LeClerc 03 - Wild Savage Heart

by Pamela K Forrest

  Hawk helped Molly remove her coat, and four pairs of masculine eyes immediately found her rounded stomach. Kaleb grinned as he watched the looks of surprise cross his brothers’ faces.

  “I’m going to be an uncle!” Mark cheered gleefully. He stood and grabbed Molly and hugged her tightly. “Wait until the Bear hears about this! Can you imagine him a grandpa!”

  The others chuckled with enjoyment as Molly blushed a vivid red with embarrassment. In polite society, men didn’t acknowledge a woman’s expectant condition. Obviously, in this family, some rules of behavior were ignored! She knew that if she wanted to be a member of this family she would have to learn to accept their good-natured teasing. But she suspected that she was in for some rough times before she became accustomed to their easygoing manner.

  And after such a short acquaintance, Molly knew she wanted to be a member of this family more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.

  Conversation flew, questions were asked and answered, as the brothers caught up on each other’s lives. The closing of the front door brought a sudden, expectant silence to the room. Hawk stood up from Molly’s side, his eyes glued to the door.

  A man, larger than any in the room, with hair as red as the setting sun, walked in. A smile crossed his handsome features as his voice boomed into the stillness.

  “Did you take the long way home and get lost?” Molly knew this was Daniel, the Cub, the Mountain with Voice of Thunder. She was intimidated by his stunning size and she found herself trying to sink into the chair. Black eyes, so like those of his brothers, quickly found her but before he could do more than smile gently, another voice broke into the noise.

  “Welp, it’s ‘bout time you come home, boy.” The old man grabbed Hawk and hugged him tightly, tears unashamedly rimming his eyes. “Missed ya, boy, missed you somethin’ bad.”

  Her mind a whirl with so many impressions, Molly stared in shock at the old man. His face puddled in massive wrinkles above his shaggy eyebrows. A badly scarred bald spot at the top of his head attested to the scalping he had survived nearly thirty years earlier.

  “It’s been too long, Kaleb.”

  “What? You think yore too old to call me grandpa liken you always done?”

  “I’m not too old if you’re not,” Hawk replied with a chuckle. He had missed this old man almost as much as he’d missed Linsey and Bear.

  The only missing member of the family filled the doorway. Molly’s eyes were drawn to the man who had been a father to Hawk. While he was smaller than Daniel, he was larger than his other sons. Thick black hair, with only the slightest touch of silver at the temples, hung to his wide shoulders. Sharp black eyes narrowed in on Hawk, but his stern features didn’t change.

  Linsey returned from upstairs and walked up beside her husband. When he turned his head and wrapped his arm around his tiny wife, Molly couldn’t prevent her gasp of surprise as she saw the horrible scars that disfigured the left side of his face.

  As if separating good from bad, the right side of his face was incredibly handsome while deep scars from hairline to jaw on the left side destroyed the beauty that should have been there.

  Every eye in the room turned to Molly but her eyes were glued to the man in the doorway.

  “They are only scars, little one,” he said softly, repeating the words he had used to reassure Linsey so many years ago.

  Finding herself drawn to the gentle understanding of his voice, Molly stood and walked across the room. Face to face with him, she found herself speechless, wanting to apologize for her rudeness and yet knowing it wasn’t necessary.

  “I’m Molly,” she introduced herself, feeling foolish.

  Bear took her extended hand and brought it to his lips. “I am Luc LeClerc.” He studied her closely, and a smile crossed his dark features.

  “Did you arrive with my long-missing son?”

  Releasing her hand, he turned to Hawk.

  “A wife usually travels with her husband,” Hawk said.

  “Son.” Luc gathered Hawk close. No further words were exchanged as the two strong men held tightly to each other, their mutual love needing the physical contact.

  Finally they parted and Bear bent to pick up his tiny daughter. He kissed her soft cheek then nuzzled his daylong growth of beard into her soft flesh. Her childish giggle filled the room as he carefully set her on her feet.

