Perhaps if he found this gift from her, he would let her escape and not pursue her. If he did give chase and he caught her, perhaps without her hair he would soon release her. Anyway, she needed to get away now before the man came back and finished what he had intended.
Linnett quietened herself by taking deep breaths; she began to think. The doorway was guarded but the back of the lodge wasn’t. Linnett used the dagger to pull and scrape at the mud and rushes that were the main components of the back wall’s construction.
It took her about a quarter of an hour or so to make a hole just large enough for her to wriggle through. Worrying that at any moment Bear Man would be back to finish what he had started, she glanced over her shoulder every few seconds. Her heart was racing and beating so loudly she was sure someone would hear.
Lying on her stomach, she squeezed through the small gap. Standing up on the outside, Linnett gently brushed the earth from her dress and thought what a dreadful mess she must look by now. Her native dress was all ripped and torn, split up to her waist at the back and she was covered with dirt. Her skin was scratched and bruised from her escape through the undergrowth earlier.
She ran lightly from lodge to lodge, always keeping to the shadows. A dog came up and snarled, but all at once a small, shadowed form caught hold of the dog and whispered a command. Immediately the dog fell silent and lay down.
Linnett waited to see if this person was about to give her away, but as the form moved close to her, Linnett realised it was a young girl. She recognised her as the girl Linnett had seen at the lodge earlier, scowling at her from the entrance. The Indian girl took hold of Linnett’s hand and quietly led her around the perimeter of the encampment, keeping the dogs that growled quiet by giving them a softly spoken command.
Once they were at the edge of the village, she pushed Linnett towards the cover of trees and melted away into the darkness. Linnett took a deep breath and crept through the undergrowth. When she was far enough in, she ran like the wind into the cover of the forest.
It was pitch dark and she couldn’t even see her feet, let alone where she was going. After struggling downhill and tripping over tree roots, her head smacking on the low overhanging branches, Linnett became exhausted. Eventually, she collapsed in a heap on the ground, her chest heaving painfully from her exertions.
After a while, she stood up and continued to push her way through the trees, heading to a lighter area of ground that might lead to the edge of the woodland. It turned out to be a clearing in the forest, and as Linnett crept around it, she was grabbed from behind and lifted off her feet. A hand clamped itself over her mouth before she could scream.
CHAPTER 11
Linnett fought with every ounce of strength she had until a familiar voice cursed her and delivered a stinging slap to her bare rear end, whispering, “Niet lieveling!” into her ear. Not Bear Man, then, but Hans; Linnett went limp with relief. Hans carried her through the trees and handed her up to John, who was astride his own horse and holding onto the reins of Hans’s mount.
Linnett pressed her face into her husband’s neck and breathed in the familiar scent of him, her relief making her boneless and exhausted. She felt his kisses on her face and sighed. Safe. She was safe.
Sarah gently shook Linnett awake from a deep and healing sleep the morning after they had arrived back at the homestead. She sat down next to her on the bed and stroked the short hair away from Linnett’s face.
After they had arrived back at the Lammers house the night before, Linnett had explained in a shortened version what had occurred at the native village. After some warm milk, John had carried Linnett upstairs and gently tucked her into bed, whereupon she had fallen into a deep restorative sleep.
“I should stay in bed today if I were you, Linnett,” Sarah said, handing Linnett a cup of steaming coffee the following morning.
“Oh no, I want to get up and talk to John as soon as I can!” Linnett replied, looking expectantly at the door.
“I don’t think that would be a very wise idea today,” said Sarah firmly.
“Why ever not, Sarah? I feel just fine!” said Linnett.
“Believe me, Linnett, you won’t feel fine for very long. Now that you are safe and sound again, John is livid with you for riding off the way you did. I would stay here today and let him calm down a bit before you get up and about. It won’t save you from a whipping, but he might go easier on you once a day or so has passed!”
“Sarah!” Both women jumped and looked at the doorway where Hans now stood, looking thunderous. “I told you before not to interfere in their marriage! You will go now to our room and await me there.” Sarah gave Linnett an apologetic look, and flushing guiltily, she squeezed her heavily pregnant body past her furious husband. Sarah was as sure as she could be that Hans wouldn’t spank her in her present condition but his scolding would be verbally very upsetting, she was quite sure.
Hans looked severely at Linnett, “Get up and go and find your husband now! Or pack your bags and leave here. I have had enough of your selfish and childish behaviour. You put everyone around you in danger and all because you cannot learn to do as you are told!” Hans turned away banging the door shut behind him. Linnett felt so ashamed, dear Hans must hate her to speak to her like that.
Hastily Linnett donned her clothes and went out onto the landing. She could hear voices clearly from inside Hans and Sarah’s bedroom. Linnett paused to listen.
