Linnett fought with every ounce of strength she had until a familiar voice cursed her and delivered a stinging slap to her bare rear end, whispering, “Niet lieveling!” into her ear. Not Bear Man, then, but Hans; Linnett went limp with relief. Hans carried her through the trees and handed her up to John, who was astride his own horse and holding onto the reins of Hans’s mount.
Linnett pressed her face into her husband’s neck and breathed in the familiar scent of him, her relief making her boneless and exhausted. She felt his kisses on her face and sighed. Safe. She was safe.
Sarah gently shook Linnett awake from a deep and healing sleep the morning after they had arrived back at the homestead. She sat down next to her on the bed and stroked the short hair away from Linnett’s face.
After they had arrived back at the Lammers house the night before, Linnett had explained in a shortened version what had occurred at the native village. After some warm milk, John had carried Linnett upstairs and gently tucked her into bed, whereupon she had fallen into a deep restorative sleep.
“I should stay in bed today if I were you, Linnett,” Sarah said, handing Linnett a cup of steaming coffee the following morning.
“Oh no, I want to get up and talk to John as soon as I can!” Linnett replied, looking expectantly at the door.
“I don’t think that would be a very wise idea today,” said Sarah firmly.
“Why ever not, Sarah? I feel just fine!” said Linnett.
“Believe me, Linnett, you won’t feel fine for very long. Now that you are safe and sound again, John is livid with you for riding off the way you did. I would stay here today and let him calm down a bit before you get up and about. It won’t save you from a whipping, but he might go easier on you once a day or so has passed!”
“Sarah!” Both women jumped and looked at the doorway where Hans now stood, looking thunderous. “I told you before not to interfere in their marriage! You will go now to our room and await me there.” Sarah gave Linnett an apologetic look, and flushing guiltily, she squeezed her heavily pregnant body past her furious husband. Sarah was as sure as she could be that Hans wouldn’t spank her in her present condition but his scolding would be verbally very upsetting, she was quite sure.
Hans looked severely at Linnett, “Get up and go and find your husband now! Or pack your bags and leave here. I have had enough of your selfish and childish behaviour. You put everyone around you in danger and all because you cannot learn to do as you are told!” Hans turned away banging the door shut behind him. Linnett felt so ashamed, dear Hans must hate her to speak to her like that.
Hastily Linnett donned her clothes and went out onto the landing. She could hear voices clearly from inside Hans and Sarah’s bedroom. Linnett paused to listen.
“...because you carry our child I will not risk spanking you as you deserve, Sarah, but I am making a note in the family bible of each time you need punishment so that when you are recovered from the birth, you will go across my knee for as many times as the tally. You will stay in our room and rest now until I tell you that you may join us downstairs.”
“Yes, Hans,” came the meek reply.
Relieved that Sarah was safe, at least for now, Linnett made her way down the stairs. John was sitting at the table cradling a cup of coffee in his hands. He gestured for Linnett to sit down at the table opposite him. His face looked grim, his eyes steely.
“Oh John, I.....” Linnett burst out, but her husband interrupted her, holding his hand up for silence.
“I don’t want to hear it, Linnett! I am going to punish you and then tomorrow we are leaving on horseback for Boston. I won’t put these wonderful people in any more danger because of you! We are leaving today and that is final.”
Linnett tried again, “No, you have to listen to me, you just don’t understand, John...I have learned my lesson...”
“I said ENOUGH and I mean ENOUGH! Now you will come with me!” John walked around the table and pulled Linnett roughly to her feet by her upper arm. He towed her towards the door. Linnett tried to drag her arm free and cried out at the top of her voice.
“Stop this, John, I am with child! I am carrying our child!”
John swiftly dropped her arm and stared at her incredulously. “What did you say?”
“I am going to have our baby, John,” Linnett said softly as she smiled at the bewildered expression on her husband’s face.
“Are you sure?” John asked, stunned.
“Well, as sure as I can be. All my courses have stopped.”
She waited for him to respond, but when he just stood there, Linnett went to him and leant against his solid form. She said quietly, “I realised while I was kidnapped that I had brought all this trouble on myself and I promised that if I ever got back to you safely, I would be a good and obedient wife and not rush off to do what I wanted, whenever I wanted. John, I have learnt the hard way that I have to listen to you. I have never been more terrified in my life than I was, stuck in that native camp!” Linnett shuddered, remembering Bear Man’s advances and the liberties he took with her body.
Linnett had already decided that she would never tell a soul what had happened between her and the huge native man. She would take that shameful knowledge to her grave.
John wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed her forehead. He tilted her head back and looked down into her swimming eyes. It took him a moment to get his emotions under control before finally saying gruffly, “Linnett if you ever do anything that endangers you in any way again....so help me.....I...I... promise I’ll switch you every day for the rest of your life!”
He then lowered his head and kissed her, all of his love and his pent up fears and frustrations for her were in that kiss. Linnett responded as though her very breath was being given through John and his beautiful, sensual mouth. Finally John broke away from her and he led Linnett to a chair. He sat and pulled her onto his lap, cradling her against his chest.
“I was beside myself when I arrived at the cabin and found it burnt to the ground and you were gone! Linnett, I thought that I had lost you forever and I might have done so too, if it hadn’t been for Hans and his tracking skills! I refuse to be put through that anguish again and I won’t let you put others in danger because you will not learn from your mistakes!”
“Oh, John, my darling, I truly thought at one point that I would never see you again! I swear to you that this fright has put paid to any rebellious behaviour on my part. I understood all the things you have tried to impress upon me since we were married and I realised all the wilfulness I possessed and acted upon, causing myself and everyone around me such trouble and worry! I intend to be the perfect biddable wife from this day forward and I do promise you that, John!”
Linnett burst into noisy tears and wept. John scooped her close to his chest, cradling her on his lap while she sobbed the shock from her system. He hushed her and rocked her kissing away her scalding tears.
“Linnett, tell me true, my love: did the natives harm you in any way?” he asked softly. “I know that you said you cut your hair as a gift to them, something I still don’t understand.... but did uh, any men put their hands on you?” John looked down intently into his wife’s face watching and trying to gauge any deceit on her part. His knuckles stood out white as he gripped his hands in fists awaiting her reply, he would kill any man who had laid hands upon his precious wife.
Linnett felt John’s tension and raised her eyes. Unblinking, she denied any misuse, only telling him that amazingly she had met Will the fur trapper. She explained that he was alive and well, living with a squaw who was expecting his first child and that he was happy living within the tribe. Linnett told John how Will had kept her safe from the fiercer members of the tribe. She knew John and she knew her husband would try to exact revenge if she told him the full story of her kidnap. She also knew that John wouldn’t live to see his unborn child grow if she allowed that to happen.
Reassured by his wife’s tale and guileless gaze, John tucked Linnett’s head under his chin and held her close. He stroked her soft, shorn head and prayed that her lovely hair would grow again soon.
Being rocked safe in her husband’s arms, Linnett knew she was home at last. Lavenstock Hall and England were the past. John and this amazing, wild and beautiful country were her future, her place always by his side. Together they would build a strong family, and John would guide their children and help them to flourish in the same way that he had helped her to become an adult at last.
Linnett had learned that actions have consequences, and she had finally learned to consider other people before she took action. But most of all, she had learned to love, and true love, she realized, knows no selfishness.