by Norah Hess
An unpleasant smile, filled with hatred and resentment, shaped D'lise's lips. She walked over to the chair, snatched it up, and carried it back out to the fireplace. As the flames licked at it greedily, Rufus roared, "What in the hell did you do that for? Where am I gonna sit now?"
"You can sit on the floor with the boys," she said carelessly as she swept aside the ragged fustian bag that separated the two rooms.
D'lise stood in front of the shelf that had held her pitiful supply of clothing for the past ten years. She choked back a sob, seeing her aunt's two worn dresses and one petticoat folded neatly alongside her own clothing. The only difference between the two piles was that hers had a pair of bloomers. Auntie hadn't been allowed to wear them.
Forcing herself not to dwell on what she couldn't change, D'lise took up the few articles of clothing, then laid them back down to go over to the bed and rummage beneath it until her fingers came in contact with a book. She pulled four of them out and placed them on top of her other belongings. Holding them to her chest, she hobbled back into the other room.
Rufus was still bellowing that he needed a doctor as she found a haversack and shoved her belongings into it. Ignoring Rufus, as did Kane, who sat playing with his knife, she pulled the thin blanket off her pallet, unaware that two pair of eyes watched her fold it, then shove it into the sack. Fat squinted eyes shot revenge at her, while slate-gray ones turned slumberous, studying her. Kane was wondering if he wasn't making the worst mistake of his life, taking her away with him.
Clutching the sack to her chest, eager to leave Rufus Enger for all time, D'lise cast her eyes on David and Johnny, who had ventured to the door and now stood gaping at Rufus and his bloody shoulder. Would the stranger take them away also?
She looked away from the boys to the bearded man with the hard eyes. He met her gaze straight on and shook his head. "I can't take the boys with me," he said, sympathy in the gaze he turned on the thin faces that watched him hopefully.
"You're damn right you can't take them," Rufus stopped groaning long enough to growl. "Them two boys are bounded over to me until they're twenty-one. I know my rights."
Kane's eyes narrowed as he studied the fat man. "Do you also know it's against the law to abuse a bound-person, to overwork them, to not give them nourishing food? Those two boys and this girl don't look to me like they've had a square meal in a long time."
When Rufus made no response, only glaring at Kane, he said, "I'm going to write a letter to a friend of mine who works for the man in charge of placing unfortunates like these two. You can be sure that your case will be investigated." He turned his gaze on David and Johnny then. "In the meantime, you boys keep a watch on your backs. Don't let this bastard sneak up on you with a club. Things shouldn't be too hard for you now. Remember, he only has the use of one hand."
When he took D'lise's arm and steered her toward the door, Rufus yelled after them, "Damn your rotten heart, I'm gonna bleed to death. I need a doctor."
Kane paused long enough to grab a dish towel off the table and toss it into the frightened man's lap. "Hold this to your shoulder. If I run across a doctor I'll send him out to look at you."
"There's one at a post a few miles from here," D'lise said reluctantly. As far as she was concerned, Rufus Enger deserved to bleed to death. The world would be a better place without him.
"Let's go then," Kane said and, taking her arm, helped her hobble out of the shack.
He couldn't believe how light she was as he grasped her waist and lifted her onto the stallion's back. He'd bet she didn't weigh a hundred pounds. "Thanks to that fat bastard I should have killed," he muttered angrily to himself. "Anyone with half an eye can see it's been short rations for her and those two boys."
Kane lifted a hand to David and Johnny, who stood in the door watching with sorrowful eyes, then swung up behind D'lise. Picking up the reins, he said, "Hang on and direct me to that fur post."
D'lise pointed the way as the stallion set off at a brisk walk. A picture of Rufus clutching his shoulder came to D'lise. This man taking her away could be quite cruel, she realized. Had she whistled up the devil in her desire to get away from her aunt's husband?
Her knowledge of men, other than Rufus, was slight. Single men had never been allowed to come around the shack, and on the few occasions Rufus had allowed her to accompany him to the small post, she hadn't dared lift her gaze from her lap.