“...because you carry our child I will not risk spanking you as you deserve, Sarah, but I am making a note in the family bible of each time you need punishment so that when you are recovered from the birth, you will go across my knee for as many times as the tally. You will stay in our room and rest now until I tell you that you may join us downstairs.”
“Yes, Hans,” came the meek reply.
Relieved that Sarah was safe, at least for now, Linnett made her way down the stairs. John was sitting at the table cradling a cup of coffee in his hands. He gestured for Linnett to sit down at the table opposite him. His face looked grim, his eyes steely.
“Oh John, I.....” Linnett burst out, but her husband interrupted her, holding his hand up for silence.
“I don’t want to hear it, Linnett! I am going to punish you and then tomorrow we are leaving on horseback for Boston. I won’t put these wonderful people in any more danger because of you! We are leaving today and that is final.”
Linnett tried again, “No, you have to listen to me, you just don’t understand, John...I have learned my lesson...”
“I said ENOUGH and I mean ENOUGH! Now you will come with me!” John walked around the table and pulled Linnett roughly to her feet by her upper arm. He towed her towards the door. Linnett tried to drag her arm free and cried out at the top of her voice.
“Stop this, John, I am with child! I am carrying our child!”
John swiftly dropped her arm and stared at her incredulously. “What did you say?”
“I am going to have our baby, John,” Linnett said softly as she smiled at the bewildered expression on her husband’s face.
“Are you sure?” John asked, stunned.
“Well, as sure as I can be. All my courses have stopped.”
She waited for him to respond, but when he just stood there, Linnett went to him and leant against his solid form. She said quietly, “I realised while I was kidnapped that I had brought all this trouble on myself and I promised that if I ever got back to you safely, I would be a good and obedient wife and not rush off to do what I wanted, whenever I wanted. John, I have learnt the hard way that I have to listen to you. I have never been more terrified in my life than I was, stuck in that native camp!” Linnett shuddered, remembering Bear Man’s advances and the liberties he took with her body.
Linnett had already decided that she would never tell a soul what had happened between her and the huge native man. She would take that shameful knowledge to her grave.
John wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed her forehead. He ti
lted her head back and looked down into her swimming eyes. It took him a moment to get his emotions under control before finally saying gruffly, “Linnett if you ever do anything that endangers you in any way again....so help me.....I...I... promise I’ll switch you every day for the rest of your life!”
He then lowered his head and kissed her, all of his love and his pent up fears and frustrations for her were in that kiss. Linnett responded as though her very breath was being given through John and his beautiful, sensual mouth. Finally John broke away from her and he led Linnett to a chair. He sat and pulled her onto his lap, cradling her against his chest.
“I was beside myself when I arrived at the cabin and found it burnt to the ground and you were gone! Linnett, I thought that I had lost you forever and I might have done so too, if it hadn’t been for Hans and his tracking skills! I refuse to be put through that anguish again and I won’t let you put others in danger because you will not learn from your mistakes!”
“Oh, John, my darling, I truly thought at one point that I would never see you again! I swear to you that this fright has put paid to any rebellious behaviour on my part. I understood all the things you have tried to impress upon me since we were married and I realised all the wilfulness I possessed and acted upon, causing myself and everyone around me such trouble and worry! I intend to be the perfect biddable wife from this day forward and I do promise you that, John!”
Linnett burst into noisy tears and wept. John scooped her close to his chest, cradling her on his lap while she sobbed the shock from her system. He hushed her and rocked her kissing away her scalding tears.
“Linnett, tell me true, my love: did the natives harm you in any way?” he asked softly. “I know that you said you cut your hair as a gift to them, something I still don’t understand.... but did uh, any men put their hands on you?” John looked down intently into his wife’s face watching and trying to gauge any deceit on her part. His knuckles stood out white as he gripped his hands in fists awaiting her reply, he would kill any man who had laid hands upon his precious wife.
Linnett felt John’s tension and raised her eyes. Unblinking, she denied any misuse, only telling him that amazingly she had met Will the fur trapper. She explained that he was alive and well, living with a squaw who was expecting his first child and that he was happy living within the tribe. Linnett told John how Will had kept her safe from the fiercer members of the tribe. She knew John and she knew her husband would try to exact revenge if she told him the full story of her kidnap. She also knew that John wouldn’t live to see his unborn child grow if she allowed that to happen.
Reassured by his wife’s tale and guileless gaze, John tucked Linnett’s head under his chin and held her close. He stroked her soft, shorn head and prayed that her lovely hair would grow again soon.
Being rocked safe in her husband’s arms, Linnett knew she was home at last. Lavenstock Hall and England were the past. John and this amazing, wild and beautiful country were her future, her place always by his side. Together they would build a strong family, and John would guide their children and help them to flourish in the same way that he had helped her to become an adult at last.
