by Linda Ladd
“Go slowly. Any quick movement will make them strike.” His voice was barely audible above the sound of the snakes.
Her foot touched the bottom, and she let go of the rope, carefully edging toward the knife, her eyes on the vipers swarming together several feet away. She looked down at the knife and stood petrified as she saw the thick length that lay across the handle. She turned horrified eyes to Logan, helplessly bound, as one of the snakes slid over his boot.
Elizabeth could not bear it, and she looked around frantically, her eyes lighting upon the torch hanging upon a rope. She grabbed it quickly and thrust the flame at the viper atop the knife. It slid off and away, and she grabbed the knife, never even seeing the other rattler beside her. She cried out as fangs pierced her moccasin and sank painfully into her ankle. She scrabbled to Logan, cutting away the ropes, and Logan grabbed the knife from her shaking hands and cut his feet free.
Thrusting Elizabeth behind him, he got the torch she'd dropped, poking it at the agitated snakes.
“It bit me, on the ankle,” Elizabeth said, then weaved on her feet as the venom began to affect her, and Logan pulled her limp body over one shoulder, his wounds forgotten as he fought for their lives. He got a hold on the rope, then threw the torch at the snakes as he began to pull himself up.
Elizabeth's cheek lay against Logan's back, feeling his muscles move as he brought them out of the hellish pit. Vaguely she felt the coolness of the night wind upon her face, and the last thing she knew was being cradled in Logan's arms, as his voice called her name from very far away.
A strange clicking sound entered her haunting dreams, and Elizabeth struggled to open her eyes, unable to think what it could be. Then her mind took her into the nightmare of the pit, and she jerked upright, her eyes wide and terrified, as she looked for the rattlers.
“Logan!”
Arms came around her at once, cool and gentle hands touching her brow tenderly, as Logan's voice soothed her terror.
“Shhh ... my sweet, you're safe now.”
She closed her eyes in relief and leaned weakly against him as he pushed damp hair from her temples.
“You've been very sick,” he whispered. “But you are better now.”
The clicking sound that had frightened her resumed, and Elizabeth opened her eyes to see the buffalo mask of her tribe's medicine man. He moved in a circle around the buffalo robes where she lay, chanting in a low, monotonous voice. Elizabeth sank back into Logan's arms.
A terrible thought jolted fear into her core, as she remembered she'd been bitten.
“My baby...”
“The moccasin stopped most of the venom. The baby will be fine.”
Elizabeth looked down at her leg. Her foot was swollen to twice its normal size, but there was little pain. She raised her face to Logan as he lowered her carefully to the robe. His battered face was gray with exhaustion, his blue eyes haggard, a week's growth of dark beard covering his face.
“Are you all right?” she asked in concern. He nodded and smiled.
“But you look terrible,” she said, reaching a finger to touch his whiskered cheek.
Gentle Reed's voice spoke from behind him. “Tracker has not left your side since he brought you and the Sioux chief into our camp four days ago. He is a stubborn man.”
Elizabeth looked quickly at him. “How is Two Bears?”
“He will survive, but he will be abed for many a month.”
Elizabeth smiled at the welcome news, then shuddered as she thought how very close Logan had come to death.
“Hold me, Logan, please.”
Logan complied with the greatest of pleasure, lying close beside her. Elizabeth sighed, and Gentle Reed laid down the ointment she had prepared for Starfire's foot. There would be time to apply it later. She motioned to the medicine man, then followed him out of the tipi, anxious to tell Raging Buffalo that their only daughter was awake.
“Never let me go,” Elizabeth murmured softly, and Logan's voice was barely audible as exhaustion overtook him, but his low words warmed Elizabeth and filled her heart with peace.
“As long as I breathe, my sweet Elizabeth, you will be with me....”
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1984 by Linda Ladd
Cover design by Open Road Integrated Media
ISBN 978-1-4976-3106-9
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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New York, NY 10014
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LINDA LADD
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