LeClerc 01 - Autumn Ecstasy (3 page)

A small pouch, containing his most prized carvings, was tied by a rope at his waist. When he wasn’t involved in making the creatures, Zeke would open it and spend hours happily talking to and playing with them.

Linsey had spent hours staring at the pouch, trying to decide from what it had been made. It had no seams; the draw string was woven through holes punched in the top. One day, in horrified revulsion, she watched as Zeke held it upside down and played with the tip on the bottom. That was the day she knew without a doubt that the pouch was a woman’s breast.

This morning Linsey’s terror of what the day would bring would not allow her to appreciate his artistry or the shadowed beauty of her surroundings. Even her usual disgust at the sight of the pouch was missing. Leaning her head against the rough wood of the boat, she closed her eyes. Nothing or no one would help her. Her life, her very existence, was in the hands of two worthless men: one with the wily cunning of a fox, one lacking the basic intelligence of most of God’s creatures.

She had even given up praying.

The lack of sleep the night before combined with the sun flickering through the trees and the quiet lapping of the water against the sides of the boat lulled her. When Jeb nudged her with his foot, she was startled to discover she had fallen asleep, hours had passed and they were entering the boundaries of a small settlement.

Two small log cabins sat to each side of a larger one. They were connected by a dogtrot and were surrounded by a log stockade whose massive gates stood open. The trees had been cleared away from the cabins, allowing the men inside an unimpeded view of anyone approaching by foot or water. Several longboats and canoes were pushed up on shore or tied to trees a short distance away.

“Looks like we’ns might have us a sale after all, girlie.” A pleased smirk rode his thin lips as Jeb picked up the long pole from the bottom of the boat and pushed toward the bank. “Yes siree, I’d say there’s a might good number of trappers a gettin’ ready for winter.” He turned from his study of the settlement to give her a malignant grin. “I’ma thinkin’ they’s gonna be plum tickled with my offeren.”

His chuckle grated down Linsey’s back, his words strengthening her ever present terror. Always having loved life and finding joy in her surroundings, she felt no guilt in now wishing for death.

Jeb jumped from the boat and tied it to the nearest tree. “Stay here till I get back, Zeke. I’m gonna make certain there’s ‘nough buyers for our goods.” He smiled evilly at Linsey before turning to walk away.

“But Jebby, I wants to go too!” Zeke called in a woebegone voice.

“Ya gots to guard her. They’ll be plentiful time for ya later.”

Linsey watched him walk out of sight. Zeke grumbled like a small child denied a special treat, pouting and giving her accusing looks. She scanned the trees in the distance and wondered if she could somehow escape, losing herself in their concealing cover.

If only her hands and feet weren’t tied. If only she could get a knife to release herself. Linsey leaned her head back, staring at the overhanging trees. If only she had never taken that ride with Elizabeth!

Might as well wish for the moon, she thought. With Zeke standing guard it would be as easy to grow wings and fly away as it would be to untie the ropes and run to the trees. Zeke might be “a little tetched” as Jeb called it, but even he would question her request for a knife!

Jeb returned quickly, a grin splitting his face from ear to ear. “Welp, girlie, looks like we’s gonna have a sale!”

He climbed back into the boat, untied her ankles but left the rope on her wrists and the gag in her mouth. With a yank he pulled her to her feet. “Won’t do no good to try and run. Ole Zeke here is a mighty good shot, and he’ll have his gun real handy like.” He watched as the last dwindling hope faded from her eyes. “‘Course he won’t kill ya. Ya wouldn’t bring us no money thata way. No siree, Zeke‘11 just aim for one of your legs to slow ya down a mite. Them trappers ain’t gonna care ‘bout your legs none, only what’s atween ‘em!”

He chuckled at his own crude wit as he pushed her from the boat. Keeping a firm hold on her arm, he led her toward the largest of the cabins.

Several men were sitting on the porch while others were milling around in front of it. Their conversations halted slowly as one by one they saw Linsey and Jeb approach. Zeke followed a few steps behind them, his rifle cradled in his arms.

