Cotton Grass Lodge (25 page)
The phone rang. Hanna sat on the edge of her bed and waited for the answering machine to screen the call.
Don’t be Duncan, don’t be Duncan, don’t be…
Alice’s breathless voice tumbled into the room. “Oh, Hanna please, please, please…be home, pick up…”
Not Duncan. Damn it, why didn’t he call? Hanna clenched a sob behind her jaws and snatched up the phone. “I’m here, what’s wrong?” Fear clogged her throat. Was he hurt? Why was Alice calling?
“Thank God. Hanna we need you. Nell is lost. We called the troopers, but...” Alice, calm and stoic Alice, began to cry. “I’m scared. She’s been gone since about four o’clock yesterday.” Alice told the tale, and Hanna took no more than ten minutes to dress for a trip to the lake.
The drive down Minnesota to Northern Lights Boulevard seemed to take forever, and by the time Hanna careened onto Post Road and into the parking lot at Charlie’s Air Service. her breath was coming in short anxious bursts.
She fumbled with the keys for the padlock on the gate and ran to pull the hanger doors open. They glided on well-greased rails, and Hanna was running toward the plane before they clanged to a stop.
She took a deep breath and rested her hand on the fuselage of the plane. Charlie wouldn’t allow her to get off the ground until she’d controlled her emotions. He always said, “If you make a bad decision on the ground you can’t fix it at eight hundred feet in the air.” So she stopped. She rested her head on her hand and breathed again. The hanger wrapped around her.
She loved the smell of machine oil and Av-gas with a light undertone of cigarette smoke and old dog. It was the smell of accomplishment and industry. It was the smell of love. But now, she was on her own, Charlie wasn’t there to remind her of the safety check-lists. Hanna took another deep breath.
She jogged into the hanger and punched the on button for the radio. Rock ‘n roll swelled into the far reaches of the building.
She pushed the plane out of the dim hanger, walking around it touching and examining. She tested the fuel. She’d learned Charlie’s lessons well. The plane was never put away without being fueled and ready to fly.
She had to be patient. There were procedures and expectations, no rushing. Do it right the first time.
Clearing her air space she took off, turned the plane north and concentrated on flying for forty-five minutes.
When Hanna got close to the lake she keyed the mic, “Cotton Grass Lake, one-seven one-four Alpha.” Bill Johnson answered from his plane. He let her know where he was and where he’d already searched. He’d used a grid pattern and had worked most of three sides of the lake from north and east to south.
“I’ll work the west side,” Hanna said.
She called the lodge when she flew over and checked in with Alice. Then she began the tedious process working from the south end of the lake and west toward the mine road.
Fear for Nell drove Hanna lower and lower. When she crossed over the trees toward the rolling tundra she decided to follow a hunch and the path of least resistance.
Her heart throbbed in her throat. It had been three weeks since she’d seen Duncan and there he was, two hundred feet below her, looking like the man of her dreams. She could see his broad shoulders. She could all but feel his warm skin. Her body betrayed her. She’d spent three weeks making sure she was over the deceitful devil. And now, her mouth filled with the taste of him and she could feel his hands sliding down over her breasts. “Stop it.” She yelled at the windscreen, “Just, stop it!”
She focused on instruments, she focused on the red fall-colored tundra, she focused on a point ahead on the trail and when it moved she refocused her attention.
From her vantage point two hundred feet above the road she breathed a sigh of relief. She saw the Shaman and Nell.
She flew ahead and circled the two then she flew back and circled Duncan and Tom and pointed ahead.
She’d spent two weeks berating herself for a fool. She’d spent two weeks of sleepless nights. After the first week she’d wanted to turn off the answering machine. Instead, she let it screen all the calls, Duncan sounded so business-like. Call me, he demanded. “No!” she screamed at the phone.
She keyed the mic. “Cotton Grass Field, one-seven-one-four Alpha, Duncan and Tom have Nell. I repeat, Nell has been found. One-seven-one-four Alpha clear.”
The emotionless replies came back to her. First Bill responded with his tail number.
Another tail number responded, and Hanna recognized it as the trooper’s plane.
Hanna flew back to the strip and landed. While she tied down her plane, the troopers Alice had called landed.
They were old friends, and she shook hands with each man and reported what she knew. When she took her leave of them she didn’t go to the lodge.
I knew it would be like this.
I have to avoid Duncan and avoiding him means avoiding everyone I want to see at the lodge. Damn it. Damn him.
She could wait. He wouldn’t be here long. He’d close up the lodge for the winter and sell in the spring. She could wait.
She advanced on her cabin calculating all the most difficult chores.
Hanna welcomed her purpose-filled movement. Three weeks of inactivity made her aware of every stride. First she filled the water barrels. Which required starting the generator for the power needed to run the water pump. She flipped the switch and watched impatiently as the water splashed into the barrels under her kitchen counter. She didn’t dare leave to do anything else or there was the real possibility she would have lake water gushing onto the floor of the cabin.
Last year when she dug the trench for the power and water lines from the cabin to the lake, she didn’t think she’d ever miss the exertion of having to carry water from the lake in five gallon buckets. Now, she did.
After the barrels finished filling, she let the generator run for a while and hooked up the charger to top off the batteries for her twelve-volt system.
She packed firewood into the cabin from the woodshed. She started the small woodstove to take the chill off and wiped the spotless counters, again and again. Fury quivered through her body, fighting with reawakened desire.
