Dawn on a Distant Shore Read Online Free PDF Page B

business
to keep it safe for them, and it's your business, too. If you're one of
us."
    The boy flushed, color
moving up his throat. He stared at Nathaniel, and then at the silver.
    "I'm one of
you," he said hoarsely.
    "Then let's get
to work," Nathaniel said, handing him a pack. "It's too damn cold to
talk."
     
    Not quite sunrise, and
Elizabeth was wide awake. The babies had nursed just an hour earlier and were
resting easily, but she lay unwilling to sleep. She had lit a candle, willfully
putting away the small voice that chided her for this extravagance, and she lay
on her side watching the first colors of the dawn through the ice-crusted panes
of the single small window. The window was another luxury, and at the moment it
was one she regretted. Soon the sun would come over the crest and Nathaniel
would wake, and then he would get up and be gone.
    She had encouraged him
to go; she had insisted on it. And still the idea of his going was suddenly overwhelming.
Elizabeth was filled with dread, with vague worries about Montréal and the
troubles there, with more detailed imaginings of the things that might come to
pass--that often came to pass--in the endless forests, and with irritation at
herself. She would not make this leave-taking harder on him.
    But she must study his
face now. This face she knew so well. He would be thirty-six years old in the
spring and already there was a single strand of white at his hairline. Straight
brows, a scar beneath his left eye. The strong lines of nose and jaw. His
mouth, the curve of it. The groove in his chin where the shadow of his beard
was darkest.
    The sun had not yet
risen, but she sensed a change in the rhythm of his breathing. There was a small
tremor in the muscle of his cheek. She held her breath, hoping that he would
settle again, hoping he would sleep until noon if it would keep him here one
more day.
    His arm came up and
around her, and pulled her down to him.
    "You're so edgy,
Boots," he said softly. "Come, rest with me."
    Elizabeth put her face
against his neck and said what she had been determined not to say. "I wish
you did not need to go."
    His arm tightened
around her shoulders.
    They were quiet
together for a moment like that, the only movement between them his fingers on
her temple, gently stroking. Under her hands his chest was as hard as oak. She
drew in his smells and felt her pores opening, her nerves waking.
    "I wish--"
she said finally. And stopped. She felt him waiting. When she turned up her
face to his, Elizabeth found his eyes open and calm with knowing. He knew, he
always knew. Nathaniel kissed her, and then she did cry. Just a little, enough
to flavor the kiss with salt and regret and longing. He made a comforting sound
against her mouth, his hands cradling her face.
    She held him to her,
and kissed him back. It was all they could have now, in this little bit of time
left, and with her body still so raw. But it was good to hold him, to feel that
he wanted her, and to know that she could still want him back. In spite of the astonishing
range of aches her body presented to her, still Nathaniel's kiss made her
breasts pulse and tingle, and in the pit of her belly there was the blossoming
of nerves she had discovered on that winter morning when she had first learned
the feel of him.
    There was a tightening
and then a trickle of milk. She broke away with a sob of surprise.
    "Shhh." He
caught her up again, pulled her back to him. "Never mind, never mind. That
happens. Never mind." With one hand he raised her chin. He was smiling, a
small smile. "I'm just sorry I can't take you up on the offer."
    She pushed against his
shoulder with the palm of her hand, but he wouldn't let go. With his mouth
against her temple, he whispered to her.
    "I'll come back
to you, Boots, and you'll be healed and we'll be together. It'll be warm enough
then in the cave. We'll get to know each other again where we started, you and
me. How does that sound?"
    Elizabeth brushed the
hair away