Savage Land

by Janet Dailey

  Savage Land

  The Americana Series: South Carolina

  Janet Dailey

  Janet Dailey's Americana Series

  Dangerous Masquerade (Alabama)

  Northern Magic (Alaska)

  Sonora Sundown (Arizona)

  Valley Of the Vapours (Arkansas)

  Fire And Ice (California)

  After the Storm (Colorado)

  Difficult Decision (Connecticut)

  The Matchmakers (Delaware)

  Southern Nights (Florida)

  Night Of The Cotillion (Georgia)

  Kona Winds (Hawaii)

  The Travelling Kind (Idaho)

  A Lyon's Share (Illinois)

  The Indy Man (Indiana)

  The Homeplace (Iowa)

  The Mating Season (Kansas)

  Bluegrass King (Kentucky)

  The Bride Of The Delta Queen (Louisiana)

  Summer Mahogany (Maine)

  Bed Of Grass (Maryland)

  That Boston Man (Massachusetts)

  Enemy In Camp (Michigan)

  Giant Of Mesabi (Minnesota)

  A Tradition Of Pride (Mississippi)

  Show Me (Missouri)

  Big Sky Country (Montana)

  Boss Man From Ogallala (Nebraska)

  Reilly's Woman (Nevada)

  Heart Of Stone (New Hampshire)

  One Of The Boys (New Jersey)

  Land Of Enchantment (New Mexico)

  Beware Of The Stranger (New York)

  That Carolina Summer (North Carolina)

  Lord Of the High Lonesome (North Dakota)

  The Widow And The Wastrel (Ohio)

  Six White Horses (Oklahoma)

  To Tell The Truth (Oregon)

  The Thawing Of Mara (Pennsylvania)

  Strange Bedfellow (Rhode Island)

  Low Country Liar (South Carolina)

  Dakota Dreamin' (South Dakota)

  Sentimental Journey (Tennessee)

  Savage Land (Texas)

  A Land Called Deseret (Utah)

  Green Mountain Man (Vermont)

  Tidewater Lover (Virginia)

  For Mike's Sake (Washington)

  Wild And Wonderful (West Virginia)

  With A Little Luck (Wisconsin)

  Darling Jenny (Wyoming)

  Other Janet Dailey Titles You Might Enjoy

  American Dreams

  Aspen Gold

  Fiesta San Antonio

  For Bitter Or Worse

  The Great Alone

  Heiress

  The Ivory Cane

  Legacies

  Masquerade

  The Master Fiddler

  No Quarter Asked

  Rivals

  Something Extra

  Sweet Promise

  Tangled Vines

  Introduction

  Introducing JANET DAILEY AMERICANA. Every novel in this collection is your passport to a romantic tour of the United States through time-honored favorites by America's First Lady of romance fiction. Each of the fifty novels is set in a different state, researched by Janet and her husband, Bill. For the Daileys it was an odyssey of discovery. For you, it's the journey of a lifetime.

  Preface

  When I first started writing back in the Seventies, my husband Bill and I were retired and traveling all over the States with our home—a 34’ travel trailer—in tow. That's when Bill came up with the great idea of my writing a romance novel set in each one of our fifty states. It was an idea I ultimately accomplished before switching to mainstream fiction and hitting all the international bestseller lists.

  As we were preparing to reissue these early titles, I initially planned to update them all—modernize them, so to speak, and bring them into the new high-tech age. Then I realized I couldn't do that successfully any more than I could take a dress from the Seventies and redesign it into one that would look as if it were made yesterday. That's when I saw that the true charm of these novels is their look back on another time and another age. Over the years, they have become historical novels, however recent the history. When you read them yourself, I know you will feel the same.

  So, enjoy, and happy reading to all!

  Chapter One

  ANOTHER bolt of lightning flamed out of the dark, rolling clouds, followed by a heart-pounding clap of thunder. Colleen McGuire's pulse raced as she involuntarily cringed in her seat. Her large hazel eyes remained fixed on the windshield where the wipers were vainly attempting to wash away the sheets of rain descending from the menacing clouds. Apprehensively she glanced at her brother behind the wheel.

