Be My Guest (5 page)

She staggered numbly toward the truck
lights. When she reached the place where she left her suitcase and
briefcase beside the tracks, she flashed her torch around. No giant
water moccasin lay in wait for her. The cases sat just as she left
them.

With her right hand she picked up the
briefcase and left the torch to dangle by the scarf tied to her
wrist. When she tried to grasp the suitcase with her left hand, she
winced in pain.

Will shouted above the wind, "Dammit,
Aurora, leave the damned luggage. Get in the truck. I'll get these
if I have to tie the rope onto the handles and drag them."

Far too tired to argue and, contrary to her
nature, relieved to have someone else in charge this once, Aurora
plodded against the storm toward the truck. Will followed and threw
the luggage into the back of the truck bed. Aurora did not even
glance back to see how Will managed to get the luggage there.

She opened the passenger door to get in, but
her body refused to obey. With her head resting against the
doorframe, she stood trembling in the rain. She told herself she
must raise her foot high enough to enter the truck. But she could
not.

Will leaned his crutches against the truck
to scoop Aurora up and slide her onto the seat of the vehicle. He
grabbed the blanket and folded it around her. Only her face
remained uncovered. After he struggled to the other side of the
truck and climbed in, he leaned back in the seat and closed his
eyes.

Exhaustion overcame him and he rested his
head against the back of the seat. His slicker offered little
protection against the blowing rain. His rain-soaked body ached,
and his leg throbbed from his struggles against the storm. They
made it, though, he thought triumphantly to himself. If they died
out there, no one would know what happened for days. But they made
it.

After a few moments he sat up. "You're
shivering. It won't be long now until we can get you dried off. Sit
tight while I turn the truck around and get us home."

Aurora’s fatigue negated thought as she
clutched the blanket around her in silence. She rested her pounding
head against the window of the door at her side. Her aching body
cried out at every bump and jolt, but she sat mutely as Will turned
the truck around and drove forward.

Flashes of lightning revealed buildings
ahead. Relief flooded through her as the shape of a large house
grew near. Soon she would be in a house, a warm, dry house with a
warm, dry bed. What a heavenly thought!

They drove into the garage attached to the
house and stopped the truck. Aurora opened the truck door and
almost fell out of the vehicle before Will made his way around to
help her.

"The electricity's off because of the storm.
You'll need to bring your torch." The numbness of her battered body
caused her to stand motionless. Her legs would not propel her
forward. She stared about her in panic.

Will misinterpreted her hesitation. "Come
on, I'll get the luggage later. First, we need to get you warm and
dry." With a gentle nudge, he moved her toward the door of his
home.

Normally a very neat person, Aurora moved
through the house oblivious to the trail of mud and water she left
with every step. Will guided her through the laundry room and into
a large bathroom.

"Get your clothes off and get into the
shower. I'll start the generator so the electric pump on the water
well can run. There won't be any light. Only the pump and a few
appliances are hooked up to the generator."

He yanked a couple of towels out of the
linen closet. "My robe is hanging on the door here." He paused to
indicate the torch hanging from her hand. "Your torch batteries are
almost gone. I'll bring another lantern after I deal with the
generator." His cupped hand on her chin forced her to meet his
eyes. "Will you be all right here while I'm gone?"

She gave him a dazed stare, "Why, yes, I'll
be just fine," she said primly as if theirs were the most normal of
circumstances.

Her words and manner did nothing to reassure
him. "Don't lock the bathroom door. If you fall or pass out, I
don't want to have to waste time picking the lock." Will hurried
away as fast as crutches allowed.

Aurora sank to the floor. She needed to do
something, but what? No matter how she tried, it eluded her. Her
head hurt abominably but the nausea had diminished a little. As if
in a trance, she removed her canvas shoes and peeled off her socks.
The torch bounced against her body as she raised her hand to her
head. At the back of her head she discovered a huge lump where her
head hit the tree. No wonder she couldn’t think clearly.

