Love's Pursuit Read Online Free PDF Page B

townspeople had resulted in bad judgment. I knew a sudden, desperate urgency to descend the ridge for the relative safety of the road below. Even spurious questions were preferable to being discovered defenseless in the hay lots by a savage. Especially when charged with the safety of the babe.
    I lowered my head to kiss the sweat-dampened curls at his neck beneath his cap, and he squealed in response and reached up with both hands to grab the rim of my hat.
    “Mary?” No need to alarm her; I simply wanted to be freed of the child to find the quickest route toward home.
    “Aye.” The sound of her voice came from behind me and to my left.
    I held out the child toward where I supposed my sister to be. “Could you take him?”
    When I felt her take him up, I worked at his tiny fingers to pry them from my hat. Cries of protest came as I was finally released.
    “Hush-a, hush-a.” Mary held the child out in front of her and pulled a gruesome face to make him laugh.
    I turned forward and began to walk at an angle that would intersect with the ridge, intent on finding a path down to the house. After several minutes, I realized that my unburdened strides had taken me far ahead of Mary’s encumbered ones. I paused for a moment on the ridge, looking down at the houses below, and then I pivoted, intending to rejoin my sister. Instead of striking earth when I set my foot down, I encountered a stone. With my balance thrown off, my weight fell onto my other foot, the one anchoring me to the incline. But it collapsed, causing a sudden burning pain, and pitched me down the slope.
    I landed hard on my shoulder. The suddenness of the fall cast my legs over my head, and I rolled several times before I came up against something hard and stopped.
    That something wobbled.
    Looking up, squinting against the brightness of the sun, I saw a form waver for an instant above me, and then it bellowed and threw up its arms.
    A savage!
    They had finally come.

6
    I TRIED TO SHOUT, to send up some warning, but my breath was expelled by the force of the savage as it pounced atop me.
    I squeezed my eyes shut. Waited for death.
    To my amazement, instead of words spoken in a heathen tongue, I heard laughter. “And here I was, waiting for savages!”
    I opened my eyes and found myself looking straight into the captain’s.
    “Are you all right?” he asked.
    I gasped for air, then finally succeeded in pushing the words from my throat. “I would be better if you would remove yourself from me.”
    “I am certain you probably would.” With amusement flashing in his eyes, he rocked forward, off my stomach. Then he dropped a knee to the ground and extended a hand to me.
    I ignored it and tried my best instead to sit. Successful, I took a careful deep breath. It caught. I coughed. Tried again. My chest trembled as it expanded.
    The captain leaned close and began to pluck grasses from my sleeves. “Did all savages look like you, I would quit my worries and welcome them here without another thought.”
    “You did not have to dive down upon me.”
    “Neither did you have to roll yourself into me. Although I must say, it was completely unexpected and therefore tactically sound. Perhaps I should have the men at watch post themselves right there,” he gestured toward the ridge, “in preparation for launching themselves in a roll at the enemy. ’Tis as good a strategy as I have ever devised.”
    I pushed his hand away from my sleeve.
    His gaze left my eyes and came to rest at some point beyond my shoulder. “Tsk.” He leaned closer.
    My breath caught once more.
    He reached out behind me but then almost immediately straightened, putting distance between us. “Such a bad end to such a dreadful hat.” He handed it to me.
    Streaks of dirt were smeared across the crown. The brim had been battered. “You do not like my hat?” Why did he not like it? It was just like everyone else’s.
    “I could never look without prejudice upon anything that would hide your