A Season Beyond a Kiss (33 page)

There was only one conciliation Raelynn could find in her present predicament. Now she had all the water she could drink. She just hoped she wouldn’t drown in it.

She peered around for the closest haven and tried to guide the mare toward a closely growing stand of trees, but Ariadne was anxious to escape the deluge and surged forward, only to become mired in soft, boggy peat. Though the mare struggled, she couldn’t pull herself free.

Unable to believe that she could be so ill-favored by circumstances, Raelynn fought an urge to weep, but the impulse to relent to harsh, anguishing sobs was promptly forgotten as a blinding flash of lightning ripped through the forest, hitting a large cypress a short distance away, the precise area upon which Raelynn had just recently set her sights. The fiery bolt snapped the trunk in half as easily as a dried twig, sending a dazzling spray of sparks flying helter-skelter. Shaken to the core of her being, Raelynn threw up her arms to shield herself from the blinding flares and, in tremulous trepidation, peered over her forearm as the top of the tree plummeted to the ground with a crashing roar, in its rapid descent stripping off many of its own branches and those of nearby trees. Before it reached the ground, a deafening crack of thunder seemed to shake the very ground around them. Ariadne shivered in terror and tried to heave upward out of the bog, but to no avail.

“Easy, girl,” Raelynn murmured through fear-stiffened lips, astounded by how closely she had come to being permanently singed black by the lightning. If not for Ariadne becoming entrapped, they would have both been killed. “It’s all right, Ariadne. Steady now. We’re alive . . . at least for the moment.”

The mare calmed a trifle, but stood shivering in the muddy vise. Raelynn hurriedly slid from Ariadne’s back, fully intending to help, but immediately gasped in alarm when her own feet began to sink. Frantically she stretched out an arm, barely managing to grasp hold of a low-hanging branch, and scrambled to more solid footing. It proved tenuous at best.

Gingerly testing the footing upon which she stood, Raelynn turned on trembling limbs, but her throat constricted with sudden dread when she saw that the mare had been caught in a marshy hollow that had been softened by the rainstorm. It looked as dangerous as quicksand. The more Ariadne struggled to free herself, the deeper she sank.

Terror swept through Raelynn, as much for herself as for Ariadne. She seriously doubted that she could make it through the thick morass without the mare, and now with the volume of rain coming down, small rivulets were opening up everywhere. Soon they would become life-threatening. Yet, if she sought to help Ariadne, Raelynn knew she could be sucked down into the slough right along with the mare.

In growing panic, Raelynn glanced about, hoping to espy some way of escape for both of them. She certainly couldn’t hope to pull the horse free, for she had neither the strength nor the wherewithal to bring about such a rescue. She was virtually helpless.

Suddenly Raelynn recalled the thick vines she had battled. Quite possibly some were sturdy enough to be used to draw the mare out of the bog. Stumbling over the sodden hem of her gown, she searched through the pelting rain for a suitably stout vine and finally stumbled upon a grapevine twining up a nearby tree. She struggled to yank it free, but it was a feat that required every measure of strength she possessed. It didn’t help that she was weak from her lengthy fast and being bombarded by rain. Indeed, by the time she tore the climber loose from the branches, she was nearly spent and, in utter exhaustion, collapsed to her knees in the tiny rivulets forming over the ground.

Regaining her resolve, if not a full measure of her strength, she rose to her feet beneath the pelting rain and considered how best to go about harnessing the mare to the vine. The roots were still firmly attached to the ground, serving as an anchor, but she needed some further leverage against the weight of the steed. In that quest she wound her makeshift cord around a pair of young, sturdy trees and kept the vine taut to aid her progress as she approached Ariadne, carefully avoiding the ever-softening sump of bottomless mire as she did so. The horse’s fatigue was becoming increasingly evident as her attempts to thrust herself free from the mud declined. Though the realization congealed into a hard lump of fear in her throat, Raelynn had to face the truth of it. If Ariadne’s rescue wasn’t accomplished within the next half hour, the animal would lose both strength and heart. If she gave up, it wouldn’t take long before she would be sucked down into a soggy grave.

Blinking through the sodden tendrils that streamed down her face, Raelynn looped the grapevine around Ariadne’s neck and tied it securely in place with strips of cloth torn from her own skirt. Returning to the pair of trees, she hauled on the vine with all of her strength as she coaxed the mare toward her. Obediently Ariadne heaved upward, allowing Raelynn to wrench her makeshift cord a few degrees tighter about the trees, but the headstrong horse shook her head violently, trying to dislodge the now snug lasso. In the process she nearly shredded Raelynn’s palms as the rough growth was ripped from her grasp. Tenaciously Raelynn grabbed hold of it again and, with sharp tugs, pleadingly beseeched the mare to cooperate. Again Ariadne lunged ahead in an attempt to dislodge herself from the mud, enabling Raelynn to jerk the vine taut once more. In spite of the continuous bombardment of rain, they made progress, enough to hearten Raelynn when she realized the mare was almost out of the miry pit.

“You’re doing it, Ariadne,” she cried jubilantly. In the pelting downpour, she couldn’t even speak without spitting out rain. “Come on now, girl. Just a few more tugs, and you’ll be free.”

