Sins of Summer (37 page)

Her skirts were up and all that covered her flesh were her underdrawers; she felt exposed, terrified, defenseless. Pinpoints
of fire, like tiny stars, blossomed behind her tightly closed eyelids. Her fear was so suffocating that it pushed her into
a swirling black void. She hung, draped over the man’s knees, half-conscious, without thought and without pain, while the
horse trotted on through the dark night.

Odette awakened from a dream in which she was in a deep black hole and was slowly rising to the top of it. She strained to
push herself upward, but her head was too heavy and her arms were like lead bars. She wanted to hold her head with her hands,
but they were somewhere behind her and she couldn’t find them. Wincing with pain, she finally drifted up from the suffocating
pit, opened her eyes and blinked against the light from a lantern that sat on a box beside her.

She was on a dirt floor, her back against a wall, her legs out in front of her. She was looking at her feet when she became
fully alert and discovered that she was bare to the waist, her hands were tied behind her back, and two men were staring at
her.

Long black hair hung to the shoulders of one of the men. His eyes were as black as coal. He was watching her with his mouth
open and his tongue resting on his lower lip. The other man’s face was covered with a thin straggly beard, but she could see
that most of his teeth were missing.

Their mouths were moving. They were looking at her, talking about her!

“She’s waked up. Hit’s ‘bout time. Hit’s no fun humpin’ ‘er if’n she ain’t knowin’ what she’s gettin’.”

“I ain’t never had me no dummy. Rink said it was what she was.” Both squatted down beside Odette.

“Rink said ’er could talk too. I wanta hear ‘er say some-thin’.”

“Say somethin’.” The black-haired man shoved his face close to Odette’s and shouted. Odette turned her face away and closed
her eyes. The man shouted again.

“She ain’t hearin’ ya an’ yore hurtin’ my ears.”

“I get to have ’er first ’cause I carried ’er off.”

“I ain’t carin’ if ya have ’er first. Look at them titties.” Dirty fingers reached out and pinched her nipple. Odette sobbed.

“She be right pert fer a dummy.” The man scratched his crotch. “Them titties is shore purty.” Rough hands curled around the
soft breasts. “Go on, touch ‘em. They be gettin’ me all itchy.”

“Wal, scratch yore itch so I can get me a turn.”

“Rink said ta just leave ’er here when we’re done.”

“I ain’t goin’ ta be done right soon.” The black-haired man grabbed Odette’s shoulder and tried to push her over on her back.

Odette’s eyes glazed over in fear. She turned and twisted in an effort to get away from her tormentor. The man bending over
her no longer looked human. His mouth was open with lust, and spittle ran from the corner. She lashed out with her feet and
tried to butt him with her head. A slap sent her head reeling back against the wall.

James! James, I love you
—

As her ankles were grabbed and her legs pulled apart, a scream of terror tore from her throat. It was the first sound she
had made. The men were startled; they paused and stared at her as if she were from another world.

“Shee-it! The bangtail can holler. This’s goin’ ta be a real set-to. Ain’t nothin’ like dippin’ yore pecker in a woman what—”

The black-haired man had spoken his last words. A big red splotch appeared on the side of his face and he fell across Odette’s
legs. She screamed and sobbed in terror as the bearded man, the top of his head a bloody pulp, was suddenly flung back against
the wall. A beloved face floated into her field of vision as darkness engulfed her.

James lifted the black-haired man off Odette and fiung him as if he were a rotten carcass. He knelt down beside her, gathered
her in his arms and pulled her dress up to cover her breasts.

“Is she all right?” Ben covered her legs with her skirts.

“Untie her hands, then get away from her,” James snarled. “I’ve got more right to her than you have.”

“We’ll not argue that now.” Ben slipped out of his coat. “Put this around her.”

“I’m here, darlin’ girl. It’s James. Don’t cry. You’re safe with James.”

James turned Odette’s face up to him, hoping she would see the movement of his lips. When Odette became aware that it was
James who was holding her, she wrapped her arms around him and sobs shook her slender body. He held her and kissed her and
loved her.

