Free LeClerc 03 - Wild Savage Heart by Pamela K Forrest

everythin’ you’ve always known and head out for someplace you’ve never seen.”
    Nora looked up and her eyes locked onto Molly’s. “But what choice is there? — ‘pears to me that if you love him you made your choice when you said ‘I do.’” Nora’s irrepressible good humor returned with a blink of the eye. “Iffen we hadn’t come here I never woulda lived in a tree. Now I ain’t sayin’ I’d be happy to live here forever, but just think of the stories I can tell my grandbabies. They ain’t gonna believe their old granny lived in a tree like a squirrel!”
    Molly and Adam spent several days with the Price family. Hawk had returned that first afternoon. He spoke briefly with Adam and then left. Molly wondered if he would return or if he’d decided to leave them with the first family they’d found.
    Adam helped Gary fell several trees while Molly and Nora stripped the logs of branches, kept a watchful eye of the active children and cooked the meals.
    Nora was always cheerful, and her self-confidence was evident in everything she did. Molly found herself admiring the woman as their friendship grew.
    In the evening, after the children had been settled for the night, they all lingered around the fire. Gary spoke of the advantages of the area for homesteading. They were in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with rolling land and fresh mountain streams. Several small towns, including Rutherford Town to the south and Morganton to the north, were within less than a day’s ride.
    “Little Brittain Presbyterian Church is just up the road a piece,” Nora supplied. “And iffen you ain’t there on a Sunday morning come Sunday afternoon someone is here checkin’ to make sure everything is all right. Lordy Moses, a couple of weeks ago we just plumb forgot that it was a Sunday. That afternoon the preacher comes aridin’ up checkin’ to see why we weren’t in church. I was so bumfuzzled when he left that I sat right down and made me a marker to keep track of the days.”
    “Soon as everybody’s garden is in, the neighbors are gonna give us a barn raisin’,” Gary said quietly, as the smoke from his pipe drifted around his head. “The people here help each other but mind their own business. It’s a good place to set down roots.
    “Most of the land around here is already owned but we got lucky. We bought this parcel from Widow Bailey. Her husband died some time back and her only son was killed when his horse threw him. It took near to all the money we had to buy it but me and Nora think it was worth it.”
    Later that night, snuggled together beneath the warmth of a quilt while the stars twinkled overhead, Molly and Adam discussed the idea of remaining in Rutherford County rather than moving further into the mountains. They liked what they had seen of the area but Adam expressed his concern that it would be easy for Charles Gallagher to find them.
    “If Papa comes here we’ll just tell him to leave us alone,” Molly said firmly.
    “He can make things difficult for us, Molly mine.” Adam kissed the top of her head and pulled her more snugly into his arms. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
    “He can’t hurt us if we don’t let him,” Molly replied. “I like it here, Adam, and if this is where you want to stay, then this is where we’ll stay.”
    As he drifted to sleep, Adam decided to ride into Rutherford Town the next day and check the land office for available homesites. If they could find some land they would settle into this area of North Carolina and begin building their home.
    Early the next morning as Molly and Nora prepared breakfast and Gary and Adam discussed the trip into town, Hawk rode in. Nora offered him a cup of coffee. Adam smiled at his friend and Gary greeted him with a handshake. Molly waited apprehensively for the courtesies to be finished.
    “I’ve found your homesite,” Hawk said quietly.
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    “It’s on a good strong creek,” Hawk