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Into the Wilderness

Page 93

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

 

 

 


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