by Shirl Henke
Frantically she waited for an opening, some secure way to plunge the dagger into Wescott without risking injury to Samuel. She was down on her hands and knees now, unable to stand as the quake intensified. The river was a loud hissing inferno in the distance. The sharp reports of more trees snapping filled the sulfurous air.
Severed at the base by the force of the vibrations, one big oak less than fifty feet away fell with a deafening crash toward Olivia and the men. With a scream she jumped out of the way, terrified that Samuel had been injured. She climbed over the broken limbs with her heart pounding. The heavy trunk had narrowly missed the combatants.
The sudden explosion of flying twigs, bark and dry winter leaves momentarily blinded Samuel. He blinked furiously trying to clear his tearing eyes as Wescott slipped out of his reach. Then he heard Olivia’s scream.
“Samuel, he’s going to shoot!” She had no clear way to throw her knife in the tangle of tree limbs she was scrambling through. The scene was horrifying, almost frozen in time—Samuel shaking his head and squeezing his eyes as the tears gushed, Wescott malevolently grinning as he stood on the undulating earth, trying to steady himself for a shot.
Olivia fought her way through the last imprisoning branches, knife raised ready to throw. Then the ground opened up like a gaping maw directly in front of Wescott, separating him from Shelby, whose vision was finally restored. Samuel jumped back as the crevice widened, yelling for Olivia. She clawed her way free of the tree as he seized her wrist, pulling her with him. They began to run around the fallen tree, trying to escape the ever widening fissure which was belching noisome vapors in thick gray clouds.
Wescott bellowed his rage as they escaped to the other side of the tree. His pistol was ineffectual as he fought to stand upright on the careening earth. In spite of it, he raised the cocked weapon again and took aim at Shelby’s broad back but the bucking ground suddenly dislodged the tree that began rolling toward the fissure.
Samuel saw the tree start to move at the same time he lost his footing on the wildly shaking ground. Just as he and Olivia went down they heard the report of Wescott’ s pistol. The shot flew harmlessly over their heads, a puny sound indeed amid the roaring of unleashed natural fury. Wescott stood at the edge of the abyss now, oblivious of his precarious position as he raved at his nemesis and his prize. Without Olivia, he was destitute, bankrupt. Everything he had worked and schemed for all these years would come to an ignominious end in a jail cell if he could not kill Shelby and reclaim the girl.
Samuel and Olivia watched in amazed horror when the mighty oak tumbled into the giant rent in the earth. One of its long outstretched limbs plucked Emory Wescott from his position on the opposite edge, dragging him into the steamy bowels of hell. His screams wailed thinly over the tumult all around them.
Struggling to his feet, Samuel approached the edge with Olivia trailing him closely. Wescott clung to one sturdy branch like a demented leech, shrieking curses through the sulfurous clouds, clawing his way upward on the limb. It was too thin at its outer extremity to bear his considerable weight and began to give way just as the earth inexorably closed, crushing the giant oak branches as if they were mere twigs. Before Olivia and Samuel’s eyes, the crevice fused shut, burying Emory Wescott for all eternity.
The stink of sulfur assailed their nostrils as they watched the door to hell close. “I expect he’s arrived now where he was always destined to be,” she said with a shiver.
“Just in case that fault reopens, let’s get the hell away from here,” Samuel said to her.
“By all means! I wouldn’t want to join him,” she replied, still shuddering as they struggled to walk on the careening earth.
By that afternoon the quakes had subsided and the river reversed its course to flow once more naturally toward the Gulf to the south. Everywhere around them signs of nature’s rampage had left their mark, but nowhere more visibly than on the great river itself. Not only was the channel radically altered, but whole series of large islands had been utterly destroyed, including several pirate’s nests inhabited by cutthroats who would nevermore terrorize hapless travelers. In place of the vanished islands, new ones had been thrust up, muddy and gray with the sediment of eons once more exposed to daylight.