But this stranger couldn't be worse than Rufus Enger, D'lise told herself. He looked hard, acted hard, but he didn't appear to be evil. Also, he was capable of affection. It had showed in the way he had patted his hound's head when he ordered it to stay outside.
She decided that she would be very careful not to stir him up, and over the clip-clop of the stallion's hooves, she said, "My name is D'lise. D'lise Alexander."
"That's a pretty name," Kane said. "Different, but pretty." After a moment he said, "I'm Kane Devlin."
D'lise smiled to herself. What an apt name for the cold-eyed man.
"What do you do for a living, Kane Devlin?" she asked timidly, half afraid of what his answer might be, half afraid that her question might displease him. But she had a right to know what lay in store for her, she told herself. For all she knew, he might also own a farm, maybe bigger than the one they were riding away from. If that were the case, her work load would be heavier than ever.
Her shoulders sagged. It didn't bear thinking that she must slave the rest of her days. She thought of her aunt, aging too fast from hard work and abuse. Then a soft breath of relief feathered through her lips.
"I'm a trapper," Kane had answered her.
She smiled. She didn't know much about trapping, but she'd never heard of a woman doing it. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad, living with this Kane Devlin. Just as long as he didn't get any ideas of sharing her bed.
D'lise had just relaxed a bit when the air was split with a yowl that was half angry, half entreating. "What in the hell was that?" Kane pulled in the startled stallion, patting his neck, calming him down with soothing words. D'lise looked back over his shoulder and saw what she had expected to see.
Scrag, his tail standing straight up, was running along behind them. Poor fellow, she thought, how could I have forgotten him? He was the only friend she had left in the world. So many times his soft purring had been her only consolation after one of Rufus's beatings.
A sadness in her voice, she said, "It's my cat, Scrag."
Kane looked behind him and thought he had never seen a sorrier-looking animal. "I hope Hound doesn't see him. He'll tear him apart."
"I doubt that." D'lise laughed softly, confidently. "Scrag has mostly lived in the woods all his life. He can pretty well take care of himself."
Kane heard the affection in her voice, the pride she felt for her raggedy-looking pet. She would miss him. Before he knew it, he was asking, "Do you want to take him with you?"
"Oh, may I?" D'lise's eyes shone their happiness.
"I don't know why not. If you think he can hold his own with my dog."
D'lise hesitated. "How far are we traveling? I wouldn't want to wear the poor thing out."
Kane's lean fingers scratched his heavy beard thoughtfully. "Around twenty miles or so, I judge."
D'lise sighed. Scrag's short legs would never be able to keep pace with the stallion's long stride. His paws would become sore and bleeding from trying to do the impossible. "I guess we'd better leave him behind," she said, a slight quiver in her voice.
Kane remembered a time when he was a youngster. He'd had to leave behind a puppy once when Uncle Buck had decided to move on to new territory. The boy had kept his tears hidden as he handed the dog to another trapper, but he had grieved for that small ball of fur for a long time.
"Do you think he'd let you hold him?" he asked gruffly, disconcerted that he should show concern over a skinny girl and her rag-tailed cat.
"Oh yes," D'lise answered eagerly. "He loves to be close to me."
"Well, here he is. Get him up in
your lap." Kane held the stallion steady, thinking there weren't many males who wouldn't love being near D'lise.
"Scrag, come on, boy, jump." D'lise patted her thigh.
The cat sat down, his sides heaving, his green eyes studying the white horse, the hard-faced man on its back.
"Come on, Scrag," D'lise coaxed, alerted by the impatient stirring of Kane's body that he wasn't going to waste too much time for her pet to make up his mind. Then suddenly, as though he had decided the man could be trusted, the tomcat gave a leap that landed him in his mistress's arms. "You silly fellow," D'lise scolded as he settled down in her lap, purring so loudly Kane chuckled. "Why are you so stubborn?" She scratched him under the chin. "We were about to go off and leave you."
"Where did you learn that fancy talk?" Kane asked as he jiggled the reins, moving Snowy out. "Not from old Rufus, I'll wager."