  “Go find a brother to spoil you.” He gently pushed her toward the men, any of whom would willingly fill the request.

  “Don’t be gone so long ever again,” he said, turning to Hawk. “Your mother worries when her sons aren’t within her sight.”

  Finally, to the satisfaction of the waiting men in the room, his gaze came to linger on Molly.

  “Mon dieu, she’s breeding,” he whispered, his voice conveying his pleased shock. “I’m going to be married to a grandmother!”

  Laughter erupted, confusion reigned and Molly found herself the center of concerned masculine attention. Dara selected Hawk’s lap as her place of choice while Linsey disappeared up the stairs.

  The loud masculine voices put Dara to sleep while they bewildered Molly. Her head began to ache as she tried, with little success, to follow the many conversations that flowed around her. Her sigh of relief was audible in the noisy room when Linsey returned and motioned for her to come upstairs.

  “I know you want to rest.” She took Molly’s hand in hers and signaling Hawk to follow with their bags, led her up the curving staircase. “My family takes some getting used to, their voices ring through the house and will startle a deaf person. But when even one of them is gone, his is the voice that I miss, the one I long to hear.”

  Leading Molly to a door at the end of the hall, Linsey ushered her inside. “This is Hawk’s room when he is home. Now it will be yours.”

  The room was masculinely comfortable, with several chairs that seemed to invite a weary body to sit and linger, a desk and dresser and a massive bed. But what drew Molly’s attention were the windows. The corner room was at the back of the house and the two exterior walls consisted of row after row of floor-to-ceiling windows. The view looked out on a thick forest and the dull glitter of the river was just over the tops of the trees.

  “I have always thought that Hawk chose this room because it was as close to being outside as possible. When he was a child he used to open the windows and sleep on the balcony. Many times, when the weather turned bad late at night, Luc would come in and carry him back to bed.”

  “On a clear day the view must be breathtaking,” Molly said, entranced.

  “When it rains it seems like a magic place, with the thunder booming in the distance and the lightning bringing fire to the sky.” Hawk walked up behind Molly and wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her gently back against him and she rested in the strength of his embrace. “In the winter the snow touched here first, so I could always claim to be the first to know it was snowing.”

  Unseen by the two at the windows, Linsey silently slipped from the room. She didn’t want her presence to intrude on their moment of tender quiet. Besides, she wanted a few minutes alone with the men of the family. She had seen how easily Molly became flustered by their boisterous teasing, and she intended to see that they took care until she had a chance to know them better.

  “In the spring, I used to sit on the balcony, with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders, and watch for the first sight of my father,” Hawk continued, his deep voice soothing Molly. “And in the summer I never slept anywhere but on the porch. It seemed to me that I was closer to my people when I had the stars overhead instead of a roof.”

  Hawk softly kissed the side of her neck then turned her in his arms. Her willing lips met his, softly, gently, in a restrained kiss of heart-melting tenderness.

  “Linsey has a bath prepared for you,” Hawk stated as he lifted his head. “I’ll help you wash your hair, if you wish.”

  “I wish,” Molly replied.

  Sitting on one of the chairs, Molly di
dn’t protest when Hawk knelt and removed her shoes. He pulled her to her feet and reached for the lacings on her pants. Exhaustion overrode any embarrassment she might have felt as the trousers slid down her legs and she stepped out of them.

  Hawk pulled her against him and Molly rested her head on his strong chest as he removed the pins from her hair. The long, honey-colored mass cascaded down her back, the color almost matching exactly the buckskin shirt she still wore.

  He took her hand and led her behind a screen in a corner of the room that Molly hadn’t even bothered to look at yet. A huge tub, large enough for the masculine bodies that usually used it, filled with steaming hot water, waited invitingly. Molly looked at it longingly, wanting to sink her aching body into its depths.

  “Hair first,” Hawk said, a smile lighting his eyes.