The river flowed turbulently, the channel clogged with dense debris—whole forests of uprooted trees and bushes, the remnants of smashed keelboats and flatboats, even parts of settlers’ cabins, which had been swept from the shore or sunken down when vast tracts of land were sucked below water level.
The sky remained darkly overcast and a chill wind gave some relief from the poisonous fumes from beneath the earth. Olivia foraged through the damaged supplies in the cabin box while Samuel went in search of Billy Weeks, the riverman he had hired to pursue Wescott’s boat. By the time he returned to report that Weeks, too, was dead, she had a small campfire burning and was stirring a skillet of beans as coffee simmered fragrantly in the coals.
It isn’t much, but at least we won’t starve. I found a few dry blankets, too. We’re miles from the nearest settlement. What do you think we should do?” she asked, handing him a steaming plate of beans.
New Madrid would be a day’s journey north by boat, but judging from the wreckage we’ve seen floating downriver, I fear there’ll be no help there—if anyone is even left alive,” he added grimly.
“I don’t want to chance it, Samuel. We might find less damage downriver—if it’s safe to travel on the river again. What do you think?”
“We can stay here until we’re sure the shakes are passed. The cabin box is intact enough to provide us shelter and we have Wescott’s supplies. Meanwhile I can start gathering lumber to lash together a small raft. If the river calms, we can try it. Otherwise, we’ll have to walk all the way down to Natchez—not exactly a prospect to relish.”
“Aren’t there any small settlements downriver?” she asked, searching her memory from the infrequent trips she had made as a pampered passenger who paid scant attention to the wilderness being traversed. Mostly, she remembered it as flat monotonous swamps and woodland with little signs of human habitation.
Samuel shook his head. “As nearly as I can recall, the closest one is almost seventy-five miles south and it’s on the eastern shore.”
“We’ll have to get back on the river then.” Her tone of voice indicated how much the idea appealed. They ate in silence for several moments, both deep in thought. Finally she worked up her courage to ask, “What will happen when we reach New Orleans...assuming we can reach there alive?”
He set his plate aside, all appetite fled as he recalled the last vitriolic scene with Tish. “This rich uncle of yours, Wescott seemed certain he would take you in. It might be better than returning to St. Louis. When I came after you, Tish wasn’t exactly pleased. I’m afraid of what she might do if I take you back there, especially now that Wescott’s dead.”
“Then you think I should live with Uncle Charles?” she asked, trying to hide her disappointment.
He studied her as she fidgeted with a half-empty mug of coffee. “You’ll be a wealthy heiress.”
“I don’t care about the money. I don’t even care about Uncle Charles. He turned away his own sister with her husband and child. Now I’m to be his heir by default because his own sons died in a yellow fever epidemic and he has no one else. I don’t think I should like him much.”
“He might not be alive. Yesterday, when I was following your keelboat, the thought occurred to me that there is every possibility he named you his heir and is already dead. That would better explain Wescott’s attempts to drag you to New Orleans. I don’t think he would have taken the risk of kidnapping you unless your inheritance was already a sure thing.”
“I don’t want the money.” I want only you, Samuel. She waited, struggling for the patience Micajah had taught her. Somehow it had been easier when Samuel Shelby was not around.
He looked at her stubborn chin and felt his heart break. “But you need protection, Livy, a pla
ce to stay while I take Tish back to Washington and begin the divorce proceedings again.”
“I could go back to Micajah. To hell with the gossiping old biddies in St. Louis.”
He smiled sadly. “We couldn’t live isolated in the wilderness for the rest of our lives, Livy. I’m still in the army, at least until the war is over. Then my interests in Santiago’s business would dictate that we live in St. Louis. We could move to Spanish territory, settle in Santa Fe as my sister has done, but that still wouldn’t rid me of Tish. We can’t marry until I secure the divorce.”
“I’d rather have you than a wedding ring.” Tears choked her voice as she realized his duty and his sense of honor would both conspire to keep them apart for a long, long while.
