. He crouched down beside her again, laying a
steadying hand on her shoulder when she tried to sit up.
“Easy, now. You’re safe. No one’s going to hurt you.”