“Darlin’girl.” he whispered in her ear. “I know you can’t hear me, but I’ve got to tell you that I’ve been through hell tonight.
I died over and over. Sweetheart, I don’t know how I’m going to live without you. All my life I’ve dreamed of someone like
you—sweet, gentle, loving. I know you were hurt today when I didn’t come back, but that goddamn Ben told me something that
knocked the wind out of me.”

Odette felt his lips move against her ear and knew he was talking to her. She had never before wanted so desperately to hear
as she did at this moment. She moved her lips against his neck and hugged him with all her strength.

“I’m going to marry you, darlin’. I don’t give a hoot in hell if it’s against the law. We can’t have the family we wanted.
It wouldn’t be right. There’s ways for us to love each other without making babies. I’m not strong enough to be with you and
not want you that way.”

Ben rode up beside them. “Is she all right?”

“She’s all right. Go on.”

“I’ll follow you.”

“Goddammit! Get the hell away. This is my time with her!”

Ben shook his head and walked his horse on down the trail. James was an angry man. He was angry at the hand fate had dealt
him. Ben couldn’t fault him for that. The man had been half-wild with worry when he had charged into that hut and killed those
two men. He might have killed Rink too: Rink had been bleeding like a stuck hog when they left. The only thing that had saved
Milo was that he had passed out. His day would come.

When Ben reached the house, he stopped the horse as soon as he came out of the woods and yelled his name. Dory and Wiley were
on the porch when he reached it.

“We found her and she’s all right.” He dismounted and tied his horse to a post.

“Where is she?” Dory asked anxiously.

“She’s coming with James.”

“I’ve been so worried.” Dory went back into the kitchen and sank down in a chair. “Who took her? I know she didn’t wander
off by herself.”

“One of Milo’s top dogs hired a couple of timber bums to steal her. It was to scare her, he said. When we found her, they
were fixing to rape her. James killed both of them while I was getting my gun out of the holster.”

“That poor little thing,” Dory said. “I know she was scared half out of her mind.”

“I’d hate bein’ in Milo’s shoes when James gets ta him.” Wiley had leaned his shotgun against the wall and eased down in a
chair. “That Rink’s got no sense a-tall. He follers along like a cur dog a hopin’ fer a handout.”

“He’s going to be limping for a while if he walks at all,” Ben said. He went on to explain how James had forced the confession
out of Rink.

“I hope James… ruined him good and proper.” Now that she was over her fright, Dory was angry.

“There’s a good chance of that. A very good chance.”

“What about the dead men? Will James be in trouble with the marshal?”

“Tinker and some of his men are burying them. That should be the end of it.”

“Wal, if ya be stayin’ here, Ben, I’ll be takin’ me off ta bed.” Wiley stood and reached for his shotgun. “Lucifer! It’s plumb
queer what all’s been goin’ on.”

“It should be over soon, Wiley. Things are coming to a head.” Ben spoke evenly, his eyes on Dory.

Dory waited until Wiley went out the door before turning frosty eyes to Ben.

“I’m surprised that you let James bring Odette home, considering your attitude toward his courting her.”

“I had no choice. It was either back off or fight.”

Dory looked steadily at him. “You’re a cold man, Ben. Cold and… possessive.”

“You think I want to keep her with me, hold onto her? You think that’s why I’m against a match with James? You’re wrong, Dory.”

“What made you decide that I’m good enough for you when my brother isn’t good enough for your daughter?”

Ben studied the stubborn look on her face and decided that now wasn’t the time to try to reason with her. Hell, he should
have known that it wasn’t going to work out between them. If Dory went away with him, there would still be that contact with
James. It would take a long time for Odette to get over him, if ever.

She was looking at him, waiting for him to answer her question. Her brown curls tumbled about her face and framed her dark-circled
eyes. Tears that she was too proud to allow to surface brightened them. She was hurting. It was a shining pain he saw in her
eyes and a reaction to an intimacy that should not have happened. Of this Ben was dismally certain.

What could he say in the short time they had before James arrived with Odette?