A scream started deep in her middle. Her hands knotted the dishtowel in a frenzy as the shriek escaped from her locked jaws. A long keening anguish rent the air of the little cabin and tears came as she shredded the dishtowel. Rage sent her out the door of the cabin, a tiny rational thought reminded her she would eventually get a grip, but the dishes would all be broken if she stayed inside.
Hanna planned to chop wood until she couldn’t lift the maul, to fall into exhaustion, to get over another mistake in judgment.
The door exploded backward when she slammed out of the cabin and there he stood.
She screamed again. Her hands clenched at her sides. “Go away! Leave me alone! I don’t want you here.”
Duncan was on her in three long steps and when Hanna turned to flee he grabbed her and held her close. Tears slashed down her hot cheeks and as she twisted to free herself she continued to scream each disjointed thought as it came into her mind. “Let me go. You jerk, I hate you. I hate you.”
“No, you don’t,” Duncan said. His voice reverberated calm and low against her body. “I love you, Hanna.”
“Don’t say it.” She sobbed, “I loved you and you lied. You never intended to stay. You lied about all if it. I fell in love with you and you lied.” Hanna’s knees went out from under her, and Duncan’s arms held her close as he lowered her. He settled with her on the damp lichen-covered ground in a tangle of arms and legs.
Hanna’s anger collapsed into wounded sobs, “You didn’t come and get me.”
Duncan rocked gently while her emotions ebbed. “I love you, Hanna, but you hid from me.”
“I needed you.” Hanna sucked a gasp and choked.
“We have communication skills to work on, babe.” Duncan patted her on the back. “I couldn’t find you if you wouldn’t answer your phone.”
“But—” a fresh wave of tears choked her words. “Carl said you were going to leave.”
Duncan continued to rock her. “I’ll admit buying and selling was the original plan. I didn’t know I was gonna fall in love with a dragon of the air. I didn’t know I was gonna fall in love with this crazy place and all these crazy people.” Duncan stroked loose hair away from her face and kissed her throbbing temple. His lips lingered.
Hanna turned her face, and he dropped another slow kiss, this time on her lips. The prickle of his unshaven chin touched her cheek. His lips gentled the raw hurt she’d been carrying for weeks or had it been years? She hadn’t given him a chance to help her and he’d just waited. He’d been here waiting. Trust began to bud where the sparklers of pain sat behind her eyes and anticipation bloomed into desire.
At long last Duncan broke away from the kiss. He stared deep into her eyes. “Say it, Hanna, I need to hear you say it.”
Hanna’s chin trembled. “I love you, Duncan. Please don’t let me be alone anymore.” Her voice cracked as she tried to control the tears leaking again from her eyes.
His face broke into a soft smile. “In the perfect world, this is the point in the story where I would sweep you up into my arms and carry you into the cabin and up the stairs to your bed. We would make love for hours. In the perfect world.” He used a thumb to wipe the tears from her cheek. “But we don’t live in the perfect world. If you don’t get up, I’m gonna have to crawl into the cabin. My leg has cramped up.”
Hanna carefully untangled from his arms and stood. She used both hands to wipe the moisture from her cheeks and watched as he rolled over onto all fours, then she steadied his lurch upright.
“I like the sound of making love for hours,” Duncan said. He draped his arm over her shoulders and leaned heavily. “But could I get you to carry yourself up the stairs?”
“Absolutely.” Hanna couldn’t help grinning when she looped her arm around his waist. They moved as one toward the cabin door. “Duncan? Do you know if there are any peaches at the lodge?”
Duncan frowned. “I’m having a little trouble thinking about peaches right now, but yeah, I think there’s part of a case in the pantry.”
“Can I have them?”
“Sure.” Duncan kissed the tip of her nose. “Why?”
“I have a past due bill.”
A word about the author...
DeNise started writing as a reader. During life, Parts One and Two, she kept notes. In 1993 she had an opportunity to go to Alaska for a year—she loves a road trip—so she drove the Alcan and spent some time learning to speak Alaskan.
She joined a writers group. Then she met Mr. Wonderful in the village of McCarthy. Life, Part Three, is in progress—life is good. She lives in Knik, Alaska, with Mr. Wonderful, the cat from hell, a big garden, and too many jobs.
She would love to hear from readers at [email protected]
Other Books You Might Enjoy
The Fourth of July is over, but for these summer lovers the fireworks have just begun.
An unexpected inheritance brings business consultant Christopher Gordon from Los Angeles to quaint Falk's Bend. Disturbing family secrets and the sweet temptation of writer Margie Olsson challenge him to seize the elusive dream missing from his hectic life--love.
Read Summertime Dream by Babette James
Lucas Nelson, a man brought to his knees and publicly humiliated by his last two girlfriends, now believes he is unlovable. So when he finds himself falling in love with Jenna, whom he can't seem to avoid, he knows he's in trouble.
Having worked hard to improve herself, Jenna Blake has made it clear she's not interested in a relationship with an ordinary man. She wants a big, white wedding to an aristocrat, like the Earl of Kendal. Nothing must be allowed to get in the way of everything she's worked for, not even true love.
Will Jenna give in to her desires? Or will the earl and his aristocratic trappings win her hand?
Read No Other Love by Jean Adams
Thank you for purchasing
this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
For other wonderful stories of romance,
please visit our on-line bookstore at
For questions or more information
contact us at
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
To visit with authors of
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
join our yahoo loop at