"Fancy?" D'lise asked in surprise. "I never thought of my speech being fancy. My aunt was a schoolteacher before she got married. She always insisted that I talk what she called the King's English. She used to tell me that she could give me very little of the material things of life, but she could give me a good education.
"Nights when Rufus passed out in a drunken stupor, which was almost every night, she'd drag the school books from under the bed where she kept them hidden from Rufus. We'd pore over them then as long as we dared."
"So, you know how to read and write, do you?"
"Yes, and do figures too. Can you read and write and do sums?"
"Yeah, I'm fair at it. I went to school until my parents died. Once in a while my uncle Buck, the man who raised me, would have me do a few lessons." Kane smiled as he remembered. That had happened seldom. His relative was usually too occupied with running his traps or being pleasured by whatever woman might be sharing their cabin at the time.
"Your aunt sounds like she was a lady," Kane said. "How'd she ever get tangled up with that low-life back there?"
"Aunt Anna was a lady in every sense of the word. You can bet Rufus didn't show his true nature until after they were married. She told me once that she soon learned that it was the property left to her by her parents that he really wanted.
"He gave her her first beating on their wedding night when she refused to sell her home. He used his fists on her, then brutally raped her… and continued to do so until she gave in." D'lise sighed raggedly. "That was the beginning of the hellish life she was to lead until the day she died. Two days ago she took her own life. We buried her today."
Kane ground out an oath. "Maybe I ought to go back there and kill the varmint."
"No," D'lise disagreed. "The way he'll have to live from now on will be worse than death to him. With his useless right arm, he won't be able to vent his spleen on anyone anymore. You've taken away the weapon he used to use so freely."
Kane gave a rumbling laugh, making Scrag hiss. "It's gonna get worse for him too as time passes. A couple years from now that kid, David, will be able to beat hell out of him. If he's smart, he'll cripple Rufus's other arm."
There was a pause in their conversation; then Kane said, "Why don't you lean back against me? You'll be more comfortable. You're gonna get awfully tired, sittin' so straight and stiff."
D'lise wished that she could do just that, for her body was tiring. Her rigid seat in the saddle was jarringly uncomfortable, but it would be more so if she leaned her back against anything. It was raw from the beating she had received the morning just before her aunt jumped to her death. It had been healing, but the tussle with Rufus had opened up some of the belt wounds.
There was also another reason. She shrank from the idea of being so close to a man. It was bad enough that his arms encircled her waist as he handled the reins. When she said shortly, "I'm fine," Kane shrugged his shoulders.
It was just as well she kept her distance from him, he thought. As it was he was having a hell of a time controlling an arousal. If she did settle back in his arms she would discover that fact right away.
They reached a stretch of forest, and silence settled between them as Kane pulled Snowy into a restful walk. Yellow and red maple leaves drifted in the still air, falling softly on their heads and shoulders. There was a fall chill in the air of the dense woods and D'lise shivered, her arms full of goose bumps.
Kane felt the slight tremor that went over her and broke the silence. "Shouldn't we be comin' to that fur post pretty soon? It feels like it may rain anytime."
D'lise looked up at a patch of dark sky. It looked as though the rain she had feared would fall on Auntie's coffin had held off as long as it intended to.
"I think we're getting close to it," she answered, peering through the trees. "I've only been there a few times."
"I guess that polecat kept you folks pretty close to home."
"We were never allowed to go out of sight of the shack unless he was with us. When Aunt Anna asked to go with him to the post to do some shopping, his answer was always 'make do with what you've got or do without.' Needless to say, we did without."
"Are you sure you don't want me to go back there and kill the bastard?" Kane asked, half jokingly, half seriously.
"No." D'lise laughed. "Anyhow," she said, pointing to her right, "there's the post."
Just at the edge of a line of cedars was a rudely constructed log building, low in height but quite long. There were several horses tied to a hitching rack just off a narrow porch running the length of the post. Kane frowned when he saw the mounts. He'd have to keep a close eye on D'lise. She was prettier than any woman had a right to be, and those hill men in there would eye her like vultures. And he had no doubt that she, like all beautiful women, would encourage their attention.
