The Woman They Kept (22 page)

Harold cleared his throat, a
spoonful of stew halfway to his mouth. “Rolanda went out
after you two.”

Gideon paled, his face falling.
“Leanin had gone pretty far into the woods, is she back?”

He chewed at the stew slowly,
his eyes locked on Gideon's. “She is. Said she couldn't find
you two, and that she was going to go to bed, said she was tired.
She looked it, too.”

Gideon nodded. “I don't
think I'm hungry, I think I may wash in the lake and then follow
her.”

Leanin grinned, her face was
flush and lively, her eyes bright. “Well, I'm not tired at
all.” She took the bowl meant for Gideon and added it to her
own, spooning the stew into her mouth with little sighs of joy. “I
seem to have had some energy injected right into me. Harold, do you
have any more of that honey beer?”

His face brightened and he
smiled. “Of course, never let myself get below a few barrels
of the stuff. I'll grab us some mugs, I could go for a glass
myself.” He stood from the table and disappeared into a back
room.

Gideon excused himself and went
outside, following a path around the back of the house. The
chickens and goats were in an enclosed shed, locked away in the
night, safe from the predators of the forest. The trail led away
from the house and down a hill, through a sparse patch of trees and
eventually to a body of water. It was a small lake, he could
clearly see the other side, but it was calm and cool, shining
obsidian and reflecting the myriad of stars above him. A wooden
pier stuck out into the lake and Gideon sat at the edge of it,
dangling his feet in the water. Little fishes nibbled at his toes,
tickling him.

In his stillness the spicy
cinnamon smell of her wafted off him. It was exotic and foreign,
further confusing his senses. He stood and jumped off the pier,
desperate for some clarity. The water shocked him with a blast of
cold, his skin tingling in the rapid change in temperature. The
lake wasn't deep, he stood on the bottom, little rocks jabbing into
the soft flesh of his feet. He stood for a long time, the moon and
stars shining twice, once overhead and once reflected under him, and
he tried not to think of anyone or anything. It was nice to just
exist for a few moments outside of any need or desire.

When he got back to the house
Leanin, Harold, and Rheannon were sitting on the front stoop
drinking their honey beers. He waved to them and ducked inside
before a conversation could be started, heading straight to his
room.

He did not turn the lights on
once he got to the bedroom, instead feeling his way in the dark to
the bed. There was a lump on one side, Rolanda was curled up with
the covers pulled over her head. He undressed quietly and got in
bed beside her, pulling the covers down slightly and kissing her on
the back of the head.

Her voice came out low and even
when she spoke to him. “I'm tired, Gideon.”

He leaned back against the
headrest. “Well, this is the perfect place to be tired. I
bet Harold would even let us sleep in tomorrow after the hard day we
put in today.”

Rolanda stirred. “That's
not what I mean. I get to a point where I think that maybe I've got
this all behind me, and then I see things that can't happen, and I
start to wonder if they're real. You can't know what it's like to
question your own senses.”

Gideon swallowed hard, his heart
was racing in his chest so loudly he was sure she could hear. “Go
to sleep, Rolanda. You'll feel better in the morning. It's a long
path, but I'll be here to help you through the bad parts.”

The covers shifted towards her,
exposing Gideon's leg to the chill of the night. Soon Rolanda's
breathing was steady and smooth, he was sure that she had fallen
asleep. It had happened, Gideon told himself, and now it was time
to move on. Rolanda needed him to be there for her, but what did he
need?

As much as he had washed, the
scent of Leanin still clung to him. He replayed it in his mind, the
hardness of her muscles working against his, even when he was inside
her she had gripped at him, as though every part of her wanted to
hold on. His thoughts were filled with the urgency of it. The
need.

He fell asleep and
dreamed of her.

Gideon woke early the next day,
the house was quiet and still. He went for a walk through the
trees, inhaling deeply the cold freshness of the air. Drops of dew
clung to the tips of leaves, raining down on him as he pushed the
branches aside. Everything felt so clean and new.

Noticing a little patch of dark
purple flowers he stopped and gathered a handful of them. The
sudden urge to be with Rolanda grabbed him, strongly and
irrationally. He wanted to be by her side as she woke, to kiss her
softly on her eyelids and cheeks as she had done for him. He ran
back to the house.

She was buried deeply in the
covers when he knelt by her side, the only bit of her sticking out
was her nose. He pulled down the blanket as softly and gently as
his excitement would allow. This was a good feeling, a clean
feeling.

“
I picked these for you,”
he said as he thrust the flowers into her face.

Rolanda opened her eyes
slightly, squinting in the light, her hair frazzled and falling into
her face. When she saw the flowers she smiled. “Thank you,
Gideon. I had the most horrible dream, I dreamed that you and
Leanin were spiders and I was stuck in your web, there were so many
legs all over, they were everywhere.”

For a moment Gideon's smile fell
and then was back. He kissed her on the forehead. “You seem
to have developed a new fear for spiders. I'll kill them if I see
them.”

Rheannon and Leanin were just
sitting down at the table when Gideon and Rolanda emerged from their
room. Harold knelt by the fireplace, coaxing the embers back to
life with a pile of twigs and some of the freshly cut logs.

“
Well,” Gideon said,
“I think today would be a good day to start looking for a
build site. Harold, do you think that you could show me a few
possible places that we could stake out?”

“
Are you going to try and
build a place here, then?” Rheannon asked.

Gideon looked between Leanin and
Rolanda. “I am. And I hope these two will stay as well.”
He put a hand on Rolanda's shoulder and she reached up to hold him.
Leanin was smiling at them, a laugh in her eyes.