When Will returned with a battery-powered
lantern, he found the bathroom door open and Aurora sitting on the
floor. She worked to untie the scarf that bound her hand to the
torch. He bent to help her, and used his pocket knife to cut the
cloth of the scarf. The scarf had chafed her wrist badly but saved
her life by preventing the torch’s loss. Without the light from the
torch, he would not have known she sat stranded in the tree.

Aurora offered no protest when he pulled her
to her feet and undressed her as he would a small child. She moaned
in pain when he pulled her knit top over her head, but made no
other sounds.

Even in the dim light her injuries shocked
him. He gasped at the state of her back as he unfastened her bra.
"Dear God in heaven! You've really messed up your back. Is it hard
to breathe? Do you think your ribs or shoulder are broken?"

"I...I don't know what that would feel
like," Aurora said weakly. "It's this lump on my head that hurts
most," She delicately explored the area of the blow to her head and
tried to remember details of her accident.

Feeling returned slowly to her numbed limbs.
Her senses, too, slowly awakened. She could smell Will again. The
after shave smell was gone, replaced by the smell of damp hair and
the perspiration of his exertion. She tasted muddy water, and
rivulets of water ran down her battered body. Eyes closed, she
fought to clear her head. Memories whirled in her brain, but she’d
lost control of her thoughts and ceased to comprehend what
happened.

"It was huge--biggest snake I've ever seen
except in a zoo." When Will’s brows knit in question, she
explained, "I saw this snake. I think it was a water moccasin.
There on the railroad bed--I was going to sit down and rest a few
minutes. Just as I put my cases down, it crawled right at me. Like
it was coming for me." She thought of the snake again and
shuddered. "When I jumped back from it, I slipped and fell. I tried
to swim, but the current slammed me into that big tree."

His gut took a punch at the possible
consequences from her fall into the flood, but he spoke gently.
"Aurora, that tree saved your life. You could never manage to swim
in the flooded creek."

He scanned the flashlight over her back.
"I'm going to touch your ribs as gently as I can to see if I feel a
break." Will probed softly at her rib cage and shoulder. He'd seen
guys in the rodeo look better than this after being stomped by a
bull.

Aurora winced but he continued. When he held
her shoulder while he rotated her arm, she almost passed out from
the pain. He knew she needed a doctor but there was no way to get
her to one tonight. "If there's a fracture, I don't think I'd be
able to feel it, but there doesn't seem to be a break and your
shoulder's not dislocated. Did you throw up blood?"

She tried to concentrate. There seemed a
delay from the time she heard sounds until her brain processed what
Will said to her and she could respond. "I don't know...I don't
taste blood, just that awful flood water."

"Can you take a shower by yourself?"

She nodded and immediately regretted it. "I
need to lie down," she grabbed Will's arm with one hand and put her
other hand to her forehead while the floor spun.

"I know you do, but we have to get you
cleaned up first. Floodwater is septic even in the wide open
spaces around here, so we need to get these cuts washed out and
treated with antibiotic cream. It'll take a while for the water
heater to heat up any fresh water, but the water that's in the tank
now is probably warm enough for a shower." Will talked as he worked
at the zipper of her jeans.

Aurora placed her hands over his and
frowned. Where were the other people who lived here in this big
house? Even with the trouble concentrating, she remembered his
wedding ring. Where was his wife? "You shouldn't be doing this.
Couldn't your wife help me?"

His voice was terse. "No, I'm the only one
here. My wife died three years ago. The nearest house is that of my
foreman, and it's farther than I can manage right now. You'll just
have to put up with me for the time being."

Will stripped her jeans down and helped her
step out of them. Aurora's knees resembled hamburger and scratches
defaced her body.

His eyes met hers and he took a deep breath.
One more big hurdle, he thought. "Brace yourself and pretend I'm
your grandmother," he said, and quickly jerked down the lacy
panties that were her only remaining clothing. He turned on the
shower’s taps and checked the water temperature before he helped
her into the shower.

"You'll have to hurry before all the warm
water's gone." As she stood under the shower's stream, Will grabbed
some shampoo from the ledge of the shower and poured some onto her
hair. "Work that into your hair and rinse it out. Try to clean the
area of the lump especially well."