  Molly sat on a low bench and hung her head over an empty bucket as Hawk poured warm water through her hair. Hawk worked the soap gently into the wet tresses and she would have purred with pleasure if she had had enough energy. Finally, he repeatedly poured clean water over her hair to remove the soap. Twisting the strands into a long rope, Hawk again pulled her to her feet.

  He quickly dispensed with the laces of her shirt and pulled it over her head. Gathering her into his arms, Hawk lowered her into the tub.

  When Molly sat down, the warm water came to just beneath her chin. She leaned against the rounded back, her eyes closed in bliss.

  “Slide up, Molly,” Hawk’s voice drifted into the dream world she had slipped into.

  “Hum?”

  Hawk reached into the tub and slid her forward. Careful to support her head, in fear that in her relaxed state she would slip beneath the surface, he stepped into the tub behind her. He eased her between his open thighs, her head resting on his chest, the long rope of her hair thrown over his shoulder to hang nearly to the floor.

  He held her gently and his hands moved slowly over her body. He carefully soaped her breasts, lingering to feel their growing weight and to tease the nipples that had reacted to the heat of the water by softening and flattening. He only moved on to other areas when he felt them begin to pucker in response to his soft tugs and pulls.

  He felt her ribs and realized that she had lost weight on their trip, pounds that her thin frame couldn’t afford to lose. The mound of her belly enticed him, as always. The baby was quiet, as if he too enjoyed the warm water cradling his mother’s body.

  Hawk spent a long time massaging her belly before his hands ventured further, into the feminine warmth waiting for his exploration.

  Molly moaned softly and opened her thighs for his questing fingers. Feeling his growing desire pressed into the small of her back, she found his free hand and guided it back to her breast.

  “I thought you were asleep,” Hawk whispered, his breath warm against the tender skin of her back.

  “If this is a dream, please don’t wake me, yet,” she murmured.

  “It’s only the beginning, nee wah, but the water grows cool so we must move our play to someplace warmer.” Hawk stood and pulled her to her feet. Picking her up, he stepped from the tub and let her body slide down the length of his. Supporting most of her weight, he managed to dry her body and most of his own.

  Once more picking her up, Hawk carried her across the room to the massive bed. He carefully placed her in the center, following her down.

  “Open your eyes, Mary Helen,” he requested quietly.

  When she complied, Hawk carefully joined his heat to hers. His eyes burned with more than the passion that he carefully kept in control.

  “I love you, wife,” he whispered softly.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Molly woke to an empty bed and voices in the distance that she suspected were trying to be quiet. Feeling remarkably refreshed from her short nap, she listened to the voices, trying to identify Hawk’s.

  Her stomach growled noisily as she stretched beneath the warm quilt and she wondered if Linsey had delayed serving dinner while Molly was taking her nap.

  A muffled shout drifted through the closed window, followed by the giggle of a little girl. A warming fire burned merrily in the fireplace but suddenly Molly was lonely, wanting to be a part of the activity outside.

  She threw back the quilt and spied her bags sitting on a chair across the room. Digging through them, she pulled out a clean shirt and pants that smelled of the wood smoke that had helped dry them. Hoping Linsey would understand her lack of clothing, Molly searched for her shoes.

  Her stomach rumbled again and she gave up her search for the missing shoes. Surely if Linsey could overlook her unconventional mode of dress she could also overlook bare feet.

  She hurried from the room, hoping she could find the kitchen without much trouble. As she started carefully down the stairs, a voice from below startled her.

  “Let me help!” Mark stumbled in his haste to reach her and solicitously took her arm. “Can’t be too careful,” he muttered as he needlessly helped her down the steps.

  “Thank you.” Molly hid a grin of amusement at his attentive assistance.

  “You are most welcome,” he replied seriously when they reached the main floor.

  Molly could have sworn that he heaved a sigh of relief as he released her arm. She looked around the foyer, wondering which room hid her husband and which hid the kitchen.

  “Hawk’s outside, Ma went to check on a neighbor who’s been sick for several days and everyone else is somewhere. Now that you’re up, I can go too.”