Jeb pulled her to a tree stump the size of a table and lifted her onto it. Tinning, he bowed theatrically to his audience and pointed toward her.

“Welp, gents, din’t I promise ya a special treat?”

The dirt and grime of weeks of travel could not hide the natural beauty Linsey possessed. Accustomed to women aged beyond their years by the hardships of life on the frontier or the women of the various Indian tribes, few of the men had ever glimpsed such rare beauty. Speechless, they stared at her with longing.

Hunters by choice, each man would spend the long winter in his secluded cabin running traplines. In the spring they would bring the furs to the trading posts, selling them or trading them for supplies. Some of the men turned to farming during the summer to raise the food they needed.

A few had families waiting for their return, but most of the men were single, living for a short time in one place before moving on. It was a lonely life, sometimes isolated for months at a time. All of them, even the ones with wives waiting for their return, nurtured the thought of owning such a woman and spending the long, cold winter discovering her charms.

Linsey stood on the stump, the cape around her shoulders, her eyes focused on the thin stream of smoke coming from the chimney of the largest cabin. She followed its wispy trail as it merged with the gray sky, knowing it was impossible for her to follow it but wishing just the same.

“Ever seed anything this purty?” Jeb asked as he pulled the hood from her hair, causing fiery streams of red and gold to ruffle around her.

As a group, the men sighed, each wanting to run his fingers through the glorious mane’s promise of warmth and feel it tangled around his body.

Jeb’s movement startled Linsey, bringing her back from her futile thoughts of escape. Her green eyes wandered from one man to another, desperate to find in one the hope of rescue. Each of them looked identical to the others, different only in age. From one who could be no more than fourteen to one whose age could have been anywhere under one hundred, each was dressed in baggy buckskins, stiff with dirt, stained with the dried blood of their trade. Except for the very young trapper whose face was smooth, all wore beards of various lengths. In their eyes, Linsey saw only one thing — lust.

“Sure would cherish gettin’ me a handful a her,” the youngest trapper said loudly to the man standing next to him. He gestured obscenely with his hands, drawing a laugh from the crowd.

“Ya wouldn’t be a’knowin’ what to do with prime goods like her, boy,” another man called.

“Doin’ is learnm’,” he replied good-naturedly. “What I don’t know now I’d sure be a’knowin’ once winter was done.”

“She’d be better off with me,” one of the older trappers commented. “I’d break ‘er in real gentle-like.”

“Ya’d be daid come spring, Sam!”

Sam leaned against the rail of the porch, spit a stream of tobacco juice on the ground and rubbed his crotch. “Yep, mayhaps, but I’d be happy daid.”

The good-natured ribaldry continued for some time, and a fiery blush spread across Linsey’s face at the comments. The trappers boasted about what they would like to do to her, inciting each other on to even greater obscenities. Occasionally Jeb would throw in a word or two to spur them on.

Linsey watched as another trapper came out of the cabin, limped to the porch steps and leaned negligently against a post. His buckskins were as baggy and as dirty as any, and his gray beard hung down to his chest. When he removed his cap, she gasped at the still red, angry-looking scar that circled the top of his head where hair should have been. His face was a mass of unnatural wrinkles, as if the skin had lost its anchoring and had slipped downward. His brows hung so far over his eyes, she wondered if they hampered his vision … until she met the blazing clarity of his eyes.

He did not join in with the other trappers, and no smile crossed his face at the coarse comments falling around him. Watching closely, Linsey realized the other trappers were carefully ignoring him, sending quick leery glances in his direction that never invited his participation. His expression was not one of lust, as the others were, but rather another emotion, one she could only describe to herself as hatred. He had no reason to hate her, but his gaze never left hers. He didn’t appear to be interested in her the way the others were, and yet… . Linsey shivered at the thought of being owned by him.

When the old man’s bitter, burning gaze did not waver, Linsey lifted her chin in determination, her eyes never flinching from his. He nodded his head once as if he saw her show of spirit and approved.

“I’ll be a’sellin’ ‘er to the man what pays me the most,” Jeb called loudly, bringing Linsey’s attention back to the men surrounding her.

