LeClerc 01 - Autumn Ecstasy Read online

  Linsey quickly readjusted her clothing and walked back to camp. Kneeling at the edge of the river, she cupped the water in her hands and splashed it on her face and neck.

  Letting the cool water flow soothingly around her battered wrists, she looked past the river to the far side. By rights of an oft broken treaty, it belonged solely to the Shawnee. If she could swim, she’d go to their side and throw herself on their mercy. Even facing the hostile savage known for his hate of the white race was preferable to facing the fate planned for her by Jeb. A quick death by one of their arrows would be a blessing in comparison to being sold to a trapper somewhere downriver.

  “That’s ‘nough, girlie,” Jeb called from the fire, his leering eyes never leaving her back. “If’n ya wants your supper, ya’d better get your purty butt over here.”

  Sighing at the if’s and maybe’s that now filled her life, Linsey took a last longing look at the far bank.

  “Six of one, two three’s of another.” She murmured the phrase so often used by her father, her voice sounding rusty from disuse. Rising from her knees, she walked back to the campfire.

  She accepted the plate and cup Jeb handed her. She was far past being revolted by their eating habits or by the fact that the meat they gave her to eat was half raw. Even the grunting, slurping sounds made by Zeke no longer affected her.

  Sitting on the hard, cold ground with the plate balanced on her lap, Linsey wondered if she had ever really sat at a table with sparkling crystal and polished silver. Had she worn gowns of fine silk and delicate lace? Was the past only a dream, a means to escape the reality of the present? Or was this a dream, a nightmare, never to be broken by the dawn of a new day. Wanting to cry, knowing tears were useless, she ate the undercooked meat to stave off her hunger for the past.

  While Linsey nibbled on the rabbit, she watched the men begin to settle the camp for the night. The ritual had been established the first night on the trail and never varied. Jeb hunted, cleaned and cooked the meal. Zeke gathered firewood, built the fire and then, after the meal, cleaned the metal plates and cups they used.

  She watched Zeke wipe the plates and cups with the tail of his buckskin shirt. The first time she had seen him clean up, she had been so repulsed she had not eaten for two days. Now it was simply another of the many things she accepted. The cups and plates that had been nearly new at the beginning of their journey were now dull and battered, and at each meal she tried not to think about how truly dirty they were.

  As Zeke cleaned up, Jeb kicked dirt over the fire and checked that the flatboat was secured for the night. Once more her wrists were retied. Jeb used a long rope at night. He tied one end to his own wrist, and she had discovered the slightest tug on it would wake him.

  Linsey settled as far away from Jeb as the rope would allow. She wrapped her cape around her and with a grimace of distaste pulled the tattered fur over her. Jeb and Zeke each used new wool blankets that were beginning to show signs of wear.

  Diamond bright stars played hide and seek behind fluffy moonlit clouds as the night sky darkened. Loud snores from Zeke’s side of camp echoed reassuringly to Linsey. She wiggled, trying to find a little softness somewhere, but as she had discovered every night since the beginning of her nightmare journey, the ground was unrelenting in its hardness. She counted the stars she could see peeking through the clouds and the overhanging trees, hoping to clear her mind of thought until sleep could envelop her in its blessed oblivion.

  “We’uns should pass Big Jim’s tradin’ post sometime tomorrow,” Jeb said quietly. “If’n there be ‘nough trappers around, I may just decide to holt me a little sale.” He snickered as if sensing the fear that threatened to consume her.

  “I’m still willing to pay you if you’ll return me to Philadelphia,” Linsey replied, trying to hide the quiver in her voice. It was an offer she made daily — and he ignored.

  “I done tolt ya, girl, I ain’t gonna take ya back,” Jeb snarled.

  “I don’t understand why you continue to refuse,” Linsey said. “I’m willing to pay you considerably more than you’ll make if you auction me off somewhere.”

  “Shet up, girl. I ain’t takin’ ya back!”

  “Why?” she whispered, her voice laced with ill-concealed desperation.

  Jeb snorted, “Sure you’d pay me! And afore I could get out of town your Pa’d come a’lookin’ for me. May not make me as much with the hunters, but I’ll be alive to spend it.

