Catch a Shooting Star jd edit 03 12 2012 html (24 page)

He wiped the back of his hand on his lips to remove the taste of her as he railed, “What the Hell do you want, woman?  Do you want me to kiss you or don’t you?”

She paused, wringing her hands together and then twisting the wedding ring on her left hand as she admitted, “I’m still married.”

A huff of indignation puffed in the night air, and like steam from a locomotive, his breath shot out in clouds of anger as he accused, “You won’t kiss another man, but you would kill the man that you’re married to.”

“That’s different,” she argued, turning away from him to keep from running back into his arms and begging him to continue kissing her.  Remembering the many evils that had been drilled into her at Mass, which Diego had insisted that she attend, she knew that what she had done was wrong and she told Travis, “Even though I know that it is a sin to kill, I know, too, that I must carry out that task so that he will never hurt me or anyone else again.  But, to commit adultery while he still breathes, that is a sin that I can not and will not perpetrate even if it kills me.”

“Well, Miss High-and Mighty, Mary the Perpetual Virgin, I promise never to offend you with my advances again,” Travis barked angrily at her.

“How dare you call me names?”

“How dare you ask me to kiss you when you know you don’t really want me to?”

“How dare you oblige me?”

A sudden quiet filled the air as each of them searched for more words to throw at the other, but neither found more cutting remarks than those that had already been said.  They turned their backs to each other, licking their wounds and chasing away the urge to apologize and find their way into each other’s arms again.

It was Travis who spoke first, his voice almost harsh with hurt as he told her, “I don’t know what it is that you do to me.  It’s like that first night I met you, the night of the storm, the night that you were afraid to go into your own house.  I didn’t want to leave you.” 

Intrigued by his words, Savannah turned back toward him and saw such torment on his handsome face that she wanted so desperately to rush toward him and comfort him.  But, she hesitated as he continued his statement.

“And I didn’t leave you,” he admitted, taking one step toward her and then waiting to see if she stepped backward.  “I just couldn’t leave you with that man, knowing what I knew about him and knowing that you knew nothing about what kind of monster was sleeping in the same house that you were.  I stayed in the shadows, watching and waiting, just in case you needed me.”

Her heart melted at his words and Savannah took a step toward him as he continued, “But, then, I heard voices in the darkness.  Men’s voices and they were speaking Spanish.  They were saying something that you obviously never knew about your father and you and your future husband.”

“What were they saying?”

He shook his head and waved his hand in front of his body as if he was angry at himself for bringing up the subject as he answered curtly, “I can’t tell you, not yet anyway.”

“Why not?” she asked as she took more steps toward him and he followed suit until they were so close that if either of them moved in the other’s direction, a kiss was all that could be exchanged.

“Because it could change all that you know about yourself and your father and your husband and, right now, I can’t be the one to sway you in any direction but the one that you are headed.”

“Why are you telling me as much as you are telling me then?”

“I don’t know.  I just felt that you needed to know that the life that you thought you were living was not what it seems.”

“Now you are confusing me.”

“I know.  And I’m sorry.  Forget I even mentioned it.”

“I can’t.  You have to tell me everything.”

“You know I can’t do that.  Not until your husband is dead.”

“What does his death have to do with my life not being what it seems?”

“Look, I’ll explain it when the time is right.”

“But…”

“Please, don’t ask me again.” He waved his hands in front of her, making her step backward in defense.

“Do you promise to tell me when the time is right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I will trust you to honor that promise and I’ll never mention it again.  And, if what you say is true and if telling me would change the outcome of our mission, I will wait until you are ready to reveal what it is that you think will change my perspective on my life.”

“I appreciate that.  And, I’m sorry that I brought it up.”

“I am too.”

“Well, to get back to what I was saying before I got off track and riled you up,” he began as he folded his frame onto the log that she had vacated earlier.

“As I said before, I stayed there in the shadows of your house, just to make sure he didn’t hurt you.”

“I was perfectly safe as long as my father was alive, I assure you.”

“Well, I was not so certain of that.  So, I waited until dawn and then when I saw you walk out onto the veranda in your night dress, I knew that you were safe.”

“You saw me in my dressing gown?”

“You didn’t seem like you cared who saw you.”

“But, it was my home.  How could I have known that someone was watching me?” she sat down on the log beside him.

“I wasn’t the only one.”

“Who?” she asked, twisting around to face him.

“Your future husband.  He was just a few feet below you, smoking a cigar and staring right at your half-naked body.”

“I never knew…” she admitted, touching her fingers to her neck in surprise.

“Obviously not.  At any rate, I knew that you were safe, and since I had more pressing business elsewhere, I left you to your life.”

“The life that is really not what I seem to know.”

“You promised not to mention that again.”

“I know.  I just had to pester you one more time.”

“Will that be a constant with you?” he asked, teasingly.

“Not keeping my promises or pestering you?” she asked, lightning the mood.

“Both,” Travis said with a chuckle.

“I suppose that will have to be my little secret,” she said with a coy smile as she threw him a sidelong glance.

“Funny.  How very funny, you are.  A fine funny bunny,” he said with a wide smile as he nudged her with a shoulder in a playful manner while he teased, “Maybe I’ll call you Bunny.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” she complained, for she deplored nicknames.

“Why not? Don’t you like your new nickname?”

“I’m not a rabbit,” Savannah said with a pout.

“But you are soft like one and quick like one.  And you have a Hell of a way of twisting out of a man’s arms like one.  Yep, I think I’ll call you Bunny.”

