The Royal Handmaid (18 page)

“I guess so, but it’s going to be tough making it out here.”

Rena started to answer when she heard a shout, and both turned quickly. “Look,” she said, “Travis is back with the others. C’mon. Let’s see what they’ve caught.”

She ran back toward camp, where she and Dalton saw the three men dragging the two goats and the kid.

“You got them!” Maggie was saying. “How’d you do it?”

“It was Pete here mostly. He’s a cowboy—well, a goat boy, I guess you’d say now,” Travis said, grinning. “We drove ’em into a valley, and he just dropped a rope over them. But they’re the stubbornest critters I ever saw.”

“How are you gonna keep ’em here?” Captain Barkley asked as the crew gathered around the goats.

Oscar Blevins knelt down and picked up the kid, which struggled to get away for a moment, then looked into Oscar’s face and bleated piteously. “You’re all right, little fella,” he said.

“I expect we’ll have to make a pen of some kind, but it’s too late today,” Travis said. “Why don’t we just keep ’em tied up for now?”

“Now we can have milk in our coffee!” Karl Benson exclaimed. “It’s almost like being civilized.”

“As long as the coffee holds out,” Professor Dekker grunted.

Meredith was trying to pet the nanny. “Here,” she said
with a laugh, “I think I’ll call you Eve, and we can call the male Adam.”

“Who is the kid? Cain or Abel?” Maggie asked with a smirk.

“Call ’em anything you want,” Shep said. “There’s plenty more where these came from. We can get quite a herd.” Shep smiled around at the group. “It’ll be good to have food we can count on.”

****

Building the pen for the goats the next day was fairly simple. The men all joined in, cutting saplings and weaving them together with wire they had salvaged from the ship. It was a small pen, so during the day they staked the goats out where they could graze. It had provided a break from the monotony of their lives and given them a bit of hope. They had all sampled the milk and decided they needed more females, so a new expedition was planned after a bigger holding pen had been constructed. Most of the ship’s crew were working on the construction, and even Karl Benson joined in, while Professor Dekker stood and watched, offering his advice.

Rena had been happy with their progress, but her contentment was shattered when Jimmy Townsend came to her at the end of the week with disturbing news. He found her late one afternoon standing on the beach, staring out over the water.

“Rena, I’ve got to talk to you.”

Rena could tell from his tone that something was wrong. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s Abby.” Jimmy’s usually carefree boyish face looked troubled. He stared at the ground for a moment, and when he lifted his eyes, Rena saw the anxiety there. “She’s going to have a baby,” he said.

“Oh, Jimmy! Are you certain?”

“Yes, it’s true. She’s waited long enough to know, but I’d feel better if Karl examined her just to make sure she’s healthy and the baby’s okay.”

“When do you think the baby is due?”

“Abby says maybe the middle or end of March.”

“Everything’s going to be fine, Jimmy. We’ll be rescued long before then, and you and Abby can go back to the States.”

“But what if you’re wrong and we’re still here? She can’t have a baby out here. She’s not as tough as you are, Rena.”

“We’ll all take care of her, and you’ll have a healthy child.”

“Abby’s scared witless about having the baby and what’ll happen afterward.”

“It’ll be all right,” Rena assured him. “Let me talk to Karl. I’ll have him look at her.”

She went off to talk to Karl, who was on the other end of the beach, squatting on a weed-covered rock beside a shallow pool. He had baited his hook with a bit of meat, weighted it with a bolt, and thrown it out into the deep water on the other side of the rock.

“I’ve got to talk to you, Karl,” she said as she approached him.

“What is it?” Benson asked. He was a lonely man, tall with very light blue eyes and a crop of tawny hair. He had always reminded Rena of the paintings of Vikings she had seen, and at one time she had fancied herself attracted to him. That had passed, however, for he kept himself shut off from others almost as if he had posted a big sign on his chest that read KEEP OUT.

“It’s about Abby. Jimmy says she’s pregnant.”

“I was pretty sure she was,” he murmured.

“You’ll have to help her, Karl.”

“How many times do I have to tell you people? I’m not a doctor.”

“But you were going to be.”

