LeClerc 03 - Wild Savage Heart (9 page)

“I’ll have to take your word for that,” Molly mumbled as she tried to match Nora’s ability with the ax.

Nora cleaned three logs for Molly’s one while the older children pulled the branches away. Later the larger branches would be cut up for firewood and the smaller pieces neatly stacked for kindling. Even the leaves would be used as mulch for the tender plants in the garden.

Molly sighed with relief when Nora called a halt. They all walked back to the house where Nora soon began the preparations for supper.

“What do you think about me taking the older kids down to the creek and let them play in the water?” The afternoon had grown warm and Molly relished the thought of the cool breeze that would be found down at the stream.

“Sounds good. I’ll put the baby down for his nap and get supper cooking. You take your time and have some fun.” She admonished the children to behave and waved them off with her usual smile in place.

The water was still too cold for swimming but the children stripped down to their drawers and played noisily at the edge. Molly removed her shoes and stockings and raised her skirt enough so that it didn’t get wet as she waded. Her thoughts drifted to the plans she and Adam had made for their future home.

At the beginning it would be a one-room cabin but Adam would add rooms as their family grew. They’d have a big garden and Molly would put up the fruits and vegetables for winter. Someday they’d have a big home filled with lots of love. Her face warmed at the thought of the children her love for Adam would create.

“Molly?” a tiny voice interrupted her daydream.

“What, sweetheart?” Molly asked, looking at sixyear-old Wanda.

“There’s somethin’ behind you.”

Her heart pounding with fear, Molly turned slowly. Behind her and slightly uphill, a skunk and her kits were strolling down the trail Molly and the children had used to get to the river. The mother skunk was made nervous by her unaccustomed venture into daylight. The usually nocturnal animal raised her head and sniffed the air.

Molly smelled the distinctive odor that identified the creature, as its bushy black-and-white tail rose defensively. Moving slowly so that she wouldn’t alarm the creature, Molly backed into the river and gathered the children with her.

At its deepest point the water rose to Molly’s hips. Only Wanda was tall enough to stand on her own while Molly held three-year-old Timmy and fouryear-old Charles on her hips.

“It be a polecat,” Charles advised knowledgeably. “Pa says the only good polecat be a dead one.”

“I think it’s pretty,” Wanda said.

“You would, you’re a girl.” Charles replied with a smirk.

“Are you gonna kill it?” Timmy asked.

“What she gonna use, dummy?” Wanda demanded. “She ain’t got no gun.”

“Well, she could throw a rock, iffen she aimed real good.”

“Could not,” Timmy supplied. “She’s a girl and girls can’t throw no good at all.”

“Can too,” Wanda replied in defense of her sex.

“Can not!” the boys yelled back.

Molly watched as the skunk stiffened, its beady eyes turned in their direction.

“Children, please hush,” Molly whispered, her eyes glued to the animal that was the size of a cat.

“Tell him that you can too throw a rock better than he can!” Wanda demanded, her voice overly loud to Molly’s ears.

“If you three don’t stop arguing we’ll all get a lot of practice throwing. Your ma and pa will be throwing your food to you for a good long time if that skunk decides to spray us. No one will want to get any closer to you than absolutely necessary until the smell wears off.”

It seemed to Molly that she waited forever for the skunk to move. The water, cold from the spring runoff higher in the mountains, flowed around her legs and pulled at her skirt.

“I’m cold,” Wanda whined.

“Me, too,” Charles agreed.

“Me be freezin’! ” added Timmy, not wanting to be outdone by his older brother and sister.

“I know, children.” Molly looked at her charges and saw the shivers rippling through their tiny bodies. “Maybe she’ll leave in a minute and we can get out and go home for dry clothes.”

Timmy tried to wrap his legs higher around Molly’s body but found that his brother was impeding his progress. A fight began to brew as the two boys used their feet against each other, trying to dislodge the other one from Molly’s hold.

“Stop it!” Molly demanded as her grasp began to slip. Neither of the boys was large but her arms soon began to ache from holding them. The water swirled around her hijps and her feet started to grow numb. At her side, Wanda began to whimper. Finally it became evident to Molly that they would have to leave the cold water, skunk or no.

“Children, I want you to listen very carefully,” Molly said as she slowly moved toward the bank. “We’re going to try to sneak around the skunk. We won’t use the trail to get back home, we’ll make a new one.”

“Can’t,” Wanda said with a sniff.

“Why can’t we?” Molly again shifted the slipping boys and knew that once they were out of the river they would have to walk on their own. Her arms were too tired to struggle up the hill with them. “Pa says to stay on the trail.”

“I’m sure this time he’ll understand if we make our own trail.”

“Can’t,” Wanda again replied.

“Wanda,” Molly gritted out the child’s name through clenched teeth. “We will make our own trail.”

“Mistress Molly, Pa whips awfulsome hard,” Charles said quietly.

“Ya,” Timmy chimed in. “Awfulsome hard!”

” ‘Sides, there’s snakes and rats and poison ivy and snakes and … “

“I get your point, Wanda.“Now knee-deep in the cold water, Molly stared at the three children. She knew the only way she’d get them home was up the trail.

On the same trail, the skunk was on the alert, feet braced, back arched, tail raised threateningly.

Molly took the final few steps to reach dry land and slowly lowered the boys to the ground. All three children shivered uncontrollably and their blue lips covered chattering teeth. She knew she had to get them home so that they could get warm before they became ill.

Molly picked up several small stones and threw them in the direction of the skunk. Unfortunately, Charles had been correct in his assumption that she could not throw. The stones fell far short of the animal.