She nudged him back but did not protest further.  If that is what he wished to call her, she wouldn’t ask him not to because, for some reason, she felt the inclination to please him, even if it caused her discomfort.  And if it meant enduring another heart-pounding, knee-weakening blissful kiss that would surely send her straight to Hell when she died, she would allow him to indulge himself if he so desired.

 She slipped her hand onto his knee and whispered as she leaned closer, “Thank you for watching over me.”

He covered her hand with his and squeezed it with warm fingers as he leaned closer to her.  With all the emotion that welled inside his heart, he raised his other hand to lift her chin toward his face. With tenderness in his touch, he turned her face so that nothing but the chilled air that puffed between them could obstruct her view of the sincerity of his expression.  Long, breathless moments crept by as he stared into those dark violet pools that reflected his face in the firelight before he leaned closer still.  Then, honoring her wishes and without merging his lips to hers, he turned his face to press the warmth of his lips upon her upturned cheek before he whispered, “It’s my pleasure.”

Chapter Fourteen

The amber dawn stretched a lazy hand to wipe the tears of the morning dew from the awakening desert.  The reluctant sun winked through clusters of purple and black clouds, which gathered on the distant horizon, bestowing upon them a pink hue that painted the russet desert with a stunning golden-bronze tint.  A silent call from within the earth told the creatures that had slept so peacefully to shake the weariness from their rested bodies and begin a new day. 

Savannah turned over inside her blanket and looked through the thickness of her lashes at the merrily dancing flames of the campfire.  She moved her eyes slightly and saw Travis perched beside the fire, stirring a pan that bubbled over into the flames.

Without looking in her direction, Travis said calmly, “I’d rather you didn’t wear that nightgown out here.”

She picked up the blanket that covered her entire body and peered inside at the white cotton gown that she had squirmed inside the blanket last night to change into and she scowled at him for somehow knowing that she wore nothing but that nightgown.  Her voice was accusing as she asked, “What?”

His voice still calm, Travis told her, “You never know when a stranger might come up on us while we are sleeping, hold us up, ambush us, you name it.  Or what if we have to leave in a hurry?  You’d take too much time getting back into your clothes.  When your life depends on it, you do what you have to do to make time on your side.”

Realizing that what he said had made sense, she no longer felt anger at him, but appreciation for his concern for her wellbeing and she said quietly, “I understand.” 

She wrestled with the blanket as she tried to keep it around her in order to shield her half-naked body from him while she struggled to get dressed.  But, then realizing that he had kept his back to her so that she could get her clothes on without being seen by him, she threw the blanket aside and quickly pulled off the nightgown and reached for her blouse.  She shrugged into it and then stood up to step into her skirt.  Next, she pulled her stockings on followed by her boots.  Then, she crawled to her saddlebag that rested on the end of her pallet.  She opened the flap and pulled out a brush and mirror and began to smooth away the tangles of last night’s sleep.  With that done, she began to braid her hair into a long black shining rope which she slung over her shoulder to hang halfway down her back.

She got to her feet and groaned with the soreness that shot through her body.  Taking a deep breath, she stepped to the campfire and sat on a log that he had pulled close to the fire.  In no way did she want to let Travis know that every inch of her body ached.  She would get back on that horse and ride today and tomorrow and every day without so much as a peep of protest about the pain until they reached that God-forsaken hacienda and gave El Diablo all the pain that he certainly deserved. 

All this agony that she endured now will reap a handsome reward when this journey ends.  This, she repeated to herself as she sat as she rubbed her calves beneath the cover of her skirt.

“Coffee?” Travis offered, picking up the blackened pot and tipping it over a tin cup.”

“Thanks,” Savannah said, accepting the steaming cup between both of her palms and lifting it to her lips.

“You need to loosen up before you get back in the saddle,” he told her as he sipped on his own cup.

She looked toward him, wondering how he had read her mind yet again, but asked, “How do I do that?”

“I’ll show you after breakfast,” he told her, dismissing the subject for the moment as he reached for a frying pan.

Savannah shrugged her shoulders and sniffed the aroma that wafted from the bubbling pan.  She watched him coat two slices of bread in bacon fat and then fry them in the hot frying pan and then he filled two tin plates with the make-shift stew that he had put together early that morning.

Hungrily, she took the plate that he handed her and began scooping the chunks of meat and tomatoes into her mouth.  With that gone she wiped her plate with the toasted bread and then said with a mouthful of food, “It’s good!”

“You’ll get used to it,” he joked, scraping his spoon over his empty plate.

When she finished, she asked him while she stood up and reached for his dishes, “Do you want me to clean up?”

“Nope.  You just do whatever you ladies do that takes so long to come back looking just as pretty as you did when you started,” Travis said in jest but it fell upon perturbed ears.

Savannah huffed a protest through tightly pursed lips, but handed him her plate and went to her bedroll to open her bags once again.  She opened her canteen and soaked a cloth with the cool water and dabbed it on her face to freshen up.  Then, she brushed her hair again, twirling it into a knot at the nape of her neck.  She looked up to see if Travis could see her but he was nowhere in sight so she pulled out a fresh set of clothing, which she pulled on, grimacing with the stiffness of her limbs.  In only a few minutes, she was fully dressed, her bedroll secured on her saddle and her bags repacked and ready to be attached to her saddle also.  This done, she saw that Travis was walking back to the camp with a handful of clean dishes.

As he neared his own gear, he knelt down and placed the dishes inside the saddlebag then picked up the saddle in a fluid motion, carrying it to where his Palomino stood.  He saddled the horse, and then slung the saddlebags over the horse’s haunches, securing them with the thin leather straps that hung down from the skirt of the saddle.  He slipped the bridle into Blazer’s mouth and then turned to help Savannah, who was struggling with her own saddle.