Free Heart of the Wild by Rita Hestand Page A

smile widening, "I'll see you on my way back, then."
    "Amory, this isn't funny," she yelled indignantly.
    "Oh, I don't know. Depends on which angle you're looking at it from," he said with a grin, and started trotting off.
    "Amory?" she screamed, but she was obviously screaming at a brick wall.
    "Do you give up?" came a voice from nowhere in sight.
    "Not in your lifetime," she bellowed mutinously.
    "Too bad. Better keep that shirt on, it might get a little cool like that." He emerged from a bush not far away, and smiled as he glanced at the exposed section of stomach.
    He turned again and was almost out of sight when she yelled, "Wait—Okay, I give up."
    With a triumphant laugh, he returned to the scene of his crime, and climbed the tree halfway to cut the rope from which she was dangling. When he did, she fell to the ground with a loud thud.
    "Why, you swine!" she hollered, as she tried in vain to catch her fall. Straightening herself, she stalked toward the cabin, muttering every foul name she could think of, as she rubbed her backside.
    She could hear his laughter halfway back to the cabin. He allowed her no dignity in her surrender. He was a hard foe. What nerve. The gall! It would serve him right if she reported this crude little incident to her father. If anyone could straighten Chayton Amory out, it was John Douglas.
    But then, who's side would her father take? She hadn't contemplated that. After eight years, she couldn't be certain of anything. She hadn't just walked out on Amory and their impending marriage, but her father, as well. A tinge of guilt burned the pit of her stomach.
    The morning seemed ruined. What had started out as a nice day was over. Chayton Amory had ruined her day, for the second time in two days.
    A noisy bird followed her with song from the treetops, and she stopped to glance upward.
    "Oh, shut up, what do you know?" she hollered aloud at the songster.
    Safely back at the cabin, Kasie's anger festered. Damn Amory's hide for leaving her alone in the middle of nowhere. He expected her to find her way back. Expected her to! How could he be sure she would? Perhaps he didn't care. Perhaps he wished she'd fall off a cliff and break her neck, and he'd be done with this whole affair.
    As the day wore on, Kasie's anger thinned. She began busying herself with supper preparations. Not that she cared whether Amory ate or not, but she wanted a good meal.
    She went to the freezer and dragged out a bag marked chili. Back inside the cabin, she put it in a pan of shallow water to thaw. Could she cook? She'd show him. He had no idea what culinary delights she had learned since leaving her father.
    Once she had everything in preparation, she shrugged heavily, realizing that there was little to do. She glanced at the old trunk at the foot of the bed. She really shouldn't pry, but then, why not? He had barged back into her life, uninvited. Why shouldn't she do a little barging, too? She was just beginning to dig into it, when she heard an unfamiliar noise coming from just outside the kitchen window.
    Thinking it was Amory, she put the lid down on the trunk and went to the window.
    It seemed very still outside.
    "Okay, Amory, you can come out of those bushes now. I know you're out there," she said as she cracked the window, but heard no reply.
    Ignoring it, she started to move away when suddenly a loud rushing noise scared her, and the bushes outside gave a big heave. Out came the biggest, blue-black bear she had ever seen in her life. But then what did she know; she hadn't seen any bears except at the zoo.
    The hair on his body bristled, and his back seemed to carry a decided hump to it, like a Grizzly, even though his coloring was much darker, his nose a little longer. This had to be Ole Blue!
    "So now what do I do?" Kasie whispered aloud, as though there might be a reply.
    She tried to concentrate on his rare beauty, but his gnarling mouth opening for a tremendous roar brought her attention front and center again.