When the children saw Molly throw the stones they, too, picked some up and threw them at the skunk. Their aim was no better than hers; however, the skunk seemed to realize their intention and its posture became even more defensive.

“Damn!” Molly whispered in frustration.

“Damn!” Charles repeated with glee.

“I’m gonna tell Mama!” Wanda threatened. “You’re gonna eat soap!”

“I want Mama,”Timmy whimpered, his tiny body shaking uncontrollably.

“Me, too.”

“Me, too.”

Molly tried yelling at the skunk, waving a stick and even throwing more rocks. Nothing worked. For whatever reasons, the skunk was not going to abandon her place on the trail.

Timmy’s sudden sneeze forced Molly to make a decision. Instructing the children to stay together behind the feeble protection of her long skirt, they began the journey back up the hill. As they approached, the skunk moved backward and slightly to the side of the trail. It looked like she intended to let them pass.

Later, Molly couldn’t explain exactly what happened. Everything had been going so well!

They drew even with the animal, then slightly past it. Without warning, the children broke away from the protection of Molly’s skirt and climbed up the side of the hill with the agility of mountain goats.

The skunk took exception to their exuberance and protected her kits with the efficient weapon granted to her by nature. Molly choked and gagged at the overwhelming smell as the black-and-white creature scurried down the trail toward the river.

Molly’s arrival back at camp was announced long before she arrived. She was holding her hand over her nose and trying to breathe through her mouth, and her eyes watered so badly she could barely see to walk.

“God in heaven, I thought the children were teasing!” Nora exclaimed as Molly stumbled to a halt.

“I wish they were,” Molly lifted watery eyes to Nora. “Help?”

Nora nodded. “If we were home I’d wash you in tomato juice, but Molly, I just don’t know what to use here to cut that odor.”

“We’ve got to try.” Molly choked and began to unbutton her dress while Nora ushered the children into the tree with instructions to dry, dress and stay out of the way.

Using buckets of water that they had carried up earlier, Molly washed repeatedly with the harsh lye soap Nora provided. She gave up trying to protect her modesty when she realized her underclothes smelled as rank as her dress. Stripping down to bare skin, Molly handed the clothing to Nora.

“Should I try washing them?” Nora asked, holding the offending clothing away from her on the end of a stick.

“Burn them!” Molly muttered, buried head first in a bucket of water.

An hour and several scrubbings later, Molly’s skin burned and itched. Her dripping hair hung in snarls around her face as she sat on a stump with an old quilt wrapped around her.

“It’s somewhat better,” Nora said from the safety of several feet away.

“No it isn’t,” Molly moaned and pushed at her hair.

The sun had begun to lower in the sky and the cool evening breeze drifted over her abused flesh. The children begged repeatedly to be allowed to leave the tree and the baby began to whimper for his evening meal.

“What am I going to do?” Molly pleaded, knowing that Nora had no more answers.

As they stared at each other they heard the sound of hoofbeats approaching. Molly moaned and buried her head in the quilt. She couldn’t bear to see the looks on the faces of the men when they returned.

Hearing the sound of only one horse, Molly raised her head enough to peek out of the folds of the quilt. She stifled a groan when she spied Hawk.

Hawk spoke briefly to Nora before unsaddling his horse and leading it to the makeshift corral. He rubbed it down briefly before removing the bit and letting it run freely.

Still without acknowledging Molly, Hawk turned and walked into the woods. He returned several minutes later, his arms filled with a variety of weeds and roots. He dropped them on a cutting block and began chopping them into small pieces. Then he dumped the mess into a pot of boiling water. He again spoke to Nora before walking toward Molly.

“Suk ahk wah,
“he said with a shake of his head.

Though his face remained stern, Molly swore she could see a glint of humor dancing in his dark eyes. Her anger began to build at the thought of him laughing at her. The blanket slid away from her head as she raised her face to his.

“Don’t you dare laugh,” she warned.

“You are in no position to threaten,
suk ahk wah,”
he said, his dark eyes sparkling.

“What did you call me?”

“Suk ahk wah,
“Hawk replied this time letting the smile reach the rest of his face. “Polecat.”

Molly stood up, clutching the quilt tightly and walked toward him. He backed up with each step she took, stopping only when she did.

“Where is Adam?” she asked with a snarl.

“Your husband and Gary stopped to walk the land he purchased today,” Hawk supplied quietly. “If we go to work now we should be able to remove most of the smell before they return.”

Molly’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “How?”

Hawk nodded toward the pot of boiling gruel Nora stirred, her hand held over her nose. “The cure isn’t much better than the cause but it will wash off once it’s done the job.”

He picked up the pot and started walking toward the river. “Come on,
suk ahk wah,
let’s see if we can make you smell sweeter.”

“Don’t call me that!” Molly demanded as she reluctantly followed him.

Hawk set the pot into the water for it to cool somewhat before they used the mixture. He turned and saw Molly standing forlornly at the edge of the stream. As a tear slowly rolled down her cheek he noticed how unnaturally red her skin was.

“It smells as bad as the skunk,” she murmured, wrinkling her nose with distaste.

“Trust me, it won’t burn your skin as the lye soap did,” Hawk replied reassuringly, “and I promise the smell will disappear when you rinse it off.”

“Seems to me that I don’t have any other choice.”

“You can always wait for the skunk smell to disappear.” Hawk grinned at her burning look. “It shouldn’t last more than a month or so.”

Keeping the quilt wrapped firmly around her, Molly walked into the water. The afternoon sun had begun to disappear, taking with it the warmth it had offered earlier. She bit her lower lip to stifle a moan as the cold water played against her bare skin and tugged threateningly at the quilt.

“Tell me what to do,” she said trying unsuccessfully to hide a shiver.