“Show us more,” the young trapper called. “Ain’t buying no pig in a poke. Might be she’s ugly from the neck down.”

When the others joined in agreement, Jeb tugged lightly on the cape, and it slithered from her shoulders to land in a mound at her feet. Untying Linsey’s wrists, he pulled them behind her back and tightly retied them. His eyes briefly met hers, and he read the intensity of her hatred flaring in them.

“Good thing for me ya ain’t got no knife,” he taunted. “I’d say right now ya’d gut me with no narya-mind.”

Giving his audience a big grin, Jeb jerked on the neckline of her dress, ripping it and her tattered chemise to her waist.

The vulgar comments escalated in their crudity as the trappers stared at the firmly up-thrust breasts bared to their view. Linsey tried to use her hair as a shield from their devouring gazes, but Jeb easily swept it back over her shoulders.

The trappers surged forward, each wanting to be the first to touch the creamy, tempting flesh. Linsey backed away from their reaching hands only to be stopped by Jeb, who was standing behind her.

“Now gents, no touchin’ the goods.” He smirked, stepping up beside her and running his hands down her body. He brutally squeezed a chill-puckered nipple, grinning at her moan of pain. “She feels mighty fine, but ya gotta pay for hit afore ya touch hit.”

“Is she virgin?” the trapper named Sam called. “Got me a mighty thirst for bustin’ ‘em open.”

“Wal now, cain’t be a’sayin’ for certain. Only knows me and my brother Zeke ain’t touched her.”

“Let’s find out!”

“Now ya know I cain’t be a’lettin’ ya do that. It’d be for certain she warn’t then.”

Mouths watering and eyes glistening with lust, the men began bidding. Jeb kept a wary eye on the old man on the porch. Most of the trappers were nameless drifters, but the old man was well known, as was his reputation. He was not a person to cross — if you wanted to live to see another day.

Jeb continued running his free hand over Linsey, squeezing viciously. The feel of her soft skin beneath his hand brought a burning need to his loins. He pulled her against him, rubbing his hardness against her bottom.

Through her skirt Linsey could feel the thrusting of a foreign rigidity. The humiliation of his abuse was worse than any nightmare. Never had she imagined being stripped and molested in front of a group of men while they bid on her. Jeb seemed to delight in causing her as much pain as possible as he repeatedly squeezed her breasts, laughing softly each time she moaned. Linsey closed her eyes; her determination faltered. She was too horrified to cry as utter hopelessness encased her in a delusion of safety and her mind slipped closer to the edge of insanity.

“Seems to me ya oughter sell ‘er to all of us,” suggested one of the trappers, realizing his wife would never allow him to buy Linsey and he’d never have a chance to touch that soft, creamy flesh.

Jeb stiffened. If he sold her to someone different each time, then he’d have plenty of opportunity to have her himself. After seeing her stripped to the waist and feeling her soft skin, he knew the whores of the nearest settlement would not satisfy the growing urge he felt. Someday she would no longer be beautiful. He’d use her until her looks were gone. There’d be time to sell her then. There was always a trapper willing to pay for a white woman, even if she was a little worse for wear.

“That there surely is a good idee,” he mumbled. “Make me all kinds of money if’n I sold ya for an hour or two to each of ‘em.”

Linsey snapped out of her protective trance as if she’d been slapped. Her eyes widened, and she began to shake her head. No! she screamed silently. He wouldn’t … couldn’t… . Even as she denied it, her frantic gaze met his, and she knew he would. The thought of existing as Jeb suggested was more than she could endure. Quietly Linsey promised herself that before the first man could touch her she would find a way to end her life.

“‘Course I’d have to keep ya away from Zeke. I guess if’n ya din’t behave yourself, I’d just let him have ya a time or two.”

Her decision gave Linsey the strength to ignore Jeb’s threats. She proudly raised her head, and just as a queen surveys her subjects, Linsey looked at the faces beneath her. She saw that they liked the idea almost as much as buying her solely for themselves. Buying her for an hour or so would not cost as much and would give each of them a chance with her that they otherwise would not have.