Bone Deep (25 page)

“For cripes sake, cut it out,” one of the
bench-sitting old men
called.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh was almost drowned out by the shouts of the men. Sarah was horrified. They
’
d turned from a group of people she knew, to
an
angry mob and Tom was at their center, maybe being beaten to death. She continued to
scream
and tr
y
to muscle her way between the wall of bodies.

“Hey! What’s going on here?” Deputy Phil came barreling up the sidewalk
from the direction of the sheriff’s office
. “Break it up. All of you. What in tarnation are you doing?”

His badge and uniform were enough to part the crowd like the
Red Sea
. As the men stepped aside, Tom, Dick Roberts and a couple of other men were revealed. Tom lay on his side and one of the men gave a last kick before the deputy pulled him away. “Cut it out before I arrest you all.”

Sarah
dashed over to Tom and dropped to her knees beside him
. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth, his body curled protectively around his stomach. He wheezed for air.

Sarah touched his face. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” he gasped
. He rolled
over and push
ed
up
on
to all fours.

She glared up at the deputy. “
A
rrest those men. Dick Roberts attacked
Tom
.”

Phil looked confused and at a loss. He was
equipped
to write speeding tickets and citations for minor violations of the law, but
defusing
a group of angry
citizens
was not his
strength
. “Mrs. Cassidy, if I arrest
Robert or any of the others
, I’ll have to arrest
your friend
too. Look
what he’s done to them
.”

For the first time Sarah’s eyes strayed from Tom to the rest of the combatants. Besides Roberts there were two other men, all with split lips or bloody noses, all clutching injured body parts. Tom had inflicted plenty of damage before they
’d
fought him
into submission
.

“It’s all right.”
Tom
stagg
ered to his feet and Sarah wrapped an arm around him to keep him upright.

“Deputy
, the situation got out of
hand,”
Rev. McCoy said
. “
Some of us were merely here to speak to help
Mrs. Cassidy
see the error of her ways. These fisticuffs are not condoned by all of us here.”

“Pompous ass,” Roberts muttered.

“But you didn’t try to stop it, did you?” Sarah turned her anger on the minister. “You’re just as bad as they are
.
”

“Enough, Sarah,”
Tom
muttered. “Leave it be.”

At the mention of possible arrests, m
ost of the men had drifted away.
Now Phil dispersed the rest of them, clapping his hands as though showing pigeons.
“
E
verybody move on. Break it up.”

Still grumbling and arguing, they
obeyed
, even the self-righteous Rev. McCoy and Aaron Avery, who muttered that if anyone was charged it should be Tom and Sarah for public indecency, doing perverted things where kids could see them.

“If you’re not going to arrest anybody, then at least help me collect my books and keys,” Sarah snapped at Phil. The books had been trampled and scattered, one of them knocked as far as the courthouse steps. The keys had been kicked near the benches. One of the old timers picked them up and held them out to the deputy.

Phil
silently
collected the damaged books and keys while Sarah guided Tom toward the car. “I’m sorry about those idiots,” he said, sett
ing her books in the back seat.

Tom shook Sarah’s helping hands off
him and
slid into the passenger seat with a pained grunt.
“I’m all right.”

“Maybe I should take you to the doctor. You might have broken rib
s
.”

“No.” He slammed the car door closed.

Sarah
stared
at the car a moment then turned to Phil. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I was frightened. I knew people might be rude, but I didn’t think they’d get violent.” She told him about
the previous night’s incident.

“Don Beach is on shift tonight. Do you want him
to
cruise by your place a
few
times during the night? It might scare away any kids out fooling around.”

Sarah was annoyed at his characterization of the vandalism as ‘fooling around’ but grateful for the offer. “
P
lease. That would make me feel a lot safer.”

As she turned to get in the car, he put a hand on her arm. “It’ll blow over, Mrs. Cassidy. People gotta have something to make a fuss about. Next month it’ll be something new.” He gave her an encouraging smile.

“Thanks, Phil.”

She slid behind the steering wheel and looked over at Tom,
his arms wrapped around his stomach and his face blood-streaked as he stared blindly out the window
. “Are you sure I can’t take you to the doctor?”

“No
!
” He sounded as close to angry as she
’
d ever heard him.

She dropped the subject and started the car.

Silence fell between them, but Sarah was too full of things she wanted to
say
to keep quiet for long. “I am so sorry about what happened today. I practically forced you to come to town with me when you told me it wasn’t a good idea. I guess it will take people time to accept us and I can’t force
—
”

“No,” he interrupted, still facing the window. “They never will. They
’
ll always hate someone like me.” His voice grew
soft
. “Men like that preacher are the worst. They like to talk about sin and
hell
and how filthy you are while they fuck you.”