The thing to do, he told himself, was to get the supplies he needed, then get the hell out of there. Although he knew it would rain sometime tonight, it wouldn't hurt either of them to get a little damp. The alternative could be much worse if they lingered at the post.
Kane halted the stallion and slid to the ground. He lifted D'lise out of the saddle, the cat held close to her breasts. As he tied the fractious stallion to a tree, well away from the other horses, the maudlin laughter of women, mingling with that of drunken men, rang out. He wondered uneasily what kind of hellhole he'd brought the girl to.
"Stay by Snowy," he ordered the dog when it came panting up to him. When Hound trotted over to the white horse and sat down on his haunches, D'lise looked at Kane uneasily.
"What about Scrag? He's not going to like being around all those strangers in there."
Kane stood a moment, looking down at the ground. "Do you think he'll stay up in a tree until we're ready to leave?" He looked up at D'lise.
"I guess he might." D'lise nodded. "If he sees me go through the door I think he'll wait… for a little while. He might decide to come looking for me if I'm gone too long."
"Well, boost him up in that oak over there and we won't take any longer than necessary. I need to buy a few items for tomorrow morning's breakfast, and I thought we might as well eat our supper here if meals can be had."
"They can," D'lise said, walking toward the tree. "Rufus eats here every day." She stretched up on her toes to set Scrag on a limb, warning him to stay put until she came for him. His green eyes stared back at her, unblinking.
With a sigh that came all the way from the soles of his feet, Kane took D'lise's arm and pushed open the slab-board door.
The drunken hilarity inside faltered, then stopped altogether when the man and woman were noticed. As Kane had guessed, the men gaped at D'lise. And though it annoyed him, he could not blame the rough-looking hill men. Her rare beauty would make a statue stare. And he had no doubt she was enjoying every hungry look.
With one hand firm on her arm, the other hovering over the broad-bladed knife at his waist, Kane started elbowing his way toward a long bar. A low murmuring rose behind him, and he heard snatches of talk. "That's that woods-queer girl of… How'd that stranger get hold… Ole Rufus never lets a man get near…" He felt
D'lise stiffen and realized she'd heard herself called woods-queer before.
"Are you hungry?" he asked, to put her mind on something else.
An odor of roasting meat wafted to D'lise, making her mouth water. She hadn't eaten since early that morning and the cornmeal mush had been digested hours ago. "I could eat a bite," she said off-handedly, not about to let the trapper know she was starving.
"Good," Kane said, and a moment later they stood in front of the whiskey-stained bar made of rough planks placed on three tall barrels, one on each end and one in the middle to take up the sag. A tall, thin man walked the length of the bar on the other side and stood before them.
"Howdy," he said, mopping at the bar with a rag that looked as if it had just been used on the floor, all the time looking at D'lise with admiring eyes. When Kane cleared his throat to get his attention, the middle-aged man looked at him and asked, "What'll you have, stranger?"
There was no lust in the eyes that had been bent on D'lise, so Kane answered in a civil manner. "I need a few supplies, but first we'd like something to eat. It sure smells good back there in your kitchen."
The bartender's grin widened proudly. "My son does the cookin' here. The kid can cook better than any woman in these hills. He'll be proud to feed you." He jerked a thumb toward the wall opposite them. "Take a seat over there and I'll bring it to you when it's ready."
Kane nodded and led D'lise back through the press of a dozen or more men who grudgingly parted to let them through. Once they were clear of the rough-looking lot and had arrived at the plank table, its only support another barrel, Kane motioned D'lise to sit down on the split-log bench drawn up to it. When she gingerly sat down on its splintered surface, he placed one moccasined foot on the bench near her and leaned one elbow on his bent knee, as he kept his eyes on the men who continued to stare at D'lise. The cold hardness in his eyes and his protective stance warned the men to keep their distance.
He spared a glance at D'lise, to see if she was enjoying all the attention, but she sat quietly, her gaze on her lap. Consequently, he did not know how uneasy she was, feeling the men's eyes on her person.
