Wild Embrace

She had been torn between whether to return to the bluff and, perhaps, meet the Indian again, or to go on into Seattle and see the sights.

She had decided to take advantage of her father’s absence while she could, and had chosen Seattle for this day’s explorations. Anyway, she scoffed at the thought of the Indian reappearing, especially after he had fled so quickly the previous day.

Twice he had disappeared as if no more than a mysterious apparition. He would surely not materialize all that quickly again—for her or anyone else.

“In time,” she whispered to herself, “I surely shall see him again. In time. For he was real—very real!”

And what she had seen in his eyes told her that he had been as intrigued by her as she had been by him.

Foreign feelings that felt oddly delicious swept through her as she recalled her two encounters with him, being so near to him . . .

Lifting the reins, and slapping them against the back of the gentle mare, Elizabeth urged her horse to hurry onward, anxious now to get to Seattle. She had not been able to see all that much from the ship’s deck, but from afar it had been lovely. She knew to not expect it to be any sort of paradise, for its reputation was not that much better than San Francisco’s. She knew she would find many saloons, and wild and rough men lounging outside them, and also the bright skirts and painted faces of fallen women.

She feared none of it. She had learned to cope with almost anything while living in San Francisco. In truth, nothing much was left to shock, or frighten her.

A turn in the road brought the horse and buggy alongside the Sound, the rocky beach only a slight drop from the road. Elizabeth squinted her eyes against the glare of the sun as it shone brightly in the water.

Something drew her attention to the water, and what she saw gave her cause to straighten her back.

It was the strange sight of a young woman walking into the waters of the Sound. Elizabeth wondered why the woman seemed so intent on wading this morning, fully clothed. She was looking straight ahead, her gait determined.

And although the day was warm, Elizabeth realized the water had to be cold. No one in their right mind would go wading today. No one in their right mind would go wading any time in their clothes, whether it was summer, or autumn.

Elizabeth knew in a flash what the woman’s intention was. She was going to walk until there was no bottom. She was planning to kill herself by drowning.

Elizabeth tightened the reins and drew her horse to a quick halt. She tossed her shawl aside as she scrambled from the buggy. Running toward the water, she began waving her hands and shouting at the young woman, who ignored her.

At the water’s edge, Elizabeth shivered as the breeze blew damply against her face, her heart thumping inside her chest as she watched the woman go farther. Then she suddenly dropped out of view, her body now immersed in the water.

“Good Lord!” Elizabeth said, paling. “I’ve got to do something!”

She untied her bonnet and threw it aside. Without thinking about the danger, or the cold temperature, she began running into the water.

When she reached the deeper depths, Elizabeth began swimming steadily toward the victim. The woman was now splashing around, screaming for help, having suddenly changed her mind about wanting to die. She screamed and floundered wildly in the water, calling out that she could not swim.

Elizabeth reached the woman and tried to grab her, to tow her back to land. The young woman panicked and desperately clawed at Elizabeth, her eyes wild with fright.

Elizabeth tried to fight off the woman, realizing that if she allowed her to get a firm grip in her struggles to be saved, she would, instead, pull both of them to their deaths.

But the young woman’s fear gave her frightening strength. She succeeded at wrapping her arms around Elizabeth’s neck, pulling her beneath the water with her.

Swallowing great gulps of water, Elizabeth fought harder so that at least she could get back to the surface. Already her lungs felt as though they were going to burst. She felt light-headed, as if at any moment she might pass out. She was losing the battle of survival.

Suddenly Elizabeth was aware of a third person in the water beside her. She felt, and welcomed, strong arms around her waist. She and the other young woman were drawn to the surface.

Elizabeth clung to the muscular arm that held her in place against a hard body. She coughed and spewed water from her mouth, until she could breathe. Her eyes cleared of their watery haze.

When she turned to see who was holding her safely from the depths of the Sound, she was stunned.

“You!” she managed to gasp, her voice weak from her ordeal. “Again, it . . . is . . . you who saved me?”

Strong Heart was just as stunned to see whom he had rescued from drowning.

The same woman that he had carried from the house that was smoking, but strangely not burning.

The same woman he had saved from toppling from the high bluff into the Sound.

It seemed to him that she was the most accident-prone person that he had ever encountered.