Two Alone (24 page)

She wanted to leap off the cart and chase after him, bu
t
it was already in motion and her father was speaking to her. She tried to assimilate his words and make sense of them, but it
seemed
that he was speaking gibberish.

She fought down her rising panic as
t
he cart rolled down
the
concourse, beeping pedestrians out of the way. Finally Cooper wa
s
swallowed up by the crowd and she lost sight of him altogether

Once they were inside the limousine and cruising toward the private hospital where Carlson had arranged for a room, he clasped Rusty's clammy hand. "1 was very afraid for you, Rusty. 1 thought I'd lost you, too,"

She rested her head on her father's shoulder and squeezed his arm. "I know. I was as worried about how you'd take the news of the crash as I was about my own safety."

"About our tiff that day you left—"

"Please, Father, don't let's even think about that now." She lifted her head and smiled up at him. "I might not have survived the gutting of tha
t
ram, but
I
survived a plane crash."

He chuckled. "I don't know if you remember this—you were very young—but Jeff sneaked out of his cabin at Boy-Scout camp one summer. He spent the entire night in the woods. He got lost and wasn't found until well into the next day. But that little scrapper wasn't the least bit scared. When we found him, he had made camp and was calmly fishing for his dinner."

Rusty
returned her head to his shoulder, her smile gradually fading. "Cooper did all that for me."

She felt the sudden tension in her father's body. He usually bristled like that when something didn't meet with his approval. "What kind of man is this Cooper Landry, Rusty?"

"What kind?"

"A Vietnam veteran, I understand."

"Yes. He was a POW, too, but managed to escape."

"Did he..
.handle you well?"

Ah, yes, she was thinking. But she capped the fountain of passionate memories that bubbled inside her like uncorked champagne. "Yes, Father. Very well. I wouldn't have survived without him."

She didn't want to tell him about her personal involvement with Cooper so soon after her re
t
urn. Her father would have in be apprised of her feelings gradually.
T
hey might be met with resistance, because Bill Carlson was an opinionated man.

He was also intuitive. One didn't easily pull the wool over lm eyes. Keeping her tone as casual as possible, Rusty said, "Will you try to locate him for me tonigh
t
?" It wasn't an
unusual
request. Her father had contacts all over the city. "Let him know where I am. We got separated at the airport."

"Why is it even necessary for you to see this man again?"

He might just as well have asked her why it was necessary H her to go on breathing. "I want to thank him properly for saving my life," she said as a diversion.

"I'll see what I can do," Carlson told her just as
t
he chau
ffeur
wheeled under
t
he por
t
e cochere of the private clinic.

Even though her father had paved the way, it was two Ii

later before
Rusty
was left alone in her plush room,
d
eco
rated
with original works of art and contemporary furniture, it
resem
bled a chic apartment more than it did a hospital room.
She lay
in a firm, comfortable, mechanized bed with soft pill
ow
beneath her head. She was wearing a new designe
r
nightgown,
one of several her father had packed in
t
he suitcase tha
t
h
ad
been
waiting for her when she checked in. All her favori
t
e cos
metics
and toiletries had been placed in the bathroom. She had th
e
staff
at her beck and call. All she had to do was pick up the p
ho
n
e
on her nigh
t
stand.

She was miserable.

For one thing, her leg was sore as a resul
t
of the surgeon's examination. As a safety precaution X rays had been taken, but they revealed no broken bones. "Cooper said nothing was broken," she quietly informed the doctor. He had frowned over the jagged scar. When he lamented
t
he crude stitching tha
t
had been done, Rusty jumped to Cooper's defense. "He was trying to save my leg," she snapped.

Suddenly she was fiercely proud of that scar and no
t
all
t
ha
t
excited about seeing i
t
erased, which, she was told, would require
at
leas
t
three reconstructive operations—maybe more. To her
,
the scar was like a badge of courage.

Besides, Cooper had spent a great deal of time with it the night before, kissing the raised, puckered skin and
t
elling her
t
hat it didn't turn him off in the slightest and, in fact, made him
"
horny as hell" every time he looked at it. She had contemplated telling
that
to the pompous plastic surgeon.

She hadn't. Indeed, she hadn
't said much of anything. She sim
ply didn't have the energy. All she could think about was how
b
lessed it was going to be when she was left alone
t
o go to sleep. Bu
t
now that she had the opportunity, she couldn't. Doubts and fears and unhappiness were keeping her awake. Where was Cooper? Why hadn'
t
he followed her? It had been a circus at the airport, but
su
rely he could have stayed with her if he'd really wanted to. When the nurse came in offering her a sedative, she gladly
sw
allowed
t
he pill. Otherwise she knew she'd never fall asleep
w
i
t
hout Cooper's hard, warm presence embracing her.