“
Do you want to come pick
out the build site?” Gideon asked Rolanda.

She gave him a weak smile. Her
eyes were strained and tense at the corners, the whites blood-shot
and bleary. “No, I'm not feeling well today. I think I'd
better stay here until I can get my thoughts straightened out.”

Rheannon cocked an eyebrow at
her and pulled her up out of her chair. “I knew something
wasn't quite right. Let me take you to bed and set you up with
something warm to drink.”

Rolanda nodded to her. “You
don't have to mother me, I just have to think on a few things.”

Leading her back to the bedroom,
Rheannon grabbed a deerskin blanket from a bin in the corner and
wrapped her up in it. “Oh, come now. I never got the chance
to be a mother, let me have a little bit of fun now.”

Gideon watched her go until he
felt a light touch rubbing the inside of his thigh. Leanin was
staring at him, the laugh still in her eyes, her foot gently
caressing him under the table.

“
I'll go with you, Gideon.
I've got nothing better to do today.”

Harold looked between the two
before shrugging. “Well, let's be off then, no sense in
wasting any time.”

...

He led them on a path through
the woods, stopping every now and again to show Gideon open areas
that might be good to set up in.

“
What are you going to do
in this?” Harold asked Leanin. “Are you thinking about
a separate house, or would you join them? Are you staying in
Meadowood?”

Leanin and Gideon looked to each
other. Gideon glanced away quickly and Leanin just smiled. “I
think that we would all try to get a place together, just one big
happy family,” she said.

“
Do you think Rolanda
would be alright with that?” Harold asked, stepping over a
particularly large log that had fallen into their path. “It's
my experience that most women don't really fancy competition about.
They can get territorial like that.”

Leanin picked up a stick from
the brush and brandished it like a sword, swinging it here and
there. “I helped save her, I think she can deal with me
living in her house.”

That stopped Harold and he
turned. One of his bushy eyebrows was raised. “Save her from
what?”

Gideon paled and he tried to
push past Harold. “It's nothing.”

“
Why should it matter if
Harold knows?” Leanin asked. “We're running from a man
named Akem Manah. He's not terribly happy with us at the moment.”

Harold scratched at his beard.
“I never heard of the guy. We ain't on any maps, though, so
unless he stumbles across here like you guys, he won't find you.
What did you do to him that's got him gunning for you?”

Gideon chewed at the inside of
his lip. “In his mind? We stole his property.” He
tried once again to keep moving.

The big man wouldn't budge.
“You don't seem like thieves. What did you steal?”

“
Not what,” Leanin
said. “Who.” She placed a hand on Gideon's shoulder.
“Akem kidnapped Rolanda a while back and...”

“
That's enough, Leanin!”
Gideon said, throwing her hand away. “He doesn't need to
know all the details.” He turned to Harold. “He took
Rolanda. We took her back.”

Tugging at his beard, Harold's
eyes widened and he cleared his throat. A flush reddened his
cheeks. “Well, like I said, he'd be hard pressed to find you
here.” Finally he turned and kept walking.

They crested a hill and a meadow
opened up under them. There was a small pond on one side rippling
in the breeze. The grass was long and green, the trees circling
them at a fair distance, leaving the area open to the sun.

“
This is perfect,”
Gideon said. In his mind the house rose before him, with all its
possibilities laid bare. He could see the porch where they would
spend time after meals, the three of them holding hands and sitting
in rocking chairs. There could be a vegetable garden around back,
if they had children down the road they could chase chickens and
goats in the yard. “Does anyone have claim to this spot?”

“
Nope,” Harold said.
“It was one that we considered when we were first settling
here, we went with the other because it had a larger body of water.
It'd be a good place, though, and we would be just down the road.”

Gideon and Leanin walked to the
edge of the pond and peered in, there were lily pads and shadows of
fish scurrying around.

Harold's stomach rumbled loudly
and he blushed, holding a hand to it. “I think my belly's
trying to tell me something. I'm going to head on home for some
lunch, do you guys want to come or do you want to check out the land
a little more?”

“
You go on ahead,”
said Leanin, “we'll catch up in a bit. I want to take a
better look around.”

Harold shrugged. “Alright,
well our place is through that path there,” he said, pointing
back where they came, “you should be able to just follow it
back.” He waved to them and disappeared into the trees.

Gideon sat by the edge of the
pond and removed his shoes, dunking his feet into the water and
sighing with pleasure. “What do you think?”

Leanin sat behind him and
wrapped her legs around his torso, stroking her fingers through his
hair. “I think it's perfect.”

He frowned and pushed her away.
“I thought that was just a one time thing. I can't make a
habit of it, I'm engaged to Rolanda, you know that.”

Leanin smiled at him. “I
do. I also know that in a moment when I lean over and kiss you, you
won't stop me.” She pushed him back onto the grass and
pressed her body against his, her dark hair falling into his face,
and she kissed him. It was true, he didn't stop her.

...

Back at the house Rolanda began
to weep. Rheannon held her hand as the little sniffles turned into
sobs and then gasps for breath, the emotional floodgates bursting
wide open. She patted her hand and said nothing.

“
I
don't know that I can handle this,” Rolanda said. “I've
got these...
things
crawling around inside my brain, they're putting thoughts and sights
that I know aren't there and making me watch and listen. I didn't
used to be this way, they put something in me and I've changed.”

“
Who? Who put something
in you?” Rheannon asked.

“
If I think about him
he'll know where we are,” Rolanda said, burying her face in
her hands.

Rhea pulled her close and held
her, rubbing her back slowly and humming a song. They stayed that
way for a long time before Rolanda spoke again.