Jed's Sweet Revenge (23 page)

“Oh, my God, where is she?” Jed rasped. “Go! Go find Thena!” They took off at a lope, and he sprinted after.

When they broke from the woods and galloped headlong toward SalHaven, glowing in the sunset, Jed halted, uncertain. Here? Not here! If Thena wasn’t in this damn place, if he’d wasted precious time coming here to hunt for her when she needed him elsewhere, he’d come back later and tear the old mansion down with his bare hands, stone by stone.

He ran forward through the tall weeds of young pine trees that marked the former lawns. When he reached the curving staircases at SalHaven’s entrance, the dogs appeared above him in the dark rectangle of the door. Then he heard the quick rattle of hooves on the marble. Jed gazed up in shock as Cendrillon appeared in the door also, her head tossing wildly.

Thena was here, then. He stumbled up the steps, and the three animals pivoted back toward the mansion’s darkening interior. Jed walked swiftly through the shadowy hall.

“Thena! Thena, where are you?” he yelled at the top of his lungs.

His heart, his life, stopped when he looked down the long hallway to the pavilion beyond and saw her lying there, absolutely, deathly still. He was hardly aware of the horrified, begging words that he groaned as he ran to her and collapsed on his knees.

“Dear God, dear God, no,” he prayed, when he saw the awful, swollen ankle. One of his big hands grasped her wrist and searched frantically until the callused fingertips found a pulse. Tears of gratitude slid
down his face as he gathered her in his arms and lurched to his feet.

“Jedidiah.” Her eyes didn’t open, but the smile on her face and the sound of her faint voice wrenched a sob from him. “I love you … so. Stay with me … until I die.”

“Sweetheart … if you die, I’ll go with you.” He turned and carried her into the towering hallway, toward Cendrillon, who would carry them both back to Farlo’s boat. As he walked, Jed lifted his ravaged face and gazed around the silent old mansion. “I’ll take care of her now,” he said hoarsely. “Thank you for keepin’ her alive for me. I heard you call.”

   Thena woke to the murmuring sound of Jed’s deep voice. She lifted her head and gazed past the tied-back netting at the foot of her bed, then smiled. He sat on the floor by the open window, dressed only in cutoffs, talking amicably to the wrens on the sill. Thena tilted her head in gentle wonder—in all the time he’d spent on Sancia, he’d never conversed with the wrens before. Something cynical and resistant had changed inside him during the past few days, and she didn’t understand why.

“Jedidiah, you’re unusually appealing and sweet today, you know.”

His head jerked around at the sound of her voice. He vaulted to his feet and came to her side of the bed, then bent over her and lovingly cupped her head in his hands. His dark eyes were as warm as the autumn afternoon. “Good nap?” he asked. She nodded. “How does it feel to be back home again?”

Thena shifted her foot a little. It lay out from under the white bedspread, propped on a pillow. She sighed in contentment. “Except for being a little sore, I’m wonderful. Being back on Sancia with you makes me feel perfect.” She wrinkled her nose. “The hospital air tasted … white.”

He chuckled, and her gaze meandered over the bare, taut expanse of his chest and stomach. She put her fingertips on his mouth, then trailed them down his body. His sharp inhalation held delight, but also concern.

“Whoooa,” he urged. “You’re not well.”

“I’m practically well.” Her eyes flared with desire. “I believe I’ll chase you, if you don’t cooperate.”

His voice came out husky and very gentle. “I reckon I can’t have you doin’ that.” He slipped his cutoffs to the floor and stretched out, naked, beside her. “Let’s go real slow and careful, gal.”

“Oh, yes.”

He slid the covers off her and eased her short white nightgown—her one concession to being sick—over her head. They nestled deep into each other’s arms, touching, kissing, murmuring endearments. The weeks of separation and the restraint demanded by her weak condition combined to charge the mood with tender passion.

After an eternity of slow caresses, Jed settled slowly inside her welcoming body, bringing an ecstatic gleam to her silver eyes. They mesmerized him, and in the delicious, heated moments that followed, he gauged the way they changed, like clouds glowing brighter from the rays of an inner sun, glowing until she and he were both lost in their sheer, luminescent heaven.

Afterwards, he put on his cutoffs again and wrapped her in a blanket, then carried her to the room’s big rocker. Jed cradled her in his lap, and they listened to the lazy drone of insects outside and the rustling of the wind in the oaks. Thena nuzzled his neck.

“Jedidiah, you knew I needed you, and you came back. You were right, there aren’t any spirits on Sancia. There’s the bond between us, and that’s all that’s important. I think … I think I can go with you to Wyoming now. I was wrong to believe in spirits.”

“Ssssh, no,” he crooned. “Do you want them to hear you and get their feelin’s hurt?”

“What? Jedidiah?”

He rested his cheek on her short, dark hair, his eyes thoughtful. It was time to explain what he’d felt the other day. He spoke slowly, his voice reverent, as he explained about the strange happenings that had sent him back to her so frantically. He ended by saying, “They called me back here, Thena. I still believe in the bond between us, but I believe in your spirits too. My … grandpa … was with them the other day, lookin’ out for you … and for me.”

She leaned back and gave him a silent, richly awed look. Then she whispered, “You belong here. You know that now.”

He nodded, looking perplexed. “Is it crazy? I feel welcome now. I feel at home.”

She pointed excitedly to her old dresser, an arm’s reach away. He helped her up while she searched through the top drawer, and when she’d retrieved a faded, wrinkled photograph, he lifted her into his arms again and sat back in the rocker.

Thena held it out for him to see. “SalHaven, Jedidiah. Before the hurricane.” She paused. “I knew you’d want to see a picture, someday.”

He studied the magnificent home and lawns that had been SalHaven in its glory days. His breath caught in bittersweet appreciation, and he cleared his throat roughly. “Say, gal, how would you feel about rebuildin’ the old place? Can you picture quarter horses grazin’ out front, or is that a silly notion?”

For a startled moment Thena stared at him in happy disbelief. Then she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Yes, yes! We’ll fill SalHaven with the love it’s been waiting for all these years, Jedidiah.”

His heart felt as if it would burst from his chest. “I want to see the old place light up with happiness,” he told her gruffly. “It’ll be our home and our children’s
home and when we’re gone, we’ll leave so much love behind that the house won’t ever be empty again.”

The smile she gave him held an eternity of happiness, and he returned it with all the love in his soul. From deep in the island glades, the wind made a sacred sound, almost like a peaceful sigh.