  'Danny, don't you think we should stop?’ Fear brought a trembling to her words in spite of her effort to control it.

  'Just where would you suggest, Coley?’ he snapped, not taking his attention from the emptiness in front of them. ‘If we stop now, we probably won't get this old clunker started again.'

  'We should have listened to that man back at the garage,’ Coley murmured as a fresh torrent of water pummelled down on their car.

  'That was thirty miles back, and it was only sprinkling then!’ Danny flashed at her. Tension from the strain of creeping along the winding Texas road made him unnaturally sharp. ‘How was I supposed to know it would be like this!'

  'But he said it was raining bad in the mountains, that the road could flood. And those signs we've been seeing,’ Coley persisted logically. At her words, a highway sign was illuminated by their car's headlights—'During wet weather, watch low water crossings'. A sickening moan escaped her lips. ‘Oh, Danny, there's another!'

  'Coley, will you stop carrying on about a little rain and thunder! Aren't you ever going to grow out of that childish fear?’ her brother retorted. His knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel as if his life depended on him not letting it go. With determination, he added, ‘We're going to make it. Don't you worry.'

  A forced smile appeared on Coley's mouth as she gulped down her fears and turned to look out her side window. Instinctively her long fingers went to her mouth, where she absently chewed on a nail while watching the jagged forks of lightning turn the hills and mountains around them into towering monsters. Her reflection in the window glass dimly mirrored her thin, angular face with its fine, arched brows, and large hazel eyes that had, if it was possible, grown wider with her anxiety, and her button nose that was fogging a small section of the glass. Her wispy brown hair was as indistinct in the reflection as it was in life, limply hanging below her gamin ears. And yet there was a childlike charm about her that was oddly appealing and a promise of unusual beauty at maturity.

  The old Chevy slowed slightly while water swirled around its wheels. It was another water crossing. The colour washed out of Coley's face as she turned her head from the sickening rush of the stream. Numbly she watched her brother's taut face, feeling the current tugging at the car, trying to sweep it off the road. Coley felt herself stiffen with Danny as they slowly edged their way between two poles midway in the crossing. The water was above the hubcaps and inching under the door before they finally made it to the other side. Coley could see the relief on her brother's face when they reached solid ground again.

  'What were those poles there for?’ She forced herself to speak to stem the rising panic within her, knowing her brother was beginning to worry, too. When he failed to answer her immediately, she repeated the question.

  'High water markers,’ he replied grimly. His young face was beginning to show the strain of the constant demands on his driving ability. He glanced worriedly over at his sister before returning to the road. ‘I'm sure we don't have too much farther to go.'

  Despite his attempt to reassure her, his growing apprehension increased her fear. Danny was ten months younger than she, but he had always taken the part of ‘older brother', watch
ing over and protecting Coley even now when she was almost twenty.

  'I wish we would have let Aunt Wilhelmina know we were coming.’ Coley's eyes ruefully surveyed the lonely stretch ahead where canyons poked shadowy fingers at the road. ‘At least someone would know we were here. Why didn't you let me write and tell her we were coming?'

  A cynical laugh slipped out of Danny's drawn lips. But he couldn't voice his feelings because he knew his soft-hearted sister didn't realize that people often extended offers of help with no intentions of having them accepted. Never having met Aunt Wilhelmina, he had deliberately not notified her for fear that she would retract her invitation for them to come live with her.

  Hesitantly he glanced over at Coley huddled on the passenger seat flinching at each crash of lightning. Silently he studied her long-limbed body and the cheap flowered print dress she wore before, grimly, turning back to state out the rain-coated windshield. ‘What a rotten life she's had,’ he thought, not considering that his had been the same. The first time that he had recognized and understood the abuse they had received at the hands of their father was during one of his drunks, when Danny had done his best to shield his sister and to protect her if he could. Sober, their father had been a wonderful man, but he hadn't been sober very often. There had been a subconscious relief when he had finally been killed in a car wreck—the result of drunken driving.

