by Sara Donati
“I want you to be satisfied,” he said, his breath stirring her hair. “That’s all that concerns me.”
“And you want to stay on Hidden Wolf,” she said, pulling his face up to look into his eyes. “Wherever we might go, you will always want to come back home to Lake in the Clouds. This place is in your blood. Please just say so.”
“I want to stay on Hidden Wolf,” he parrotted obediently. “If you’ll be satisfied here.”
“Nathaniel,” she said, frowning.
He slid his arm around her and drew her down to lie beside him. The expression in his eyes stole her breath away.
“You want me to speak my mind. So then listen, listen to me.” He paused to pull her closer.
“I’m happy with you here, Boots. Sometimes when I’m coming up the trail and I see the light in the window, I can’t hardly move for fear that it’s all been a dream, having you here in this place with me. I’m scairt of being without you. I never was easy to scare, even as a boy, but I’ve learned it now.” His hand moved to the bulk of her belly and rested there. “All I want is to keep you safe, and to please you. So you’ll stay with me. Tell me you’ll stay with me.”
“Oh, Nathaniel.” She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder, held his face between her hands. “I am not going anywhere unless I go with you. I wouldn’t be whole without you.”
He let out a small sound from the back of his throat, and she saw the muscles in his cheek tremble. “You think you can be happy here, on the mountain?”
“I know I can,” she said, and realized, suddenly, that it was the truth.
“Good,” he said, the grip of his hands on her shoulders suddenly turning to a caress. “Good.”
She held his gaze. “This is our place, Nathaniel, and Hannah’s, and it will be our children’s place. And I hope it will be your father’s place, too. But first he must hear what Moncrieff has to say. If Hawkeye decides he needs to go to Scotland, then he will go. If he asks you to come along, and you decide to join him, then I will be there, too. But he deserves to know about his family.”
Nathaniel pushed out his breath between his teeth. “I already told Moncrieff where to look for him in Montreal. He’ll be off in the morning.”
“Ah,” she said, smiling.
On the table the candle sputtered, casting shadows over the ceiling. It was near dawn, and snow had begun to fall. For a long moment they were quiet together, listening to the muffled sounds of the waterfall. Elizabeth could have slept, but she fought it, not wanting to be drawn away from him now, even in sleep.
“Our first Christmas at Lake in the Clouds,” she murmured. “But not the last.”
His head came up, damp eyes glistening in the dim light. He looked at her hard. “Are you sure, Boots?”
“Yes,” she said, lifting her face for his kiss. “There is nowhere else I want to be.”
Sometime later he said, “You might be curious about that castle, in the end, or Montreal.” A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. “You may change your mind.”
“Not about some things,” Elizabeth said, spreading a hand on his cheek. “Not about this, not about you. Not the why or the wherefore, not the who.”
“But the where, maybe. Someday.”
His hands on her breasts, and a luxuriant stirring deep inside: the certainty of this, of his love and his desire, his protection and the life they shared. Elizabeth turned in his embrace and slid a leg over his hip, drew him closer. She let out a sound of welcome, and they came together gently, small movements that still drew from him a sigh of absolute surrender.
“Perhaps someday,” she murmured against his mouth as she rose to meet him. “But for right now, Paradise is enough.”
About the Author
SARA DONATI is the pen name of Rosina Lippi. She lives with her husband, daughter, and various pets in an area between the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific Northwest Coast. Visit her weblog at www.rosinalippi.com for news about her next novel.
INTO THE WILDERNESS
A Delta Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam hardcover edition published August 1998
Bantam mass market edition / August 1999
Delta Trade Paperback edition / October 2008
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved
Copyright © 1998 by Sara Donati
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97-39051
Delta is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-440-33807-9
www.bantamdell.com
v3.0
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books by this Author
Title Page
Dedication
Author’s Notes and Acknowledgments
Major Characters
Part I - Discovering Paradise
Chapter I - December, 1792
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Part II - Into the Wilderness
Chapter XXIII - April, 1793
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Chapter XXVI
Chapter XXVII
Chapter XXVIII
Chapter XXIX
Chapter XXX
Chapter XXXI
Chapter XXXII
Chapter XXXIII
Chapter XXXIV
Chapter XXXV
Chapter XXXVI
Chapter XXXVII
Chapter XXXVIII
Chapter XXXIX
Chapter XL
Chapter XLI
Chapter XLII
Part III - Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?
Chapter XLIII - Late June, 1793
Chapter XLIV
Chapter XLV
Chapter XLVI
Chapter XLVII
Chapter XLVIII
Chapter XLIX
Chapter L
Chapter LI
Chapter LII
Chapter LIII
Chapter LIV
Chapter LV
Chapter LVI
Chapter LVII
Chapter LVIII
Chapter LIX
Chapter LX
Chapter LXI
Chapter LXII - Christmas, 1793
About the Author
Copyright
