Dorothy Garlock - [Annie Lash 03] by Almost Eden Page A

wilderness.
    In this country Eli felt marvelously alive. He would never regret this journey no matter how it turned out. He fully intended to spend the rest of his life in this land beyond the great river.
    Flocks of disgruntled waterfowl squawked and rose as the flatboat approached each group feeding in the reeds along the bank. On a sandy bank a raccoon washed a squirming crayfish and did not observe the flatboat until the sudden smell of it startled him into releasing his grip on his meal. The crayfish scampered into the water; the raccoon scampered into the underbrush.
    While the two men poled in silence, the other scanned the riverbank. After they had bought the flatboat from him, Kruger had joined Paul and Eli in St. Louis. The German owed a sizeable gambling debt at the saloon and was being pressed for payment. With the money from Eli, he had paid up and proceeded to beat the saloon keeper senseless; then needing to leave town in a hurry, he had joined them on the trip up the Missouri to the homestead of Jefferson Merrick. Aware that the barkeeper and his cronies would be lying in wait for him back in St. Louis, Kruger had continued on with the pair up the Missouri.
    The morning quiet was abruptly broken by the screeching of a Delaware attack. Almost before the men on the boat could recover from the surprise, they heard the sound of a shot. Eli scanned the upper bank and saw nothing. He dropped the spyglass and swung the steering oar to head the craft to the sandbar.
    “Turn in! Turn in!”
    “
Verdammt!
” Kruger snarled.
    Paul cursed in French and pulled mightily on the pole to do as he was told.
    As soon as the flatboat touched the sandy bottom next to the sandbar, the three men grabbed rifles and crouched behind the shed. The flatboat floated gently among the reeds.
    “Mag . . . gie!” The shout echoed up and down the river. “Mag . . . gie!”
    “Maggie?” Paul said. “Maybe that’s his squaw, or his horse. Leastways it wasn’t him what was shot.” When Paul grinned at his friend his teeth gleamed white against his black beard. “You’d not be fit to live with,
mon ami,
to come all this way and find the bastard dead.”
    Eli didn’t reply. His eyes were fixed on the small ridge above the sandbar. The minutes ticked away. It suddenly occurred to him that if it was Lightbody up there, he might not have survived the attack or if he had, he might be injured. Eli stood and cupped his hands about his mouth and shouted.
    “Lightbody!” Again the shout echoed up and down the river. After a moment of strained silence, Eli yelled again. “Lightbody.”
    Paul, squatting on his heels, shook his head.
    “
Mon Dieu!
You damned Swede! Someday you’re going to get your foolish head shot off.”

CHAPTER FIVE

    Light peered through the bushes toward the river. He had watched the flatboat hit the sandbar and the men take shelter behind the shed. He couldn’t have been more surprised when the man stood and shouted his name.
    “He called yore name, Light. Do ya know him?”
    “I don’t think so.” He looked down at her. “Button your shirt up to your neck, pet. And stay close.”
    “Are they bad men?”
    “I don’t know. But we’ve got to risk it. It’s them or the Delaware.”
    Light stood so that he was in plain sight of the men on the boat and lifted his rifle over his head. Sun glinted on the hair of the tall man who waved back. Leaving their packs on the edge of the ridge, Light and Maggie walked hand in hand down to the sandy beach.
    The men jumped off the boat and one of them secured it to a stunted tree that grew along the river’s edge. They stood waiting, rifles in hand, and watched the pair approach. Light had his long gun ready. Maggie’s whip was coiled and looped over her shoulder.
    A sudden hotness crawled over Light’s skin. These men, he was sure, had not seen a woman like Maggie, ever in all their lives. Were they honorable men like his two friends back in St. Charles, or the other