He reached over and caressed her cheek softly. “I don’t want you to live that way. You deserve better.”
“At least we have this time before the war takes you away from me. Let’s use every precious minute of it, Samuel,” she whispered, pressing his palm against her lips.
“Come here,” he commanded, pulling her into his embrace. Kneeling beside the crackling campfire, he framed her face with his hands and lowered his mouth to hers slowly, reverently.
She tilted her head back, opening her lips, tasting him as his tongue teased hers. In spite of the chill evening air she was on fire. His body seemed to give off heat as volcanic as that which had burst from the earth. She pressed her breasts to his chest, feeling the steady, accelerating thrum of his heartbeat. “I’ve made us a bed inside the cabin box. I even salvaged a lantern,” she said shyly, eager to see the sleek symmetry of his harsh masculine beauty, to touch his hard muscles without the encumbrance of clothing between them.
Samuel stood and swept her into his arms as if she weighed no more than thistledown. He carried her to the cabin box, stooping to enter the narrow little door. Inside the broken log frame, she had cleared the smashed and damaged cargo and supplies, leaving room for a wide soft pallet in the middle of the space. The flickering light from the lantern cast a soft glow over the makeshift bed.
“You were busy while I was gone,” he murmured, placing her on the pallet.
“See what an excellent little housewife I’ll make for you.” She pulled him down beside her and began to unfasten the buckskin lacings on the front of his shirt, revealing the crisp black hair beneath. Running her fingers through it, she pressed kisses near his heart and nuzzled him, breathing in the scent which belonged to Samuel alone.
He yanked the shirt up and over his head, tossing it away without a thought, murmuring her name with a groan as his hands glided over her curves, reaching inside her jacket to tease the sharp points of her nipples with his thumbs. Then he pulled open the blouse and delved inside, loving her sharp intake of breath as he found her aching for his caress.
Slowly in the flickering light they undressed each other, taking deliberate time, kissing and exploring, affirming love and life in the wake of so much destruction and death.
Her hand feathered down from the waistband of his tight buckskins, which she had just unbuttoned. Reaching inside, she cupped him with eager inquisitive little fingers, taking delight in his acute gasp of pleasure—or was it pleasure? She was still quite new at this and her own boldness shocked her. Her hand stilled and she raised her head to look at his face, which was contorted in the shadows.
“Did—did I hurt you?”
He reached down, pressing her hand back where it had been, urging her on. “No! God, no!”
His hoarse breathless voice further emboldened her. She began to pull his trousers down over his narrow hips and long legs. He stopped her midway, saying, “The boots first, Livy,” and sat up, quickly dispensing with his footgear and kicking away the tangled leather britches.
When he stretched out again, he lay before her completely naked, studying her with hooded eyes, waiting to see what she would do. She blushed beneath that heated gaze but could not keep her eyes from devouring his magnificent body, so long and lean and powerful. Her fingertips traced the subtle patterns in black body hair, the silky softness on his forearms, the more abrasive growth on his legs, then moved up to the heavy mat on his chest that narrowed to a slender vee, pointing like an arrow to his groin. Standing proudly in the thick black bush, his erection enticed her, twitching and straining, beckoning her to touch it.
Samuel watched her nervously rim her lips with the tip of her tongue as she stared down at him in a passion glazed trance. He willed himself to remain immobile, waiting to see what she would do, his beautiful Livy with her fiery hair trailing across her bare breasts in long soft tendrils, her green eyes glowing. When she hesitated for a moment, he said, “Take off the rest of your clothes for me. I want to see all of you—it’s only fair.”
She obeyed, peeling off the open blouse, then standing up to free her heavy skirt and undergarments. He reclined on his elbows, watching the revelation of sweet soft curves, so smooth and feminine, yet at the same time so strong and resilient. When she started to bend over to remove her shoes, he said, “Allow me,” reaching out to take one firm calf and tiny ankle in his hands, lifting it so he could work the buttons of her shoe free. He braced it against the flat washboard of his belly, then set to work, all the while looking up at her standing above in glorious nudity.
