Blackwood's Woman (27 page)

"But Lenny Plott will find her. She needs protection. Doesn't she realize that?"

Joanna lifted the coffeepot and poured the hot black liquid into their mugs.

"If Plott can find her, the FBI can find her." J.T. ran the back of his hand across Joanna's cheek.

"Let's just hope that the FBI finds her first." Closing her eyes, Joanna pressed the side of her face against J.T.'s caressing hand.

He knew what she was thinking and wished he could erase the fear from her heart.

But all he could do was guard her and wait. Wait for the FBI to apprehend Plott or for Plott to make a move on Joanna. Perhaps it would be easier on Joanna if the FBI F:/…/Beverly Barton - Blackwood's Wo…

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10/31/2009 lott to make a move on Joanna. Perhaps it w Blackwood's Woman ould be easier on Joanna if the FBI found Plott and returned him to prison, but on a very primitive level, J.T. longed for a confrontation with the monster who had brutalized her.

Chapter 13

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J
.T. came up behind Joanna, slipped his arms around her and drew her up against his chest.
"Ayoigo shil hózhó."

Leaning backward, she tilted her head. He nuzzled her neck, then kissed her on the jaw. "What did you just say to me?" she whispered.

"I thought Eddie was giving us both
Saad
lessons. Haven't you been paying attention in class? I just told you that I'm happy." J.T. gazed down at the sleeping child resting in the baby bed. Joey Whitehorn's fat little thumb lay in the corner of his open mouth. A pang of something unfamiliar hit J.T. square in the stomach. He had never thought much about having children of his own, hadn't really wanted any.

But recently, since getting to know Kate and Ed's children and seeing the way Joanna acted around them, J.T. had begun to think about a family of his own. What sort of father would he be? He'd had no example set for him, hadn't known his real father and despised the kind of parental figure his grandfather had been.

"While Eddie has been giving you daily
Saad
lessons, I've been painting, or had you forgotten?"

"How could I forget, when I'm the guy who's posing for the damned thing?"

Taking his hand, Joanna led him quietly from the room, closing the door only halfway behind them. Once in the living room, she slipped her arm around his waist.

"Joseph offered to pose for me," she said. "If you don't want to continue as my model, I can ask him."

"Forget it, honey." J.T. jerked her around and into his arms, smothering her face and neck with quick, warm kisses. "I'm going to be the only naked Navajo brave you ever paint."

"You're painting J.T. without his clothes on?" Eddie Whitehorn stood in the kitchen doorway, his wide-eyed sister at his side.

Little Eddie had been appalled when he'd learned J.T. couldn't speak
Saad
and had made a point of coming by every day for the past four days to give him a lesson.

When Joanna had volunteered for them to spend the day at the Whitehorns' taking care of all three children so Ed and Kate could spend their Saturday alone in Gallup, J.T. had opposed the idea. When he had reminded her of exactly why they were hiding away on the reservation, she pointed out that it was highly unlikely that Lenny Plott could discover their whereabouts, at least not this soon. So, J.T. had reluctantly agreed to help babysit. After all, he had thought, how much trouble could three little kids be?

J.T. groaned. "I thought you two were outside playing."

"We were, but Summer got thirsty and I had to bring her in for a glass of water."

Eddie led Summer into the living room, then stopped and stared up at J.T. "If Joanna gets to see you without your clothes on, do you get to see her without hers on?

"

Joanna covered her mouth, smothering a laugh behind her hand. J.T. cleared his F:/…/Beverly Barton - Blackwood's Wo…

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10/31/2009anna covered her mouth, smothering a laug Blackwood's Womanh behind her hand. J.T. cleared his throat. He didn't know anything about kids, had never been around any until he brought Joanna to the reservation a few days ago. How was he supposed to reply to Eddie's question? He had no idea how to handle this situation.

"I'm an artist," Joanna said. "You already know that, don't you, Eddie?"

The child nodded his head. "So?"

"Well, I went to school, to a college in Virginia, and took classes in art. Sometimes all the art students drew pictures of models who didn't have on any clothes. That's the way we learned how to draw the human body."

