Free The Bearwalker's Daughter by Beth Trissel

pocketed. Maybe the fiery brew had affected her more than she realized?
    No. These sensations went far beyond a few swallows of whiskey. Tumultuous cannons fired inside, tumbling her into an uncertain world of red moons and shooting stars, her universe exploding. And there was no one to hold onto, except him. She almost grabbed his hand, and thought better of it.
    What, then? What should she do?
    In stillness, she kept her eyes fastened on his, colored the hue of the woods in summer. She couldn’t look away. Then a quavery sigh escaped her. “Oh, Jack.”
    Tenderness washed over his face. “Let me guide you.”
    “I suppose I must.”
    A smile lifted the corners of his masculine, deeply sensual, mouth. “Let’s begin with your mother. What else have you been told of her that might be of use? Let your mind journey back and the past flow through you.”
    Rain drummed on the roof and wood sizzled in the hearth as Karin ferreted out every scrap she’d ever heard, weighing some, discarding others. Then a memory returned like the whiff of a nosegay long since forgotten. It might mean something.
    “Neeley once said Mama sat curled by the fire much of the time in those last days, staring into the flames as if she saw something.”
    Jack eyed the glowing hearth. “Not something. Someone .”
    His insight took Karin aback. “You mean him?”
    “Probably.”
    She gestured at the bed built against the wall, its high back lovingly carved by her grandfather. “Neeley only just told me Mama died there where I was born.”
    “That’s why the bed was left behind when they moved,” he said quietly.
    She bit her lower lip. “I didn’t realize.”
    “You were a child then. How could you?”
    A red haze flashed through Karin like sparks set to dry leaves. “Someone might have told me sooner.”
    He looked bemused. “What good would that have done?”
    “I would know. And knowing matters.”
    Jack held up his hands. “So, now you do.”
    Crossing both arms over her chest, she said, “Of this I’m certain, Mama was kind and beautiful. Whatever she died of, ’twas a broken heart. Papa should have come to her, whoever he was. I would tell him so to his face if I could.”
    “Whew.” Jack drew back as if at a sudden wind. “You’re not such a milksop after all.”
    His exaggeration lessened Karin’s ire only slightly. “Well, it makes my blood boil. Why did he leave her to grieve herself to death?”
    “If you want answers, begin by finding that necklace.”
    She blew out her breath in frustration. “Neeley says she cleaned this cabin from top to bottom and never found anything out of the ordinary.”
    “Maybe she wasn’t meant to.”
    Karin sat up straight. “You think maybe I am?”
    “There’s nothing ordinary about you. Besides, Neeley may have looked everyplace save one. Where would you search?”
    She scanned the massive hearth rising from the floor. The smoke-blackened stones danced with light up between the shadowed beams overhead. “Might one of these stones be loose and the necklace tucked in behind a crevice?”
    “That’s the spirit,” he praised her. “Let’s try further down first.”
    Jack tapped his fingers over the gray-brown rocks, his magnetic presence a palpable force urging Karin ever nearer. She was all the more determined to resist. Leaning in, she brushed his arms and chest, so strong beneath his shirt. Only the barest touch, but a potent surge ran through her. She faltered, trying to conceal her acute awareness of him as they tested each stone not too hot to touch. She might as well try to ignore the room set ablaze.
    He smiled as if he knew. For pity’s sake! Had she no hope of keeping anything from this man?
    “Nothing here,” he said, getting to his feet.
    She rose and they worked their way up the sides of the hearth. He reached his hands high above her head.
    “Mama couldn’t have hidden anything up there unless she stood on a stool,” Karin pointed out
    “Awkward in her