“Yes, but it’s not the same thing.”

Rena tried to persuade him, but as Karl continued stubbornly to resist, she grew angry. “What kind of a man are you, Karl? You call yourself a Christian, don’t you? And here is one
of your own in trouble. You have more medical knowledge than any of us. You have to help her.”

Benson stared at her with an unreadable expression. Finally he felt a tug on the line and turned back to pull in what he’d caught. She watched him pull in a fish almost a foot long, and then she repeated, “You must help her, Karl, you
must!
”

“I’m not a doctor,” Benson repeated. “
You
help her. It’s a woman’s business.”

Rena stared at Benson, unable to believe what she was hearing. “You’re a sorry excuse for a man, Karl Benson!” she exclaimed. She turned around and walked back down the beach, her back stiff and disappointment filling her.

Benson stared at her for a long time, then removed the fish, tossed it back in, and began walking the other direction down the lonely beach.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A Lesson in Humility

Chipoa, who was never called anything but Chip by the castaways, had become the most valuable member of the party. He was good at finding food and could point out which roots were safe and which ones were poisonous. Travis had gone fishing with him and caught an odd- looking fish about a foot long with a small mouth and a strange square body. Travis looked at the odd black-and-white checkered fish. “What’s this, Chip?”

“A
huehue,
” Chip said. “There’s poison in them.”

“Poison!” Travis started to throw the fish back, but Chip stopped him.

“Don’t throw it back. The flesh is sweet and wholesome if the gallbladder is removed. The gall’s without color and has no strong taste, but a few drops of it will kill a man.”

Travis shook his head. “I don’t think we want to fool with that,” he said.

But Chip insisted that he would gladly eat it, so the two brought their catch back to the camp. Chip told the group he was going to go looking for eggs out on the cliff over to the east.

“Eggs? That sounds good,” Meredith said. “Can I go along?”

“It’s pretty dangerous up there,” Chip said, “but I guess you could come if you think you’re up to it.”

“I want to go too,” Rena was quick to put in. She had become quite jealous of Meredith, for the other woman had
adjusted more easily to the hardships of island life and had often gone out on expeditions with the men.

Travis looked up from where he was laying the checkered fish out to be cleaned. “Why don’t we all go?” he said. “It’ll be kind of like an Easter egg hunt.”

Chip laughed, his white teeth gleaming against his olive skin. “I don’t think it’ll be quite that much fun,” he said. “And like I said, it’s dangerous.”

He could not have said anything that would have challenged Rena more, and soon the four of them headed for the cliffs, having turned the checkered fish over to Oscar, who had received very specific instructions from Chip on how to clean it. They each carried a canvas bag tied with a cord.

The sun was high in the sky as the four went along, Chip leading the way with Meredith and followed by Rena and Travis. They first made their way up the hill behind their camp, then walked eastward, where they could approach the cliffs from the top. When they reached the high cliffs that plunged straight down to the beach, Chip walked right over to the edge and looked down. “Lots of eggs,” he announced. “Not so easy to get.”

“That’s quite a drop,” Meredith said. “Where are the birds?”

“The wind and water make holes in the cliffs. The birds nest in them,” Chip said.

Travis and Rena joined them. “Wow,” Travis said, “that
is
a drop! How do you get down?”

“Oh, it’s not as steep as it looks,” Chip said, shrugging his shoulders indifferently. “Come along. I’ll show you.” He looped his bag around his neck and started to climb down. He had gone about ten feet when he said, “Here, these will be good.”

Travis was still peering over the edge, but Meredith eagerly followed, with a sack tied around her own neck, and soon she and Chip were moving along the face of the cliff. They
both were laughing and seemed to have developed a contest as to who could get the most eggs.

Rena came to the cliff edge very cautiously, standing as far away as she could, and leaned over. She did not want to admit it to Travis, but she was uncomfortable in high places. At least, that was what she called it—”uncomfortable.” In fact, she was terrified.

“Look at Meredith sticking to that cliff,” Travis said with admiration. “She’s like a fly on the wall.”

Rena looked at him. “Meredith has a lot of talents, doesn’t she?”