Linnett had learned that actions have consequences, and she had finally learned to consider other people before she took action. But most of all, she had learned to love, and true love, she realized, knows no selfishness.
EPILOGUE
John contemplated with joy the future arrival of their baby. He pondered about this exciting new development and the fact that it would change their lives forever. He told Linnett that he had decided they should stay at least another week or so at the homestead, there was much to do and arrange before they could think of leaving.
They took a trip into town and Sarah lent Linnett a white cap which tied under her chin and hid her lack of hair. They went to see the town doctor, who confirmed what they had both thought, that Linnett was indeed expecting a child.
While they were in town, John left Linnett in the general store with instructions to buy whatever she needed. John then went to set in motion some of the business transactions he had been secretly planning.
He hired a man to ride to Boston to deliver a packet of papers and letters to his mother explaining all that had passed since they had sailed from England. He included a package to be forwarded to England that contained letters to the families of the crew who had died aboard the Tempest. Linnett had also written to her father telling him that she was alive, well and very happily expecting a child.
After collecting his wife from the mercantile store, John packed the cart with supplies and Linnett’s packages and they set off back to the Lammers’ homestead at a calm pace. Linnett sat with her head resting on John’s shoulder and her hands cradling her slightly rounded stomach. John was indeed a happy and contented man.
That night they had a celebratory meal at the homestead with many toasts to the Foster family to be, with Han’s homemade ale. After they had all finished eating, Hans stood and held his hand up for silence.
“I would like to say a few words. Firstly formal congratulations to both John and Linnett on your wonderful news. I thank the lord that Peter asked me to take him to the beach after our visit to town on the day that we found you both half drowned on the shore side. I do not know how you could have survived another night lying there so wet and cold. I am proud to call you friend, John Foster! I turn now to John who has, I believe, some quite exceptional information for us all.”
John stood up and Linnett looked up at him curiously, what on earth was it that John had to say? He cleared his throat. “First of all we owe you our lives and nothing can ever repay your goodness to us, Hans and Sarah, but if ever you need us for anything we will be there to support and help in any way that we can.” Linnett nodded her head vigorously.
John turned his gaze to Linnett and taking a deep breath he said, “I have this day purchased a large area of land with beach, near Ogunquit where I intend to start a boat building business, along with a large house nearby for Linnett and our children to live.”
There was silence as all eyes turned towards Linnett, gauging her reaction. Linnett was looking at John her gaping mouth open with shock. “Well darling – what do you think?” John asked after Linnett hadn’t moved or spoken. Linnett pushed back her chair and ran around the table flinging her arms around her husband’s waist, “Yes, oh yes darling, oh John, this is such wonderful news!”
John kissed her and looked relieved, “You have no idea what a relief it is to hear you say that, Linnett. I had thought your heart was set on Boston. What has changed your mind?”
“All I could think about before I was taken by the natives was returning to Lavenstock Hall and to England, but John, when I was in the tribal camp, I realised that all I really wanted was to spend my life with you and so it didn’t matter where that was, just so long as we are together. I love it here and I would really like to stay nearby to Sarah, especially when her baby is due!”
Linnett turned and smiled at her friend but then she noticed Hans sombre face and Linnett’s own fell, she turned to Hans wringing her hands. “You don’t want me to stay here though, do you Hans,” she asked softly, her eyes holding out a plea to the large stern man.
Hans smiled and shook his head slightly, “Mrs. Foster, we would like to have you living close by and my Sarah will love to have her friend nearby to gossip with and talk baby talk with. You are our very dear friends almost our family, Linnett, but I think trouble is thy middle name. However, since John and I have made an agreement that I am most happy with, I am glad to offer you a home with us until your new house is built.”
Linnett ran to Hans and planted a kiss on his cheek but then she frowned. “An agreement.......what is it you have both agreed?” she asked curiously.
Hans winked at John. “Ya well, after your child is born and while you are still living under my roof, John has granted me permission to give you a sound switching every time you are out of order, Linnett, and know
ing you as I do ‘lieveling,’ I am looking forward to the very day!”
Everyone laughed but Linnett was indignant and trembling, was Hans joking? She jolly well hoped so, how dare John! But then why should she be worried? She was to be a mother now and she was determined to be both a good mother and a biddable wife to John. Linnett never wanted John to have to take her in hand again.
Feeling much better and in control of herself once again, Linnett smiled at her husband and friends, enjoying their banter and laughter. She remembered the green, spoiled and lonely girl who had married John, and compared that girl to herself now. Linnett knew she had changed for the better and so she had nothing to fret about. After all she could keep up her good behaviour from now onwards!
Linnett frowned and chewed her lip. She could, couldn’t she....well couldn’t she?
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His Defiant Wife, the Adventures of Linnett Wainwright, Book 2 Page 11