"Yeah?" Eddie twisted his mouth into a frown, scratched his head and blew out a huffing breath. "If I go to the Navajo Community College in Tsaile and take art classes, will I get to see people naked?"

Smiling, J.T. looked at Joanna as if to say, "You started this, honey. Finish it."

The sound of Joey whimpering saved Joanna from thinking of an appropriate reply. "I'll go get him," she told J.T.

"I'm hungry," Summer whined. "When are we gonna eat supper?"

"Go get Joey," J.T. said. "I'll handle this."

"Could we have some ice cream?" Eddie asked. "Mama's got some in the freezer."

"Fruit," Joanna called out from the hallway. "One apple each, but no ice cream until after supper."

"Ah," both children groaned in unison.

After Joanna changed Joey's diaper, she brought him into the living room, sat down in the rocker near the window and began singing to him. His little eyelids fluttered, but every time he heard his older siblings' voices, his eyes opened wide and he tried to sit up.

Coming out of the kitchen, J.T. tossed Eddie and Summer an apple apiece, then motioned for them to follow him out onto the porch. When J.T. sat down on the steps, Summer crawled up in his lap and Eddie sat down beside him.

"Tell us a story, J.T.," Summer said, looking up at him with big brown eyes he found impossible to resist.

"I'm afraid I don't know any stories," J.T admitted. "What about you, Eddie, do you know a story you could tell Summer and me?"

"What do you mean you don't know any stories?" Eddie asked. "Surely you know about
Asdzá Na 'adleehe
and her two sons?"

"Who was this
Asdzá—?"

"Changing Woman, the mother-creator of our people. J.T. you don't know anything, do you? You can't speak our language and you never heard of Changing Woman."

"Why don't you tell me about her?"

Eddie eagerly recited the myth of Changing Woman, her husband, the sun, and their offspring—the story his parents had taught him since early childhood. J.T.

listened with great interest, realizing that he truly wanted to know more about the Navajo legends. The truth of the matter was, deny it all he wanted, he
was
half Navajo; a part of his mother and a part of these people.

Hours later, after the sun had set and the two younger Whitehorn children were asleep, Eddie and J.T. checked on the animals before Eddie went to bed. Then, alone in the living room, J.T. and Joanna slumped down on the sofa and stared at each other.

"I don't remember the last time I've been this tired," J.T. said. "Kids can wear you F:/…/Beverly Barton - Blackwood's Wo…

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"I

10/31/2009 don't remember the last time I've been this t Blackwood's Womanired," J.T. said. "Kids can wear you out, can't they?"

"They certainly can," Joanna agreed. "I suppose that's why it's a good idea to have them while you're still young."

"I feel as if I've been playing twenty questions all day. They want the answers to everything immediately. How on earth do Kate and Ed cope?"

"I suppose they do what all parents have done since the beginning of time,"

Joanna said. "They do the best they can and pray their best is good enough."

Kicking off her shoes, Joanna scooted to one end of the sofa, lifted her feet and put them in J.T.'s lap. He massaged her insteps. She sighed.

"I want children of my own someday," she said.

"Do you?" He caressed her ankles.

"Uh-huh. Have you ever thought about it? About having children?"

"I'd probably make a lousy father."

"Why do you say—" The ringing telephone interrupted Joanna midsentence.

Gasping, she shuddered.

"It's okay, honey. It's just my phone." He lifted her feet so he could stand, then rested them back down on the sofa.

He picked up his cellular phone from where he'd laid it on the knickknack shelf filled with Kate's pottery collection. "Blackwood. Yeah. When did it happen? Is she all right? What about Plott?"

Joanna jumped up from the sofa and rushed over to J.T. Tugging on his arm, she mouthed the words, "Who is it?"

"Hold on a minute," he told the person at the other end of the line. "It's Dane Carmichael," he said to Joanna.

J.T. slid his arm around her waist, drawing her to his side as he finished his brief conversation. He punched the Off button on his phone and laid it down on the shelf, then kissed Joanna on the forehead.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Plott found Libby Felton."

Joanna gasped. "No. Please, J.T., what happened? Did he—"

"She's all right, just badly shaken. Libby's husband and an FBI agent were both shot, but they saved Libby from Plott."