His silence pushed Dory into a sense of helplessness that threatened to destroy her composure. To further question his motives
was useless, She began to sink lower and lower into the deep pit of loneliness where she had lived for so long. Unable to
sit still, she got up and went to the door. The awkward silence was suddenly relieved by the sound of a snorting horse. Dory
stepped out onto the porch to greet her brother.

“Come hold onto her, Sis. I don’t know if she can stand.”

Ben had followed Dory to the porch. He stepped out ahead of her and lifted Odette down. He stood her on her feet and then
helped her up onto the porch. She clung to him for a moment.

“Papa. Oh, Papa, I was scared.” She hugged him tightly, then reached out to Dory. “I’m glad to be home, Dory.”

“Oh, honey,” Dory murmured. “You poor little thing.” She could see the blur in the darkness that was Ben’s face. He looked
lonely standing there, like an outsider.
What are you thinking? Can’t you see that we love her and she loves us?
She felt tears burn her eyes and after a long look at him, she turned Odette toward the door.

Ben waited until the women were inside the house, then untied his horse from the porch post and led him to the corral beside
the barn. James was there.

“Thanks for what you did tonight,” Ben said as he lifted the saddle from his horse.

“I didn’t do anything for you.”

“I know that.”

“I love her, you stupid son of a bitch.”

“Watch your mouth,” Ben growled. “I’ve had about as much of your lip as I’m going to take.”

“I suppose you’ll take her and run.”

“Not until I explain to Dory. I took on the responsibility of caring for Odette. I can’t let my own personal feelings interfere
with that.”

“I’m going to marry her.”

“Like hell you are. It’s against the law.”

“You can’t prove one of my half-brothers fathered her.”

“No, I can’t. But it’s likely. Do you want to see her fall to pieces when she gives birth to a half-wit?”

“Goddammit! Anyone with half an eye could see that she couldn’t be part of one of
them.”

“That’s what I thought when I looked at Dory. Yet the same blood flows in her veins that flows in theirs.”

For a long while they faced each other, with Ben vainly trying to find words that would fill the void and make James understand
that he was trying to do what was best for Odette.

“You don’t quit, do you?”

“I can’t afford to.”

After James closed the corral gate and carried his saddle to the barn, he went to the house. Ben leaned against the rails
and looked at a sky full of stars. A light shone from the upstairs window. Dory would comfort Odette. She needed a woman after
the ordeal she had been through. The look in her wild frightened eyes when they burst into that shack and saw that filthy
pig on top of her would stay with Ben for the rest of his life. If James hadn’t killed them, he would have.

What to do now? Dory and he, James and Odette, all had been caught up in events that were not of their making.

Ben wasn’t a man who acted without thought. He owed Dory an explanation. He also owed one to Odette, but he was undecided
about how much to tell her. Should he put it to her straight that he might not be her father? Would she be able to handle
it or would she retreat into the silent, timid girl she was when they came here?

Ben moved toward the house, paused at the edge of the porch and waited. When Dory came into the kitchen and sat down at the
table, he went into the house. Her eyes were bleak. The skin on her face was white beneath the fading bruises. Ben realized
that she had lost considerable weight this past week.

“How is she?” Ben asked.

“She’ll be all right. James is sitting with her. They deserve this time together,” she added, as if expecting him to contradict
her. He didn’t. He reached for her hand and pulled her to her feet.

“Come with me. I want to talk to you where we won’t be interrupted.” He wrapped a shawl around her shoulders.

Dory allowed him to lead her out of the house and into a night lit by a million stars.

Ben was not sure where he was going to take Dory when they left the house. He only knew that he wanted to be alone with her.
He damned his heart for beating so fast that it made him feel like a callow youth.

“Is it too cold for you out here?”

“No. The shawl is warm.”

“I’ll get a blanket from my bedroll.” Keeping her close to him, he opened the barn door.

With a blanket beneath his arm they went back out into the starlit night and walked to the open shed where the wagon was kept.
Ben spread the blanket on the end of it. Then, as if she weighed no more than Jeanmarie, he lifted Dory up to sit on the tailgate.

“From here I can keep an eye on the house. I don’t think anyone will show up, but I want to know it if they do.”

“The family has finally broken apart. I don’t know what James will do when he sees Milo.”