CARNAL, The Beast Who Loved Me (14 page)

“What?”

He raised an eyebrow as if to say he didn’t have the patience for games. “How did you throw the cat against that wall?”

“How do you think? I picked it up and threw it.”

“That’s not what I saw.”

“Then that
thing
must have lulled you into a fugue state with that obnoxious sound it was making.”

Carnal looked confused. “You mean purring?”

“Yes. That.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, I can’t help that.”

Carnal shrugged. “Okay. What can you help with?”

“You want something else?”

“Yes. I have an itch.”

“I saw a backscratcher in the cistern shower.”

“Not that kind of itch.”

“Let me put it another way. I can’t help you with
any
kind of itch.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Why not? Your man isn’t around. And he’s not gonna be around. You said so yourself.”

She laughed. “That doesn’t make me automatically available.”

“Maybe not. But it does make you game. If you were mine, I’d never let you get away.”

She shook her head. “Moot point because I’m not ever going to be yours, Carnal.”

He smiled. “My mother is under the impression that I owe you an apology.”

“Hmmm.”

“I’m going to take that to mean you agree. So. Here I am saying sorry. I didn’t intend to make you feel unwanted.”

Rosie cocked her head to the side as Exiled so often did. When she realized she was unconsciously mimicking the gesture, she straightened.

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to vet the people teaching your children.”

Carnal waited. When she said nothing more, he said, “But it’s not my place to do that. It’s Serene’s.”

“That’s between the two of you. I don’t have hard feelings about it.”

“Hard feelings. Yeah.” He looked around, took another drink, and said, “I don’t want you to have hard feelings.”

“Well I don’t.” He nodded. “So was there something else?”

“Yeah.” One side of his mouth lifted in a cocky smile. “I thought we might get together.”

Rosie’s brow furrowed. “Get together. You mean like on a date.”

“Not sure what that is, but I’m pretty sure you know what I mean.”

Rosie laughed in his face. “From what I hear you’ve got hordes of girls vying to
date
you. I don’t think ‘getting together’ with me is a great idea.”

Carnal grinned. “How old are you, Rosie?”

“Fourteen months. Why?”

He laughed. “No reason. I’d want to get together with you no matter how old you are. You don’t have to tell me your age.”

“Told you, Carnal. Go wade through the masses who are clawing for your attention.”

“Had my fill of chicklets. I want you.”

“Well, you can’t always get what you want.”

He gave her a look that transformed his face from ruggedly handsome to mesmerizing. “I’m pretty sure I can.” He grinned.

Rosie just shook her head and turned back to pretend working. After a period of silence she heard the door swoosh open and closed.

When she left the Commons at four-thirty, he was waiting outside and fell into step beside her.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Walking you to the Extant’s house.”

“Carnal.” She chuffed. “It’s a three minute walk.”

“Not far enough for you to object then.”

“What’s your game?”

“You.”

“I don’t want to be your game.” He opened his mouth to reply, but she cut him off, saying, “And don’t tell me everybody wants to be your game.”

He smiled. “I wasn’t going to say that. I was going to say I’m going to give you a chance to change your mind. An open-ended chance.”

“Very magnanimous of you.” Rosie stopped suddenly. “You know what? I’m not going back to your house. I’m going over to the Weavers’ Barn.” She reversed her direction. “So see you later if you’ll be at dinner.”

Carnal stayed with her. She looked up at him. He was easily eight inches taller and seemed to tower over her.

“I’d just as soon walk you to the barn.”

“Suit yourself, but it’s a waste of your time.”

“Time spent with you is not a waste, Rosie.”

She was thinking that reply, while sweet enough to make the heart flutter, was a little too smooth to be trusted.

“You can walk where you want, Carnal, but it won’t get you anywhere with me.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one thing, I’m not interested in being yesterday’s news.”

That literally stopped Carnal in his tracks. He stopped. Rosie kept walking. She looked back over her shoulder once, but didn’t break her stride until she was inside the Weavers’ Barn.

She began a slow walk down the aisle and back, trying to decide what class she would visit. In the end, she decided on a methodical approach. She would spend a day in every class beginning with the seven-year-olds. After making her way back down to the far end of the building, just before she reached the nursery and preschool, she entered the classroom quietly, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. The teacher, who was sitting in a tiny chair in a circle with her small class, looked up and smiled.

“Look,” she said to her charges, “we have a visitor. This is Rosie.”

“Hello,” Rosie said.

“We’re going to go around the circle and tell Rosie our names. You start, Daisy.”

“I’m Daisy,” said the little girl. “Are you human?”

“Yes,” Rosie answered. “And you’re mostly human.”

“I am?” The child looked astonished.

Rosie laughed. “That’s right.”

She wasn’t sure the teacher approved of her answer, but Rosie’s philosophy of teaching, newly formed within the previous second, was that the truth is what should be taught, regardless of the age of the student.