  But for Danny and Coley in the first years of their teens, the hardships had just begun. Their mother, delicate all her life, within a year was an invalid from asthma. It was shortly after that that a stubborn pride and hardened bitterness grew in Danny, not for the luxuries they were deprived of, nor the constant part-time jobs that he took to earn enough money to keep them going, but for the clucking tongues of neighbours that continuously deplored their lack of supervision out of one side of their mouths while offering empty promises of help at the same time.

  Their mother had refused to let either of them leave school, which Danny supposed he should be grateful for. But since both he and Coley had to rush away as soon as the last bell rang, he to go to work and Coley to look after their mother, there had never been any time for sports, or school dances, or friends. He didn't mind, because ‘men’ didn't miss those things, but Coley should have had them instead of housework, cooking and nursing.

  'Why do you suppose Momma never mentioned Aunt Wilhelmina?’ A frown creased Coley's wide forehead, unknowingly interrupting Danny's musings.

  'I don't know,’ Danny shrugged. ‘I'm just glad she had an aunt.'

  'Aren't you just the teensiest bit scared? Coming out here and presenting yourself to a complete stranger who didn't even know we existed until you wrote her that letter telling her Mother had died.'

  Coley had never been around other people much and strangers tended to make her shy and withdrawn. Her quiet ways usually made people forget she was there, which increased her reserve. Almost hypnotized by the back and forth sweep of the wipers, she remembered the day she had been helping Danny go through their mother's trunk about a week after the funeral. Coley hadn't quite understood his excitement at finding that letter at the bottom of a pile of old photographs. With painstaking care he had written this unknown relative, saying a silent prayer that she hadn't died already. When the reply and invitation came just a week ago, Danny had walked into the restaurant where Coley had a job as waitress and, with a jubilant air of satisfaction, told her to quit. How he had hated her working there and the off-colour remarks his naive ‘little’ sister was subjected to. He didn't like the idea that Coley, marked for future beauty in his eyes, should lower herself to serving people who weren't fit to serve her. His conviction had deepened when he had caught Carl making a pass at Coley.

  Another roll of thunder reverberated out of the hills, drawing a terrified gasp from Coley. Glancing over at her tightly clasped yet trembling fists, Danny fortified his confidence in his decision.

  'We've got to forget everything we've left behind us,’ he said. ‘This is our chance to start a whole new life, to make something of ourselves with nobody around to tell us we can't do it.'

  'But we could have done that in San Antoine,’ she replied, gazing earnestly at her brother. ‘With me working, we would have had enough money to get a nicer apartment, and later I could have got a better job. And you had so many friends there.'

  'I couldn't stand you working in that place,’ he declared vehemently. ‘And the thought of you marrying one of those “friends” and having a bunch of squalling brats running around makes me sick. No, when you marry, it's going to be somebody respectable who can give you your own home and nice clothes. He's going to be good and decent, not someone like Carl.'

  A shudder quaked through Coley as the repulsive memory swept through her. How she had tried to forget that night when Carl had taken her home, saying that Danny was going to be late. She had tried to be polite despite her inner revulsion of him, because he was Danny's friend. She could still remember the way his dark eyes had raked over her as he unlocked the apartment door and barred her entry with a tanned arm. Numbly she had stood silent, a crimson blush coveting her face. She could still hear his mocking laugh as he teased her about her unkissed lips before slipping a slender arm behind her back and drawing her to him. She had tried to push herself away from him, but he had only laughed and forced her face to his. The naked lust in his face had terrified her, but she had been helpless against his animal strength. The opportune arrival of Danny and his strident yell broke the one-sided embrace. In a tightly controlled temper, her brother ordered Carl out, but not before he had winked cockily at Coley.

