Free LeClerc 03 - Wild Savage Heart by Pamela K Forrest Page B

at sixyear-old Wanda.
    “There’s somethin’ behind you.”
    Her heart pounding with fear, Molly turned slowly. Behind her and slightly uphill, a skunk and her kits were strolling down the trail Molly and the children had used to get to the river. The mother skunk was made nervous by her unaccustomed venture into daylight. The usually nocturnal animal raised her head and sniffed the air.
    Molly smelled the distinctive odor that identified the creature, as its bushy black-and-white tail rose defensively. Moving slowly so that she wouldn’t alarm the creature, Molly backed into the river and gathered the children with her.
    At its deepest point the water rose to Molly’s hips. Only Wanda was tall enough to stand on her own while Molly held three-year-old Timmy and fouryear-old Charles on her hips.
    “It be a polecat,” Charles advised knowledgeably. “Pa says the only good polecat be a dead one.”
    “I think it’s pretty,” Wanda said.
    “You would, you’re a girl.” Charles replied with a smirk.
    “Are you gonna kill it?” Timmy asked.
    “What she gonna use, dummy?” Wanda demanded. “She ain’t got no gun.”
    “Well, she could throw a rock, iffen she aimed real good.”
    “Could not,” Timmy supplied. “She’s a girl and girls can’t throw no good at all.”
    “Can too,” Wanda replied in defense of her sex.
    “Can not!” the boys yelled back.
    Molly watched as the skunk stiffened, its beady eyes turned in their direction.
    “Children, please hush,” Molly whispered, her eyes glued to the animal that was the size of a cat.
    “Tell him that you can too throw a rock better than he can!” Wanda demanded, her voice overly loud to Molly’s ears.
    “If you three don’t stop arguing we’ll all get a lot of practice throwing. Your ma and pa will be throwing your food to you for a good long time if that skunk decides to spray us. No one will want to get any closer to you than absolutely necessary until the smell wears off.”
    It seemed to Molly that she waited forever for the skunk to move. The water, cold from the spring runoff higher in the mountains, flowed around her legs and pulled at her skirt.
    “I’m cold,” Wanda whined.
    “Me, too,” Charles agreed.
    “Me be freezin’! ” added Timmy, not wanting to be outdone by his older brother and sister.
    “I know, children.” Molly looked at her charges and saw the shivers rippling through their tiny bodies. “Maybe she’ll leave in a minute and we can get out and go home for dry clothes.”
    Timmy tried to wrap his legs higher around Molly’s body but found that his brother was impeding his progress. A fight began to brew as the two boys used their feet against each other, trying to dislodge the other one from Molly’s hold.
    “Stop it!” Molly demanded as her grasp began to slip. Neither of the boys was large but her arms soon began to ache from holding them. The water swirled around her hijps and her feet started to grow numb. At her side, Wanda began to whimper. Finally it became evident to Molly that they would have to leave the cold water, skunk or no.
    “Children, I want you to listen very carefully,” Molly said as she slowly moved toward the bank. “We’re going to try to sneak around the skunk. We won’t use the trail to get back home, we’ll make a new one.”
    “Can’t,” Wanda said with a sniff.
    “Why can’t we?” Molly again shifted the slipping boys and knew that once they were out of the river they would have to walk on their own. Her arms were too tired to struggle up the hill with them. “Pa says to stay on the trail.”
    “I’m sure this time he’ll understand if we make our own trail.”
    “Can’t,” Wanda again replied.
    “Wanda,” Molly gritted out the child’s name through clenched teeth. “We will make our own trail.”
    “Mistress Molly, Pa whips awfulsome hard,” Charles said quietly.
    “Ya,” Timmy chimed in. “Awfulsome hard!”
    ” ‘Sides, there’s snakes and rats and