LeClerc 01 - Autumn Ecstasy by Pamela K Forrest

broth still teased his tongue, reminding him how hard she had tried to do the things that were unfamiliar to her.
    She deserved some rest, he thought with a gentle smile, seriously doubting that he’d be able to wake her if he tried.
    Bear closed his eyes, weary again. He felt Linsey’s breath caressing the skin on his chest and found a contentment he had not known for years. And had only recently realized he had missed.
     
     
    Linsey woke abruptly, an intense heat burning into her cheek. With a start, she realized she had fallen asleep and that Bear was once more burning with fever. His disjointed mumbling confirmed that he was again delirious.
    She opened her eyes and found herself staring at a jaw, dark with several days’ growth of beard. Her nose twitched at the coolness of the surrounding air, and she tried to turn her head, knowing before she looked that the fire was dead.
    Finding it impossible to move her head without pulling her hair, Linsey reached up and encountered Bear’s fingers firmly tangled in the snarled locks. Long minutes passed as she tediously unwrapped her hair from his hand. When she was free, she slid from the bed, careful to keep him covered.
    Shivering, she forced her stiff legs to carry her across the frigid room. Cold ashes seemed to taunt her. At least this time she had a vague idea of how to start the fire, she thought dejectedly. After smoothing the ashes, she piled several pieces of kindling in the center and began striking flint against steel.
    Several times a weak spark started a tiny flame that was destined to die before it took firm hold. Linsey shivered, grateful for the warmth of the buckskin dress. She knew she should stop long enough to wrap a blanket around her, but with each spark, she was sure this would be the one that would become a roaring flame.
    Bear’s mumbling became louder until she could distinguish several words. She clenched her teeth together; there was no one else to light the fire. If she didn’t do it, they would freeze. Her stomach protested noisily, and she moaned at the thought of trying to cook again. She was so hungry — but not hungry enough to want to eat her own cooking!
    Her hands shook, and her knees resting on the hard dirt floor began to ache. Each spark promised warmth only to leave a sense of despair. A feeling of impending doom spread through her. She decided she was destined to die in this forbidding wilderness, either from starvation or from the cold. She wondered why she even bothered to try to delay the inevitable. Only the instinct for survival kept her trying repeatedly to start the lire when her teeth chattered, her hands shook uncontrollably and the knowledge of warmth, even if it was false warmth, beckoned from across the room.
    “Dear God,” she prayed softly, desperation ringing with each word, “help me to — “
    Without warning the door crashed open and slammed violently against the wall. The frozen leather hinges creaked protestingly, one tearing free to leave the door hanging crookedly.
    Linsey swung around to face the new threat, her long hair settling around her in a shimmering veil of red. Her morbid thoughts of death fled as she stared at reality.
    Framed in the sparkling daylight was the sinister jackal of her nightmares, in search of her soul, the final test of her diminished strength and failing courage.
    Her scream splintered the quiet, unheard by the one person who might have been able to save her.
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    “Nee lah nee kah ndh!”
    The Indian’s hand raised threateningly, and a feathered tomahawk sliced through the air in front of him, effectively silencing Linsey. Tightly clenched in his other hand was a wicked-looking knife, the blade shining razor sharp. He stood as if poised to spring into action, his piercing black eyes surveying the room, intently scrutinizing the shadowed interior. His wide, heavily muscled shoulders stiffened at the sound of a moan from the bed, and his alert gaze moved