"Is Libby's husband dead? And the FBI agent?"

"No. They're both in the hospital. Libby's husband is in stable condition and the agent is in critical condition, but he's expected to live."

"When—when did all this happen?" Joanna asked.

"Before daybreak this morning."

"Plott escaped, didn't he?"

"Yeah, honey, he did."

"He won't go back to Texas after Libby anytime soon after what happened,"

Joanna said. "And it'll take him a while to find out where Claire is, so that means …

that means he'll come to New Mexico. He'll go to the ranch."

"Only a handful of people know where we are and none of them are about to tell Plott."

"He'll find out. Somehow, he'll figure out a way to find out where I am and when he does, he'll come after me."

J.T. grabbed her by the shoulders. "Dane is calling in more agents. The FBI will be in full force in Trinidad. No way will Plott get past them."

F:/…/Beverly Barton - Blackwood's Wo…

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in ful

10/31/2009 l force in Trinidad. No way will Plott get past Blackwood's Woman them."

"I hope you're right. Dear God, I hope you're right."

J.T. hoped so, too, but any doubts he had, he intended to keep to himself. While reassuring Joanna and keeping things as normal as possible for her, he planned to prepare himself for the worst.

* * *

Lenny Plott seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth since attempting to kidnap Libby. No one had any idea where he was or what he was plotting, but Joanna knew it was only a matter of time before he resurfaced.

Minutes had turned into hours and hours into days as Joanna and J.T. fell into a flexible routine. They went horseback riding every day, exploring the land nearby and becoming acquainted with the neighbors, all members of Mary's Bitter Water clan. And every day, Eddie gave J.T. a
Saad
lesson.

Joanna's portrait of J.T. had begun taking shape, but she had refused to let him look at it. She had no idea how he would react when he saw the way she had depicted him. All primitive naked male, as rugged and wild as the landscape surrounding him.

And they made love. In the mornings when they first awoke. In the middle of the day when they couldn't go another minute without touching each other. And at night after Joanna covered J.T.'s portrait and the ghosts of their great-grandparents hovered in the darkness.

Each night Joanna read to J.T. from Annabelle Beaumont's diary, and the more they shared their ancestors' love story, the more they became a part of Annabelle and Benjamin's doomed affair.

Tonight they sat on the threadbare sofa, as they did every night, Joanna nestled between J.T.'s legs, while she read to him. He wore nothing except his jeans, and she her striped caftan. The side of his face rested against hers, and from time to time, he kissed her temple.

"Benjamin's son is ill—not seriously, thank the dear Lord—but being a good
father, he has traveled to his mother-in-law's home to visit the child. I find it
strange that these people have such a matriarchal society, where although
children are said to be born for their father's clan, they are born in their mother's
clan. And in a case like Benjamin's, when a man loses his wife, he must give his
child over to be raised by his mother-in-law.

"I have not seen Benjamin in four days and I am dying from the agony of being
apart from him. How will I be able to endure living when the time comes for us to
part forever? He has become as essential to me as the air I breathe. Had I known
the extent of anguish true love could bring, I would have done all in my power to
have escaped its cruel clutches. No. No, I lie. Knowing all I know now—the pain as
well as the ecstasy—I would change nothing. To have lived and died and never to
have known this pure joy would have been a tragedy indeed.

"He has promised, if his son's health has improved, that we will meet tomorrow
in our special place. I have a gift for him—a book of my favorite poems by
Christina Rossetti. And I plan to ask him to allow me to cut a lock of his long black
hair. I will braid it with a lock of mine and give it to him as a keepsake. Something
to remember me by when I am gone."

Joanna's shoulders quivered. J.T. reached around her, closed Annabelle's diary and lifted it out of her hands.

He couldn't bear to see her cry and yet her tender, romantic heart was part of what F:/…/Beverly Barton - Blackwood's Wo…

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He

10/31/2009 couldn't bear to see her cry and yet her tende Blackwood's Woman r, romantic heart was part of what made her so special. He would change nothing about her. She was as close to perfect as he would ever want a woman to be.