Eleven

I
mean, my God! We couldn't believe it! Our
Rusty
in
a
plane crash!"

"It must h
ave
been dreadful
."

Rusty looked up from the pillows of her hospital bed at the two well-dressed women and wished
t
he
y
would vanish in
a
puff of smoke. As soon as her breakfast tray had been carried
out
by an efficient and ebullient nurse, her two friends had breezed into her room.

Reeking of exotic perfume and avid curiosity, they said they wanted to be the firs
t
to
commiserate
. Rusty suspected
th
at
what they really wanted was to be the first to hear the delicious details of her "Canadian caper," as one had called it.

"No, I couldn't say it was much fun," Rusty said tiredly.

She had awakened long before breakfast was served. She w
as accustomed to waking up w
ith the sun now. Thanks to
the tran
quilizing pill shed been given the night before, she had slept soundly. Her lack of animation stemmed from dejection more than fatigue. Her spirits were at an extremely low ebb, and her friends' efforts to
raise
them were having
t
he opposite effect.

"As soon as you get out of here, we're treating you to a day of self-indulgence at the salon. Hair, skin, massage. Jus
t
look at your poor nails." One lifted her listless hand, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "They're ravaged."

Rust
y
smiled wanly, remembering how upset she'd been when Cooper had pared of
f
her fingernails with his hunting knife. "I didn't get around to having a manicure." It was meant to be facetious, but her friends were nodding sympathetically. "I was too busy trying to stay alive."

One shook her intentionally tousled blond head and shuddered delicately, causing the Hermes scarf around her neck to slip. The dozen or
50
silver bangle bracelets on her wrist jingled like the harness on a Christmas reindeer. "You were so brave,
Rusty
. I think I would rather have died than go through all tha
t
you did."

Rusty was about to refute that remark, when she remembered that not too long ago she could have said something that shallow. "I always thought I would, too. You'd be amazed how strong
t
he human animal's survival instincts are. In a situation like
t
he one I was in, they take over."

But her friends weren't interested in philosophy. They wanted to hear the nitty-gritty. The ge
t
-down-and-get-dirty good stuff. One was sitting on the foot of Rusty's bed; the other was leaning forward from the chair beside i
t
. They looked like scavenger birds perched and ready to pick her bones clean the second she succumbed.

The story of the crash and the events following it had appeared on the fron
t
page of
t
hat morning's newspaper. The writer had, with only a few minor errors, meticulously chronicled Rusty's and Cooper's ordeal. The piece had been serious in tone and journalistically sound. But the public had a penchant for reading between the lines; it wanted to hear what had been omitted. Her friends included, the public wanted the facts fleshed out.

"Was i
t
just
awful?
When the sun went down wasn't it terrifyingly dark?"

"We had several lan
t
erns in the cabin."

"No, I mean outside."

"Before you got to the cabin. When you had to sleep outdoors in the woods."

Rusty
sighed wearily. "Yes, it was dark. But we had a fire." "What did you eat?"

"Rabbits, mostly."

"Rabbits! I'd
die."

"I didn't," Rusty snapped. "And neither would you."

Now, why had she gone and done that? Why hadn't she just left it alone? They were looking wounded and confused, having no idea why she had jumped down their throats. Why hadn't she said something cute, something glib, such as telling them that rabbit meat is served in some of the finest r
e
s
t
aurants?

Following on the heels of that thought, of course, came one of Cooper. A pang of longing for him seized her. "I'm awfully tired," she said, feeling the need to cry and no
t
wanting to have to explain why.

But subtle
t
y didn't work with this duo. They didn't pick up on the hin
t
to leave. "And your poor leg." The one with the bracelets clapped her hand co her cheek in horror. "Is the doctor sure he can fix it?"

Rusty
closed her eyes as she answered, "Reasonably sure."

"How many operations will it take to get rid of that hideous scar?" Rusty felt the air stir against her face as the other friend waved frantically
t
o the untactful speaker. "Oh, I didn't mean it that way. It's not that hideous. I mean—-"

"I know what you mean," Rusty said, opening her eyes. "It is hideous, but it's be
t
ter than a stump, and for a while I was afraid that's what I'd end up with. If Cooper—"

She broke off, having inadvertently spoken his name. Now that it was out, the carrion birds flocked to it, grasping it in their avidly curious talons.

"Cooper?" one asked innocently. "The man who survived the crash with you?"

"Yes."

"
T
he two women exchanged a glance, as though mentally tossing a coin to see who was going to pose the first of numerous questions about him.

"I saw him on the TV news last night. My God,
Rusty
, he's gorgeous!"

"
Gorgeous
?
"

"Well not gorgeous in the
perfect sense.
Not
model
gorgeous. I mean rugged, manly, sweaty, hairy, sexy kind of gorgeous." "He saved my life," Rusty said softly.