The medicine
wagon camped that night. After the meal, Jehenna put the cord around Gypsy’s
neck and took him out of the wagon for his last relief session until morning.
He hated the cord, but she didn’t trust him outside at dusk. When the cat
finally finished, she saw Nathan was
through tending to his horse and his tent was on the ground ready to be set up.
“Don‘t go in
yet, Jehenna,” he said as she passed him..
Not a good idea
to listen to him, but she eased onto his still-collapsed tent. She took Gypsy
into her lap, petting him, concentrating on the sensation of his soft fur under
her hands. She’d stay only a few minutes.
Nathan sat down
next to he. “Will you consider going
back to your father?“ he asked.
She shook her
head.
Silence except
for Gypsy’s purr.
“Would you
consider…” Nathan’s words trailed off. “What
I mean is, if you won’t let me take you back to your father…” Again he paused. “Damn it, come away with me,
then.”
She stared at
him, but the growing darkness hid his expression from her, “Not to my father?”
“Just with me.”
He leaned to her and his lips claimed hers.
She lost herself
in the wonderful sensation of the kiss, gentle at first, then with fire until she felt ready to burst into
flame. Without thought she reached to
him to hold the kiss forever. Trapped between them, Gypsy squirmed and yowled
in protest.
This brought
back her sanity and she pulled away. Holding the cat to her, she leaped up and
ran into the wagon.
Though she
willed herself not to, as soon as she climbed up to her bunk and stretched out,
she relieved the kiss over and over, finally falling asleep and into a
nightmare.
Trapped in a
room where her stepmother played, “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes” on a
piano, through a window Jehenna watched Fanny
and Nathan waltzing as they gazed only
at each other.. When the music stopped,
her stepmother said, “See, he doesn’t want you, either. Nobody wants you.”
Jehenna woke
with a start, dream shards still circling in her head. Nobody wants you.
But Nathan had
kissed her. Asked her to go away with him.
“Every one
lies when necessary.” Old Luba’s words.
Just with
me. Nathan’s words. Had he
lied? Was he secretly planning to take her back to her father just so he could
collect the fee for returning her?