  A fresh onslaught of rain stirred Coley out of her reflection. Silently she watched the headlight beams pick out another water crossing ahead of them. The angry black water swirled menacingly before them as she felt Danny change gears in anticipation. Again in the middle of the crossing were markers with water churning below the three foot mark.

  'Danny, it's too deep!’ she cried. ‘We'll never make it across!’

  Her brother's face was ashen as they inched their way through the water. Her breathing stopped while the swift current swayed the back end. They were almost on the other side when the motor died. Gasping, Coley turned her terrified eyes to Danny and watched him vainly attempt to start it again. It was no use. The dull hum of the starter foretold the futility despite earnest pleadings from the driver. In a fit of anger, Danny jerked the key out of the ignition and looked at Coley sitting petrified on the opposite side of the car.

  'I'm sorry, Coley,’ he muttered. ‘We'll have to leave the car. Let me get out my side first.'

  Rolling down his window, Danny squirmed out the narrow opening into the swirling dark waters. Coley watched him make his way through the driving rain around to her side. Storms had always terrified her and being stranded afoot in one of such violence sent an earthquake through her body. Bravely she crawled through her window to Danny's waiting arms.

  'I can walk,’ she protested faintly when Danny continued carrying her until they were out of the stream. Watching the rain stream down his troubled face as he stood her up, she added, ‘I'm all right, Danny. I can make it.'

  He smiled proudly at her already rain-soaked head inches below his before searching the cloud-darkened countryside. His gaze stopped at the faint outline of a plateau with an overhanging section of rock.

  Pointing towards it, he instructed, ‘Do you see that place where the rocks jut out over that high area? I want you to go there and wait for me. I saw a lane back on the other side and it might lead to a house and help.'

  'No, Danny, let me come with you,’ Coley cried. ‘I'm not a child, I can make it.'

  'There's no sense in both of us going,’ he replied. ‘I'll come back for you just as soon as I can.'

  He didn't give her any further opportunity to protest, but immediately waded into the swollen waters of the crossing. Coley stretched out her arm to him, then drew it back to cover her mouth as she watched him disappear into the flooding
waters. He was swimming now as a glimpse of his white face appeared to her in the midst of another flash of lightning. The swift, churning current dragged him downstream, but her impatient eyes saw him reach the other side and struggle on to the bank. Gratefully, Coley saw him wave that he was okay and cup his hands to call to her, but his voice was carried away by the thunder. He was probably reassuring her that he would be back, and she waved in answer. Then he was gone, swallowed up in the blackness of the land.

  Silently she stood watching the empty road until a bolt of lightning crashed again to the ground, jolting her out of her immobility. Conscious of her sodden dress and the chilling cold creeping into her bones. Coley struck out for the shelter Danny had pointed out to her. It looked farther away now than it did before and she cast a rueful glance down at her sandals as she set out. Determined not to lose her way, she picked out landmarks, a yucca plant here, farther on a willow, all in a straight line with her destination. Her long legs doggedly placed one foot in front of the other ignoring the slippery, muddy ground.

  Four times Coley stopped and wiped the rain from her face to peer through the sheets of water at her goal. Panting now with the cold beginning to chatter her teeth, she pushed on until she reached the bottom of the hill. The slope up was a lot steeper than it looked. With water oozing out of the spongy ground, she knew she would have to crawl up the hill. Coley gazed back forlornly to the road, but her vision was obscured twenty feet around her by the rain. She couldn't even see the top of the hill except when the lightning illuminated the sky with its eerie forked tongue. Sighing her despair, she turned to the hill.

  If only she could have gone with Danny, she thought, but she knew she would never have made it across. She couldn't swim.

  The slick-soled sandals couldn't find a foothold in the slimy hill, reducing Coley to clawing her way with her hands and pushing herself up with her knees. Her new nylons were in shreds and her best dress stained with mud. Her breath came in panic-born sobs as she fought to keep herself from sliding back. She was almost at the top. Gasping in the rain-laden air, she dug her long fingers into the ground to pull herself closer.