Sarah’s felt
as if
someone had
punched
the breath out of her. Someone had done that to him. Literally. And she had no idea how to respond.
She felt physically sick
at his harsh words and desolate tone.

“Not everyone is like that, Tom. Some people will always be small-minded. But I do have friends in this community. I’m sure things will get better in time.”

He remained silent the rest of the ride home and when they got there, he refused to let her check out his injuries or clean up his face. He shut himself in the bathroom for a while and came out with the blood washed away and only a swollen nose and the beginnings of a black eye to show he’d been fighting.

Sarah tried to get him to lie down and rest but he said he needed to do something in the barn. He brushed past her when she tried to take his arm. She wanted to slow him down, get him to look at her, talk to her
, hug her
, but
Tom remained
aloof.

She watched
through
the window as he stood in the yard facing the letters on the side of the barn for a full minute. Then he disappeared into the barn. She sighed and
turned away, resuming her own chores
.

When she stepped out on the front porch fifteen minutes later
,
he was painting over the white letters with some brown paint he must have found in the barn.
The coat of brown couldn’t hide the words that she knew were hidden behind it.

Later, when she called Tom for
dinner
he
ate the meal silently
and af
terward he started to go back outside
even though the painting was finished. She imagined he planned to sleep in the barn tonight.

“Don’t!” she cried, her heart twisting at the rejection as he opened the door. “I’m sorry
I dragged you into town and put you in that situation.
What else can I
say or do
? Talk to me.
Please don’t be
mad
at me.
”

He turned to her, his eyes wide. “I’m not mad. Not at you.”

She threw herself against him, wrapping her arms around him and
making him c
ry
out
.

“Oh, your poor ribs.
I’m sorry for that too. It’s all my fault.
” She hugged him gently
and rested
her head against his chest.

He
slipped his arms around her too
and h
er eyes closed in relief.

“I was thinking,” His voice rumbled against her ear. “That I’ve brought you so much trouble after everything you’ve done for me. Maybe it’s not too late to fix it. If I leave
—
”

“No!” She pulled
back
and looked up into his face. It was swollen red around one eye and his nose. Brown flecks of paint marred the blue swirls. “
Running away is
not going to solve anything.”

He stroked her face, his thumb lingering
on
her
lower lip
. “If I leave, it will be better.”

“Not for me.” Tears welled at the corners of her eyes and she blinked them away.

He gathered her close again, kissing the top of her head and rubbing her back. “Don’t cry.”

It didn’t occur to her until later that
he never added, “I’ll stay.”

Chapter Thirteen

They spent a quiet evening with no interruptions. Tom sat on the floor, a pad of paper on his lap and his hand tight
ly gripping
a pencil as he formed letters.

Sarah read more from
Tom Sawyer
then they retired to lay peacefully entwined on her bed. She stroked her hand lightly over his
bare
torso and even that gentle touch made him
wince
. She couldn’t see the bruises
forming
under the mottled colors already covering him. She held him close with his head resting on her breast until he slept
,
then
she
turned on her side and spooned
into the curve of his body. The
solid wall of
male flesh at
her back
and
his heavy arm slung over her
made her feel safe and protected
.

W
hen she woke in the morning
,
he was
not in bed
. She didn’t question the empty place in her bed
since
Tom almost always rose before her to take care of the stock.

She went downstairs
and started making coffee. Then she glanced at the
kitchen
table and saw a sheet of paper held in place by the salt and pepper shakers.

Her stomach
rolled
as she picked up
the note
and read the carefully printed
words
.

Im sory to go. Love Tom.

Blood pounded in her
temples
, and for a moment
she thought she might pass out. Then
she remembered to breathe and inhaled with a gasp. She traced the word love with her finger.
He had asked her how to spell it just the other night then
practiced writing it over and over.

On the table beneath
the
note lay the magazine picture of the family vacationing in
Virginia Beach
. She unfolded and looked at it. Was he telling her
Virginia Beach
was
where he was headed?
But no. He wouldn’t know where it was or possibly be able to travel so far.

Then it
struck
her. By leaving the picture behind, he was abandoning his dream of a family. He
’
d given up hope of leading a ‘normal’ life with someone like her
and laid that fantasy to rest
.

Sarah felt as bereft as she had the day the army officer showed up at her door to tell her John was dead. Though she
’
d known Tom for
only a short time
,
the
bond between them ran strong and deep. It wouldn’t b
e unreasonable to call it love.