As if understanding this logic, the mare surged forward again, allowing the grapevine to be wrenched tighter around the trunks, but Raelynn had precious little time to revel in the headway they were making, for, in the next instant, the cord broke against the strain of the horse’s weight, sending Raelynn sprawling backward into a puddle and Ariadne sliding back into her muddy prison. Raelynn scrambled to her feet and, with a cry of defeat, clasped clenched fists to her temples in horror as she watched the mare struggling valiantly to lift herself from the ooze into which she was being rapidly sucked. Ariadne shrieked, sensing her impending doom, and thrashed about, but alas, to no good purpose.

  
  M
AJESTIC’S EARS PRICKED AS HE CAME TO A SUDDEN
halt. Jeff shifted the dripping brim of his hat further away from his brow, fully alert to the fact that the steed had heard, sensed, or seen something. Jeff peered through the cascading sheets of rain, scanning the area beyond the trees, but it was heavily shaded by the rainstorm and the dreary grayness of late afternoon. He twisted in the saddle and glanced in every direction, but he saw nothing of any import. Reaching down, he stroked the sodden neck of the stallion. “What’s out there, boy? What spooked you?”

Majestic nickered and stared unrelentingly toward the tangled growth far beyond the place where they had stopped. Jeff canted his head, listening intently. He could hear little above the heavy deluge. Most of what he heard, he recognized, the gurgling of streams that had sprung to temporary life, the pelting rain, and the slight shifting of his mount accompanied by almost indecipherable creaks of the leather tack, but there was another sound so far in the distance that he was unable to make it out clearly. Was it a horse’s shriek of panic?

Jeff touched his heels to the stallion’s flanks, sending him forward in what he sincerely hoped was toward the area from whence the distant, miniscule sounds were emanating. As he drew ever closer, the more certain Jeff became that what he was hearing were the shrill screams of a horse. If that were indeed true, then possibly he would discover the whereabouts of Ariadne, but he could only guess from the indistinct, but hair-raising noises that the mare or some other horse was in grave peril.

Following the anguished shrieks, Jeff reined Majestic through the trees, carefully avoiding the more treacherous open areas of the marsh. When he broke through a tangle of brush into a small clearing from whence the piercing whinnies were coming, he espied the mare immediately, belly-deep in muck. At the moment she was struggling frantically, trying to lunge upward at the end of a makeshift tether. His gaze followed the length of vine stretched taut between the steed and a tree, and his breath left him in a rush as he saw the one responsible for this valiant, if futile, attempt at rescue. His wife was beside the tree, soaked to the very depth of her clothes, straining desperately in the pouring rain to pull the cord tighter around its trunk.

“Raelynn!”

Though the name seemed no more than a whisper in the pelting torrent, Raelynn’s head snapped around. Now fully alert to her husband’s presence, she lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the downpour. Even so, the moisture dribbling down from her sodden hair forced her repeatedly to blink in an effort to clear her vision. A strange blend of fear, shame, and relief swept her at the sight of Jeff. He sat like some dreadful, darkly armored warrior on the back of the tall steed. She opened her mouth to speak, but words failed her. She had left Oakley, fearing he was a murderer. If true, then he could easily do away with her here in the swamp and no one would ever be the wiser.

Shifting his hat forward over his brow again, Jeff pulled the collar of his slicker up close around his neck and swung down to the ground. Wasting no time on stern rebukes, he worked quickly to free the rope from his saddle and then tied a running noose at one end. This he tossed over the mare’s head and dragged it snug before flinging another larger loop around behind her rump. Forming a makeshift harness, he drew the loose end through the front noose and wrapped it about his saddle horn. Remounting, he reined Majestic over solid ground.

Once the stallion felt the tug of the rope, he moved forward with powerful strides, digging his hooves into the sodden turf. Ariadne struggled in protest as the rope tightened around her rump, and for a moment, it seemed as if their efforts would be of no benefit. Then, almost imperceptibly, the mare began to emerge from the quagmire. The instant her front hooves struck firm land, she whinnied in triumph and flagged her heavily muddied tail. Another strong tug from Majestic, and she was completely free.

“Oh, thank heavens!” Raelynn exclaimed in overwhelming relief, erupting in hoarse sobs as she crumpled to her knees upon the sodden ground. Tears spilled forth freely, and she buried her face in her hands as she wept harshly, weeping as much for herself as the mare. As desperate as she had become, she’d have likely died trying to save the animal.

A large hand dropped upon her shoulder, startling a fearful gasp from her. She looked up to find Jeff leaning over her. He was hardly more than an ominous gray shadow in the rain-shrouded gloom, but she thought his eyes glowed with a feral light. Not knowing what to expect, she shrank back and had some difficulty swallowing as she awaited her fate.

“What the bloody hell are you doing out here, madam?” he growled sharply. “Don’t you know what could’ve happened to you?”

Refusing to yield him an answer, Raelynn turned her face aside and, drawing up into a small, disconcerted knot, hunched her shoulders against the deluge. From every aspect, she looked like a small child waiting to be punished.

Muttering an oath, Jeff scooped his wife up in his arms and carried her back to the stallion. There he stood her to her feet and wrapped a blanket tightly about her. Once he lifted her to the back of the steed, he loosened the rope from around Ariadne’s rump and tied the free end to a metal ring behind the cantle of his saddle. Swinging up behind Raelynn, he clamped a protective arm around her and reined the stallion through the dense trees as the mare dutifully followed at the end of her tether.

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