  Molly frowned as it began to dawn on her that her nap had been considerably longer than she’d originally thought.

  “You didn’t have to wait for me to come down here if there was someplace else you wanted to be.”

  “It was my turn,” he explained with a casual shrug.

  “Your turn?”

  “Sure, Ma waited as long as she could but she finally left and Pa wanted to show Hawk some of the changes that have been made around here in the last couple of years. They took Dara with them because she couldn’t be quiet if you gagged her. So we took turns waiting for you. I was last ‘cause I’m the youngest. I was just wondering if I’d need to get Daniel for another turn when I heard your door open.”

  “I appreciate your concern for me, but it really wasn’t necessary.”

  “Sure it was.” He grinned when he heard her stomach growl. “Sounds like my new nephew is hungry.”

  Molly blushed and put a hand to her stomach. “I guess I missed dinner.”

  “And breakfast and lunch,” he confirmed with a nod. “Follow me, I know where Mom hides the good stuff. Guess she won’t mind if we invade her kitchen.”

  Appalled that she had slept so long, Molly followed her irrepressible brother-in-law. They walked through a formal receiving room that appeared to be seldom used, into a dining room that could comfortably seat thirty, and finally into the kitchen. It was huge, like most of the rooms she had seen.

  Unlike the kitchens in houses she was familiar with — where the kitchen was in a separate building — this kitchen was part of the house. She counted twelve chairs pushed up to the oak table, but several others stood around the room. Delicious mouth-watering aromas drifted from a pot bubbling gently over the fire, but Mark continued through the room to a door at the back.

  It opened up to reveal a fully stocked pantry and she watched as he grabbed things from the shelves. When his arms were loaded to his satisfaction he nodded toward the table.

  “Guess I’ll have a little bite to keep you company. No one wants to eat alone.”

  The impromptu meal was a delight, as Molly was kept entertained by her youngest brother-in-law. She stopped eating long before her plate was empty and she had difficulty convincing him that she was full. If she had eaten everything he placed before her she would probably have been unable to move.

  She was pleased to watch him clean up the table, returning things to the pantry and placing the dirty plates in the sink to be washed.

  “Well, what
do you want to do now?” he asked. “I appreciate your care,” she replied. “But I’ll just wait in the parlor for Hawk to return.”

  “Why do that? I’ll take you to him.”

  Molly held up her bare feet and wiggled her toes. “Couldn’t find my shoes,” she explained with a grin.

  “Don’t worry!” Before she could ask his intentions Mark ran from the room. He returned minutes later, her shoes in one hand and her coat in the other. “Under a chair,” he explained, handing them to her.

  Molly slid her feet into the shoes but knew from experience that lacing them was impossible with her belly in the way. Seeing her dilemma, Mark knelt at her feet and quickly laced them up. He helped her to stand, wrapped her coat around her and led her to the back door.

  Feeling slightly breathless, Molly had no choice but to follow him. She stepped out the door and was quickly surrounded by overly helpful males. Seeming to come out of nowhere, they all offered their services.

  Kaleb asked if she was warm enough and pulled her coat tightly around her neck before she could reply. Will offered to find a chair for her, while Jamie held out his arm for her. Mark hovered at her side, dogging each footstep.

  Perplexed and overwhelmed by their attention, Molly searched desperately for Hawk.

  “Back off before you smother her,” a booming voice demanded from behind her. “Her condition is delicate, not fatal — unless one of you steps on her. And I sure wouldn’t want to be the man that did that. What is left of you when Hawk’s finished skinning you alive will have to explain to Mother exactly what happened.”

  Molly turned and watched Daniel approach. His years of living with the Shawnee showed in quiet, graceful movements. He walked softly, his moccasined feet barely crinkling the dried grass beneath them.

  Knowing that Daniel was now in control, the others quickly departed for their own pursuits and Molly was left alone with the one brother-in-law that most intimidated her.

  “They meant well,” she stuttered. “They were just trying to be helpful.”