“The sun has turned your skin to gold,” he said, as his eyes traveled across her arms and over her collarbone where the tan lines from her summer outdoors left a sudden demarcation between delicate warm tan and light creamy ivory. The pale skin of her breasts and belly betrayed the rosy heat of her blush as he removed the second shoe.
Olivia could feel the heat as she knelt in front of him, but she kept to her resolve, pressing her palms against his chest until he lay back down. When he reached up to splay his hand against her hipbone and glide around the curve of her buttock, she bit her lip, then whispered, “Lie back, my love, I want to do something.”
He obliged. Once again she resumed her exploration of his body, this time using her mouth the way she had her hands, nuzzling and kissing, following the patterns of his body hair until she reached the inevitable apex at the center of his body. He could feel her hands grasp him and then her hair brushed between his legs as she knelt over him. He nearly exploded at that instant.
Olivia watched as sweat beaded his brow and his jaw clenched, making the tendons in his neck stand out. Beneath her hand his staff, already hard and distended, grew even larger, throbbing and straining for more of her touch. Deep within the core of her, an answering ache built up deliriously, but she ignored it, turning her attention to the dark ruby tip of his sex where one small pearlescent drop of semen glistened. Her tongue snaked out and swiped at it, tasting of him as he had of her that night in the beaver lodge.
One tiny flick and he was nearly undone! His body arched up off the blankets as he gasped at the raw ecstasy of the sensation. Control. He must exert control or else he would spill himself like a green boy. But never before with any woman had this felt so wonderful. Never before had it been done by a woman he loved, an innocent whose very hesitance and uncertainty made it all the sweeter. He reined in his rampant desire and concentrated on breathing deeply, letting her do as she would with his all too willing flesh.
Easier said than done! The breathtaking heat of her lips scorched him, then her mouth slowly enveloped him. He moaned her name softly, balling his hands into fists to resist tangling them in her hair. Instead he let her proceed at her own delicate and agonizingly slow pace, learning the taste and texture of him as he had of her, instructing her when she hesitated or retreated, urging her on with love words and helpless curses that were also endearments.
Olivia knew it must be good for him as she felt him bow up tautly, offering himself to her like some splendid pagan god. With growing confidence she increased the pressure of her lips, moving along the hard velvety length of his shaft, following his lead as he pleaded for her to do as she was doing. This was a remarkable new way to make love, one that put him
utterly in her power. Her lean, muscular lover, always so in command, was now completely at her mercy.
As she marveled at the heady control she was exerting, he was losing his, step by glorious step. Her maddening caresses continued until he could hold off no longer. “Livy…I’m going to...if you don’t want...”
She knew what he was trying to tell her, but she did not want to stop, not until it was complete, and then she felt it, that final intense pulsing swell that signaled his release. His ragged cry of ecstasy filled her with joy as she drank him down. When she raised her head to look at him, he was panting and felt as if he had run a long hard race.
“You look as if you’ve just outrun those Osage renegades again,” she whispered impishly.
“This...I can assure you...” he gasped out, “was infinitely more strenuous...and obviously more pleasurable.”
“Then you didn’t mind my...inexperience.” It was not quite a question, but she could not help wanting his further assurance, even his praise.
He reached up and twined a long lock of her hair about his wrist and pulled her down into his arms. “The greatest pleasure of all was that you gifted me with that inexperience, Livy,” he replied simply, stroking her back as he rained soft, tender kisses across her face.
Shyly she burrowed her head against his chest and murmured, “I wanted to taste of you as you had of me.”
He smiled wickedly. “So, you enjoyed my lovemaking in the lodge.” It was not quite a question either, but he loved her humm of assent. Brushing the tips of her breasts with his hands, he sat up beside her, letting his mouth trail hot wet licks and bites down to her aching sensitive nipples, suckling them tenderly until she arched up, her fingers kneading his shoulders frantically as her whole body writhed with wanting.