After introductions, the teacher said, “We’re identifying animals, their names, the sounds they make, whether or not they’re friendly to us, that kind of thing.”

Rosie nodded and took a seat far enough away from the circle to be forgotten by the kids, but not far enough away so that she couldn’t hear and observe the interaction. As it turned out, the school day ended at five. So she wasn’t there long, but she felt she had a feeling for what it would be like to teach seven-year-olds and she wasn’t sure it was a ‘fit’.

Carnal was at dinner at the Extant’s house that night and again the overall mood seemed elevated because of that. His simple presence energized the atmosphere.

“Rosie visited level two today,” said Serene.

“You did?” Charming asked.

Rosie nodded as she took a spoonful of mutton and cabbage. “I did.”

“What was it like?” Charming looked seriously interested.

“Well, they’re beautiful, of course.” Rosie noticed that her comment seemed to make all four members of the Extant’s family slightly uncomfortable. She wondered if they were prickly about the fact that they were the result of DNA tampering and selective breeding. “But they’re also bright, inquisitive, and eager to learn.”

It was evident that her latter comment made her dinner companions seem both pleased and proud.

“What made you pick level two?” Serene asked.

“I walked up and down and finally decided to be methodical. My plan is to visit every level, in order, one a day.”

Serene looked sincerely impressed. “A very sound and well-conceived approach. I’m so pleased that you’re looking into my offer.”

Carnal took a drink without taking his eyes away from Rosie. He said nothing. He simply stared with a mix of amusement and something hard to pinpoint, intrigue maybe.

When nothing more was said on the matter, Free turned to Charming. “Any more issues with cramping?”

Charming looked embarrassed. “No. It was a fluke.”

“That’s good.”

“That is good.” Carnal turned to Charming chuckling. “I wouldn’t want it to get around that my little brother has problems with
cramps
.”

“Grow up,” Charming said to Carnal, just before he lunged at his brother, taking the two of them to the floor wrestling in spite of being tangled up in Carnal’s chair.

Serene looked at Free with pleading in her eyes. With a sigh, he rose, stepped over to the scene that had Rosie looking on open-mouthed and separated his sons in a maneuver that was obviously practiced until tried and true.

He spoke with his authoritarian voice and, for the first time, Rosie could see how and why Free was leader of the Exiled.

“Sit down and behave or eat outside on the dirt with the dogs and chickens.”

Charming glanced at Rosie red-faced. Carnal looked at Rosie and smiled without the tiniest hint of remorse or embarrassment. She suspected it would take a lot to embarrass someone with Carnal’s exaggerated self-esteem.

Rosie left for work the next morning with her shawl pulled around her, but when she stepped outside, she was pleasantly surprised to find the weather had turned mild. She could see from the short distance that lumber and supplies were stacked outside the front of the Commons. Men were already working on erecting a buffer room.

“Who’s the architect?” she asked.

“You mean the planner?” She turned, hearing Carnal’s familiar, teasing voice.

“Yes. The planner then.”

“This is Rail.” Carnal pointed to one of the men. He had the more unusual jet black hair like Free and piercing yellow-green eyes. Rail nodded in greeting.

“Rail. How do you do? I was wondering if you’d be open to an improvement on my original suggestion.”

“Ah.” He looked at Carnal. “Yeah. I guess.”

“Well,” Rosie went on. “If you make a long rectangular porch, and put a door at either end, instead of one door in front of the interior door? I think it would hold the warmth better.”

Rail looked toward the building. “We could do that. We’d need to build another door since we’re talking about two instead of one, but that’s not a big problem.”

Rosie gave Rail a bewitching smile, which Carnal didn’t care for, before heading into the Commons.

Dandy had left the door open since it was such a beautiful day.

“Hey,” Rosie said.

“Good morning.” Dandy looked up. “No need to start the fire. It’s nice today. If it gets cooler, Scar can do it himself.”

“Works for me.”

Before Rosie went about her usual chores, she asked, “Is Carnal part of the carpentry crew? I thought he was a fighter.”

“Don’t be dense.”

“What does that mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious? He’s helping with the build out so he’ll be visible to
you
.”

Rosie had nothing to say to that because, based on what Carnal had said, it was likely true.

By mid-morning, Carnal had taken off his shirt. He managed to situate himself so that he was usually working right in front of the open door and, as likely planned, Rosie had a hard time keeping her eyes away from the rippling muscles on display in a spectacular demonstration of male exhibitionism. Whenever he caught her looking, he smiled like a cat sneaking cream.

The workers cleared a path for the lunch crowd, as promised, and came inside for some well-deserved hot meals. Carnal sat at the bar and watched Rosie work while he ate, never taking his eyes off her. He noticed that she called every one of the regulars by name and often exchanged some pleasantry, asking about a wife or child or a chicken that wasn’t laying. He also noticed that she seemed to be well-liked in return.