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Flint is ready to give the brat fighting him to the Indians as he pushes the lad over the next waterfall. Once rinsed of mud, he discovers the frail boy is one nicely shaped woman. Learning his employer intends to marry off the girl, his Darlin’, with the indentured women, he marries her himself suspecting he has gone from the frying pan and into the fire.
Marrying Allen Flint isn’t as disturbing to Jolene as discovering she is in 1713. Dare she examine her feelings toward the mountain of a man, now a part of her life? Can she survive the wilds of the American Frontier?
When Indians capture Flint, Jolene prays she possesses the strength to save the man she loves from certain death. Time brought her to him, but Jolene realizes only their magic can hold them together, now.
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Excerpt:
Prologue
A
lright, which one of you put her up to it?” Jolene glared at her friends.
The denial floated through the car.
Mary Joe leaned forward from the backseat. “Well, I sure didn’t. It wasn’t fair that you monopolized the whole séance, Jolene.”
“Not by choice.” Flicking the auburn wisps back behind her ear, Jolene’s brow creased again recalling the strange evening.
Jean dropped off Lynn and Mary Joe first, before driving back to her house where Jolene left her car.
“Why so quiet, Joe? You don’t really believe all that mumbo jumbo?”
“No, of course not.” But her answer sounded weak. “Why would she say something so off the wall like that?”
“Probably wanted to make an impression on us so we’d send her more business.”
“Yes, you’re right.” But did she have to scare her in the process? What did she say when they were leaving? Beware of what kills in silence.
Rubbing her arms, the goose bumps had little to do with the warm summer night. After saying goodnight to Jean, Jolene tried to forget the unsettling events of the evening. She didn’t believe in such nonsense. So why couldn’t she forget the woman’s words?
Half way home a roll of thunder vibrated through the car. Already upset, Joe scolded herself for going. “I’d be home by now and not out in a summer downpour.”
Just as her words fell silent, huge drops of rain splattered the windshield. She searched for the wiper switch as her foot went to the brake. When the wipers flew across the windshield she felt the tension ease out of her shoulders. She needed to lean forward to see the white line in the middle of the road, nearly missing her mailbox and the turn up the mountain to her home.
“I should have listened to Jean and rented old Teran’s place in town instead of living out here.” Shaking her head she knew she couldn’t give up her grandfather’s cabin. It had always been her home and would remain so. She loved her mountain.
At the sharp curve, she just came about the side when she saw the fallen tree across the road and slammed on the brakes. The car careened into the large tree trunk, throwing her forward over the impact. It took all her strength to bring her head off the steering wheel. She groaned as she raised her hands to hold the vicious throb at her temple. Sitting there Jolene fought off the dizzy sensation folding in on her. She started shaking all over, but only her head held pain, a sharp throbbing assault.
The storm gave no sign of letting up. Living her whole life at the threshold of the Smoky Mountains she knew this was an all nighter. Straining to see past her blurry vision the dashboard finally came into focus, eleven thirty-four. The prospect of sitting in the car all night ended over the ache in her head. She needed to get home. It was only half a mile up the road, a road no one else ever came up.
Jolene tried to get her purse off the floor, but the effort made her winch. She would get it tomorrow. She made sure everything was turned off then pocketed the keys in her jeans, wishing she’d thought to bring an umbrella. The sound of heavy rain hitting the hood in angry pulses, told her it wouldn’t have helped tonight.
Counting to three didn’t give her enough time to build up her courage so she sat there and counted to ten. Jolene pushed the door open against the storm’s wind and the branches that fell around the car.
Fighting her way through the limbs, her blouse became soaked by the time she reached the tree trunk. She didn’t have the strength to pull herself over it. Getting down on her knees she crawled along the fallen tree until she found a gap wide enough to slide under. The road bed turned into mud and she grimaced as she edged under the trunk. Once away from the fallen tree her head hurt so much she just laid there, letting the rain plummet her backside. She wanted to sleep, but the little voice of sanity told her to get up and make it to the cabin.
It took several tries before she came fully to her feet. The mud sucked at her loafers until Jolene wasn’t sure if she still wore them. All around her the storm raged, lightening flashed in ugly jagged scars, but the thunder filled her, its roaring vibration went on, stealing her breath away.
Stumbling, she fell. Lying there she felt the ground shake beneath her. “Oh no, not thunder!”
She frantically looked all around her, feeling the panic rise as the rumbling beneath her body increased. Using every bit of strength at her command, Jolene pushed to her feet to run, but feared she would run into the flash flood. She tried to clear the rivulets of water from her eyes and search the darkness, knowing that at any second, the terror would burst out upon her.
When it came, Jolene’s screams were lost in the rush of mud and water bombarding her. Over and over she rolled, carried by the sheet of moving earth. She felt so odd, almost detached from the fury, as if she couldn’t really feel anything…except her fear, and the deluge became her world, swallowing her up in the terror, until everything crashed down about her in a deafening swirl of darkness.
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