  “Sure is gonna be one mighty happy trapper this winter,” he taunted softly. “‘Course hits gonna cost ‘im a mite, but I figure how he’ll think hits worth hit once he gets hisself atween your legs.”

  His snickering laugh made her cringe. “Yep, I reckon just ‘bout any of them trappers would be mighty pleased to winter with ya. Gits a mite bit cold ‘round here during the winter, and you’re ‘nough to warm any man’s feet. ‘Course hit ain’t my feet I’d want ya to warm. No siree, my feet wouldn’t even know they’s cold if’n I had ya on a long winter night.”

  Linsey bit her bottom lip to stop the tears rimming her eyes from rolling down her face. She would not give him the satisfaction of knowing her terror. To spend the winter alone at the mercy of a stranger, knowing he could, and probably would, use her in any manner he saw fit! To be sold, given no choice, to lose her freedom!

  A rustling of leaves followed by a contented sigh told her Jeb had settled himself for the night. “Don’t reckon I mind if’n theys nobody at Big Jim’s tomorrow. That’ll give me a time to have ya for myself.”

  Linsey was unaware of the cool breeze playing across her face and teasing the hair around her nape. Tomorrow. It would bring escape from one situation and send her into something that could be far worse. She wondered which was worse; to be sold to an unknown trapper or to be used repeatedly by Jeb. Neither situation was one she would willingly chose for herself, and yet one of them would be fact by the next evening. Linsey tossed and turned, trying to escape her thoughts.

  “Lay still, girlie, or we just might see if’n we can do it without waking Zeke. Reckon if’n I put the gag back in your mouth, it’d keep ya quiet like.”

  Linsey froze, afraid to move a muscle for fear Jeb would make good his threat. Night passed slowly, Jeb’s snores soon mingled with the sounds of the night creatures, reassuring her that he slept. She drifted in and out of sleep — praying desperately that tomorrow would not come, certain it would be easier to face death than the new day.

  The feeling of being watched woke Linsey from a restless sleep the next morning. Zeke hunkered down beside her and reached for a tendril of hair peeking from beneath the fur.

  “Purty, purty,” he mumbled softly, wrapping it around his hand.

  “Zeke, leave ‘er be,” Jeb called patiently. “Come eat so ya can get things loaded in the boat. We’s got ‘portant things to do today.”

  “Please, Jebby?” Zeke whined as he unwrapped her hair from his hand. “Zeke’ll be real careful. Just one time?”

  Jeb patted his brother on the back and lightly pushed him toward the fire. Not once in all the weeks of travel had Linsey seen Jeb lose patience with his brother, always treating Zeke with a parental gentleness.

  “Not this un, Zeke,” he said quietly. “But I promise ya we’ll find ya one even better after we’s sold her.”

  “Hit just won’t be the same, Jebby,” Zeke grumbled, sadly shaking his head as he walked away. “Hit just won’t be the same.”

  Their breakfast consisted of warmed-up, left-over rabbit and weak coffee. After the meal, Jeb pushed Linsey to the boat. She settled into the spot in a corner that had become hers. Jeb tied both her wrists and ankles this time and replaced the gag.

  They slid leisurely away from the bank and into the current, letting the flow of the water send them downstream. Using a long pole, Jeb would occasionally push away from the bank when the boat floated from the center of the river.

  Zeke sat at the front, his loaded rifle across his lap, a piece of wood and a pocketkni
fe held lightly in his hands. Linsey had discovered that Zeke, so clumsy and inept in doing the simplest tasks, took on an amazingly natural grace and dexterity with a pocketknife. She had spent many days of travel watching as he carved small animals in minute detail. A tiny squirrel clutching an acorn between its paws or a mountain cat poised delicately, ready to spring on its prey, each was carved with the accuracy and care of the finest craftsman.

  A small pouch, containing his most prized carvings, was tied by a rope at his waist. When he wasn’t involved in making the creatures, Zeke would open it and spend hours happily talking to and playing with them.