"It hurts to raise my left arm." She used
her right hand to gently work the lather around the lump on her
head.

With the bar of soap he lathered his hand
before he ran it gently over the lacerated portion of her back and
then her knees. He tried to ignore the rush of heat to his loins.
Damn, she was a gorgeous woman, and it had been over three years
since he had been with anyone.

He cursed himself and stepped away from her
long enough to rummage in the bathroom cabinet and locate the
hydrogen peroxide. Although he tried not to stare at her body, he
found himself memorizing her form. If it were not for the bruises
and lacerations of her ordeal, she would be perfect, at least in
his opinion. He believed her the most beautiful woman he had ever
seen.

The minute that thought appeared, he once
again felt disloyal to Nancy. In a part of his mind he remained
married, in spite of the three years since Nancy's death and his
now absent wedding ring.

"Rinse your mouth out with peroxide and
that'll have to do for now. If you're through with your hair, come
on out and I'll help you dry off." Gently he dabbed the towel to
almost every part of her body while she braced herself with her
right hand on his shoulder.

Although aware of his movements, she drifted
detached from Will's actions. Shouldn't she feel embarrassed?
Shouldn't she stop him? She should at least say something. Thinking
required too much effort, so she let herself flow along with his
motions. When she seemed dry enough, he helped her into his robe of
heavy toweling fabric. The warm, dry robe caressed her skin and she
clutched it around her.

"This way, Aurora, just follow me." Will
dangled the lantern handle in one hand while he struggled with his
crutches for the short distance to the master bedroom.

"Wait on the bed." The light of an
old-fashioned kerosene lantern on the bedside table gave the room a
soft glow. "I'll get the antibiotic cream and some of your
clothes."

Aurora eased her body onto the bed. Her
right side faced the wall as she curled into a ball. She hurt
everywhere and wanted nothing as much as sleep. Being out of the
rain and on a real bed at last was wonderful. She heard Will coming
back but could not force herself to move anything but her eyes as
she followed his movements.

"Everything in the suitcase is damp or wet.
You'll have to settle for something of mine." He hobbled to a chest
across the room and pulled a pair of pajamas out of a drawer.

"Come on, sit up," he instructed as he took
her right hand and tugged gently.

She tried to push his hands away. "I just
want to sleep."

"Not yet." He pulled her gently to an
upright position. "We have to treat those wounds." He sorted
through the first aid supplies.

"We'll start with your head and work down."
Will applied peroxide to a ball of cotton. He gently cleaned and
applied antibiotic cream to each wound before he helped her into
the pajama top.

"This is a new top, isn't it?" Aurora peered
down at the green satin top she wore while Will rolled up the
sleeves to fit her arms. The man's extra-tall sized top covered her
to mid-thigh, almost like a short gown.

"My Aunt Rose gave these pajamas to me for
Christmas. I never wear pajamas, but maybe she hoped to civilize
me."

Together Will and Aurora managed to settle
her into bed. Why wasn’t she embarrassed he’d seen her naked body?
That proved she definitely suffered from shock. It seemed the only
possible explanation.

Here they were, two people cut off from the
rest of the world. She should be wary of the isolation with a man
she had met only once. Yet security enveloped her, safety from the
storm and the cares of the world outside this house that now served
as her deserted island. The protected feeling surprised her. She
shunned ever becoming one of those women who depended on a man for
protection.

A fresh wave of nausea swept through her but
nothing remained in her stomach. When the heaving ceased, she
snuggled her face into the pillow, intent on sleep.

Will touched her shoulder gently, "Come on,
sit up. Your concussion is too bad for me to let you sleep yet.
Aurora, listen to me. Try to stay awake now while I get one more
thing."

She heard him leave the room but lost all
track of time while she floated in the cocoon of warmth engulfing
her. He returned, making a loud din because of the bucket that
dangled from his hand and clattered against the crutch as he moved.
After he set the bucket on the floor, he retrieved from it a cup
and a thermos. Waves of steam issued from the open mouth of the
thermos when Will poured hot tea into the cup before handing it to
Aurora.