Travis was surprised and turned to face her. “Why, yes, I guess she does. She’s one of the smartest women I’ll ever know.”

“And attractive too.”

“Well,” Travis said with a shrug, “yes, she is, but I wasn’t thinking about that. I was thinking about how few women would go down a cliff like that. I’m not too good at heights myself.”

Rena was a proud young woman who felt that she needed to excel in everything. She stood looking down, then forced her fears away and said, “I think I’ll go help them. It looks like fun.”

Travis, however, had noticed that Rena was a bit pale. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. Let them do the egg gathering. You and I can go fishing.”

“You think I’m afraid?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t say it, but you thought it. I’m going down.”

Taking a deep breath, Rena forced herself to climb down onto the cliff face. She kept her eye on the ledge beneath her, with her face turned toward the cliff so she would not have to look down at the water. She never removed her hands from the wall, and soon she had descended about twenty feet. She took a different direction from the other two, and when she found a hole she was afraid to put her hand in it, although
she could see the eggs inside.
What if there’s a spider in there or a centipede?
The thought frightened her, but she looked up and saw Travis watching her, a worried expression on his face. “I found some,” she said cheerily. She made herself reach inside, snatched the three eggs out quickly, and put them in her bag. “There’s nothing to it,” she called back up to Travis.

“It looks like that ledge you’re on ends just over there, Rena. You’d better come back and at least let me tie a line about you.”

Rena stubbornly refused. “No, I see another hole. I’m going to get what’s in there.” She ignored Travis’s calls and started back along the face of the cliff. The ledge she was on started to narrow, and she made the mistake of looking down at the water. The whole world started to spin, and she flattened herself against the cliff face and tried to dig her fingers into the rock. She felt her fingernails scraping the edge, and she heard Travis cry out, “What’s the matter, Rena?”

“I . . . I think I’m going to fall.”

“Hang on. I’ll be right there.”

Rena closed her eyes and hugged the wall, trying to press her body into the side of the cliff. She could feel the empty space and was acutely aware of the sound of the surf far, far below. A fear greater than anything she had ever known caused her stomach to churn, and she thought she might faint.

She felt a hand take her arm. “Come along. We’ll go back. Don’t be afraid.”

Rena kept her eyes closed. She felt Travis’s hands go behind her back and pull her along the narrow ledge. She found breathing a difficult chore, and she fought the urge to simply collapse.

“Here, the ledge gets wider. Come along.”

Rena had lost control of her will, and she allowed Travis to pull her along, guiding her every step. Finally she felt herself being pulled upward and she gasped, “Don’t let me fall!”

“Here. It’s all right,” Travis said. “You’re safe now.”

For a moment Rena could not speak and still found it
difficult to breathe. She felt Travis pulling her farther away from the edge, and then he stopped. “It’s all right,” he repeated. “We’re on solid ground.”

Rena opened her eyes to see Travis smiling at her. He gently took one of her hands and held it palm up. “You cut your hand on that rock.” He pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at her hand.

Rena had had dreams of falling before, plunging through space and awakening with a sharp cry just before she hit the bottom. Something like that happened now. She felt any strength she had left flow out from her legs, and she started slumping. Instantly Travis’s arms went around her, and he held her.

“Come along,” he said. “We’ll move farther away from the cliff.” He led her several yards farther back but did not remove his arm. “It grabs you like that sometimes.”

Rena put her head against his shoulder and began to tremble. She could not speak but felt there was safety in Travis’s embrace. She felt the strength of his body as he held her, and she suddenly experienced a strange sensation of complete and absolute trust. She also was aware of how masculine he was, and when she opened her eyes and looked up at him, something passed between the two of them.

At that close range she was intensely aware of the sunlight touching Travis’s forehead. She noted that his skin made a tight fit across his high cheekbones, turned a ruddy bronze by sun and wind, and the freshness of his complexion made his blue eyes a shade darker than they really were. A warmth passed between them, strong and unsettling but not unpleasant. She felt his hands tighten on her back, drawing her closer until she pressed against him. She saw him lower his head, waiting for her to protest, but she did not.