  Linsey had spent hours staring at the pouch, trying to decide from what it had been made. It had no seams; the draw string was woven through holes punched in the top. One day, in horrified revulsion, she watched as Zeke held it upside down and played with the tip on the bottom. That was the day she knew without a doubt that the pouch was a woman’s breast.

  This morning Linsey’s terror of what the day would bring would not allow her to appreciate his artistry or the shadowed beauty of her surroundings. Even her usual disgust at the sight of the pouch was missing. Leaning her head against the rough wood of the boat, she closed her eyes. Nothing or no one would help her. Her life, her very existence, was in the hands of two worthless men: one with the wily cunning of a fox, one lacking the basic intelligence of most of God’s creatures.

  She had even given up praying.

  The lack of sleep the night before combined with the sun flickering through the trees and the quiet lapping of the water against the sides of the boat lulled her. When Jeb nudged her with his foot, she was startled to discover she had fallen asleep, hours had passed and they were entering the boundaries of a small settlement.

  Two small log cabins sat to each side of a larger one. They were connected by a dogtrot and were surrounded by a log stockade whose massive gates stood open. The trees had been cleared away from the cabins, allowing the men inside an unimpeded view of anyone approaching by foot or water. Several longboats and canoes were pushed up on shore or tied to trees a short distance away.

  “Looks like we’ns might have us a sale after all, girlie.” A pleased smirk rode his thin lips as Jeb picked up the long pole from the bottom of the boat and pushed toward the bank. “Yes siree, I’d say there’s a might good number of trappers a gettin’ ready for winter.” He turned from his study of the settlement to give her a malignant grin. “I’ma thinkin’ they’s gonna be plum tickled with my offeren.”

  His chuckle grated down Linsey’s back, his words strengthening her ever present terror. Always having loved life and finding joy in her surroundings, she felt no guilt in now wishing for death.

  Jeb jumped from the boat and tied it to the nearest tree. “Stay here till I get back, Zeke. I’m gonna make certain there’s ‘nough buyers for our goods.” He smiled evilly at Linsey before turning to walk away.

  “But Jebby, I wants to go too!” Zeke called in a woebegone voice.

  “Ya gots to guard her. They’ll be plentiful time for ya later.”

  Linsey watched him walk out of sight. Zeke grumbled like a small child denied a special treat, pouting and giving her accusing looks. She scanned the trees in the distance and wondered if she could somehow escape, losing herself in their concealing cover.

  If only her hands and feet weren’t tied. If only she could get a knife to release herself. Linsey leaned her head back, staring at the overhanging trees. If only she had never taken that ride with Elizabeth!

  Might as well wish for the moon, she thought. With Zeke standing guard it would be as easy to grow wings and fly away as it would be to untie the ropes and run to the trees. Zeke might be “a little tetched” as Jeb called it, but even he would question her request for a knife!

  Jeb returned quickly, a grin splitting his face from ear to ear. “Welp, girlie, looks like we’s gonna have a sale!”

  He climbed back into the boat, untied her ankles but left the rope on her wrists and the gag in her mouth. With a yank he pulled her to her feet. “Won’t do no good to try and run. Ole Zeke here is a mighty good shot, and he’ll have his gun real handy like.” He watched as the last dwindling hope faded from her eyes. “‘Course he won’t kill ya. Ya wouldn’t bring us no money thata way. No siree, Zeke‘11 just aim for one of your legs to slow ya down a mite. Them trappers ain’t gonna care ‘bout your legs none, only what’s atween ‘em!”

  He chuckled at his own crude wit as he pushed her from the boat. Keeping a firm hold on her arm, he led her toward the largest of the cabins.

  Several men were sitting on the porch while others were milling around in front of it. Their conversations halted slowly as one by one they saw Linsey and Jeb approach. Zeke followed a few steps behind them, his rifle cradled in his arms.

  Jeb pulled her to a tree stump the size of a table and lifted her onto it. Tinning, he bowed theatrically to his audience and pointed toward her.

  “Welp, gents, din’t I promise ya a special treat?”

  The dirt and grime of weeks of travel could not hide the natural beauty Linsey possessed. Accustomed to women aged beyond their years by the hardships of life on the frontier or the women of the various Indian tribes, few of the men had ever glimpsed such rare beauty. Speechless, they stared at her with longing.

  Hunters by choice, each man would spend the long winter in his secluded cabin running traplines. In the spring they would bring the furs to the trading posts, selling them or trading them for supplies. Some of the men turned to farming during the summer to raise the food they needed.

  A few had families waiting for their return, but most of the men were single, living for a short time in one place before moving on. It was a lonely life, sometimes isolated for months at a time. All of them, even the ones with wives waiting for their return, nurtured the thought of owning such a woman and spending the long, cold winter discovering her charms.

  Linsey stood on the stump, the cape around her shoulders, her eyes focused on the thin stream of smoke coming from the chimney of the largest cabin. She followed its wispy trail as it merged with the gray sky, knowing it was impossible for her to follow it but wishing just the same.

  “Ever seed anything this purty?” Jeb asked as he pulled the hood from her hair, causing fiery streams of red and gold to ruffle around her.

  As a group, the men sighed, each wanting to run his fingers through the glorious mane’s promise of warmth and feel it tangled around his body.

  Jeb’s movement startled Linsey, bringing her back from her futile thoughts of escape. Her green eyes wandered from one man to another, desperate to find in one the hope of rescue. Each of them looked identical to the others, different only in age. From one who could be no more than fourteen to one whose age could have been anywhere under one hundred, each was dressed in baggy buckskins, stiff with dirt, stained with the dried blood of their trade. Except for the very young trapper whose face was smooth, all wore beards of various lengths. In their eyes, Linsey saw only one thing — lust.

  “Sure would cherish gettin’ me a handful a her,” the youngest trapper said loudly to the man standing next to him. He gestured obscenely with his hands, drawing a laugh from the crowd.

  “Ya wouldn’t be a’knowin’ what to do with prime goods like her, boy,” another man called.

  “Doin’ is learnm’,” he replied good-naturedly. “What I don’t know now I’d sure be a’knowin’ once winter was done.”

  “She’d be better off with me,” one of the older trappers commented. “I’d break ‘er in real gentle-like.”

  “Ya’d be daid come spring, Sam!”

  Sam leaned against the rail of the porch, spit a stream of tobacco juice on the ground and rubbed his crotch. “Yep, mayhaps, but I’d be happy daid.”

  The good-natured ribaldry continued for some time, and a fiery blush spread across Linsey’s face at the comments. The trappers boasted about what they would like to do to her, inciting each other on to even greater obsc
enities. Occasionally Jeb would throw in a word or two to spur them on.

  Linsey watched as another trapper came out of the cabin, limped to the porch steps and leaned negligently against a post. His buckskins were as baggy and as dirty as any, and his gray beard hung down to his chest. When he removed his cap, she gasped at the still red, angry-looking scar that circled the top of his head where hair should have been. His face was a mass of unnatural wrinkles, as if the skin had lost its anchoring and had slipped downward. His brows hung so far over his eyes, she wondered if they hampered his vision … until she met the blazing clarity of his eyes.

  He did not join in with the other trappers, and no smile crossed his face at the coarse comments falling around him. Watching closely, Linsey realized the other trappers were carefully ignoring him, sending quick leery glances in his direction that never invited his participation. His expression was not one of lust, as the others were, but rather another emotion, one she could only describe to herself as hatred. He had no reason to hate her, but his gaze never left hers. He didn’t appear to be interested in her the way the others were, and yet… . Linsey shivered at the thought of being owned by him.

  When the old man’s bitter, burning gaze did not waver, Linsey lifted her chin in determination, her eyes never flinching from his. He nodded his head once as if he saw her show of spirit and approved.

  “I’ll be a’sellin’ ‘er to the man what pays me the most,” Jeb called loudly, bringing Linsey’s attention back to the men surrounding her.

  “Show us more,” the young trapper called. “Ain’t buying no pig in a poke. Might be she’s ugly from the neck down.”

  When the others joined in agreement, Jeb tugged lightly on the cape, and it slithered from her shoulders to land in a mound at her feet. Untying Linsey’s wrists, he pulled them behind her back and tightly retied them. His eyes briefly met hers, and he read the intensity of her hatred flaring in them.